Hefty Catch-Up

May has been a bit of a blur, but in a good way.  Since my last post around Mother's Day, we've been busy...

Enjoying the weather!  Ben and Joey warmed up for Ben's baseball season using the pitch-bounce-back net thing.

 We even managed a game of Nintendo Monopoly one not so breezy afternoon!

We also have been thoroughly enjoying the comings and goings of Mr. and Mrs. Groundhog, who spend time in the field across the street from us.  They had babies this year, so we watched the little critters come out every time we happened to be sitting down at our table for a meal.  It's like clockwork!

The boys have been ultra sweet with Hannah, and I caught them having a tea party with her one morning!  

And on May 22nd, our Ben celebrated his 8th birthday!  The night before, we took Ben, Joey, and 6 of their friends to see the Lego Movie at our dollar theater, followed by pizza and cake at our house.

The Lego Movie did not exend to the cake.  Instead, Ben wanted the cake to be like the board of one of his favorite games to play with his Daddy - a game from the 90s called Hero Quest.  Andrew found it on Ebay and he and Ben play it all the time together.  So this was the best I could do, courtesy of silver frosting spray, colored fondant, and black gel.  Andrew placed some of the game pawns on the cake and Ben was thrilled!  That's all that matters to me!

We've been able to spend a lot of time with friends at each other's houses and on field trips!  This past Friday we spent the morning at the Busch Wildlife Conservation Area just 20 minutes south of us.  The kids had a lesson indoors on tracking animals, then we went outside to the trail with some guides to look for evidence of wildlife.

And best of all, we just spent all of Memorial Day weekend with my two youngest sisters Ashley and Michelle and our niece Madelyn!  We really really enjoyed our time with them and I wish it didn't have to go by quite so fast.  Here we all are strawberry pickin' on Saturday morning!

In this last week of May we are FINALLY wrapping up our curriculum and are calling an end to the formal portion of the school year.  I've been mulling some ideas over in my mind for very very very relaxed summer learning, so we'll see what comes to fruition.  :-)

Till next time!