You know how crazy December is? Where everyone you know has a holiday party and then it seems like there are 19 million small tasks and bucket lists and everyone needs a gift and the emotions are high and the kids are one event away from a meltdown and yet it truly is the most wonderful time of the year?
Well, that is May for us. Throw in a birthday, an anniversary, and Theo working a second job, and this May will be one to remember! I’m really only going to recap the last 10 days of May since those days were SO PACKED full of all the good stuff! Seriously, our cups are full…and we are exhausted!
We started out the end of the year fun with a trip out to a Dayton Dragons game with our school family! As usual, nobody actually watched the game, but we sure did have some lovely times catching up with our friends 🙂
The next day we headed to Kid Clubhouse for a 3rd Grade end of the year party. The 3rd grade teacher at our school happens to be related to the owner of Kid Clubhouse and this was her end of the year gift/party for the 3rd graders! A blast was had by all!
The following day was the real calm before the storm. Theo went and worked security for the high school graduation, but was able to be home by early afternoon! He typically works all day on Saturday until dinnertime. So that afternoon we made a library pit stop to pick up holds and then headed out on a family hike.
On Sunday I attempted church by myself with all four kids for the first time. The kids are in the service for the music + Scripture reading and then they are dismissed right before the sermon. Let’s just say that it could have gone better….it was a disaster. I was trying to remind myself that my children’s behavior doesn’t mean that I’m a bad Mom, or that my kids will be spiritual disasters because they had such a hard time behaving in church. But I also know my kids and know they can do much better (P.S. We had a good talk about it, and tried again the following Sunday and they did AMAZING). Anyways, it was nice to be able to go to my parents house for lunch after church and spend the whole afternoon outside in the GORGEOUS weather!
The next day was my BIRTHDAY! Theo had to work and I knew if I let myself, I would wallow and be in a bad mood. So instead I decided to take the kids thrifting with me. The first store we hit up had so many great gems and we had a blast shopping! We decided to go to a 2nd store, but that one was a total bust.
Later in the afternoon, we went over to my parents house for dinner. I wanted to get there a little early so that I could leave some of the kids with my parents and go for a run. It’s really hard for me to run at my house because we have no sidewalks – not even a shoulder on the fairly busy road. So whenever I’m in my parents neighborhood I like to take advantage of the sidewalks and go for a run or bike ride! Kiah rode his bike while I ran…he’s such a good pacer!
Theo came straight from work to my parents house, and my cousin and her baby also came over (her husband had to work late that night) and we got to celebrate my birthday!
P.S. I am not 23 🙂
The next day was a bit of a chill day for me and baby Orion while the three big kids and Theo were at school. I went grocery shopping, made some muffins and tidied up the house – which felt like such a luxury- I cleaned and it stayed clean for a whole 5 hours until everyone else got home from school. Lol.
The next day dawned bright and early and it was FIELD DAY! It’s one of my favorite days of the year! If you have never been to a field day, you are missing out! Field day energy is like no other energy…such a blast! And the best kind of tired by the end of the day. I LOVE being able to work at my kids school and knowing all their friends. Ezra and Orion went and hung out with my Mom so that I could be at school with the two bigs for this day.
The library also had their kickoff summer reading program party on that day, so we hopped over to the library and got Kona Ice for the second time that day 🙂
On field day I think we sent the kids to bed at 7:15 and we were asleep soon after. The next day was the LAST DAY of school! It’s hard to believe that we have closed the year on 3rd grade, Kindergarten, preschool, and my 3rd year of teaching 1st grade (and my first ever maternity leave).
And if you think our crazy busy week was over…think again! Haha.
The day after school got out, Theo started another work week. I spent the day trying to catch up on all the chores and cleaning we had missed from the past few days. Fun fact: it was also our 11th anniversary! And that evening we got to attend an adoption party for Tera’s teacher who adopted her two sons from foster care that very morning!
Saturday was another day at home while Theo worked. I cleaned the house and prepared for our bonfire that we were hosting that night. This is our second annual bonfire that we host for the kids in my children’s classes, and I typically invite my class to come as well. We have about 30-40 kids (and their parents) descend on our property and it is SO MUCH FUN!
And the grande finale to our marathon was Sunday. We went to church (the kids did SO WELL in the service YAY) and then immediately after church headed about an hour away to meet up with all of our cousins! There were 20 cousins in all and they had a blast playing in the creek and going for a ride in the four wheeler thing. We enjoyed dinner together and some s’mores. We headed out around 8pm and got home shortly after 9. The unfortunate thing about this day was that Theo was supposed to get off work early (around lunch) to come hang out with his brothers. But he had a hostage call that he needed to go on. Instead of getting off work at his normal 5pm, he didn’t end up getting off work until 12:30am the next day (a 17.5 hour shift). He ended up just sleeping in his car at the station because by the time he got home, he would have gotten about 3 hours of sleep before heading back to work again the next morning. So I ended up having my first night solo with all four kids.
What an insane 12 days! It was SO MUCH fun! This week is all about rest and recovery…and maybe a little bit of ice cream thrown in there, too 🙂
An accurate description of the end of the school year! I’ve never thought about it like December but it really is similar!
Very impressed that you took 4 small children shopping with you! My friend and I took 2 toddlers and a baby to go clothes shopping recently. We only lasted about 10 minutes in that store, and everyone else vacated that area soon after we arrived 😅
Happy birthday and happy anniversary!