Early May

April and May are a busy time of celebration in our household. Our birthdays kind of slipped by this year without comment, but Ray did it up right for our anniversary and Mother's Day.

I already shared this one, but it makes me smile, so here's how E greeted me on Friday.

Before that, Ray met me at Avery Brewery. With flowers.

He also made cards for me, which was an incredible act of persistence against all Bill-Gates-inspired odds.

For mother's day weekend, E gave me the gift of finally being willing to go out on the playground without me following him every step of the way.

The morning of Mother's Day we walked down to the playground at the other end of the subdivision. E made a new friend there, a little boy who lives right across from that playground and comes out to join us whenever we're there.
He'll let me get off the playground, but he'll still pose. Not everything about two is bad.
With or without his friend, he didn't really need me, though - which was nice, it was 90 degrees and I got to sit in the shade. And E got to experiment with alternate ways to go down the slide... can you find him?

Yes, that's his back coming down the right-hand slide. Going down face down. Growing up fast.


It was a good weekend.

Let us entertain you

Keeping three two-year-olds entertained through a wedding and shopping is... a challenge.
 Bob pointed out that an iPad, Cars, and a minivan is a good start (thanks for the pic, Bob).
A restaurant with a big pond setup and fish helps, too.
It would have been more helpful it weren't thirty degrees and humid out, but the kids had fun.
While you're trying to sign the older kids into Smaland at IKEA, may I recommend the storage lockers for the short set?



No paparazzi, please!

Travel

A few shots from our last trip to Minnesota. All off of the iphone, I am hoping Jen will post her pretty shots of the weekend....

(sense a certain theme? It's hard to be short. This is, of course, Clark's pool table. E and Nick had a lot of fun, which is not photodocumented, although I think there is video of hockey here somewhere.)

If you're having a group event with a decent number of kids, I recommend a hotel with a water park. E wasn't a fan of the train noises, but he did like the water park, as did Ray. (Thanks to Ken for these shots)
The real reason behind all of this.
One of the pics I want to see Jen's version of...
Why I need a better camera. This was adorable. E loves Miss Q and keeps asking for her and the twins.
Also, these two looked quite good. Emily was gorgeous, not nearly this blurry (darn iphone). But the happy comes through even here. It was a good weekend!