May has been an odd month.
It's technically summer for us, but it's been mostly rainy and freezing. It feels like Charlie has been gone all month, but not really? A lot of our old daily rhythms have changed, but our new ones haven't started up yet. I've had a lot of fun with my kids, but feel like I've done nothing but fuss at them all month, struggling to find the balance between letting them act like little kids and keeping them from careening out of control. Constantly. In some ways I can't hardly believe the month is already over, but in other ways - I've been looking forward to events coming up in June and July for so long, that I feel like May has lasted forever. It's been a good month though, and I'm thankful for all we managed to squeeze in!
Toward the beginning of the month, we celebrated Charlie's birthday with what's becoming a traditional trip to the zoo!
 |
| lorikeets! |
 |
| 37 looks good on him, don't you think? |
I celebrated Mother's Day by taking my kids out on special dates again this year. Nothing super spectacular or expensive - just some quality one-on-one time so I could really enjoy them.
 |
| this is how I spend my lunch everyday... they never stop touching me!!! And no, this photo was not staged... |
The Lego store in OKC was having a free "build" day the Saturday before, so Bruce and I spent some time there building a tree house and little village together. It's fun to use cute pieces that we don't have in our own collection of bricks! Then we continued up the interstate to Charlie's parents' place to love on K for Mother's Day, too. The next morning, we got an early start and headed back to the city so Abbs and I could catch the train and take a ride back to Norman together. It was just a quick 20 minute ride - but the perfect amount of time for her to explore the train and enjoy the railway. It was a great weekend!
Thanks to budget cuts, Bruce's school was forced to close two weeks early for summer. Oklahoma really is in a sad state of affairs... I know it's bad everywhere, but it's pathetic here. Education cuts have been so drastic, that you can't really be upset about any choices the superintendents and school boards make - because they're in a lose/lose situation everywhere they turn and I really do believe they're trying to make the best of it all. Bruce finished well though, and overall I think he had a really successful year in preK! He even won the "Friendship" award at the end of year assembly! So proud of that little guy.
 |
| that face though! |
 |
| I'm not sure why he felt the need to hold up his certificate like a wrestling championship belt... |
 |
| hanging around in Bruce's classroom - this girl can make herself at home with books anywhere! |
The new Walmart opened! There's been some controversy about this location popping up, but we're super excited because it's just down the road from our house! We've literally watched it being built from the ground up, and have counted down the days for the grand opening. We let Bruce go to school an hour late that day because how often do you get to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony? And they actually used the big scissors - Bruce was really excited about that! (Not to mention getting to stand behind the ribbon while they cut it!) I'm not proud to admit that we've been 8 or 9 times since they opened... two weeks ago...
We've been hitting up a lot of garage sales lately too, it seems. We found a lot of dirt cheap toys that were fun, but the biggest score was the two HUGE boxes of Legos with around 30 mostly complete, fairly large sets from the late 80s. The pieces are kind of stiff, but it's been really fun putting all the sets together. Charlie and I are exhausted all day long, but we still manage to stay up until 11pm every night sorting pieces for the sets... and playing with Legos... I think we may have a problem.
 |
| Abby racing some of the old school cars - and we even have several "Benny" mini-figs now! |
Charlie was able to go to the Preakness!
 |
| The Populous group |
 |
| final stretch |
 |
| Exaggerator wins! |
Now that school is out and our schedule has opened up some, we've been really purposeful trying to arrange play dates for the kids to get together with friends! There are a couple of friends that have become old favorites that are always fun to hang out with, but we've been spending a lot of time with some new friends, too. We've decided to start home schooling this summer, and I've organized a small co-op group that we plan to meet with three times a week to help make things more fun! I named our little group "Okie One Room School" and I've started a blog for family and friends to follow along with what we're up to throughout the year. We're not planning on starting until the middle of July, but I already wrote one post to explain how we arrived at our decision to home school. Check it out here if you're interested!
Summer weather finally peeked through a little bit towards the end of the month, and in between rainy days, we visited the splash pad for the first time, enjoyed some park time, and have been having a little water fun in the backyard! And evening walks to check all the toad holes have become routine for us.
Bruce's strawberry plants are doing so great this year!
 |
| loves her swings! |
 |
| mushroom and garden snake treasures |
 |
| we added a new animal to our list of creatures to observe! |
 |
| we just kept him for a little while before returning him to the wild |
Other Kidbits of the Month:
Bruce has really expanded his horizons this month.
For his whole life it seems, he's been obsessed with ONE thing. And that one thing is all he wants to think about. Period. Until the next thing comes along. And then the obsession starts all over, just as strong. When he was little, he went through a tractor phase, and a monster truck phase, and then there were the oil pumps and cherry pickers. Next, of course, he became a pirate. This past season brought about an interest in Star Wars, but this month he's been all over the place. It's been different, but good.
He'll tell you that he's still "in to" Star Wars, but he's also all about pirates again, especially when his friends come over to play. And he'll tell you that he's also "in to" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers and Batman - but he doesn't really play with those toys too much because they're not Lego. He's becoming more interested in the other lines of Lego toys though - like the police and the astronauts, and these weird things called Mixels. But if I had to say what the one "main" obsession has been, it's been Ninjago. It's a fantasy/martial arts theme Lego put out, and there's even a Netflix series that goes with it. Bruce has been binge watching the shows over the past few weeks, but with his minimal television time allotment, it's been taking a while to get through the different seasons. It's mostly a cute show, but I'm still trying to decide if the bad guys are too dark for him. So far, his night waking/afraid of the night problems have still been really good, so that's nice. He still gets up maybe one time one night a week - but that's sooooo much better than the 4-6 times every night that we were dealing with for months. Him wanting to do "minja training" though is just about the best thing ever. And the fact that Abby is usually his sensei, giving him different tasks to perform in the backyard, makes me giggle.
Whether it's Ninjago or some other theme - the boy is still constantly playing with Legos. We've started having "special dinners" on Friday nights where we eat dinner in the living room on tv trays and watch a movie together. The other night we watched the Lego movie, and ever since then, Bruce has been calling himself a "Master Builder" because he can build anything in his imagination without needing instructions. Yup. Mostly that means grabbing one of his tubs - like the "flats" bin and sticking 10-20 pieces randomly together. Love that kid. But his builds are starting to take over the house!
 |
| Lego night at the library! |
 |
| The latest club meeting - they made hedgehogs! |
Abby's such a fun compliment to our family!
I'm loving that she's turning into such a little kid!
She tries to be so helpful, like insisting to hold the door open for you when it's time to go somewhere. She's also starting to initiate some potty training on her own! And any time Bruce hurts himself, she's the first to shout, "I will get you a band-aid, Boy!" She knows right where to find them, how to open them, and doesn't hesitate to finagle them on his owie, even when it doesn't really require a band-aid. Bruce of course eats this up.
She still spends lots of time reading everyday, and is going to BTHO the summer reading contest. I love listening to all of her little songs she sings while she reads her books, and it's adorable when she feels the need to dance. She loves playing games in the backyard - especially "chase" and "jail" when daddy comes home.
She can be a real stinker, too. Most of the time she's too cute to be upset with for long though.
 |
| the mulberries are in season, but every time I get a bowl picked so I can make something with them, this goober runs off with them! |
I may not have been able to make any pies this year, but our other garden goodies are starting to take off. Summer is here and we're looking forward to all that it promises!
