May always starts off with a bang... and often with nice weather.
May 2nd: Merrick and I had tickets to the Timbers game. Gary and Margaret were able to watch the girls so that we could make a longer evening out of it. We left early and headed in to Portland where we discovered a new-to-us restaurant on the east side called Canteen. It was fantastic! After dinner we headed back across the river and to the game. It was a pretty fun way to celebrate Merrick's birthday (24 hours early) just the two of us.
May 3rd: A school day for Grace, but we all went to pick her up just a bit early so we could really celebrate. We headed back to the east side where we tried Uno Mas Taquiza... amazing tacos! On our way home - after stopping at the park to play - we got to swing by the hospital to visit Jeff and Kristen's sweet boy, Malaki. From there it was on to home and on to stage two... Kyler's camp-out party. We got there just in time for dinner, games, s'mores bar and an outdoor movie. The kids were in heaven and it was a pretty fun way to end Merrick's birthday.
May 4th: We spent around the house just getting things done and getting our garden ready to plant. This time of year always brings out the BIG spiders. We found four just like this (one even bigger) throughout the day. Yuck!
May 5th: I taught Sunday School in the morning, we visited an open house in the afternoon (did I mention we've been house hunting?). We were able to swing by my parents house to feed the girls a quick lunch before running out the door to another birthday extravaganza. This time we celebrated Alexa and Serena's birthdays. The girls loved the gymnastics party and had a blast playing around with their friends. We jetted straight out of there and on to North Plains for home group and another celebration (Mark's birthday) where the kids ran around and further exhausted themselves.
May 6th: The third and final parent meeting at school (aka, a good excuse to go out with Annie and Marisa for the evening). Unfortunately Marisa got called home because of a barfing emergency. Annie and I went to the meeting and then ended up at Baja where we closed down the place.
May 8th: Claire and I had a special play date with Jenny and Lilian. We haven't spent much time with these friends since Christmas, so it was nice to catch up a little. In the evening we drove to Gresham to look at a car. Long drive, but worth it.
May 9th: I spent an hour (plus) at the hospital for a blood draw to check my latest thyroid numbers. In the afternoon my cousin, Emily, dropped her boys off here to play for a while. Grace and Claire love having "cousins" that are close in age and live not too far away. The four of them played so well all afternoon. Tonight Merrick drove a new (to us) car home. All-in-all, a good day.
May 10th: We hosted a birthday party for Keira. It was a pretty small group - just the home group gang - and I only had to provide the location. Janice did all of the hard work. It was a great night with friends.
May 11th: Another beautiful day and we wanted to do something fun. Merrick suggested the 4T trail, but I wasn't quite feeling up to that. We decided to try Magnes Tree Farm instead. What a fun place! And, the Diefs were free to join us. We will definitely be heading back to this park again this summer.
I love this time of year - everything is blooming and is so pretty.
May 12th: Mother's Day was split between Lake Oswego and Newberg. The wonderful thing about having most of our family in this area is that we can see almost everyone on each holiday. Mother's Day brought two fantastic meals... one with my parents and one with Merrick's family.
May 13th: Claire and I met "Miss Katie" for coffee and just chat. Katie is my Motherwise mentor mom and is a very dear friend. It is rare to find a time for us to get together outside of Bible study, so this was a special morning.
May 14th: Listed our little civic for on Craigslist (it sold four days later!). The girls and I also had an ice cream date with Nicole and Brooke in the afternoon. It was fun to connect with them and catch up with Nicole a bit.
May 15th: Merrick dropped Grace off at school, ran across the river to pick up a bike he bought on Craig's list, and then back to school for a class field trip. They went in to Portland to see the Oregon Children's Theater production of Frog and Toad. It took days before Grace wasn't singing the songs and reenacting portions of the play for all to see. It was definitely a hit!
May 16th: I met a group of mom's from Grace's class for Happy Hour at DeCarlie's in Beaverton. I have been so blessed to get to know these women (and families) from Grace's class.
May 17th: Claire's 1/2 birthday. I don't think half birthdays will always be celebrated, but when you are three AND A HALF, it is sort of a big deal. We had a great time celebrating our girl and finished our night with a homemade 1/2 cake.
May 18th: We picked up a bountiful basket in the morning before dropping Grace off to celebrate Amy's birthday. In the mean time, we needed to go to Home Depot and happened upon a kids workshop, so Claire was able to build and paint a bird house. We then had time to grab a quick lunch at the nearby taco cart before heading back for Grace. We immediately headed out to Newberg for Ella's art party. Grace had a great time with the big girls painting, eating, and playing. Claire and I spent the afternoon resting at grandma's house... poor thing was just too tired for another party.
Thankfully the fourth week of May was {a little} calmer. Merrick started playing indoor soccer with a new team, but that's about all of the big news from this week.
May 24th: No School!!! I'm not sure why I decided to schedule my three back-to-back doctor appointments starting at 7:10 am, but that's exactly what I had done. We went from one to another to another trying to occupy bored and tired girls. (Good news is that all looks good with baby and there is still no sign that I'm going to go in to early labor.) From there, the girls and I headed downtown to meet friends at OMSI. I have been numerous times, but this was a first for my kiddos. We had so much fun playing with friends and discovering all sorts of cool things.
The baby exhibit is especially cool (to me anyway) when pregnant. We had just seen the ultrasound images of our baby, and then were able to see these amazing real babies behind glass. This little one was the same age as our baby at that time.
Friday night we met the Coleman family for dinner and then Marisa and I headed out with some friends to celebrate Kristen's birthday. It was fun to get a few minutes with baby Malaki before hitting the town. He's such a sweet little man.
May 25th: We spent a nice, quiet morning at home with no agenda. Such a change of pace for us... and we needed it. In the afternoon we met the Tatsumis at the Multnomah County Fair for a few hours of balloons, rides, petting zoo, sheep riding and kettle corn. From there, we headed over to the Spaghetti Factory with the rest of the people in Portland. We waited for well over an hour and boy did our dinners taste so good by the time we were eating.
May 26th: Memorial Day was sort of a quiet day for us. The gloomy and rainy weather forced us to take it easy and have a low-key day. The girls were awesome all day, so in the afternoon Merrick took them to Pump-it-Up for a few hours. I got to stay home and read a book, watch TV and just plain veg. I think we all had fun.
May 29th: Grace had a fun afternoon play date with her buddy Jacquelyn from school. We planned this weeks ago and the girls have been counting down the days. In the evening Merrick had an indoor soccer game and I hosted a poster-making party for the mom's in Grace's class. Again, just an excuse to get together and eat snacks. We did get the posters done, though I'm pretty sure it took HOURS longer since we were "working" together.
May 30th: We were able to celebrate Grace's birthday at school with her class. It was fun to see her in her element being recognized by her peers. They all took turns saying something they liked about Grace. It was very special.
