But, I may just catch up before Christmas??? Who knows! So sit back and enjoy the peek back!

Anyway, May. Well… Mother’s Day which means Mother’s Day photos. Of course since the weather was decent we drove down to the end of our road and took photos on the path. You can check out the photos HERE since this post is HUGE already!

Ken bought me the most adorable Totoro socks. We went to church. It was a lovely day.

May also found us at Mall of America at what I felt was one of the happiest places on earth… TIM HORTONS! There are multiple locations in state now, and I have visited more than a few!!

All out of Legos!

May was also Sean’s yearly visit. He drove down this year. We had a lot of fun with him.

Emanuel and Trinity got their white belts in karate. More on that HERE.

Of course we continued swimming lessons and visited ClubY. With myself keeping suitably busy as well.

New stationary machines!

Zander and Gavin had track.

I even got my hands on some back in production Clearly Canadian!!!

For lack of a bonfire we got creative making s’mores.

Ken and I tried our hand at some minor landscaping.

We even tried some backyard gardening.

My best gardener with her Gypsy dog toy pal

dead heading in pj’s

Berry bushes!

And we bought a can crusher which was fun for the kids for about… a week.

We had company… and went visiting.

Cousin Robbie

Schwartz family

Snoopy!

Crochet…

With Gavin

School…

Reading in the best vantage points

Eating out…

Walks to the park…

It was a busy month looking back! I forget how busy when the days pass by.

A sweet apology

sparklers!

Emanuel perfected his bicycle riding.

Quiet moment!

Toad!

May tends to be absolutely lovely here so we try to take full advantage with LOTS of time outside. 

And in the sprinkler.

We got started on our planter boxes as well. Tomatoes and cucumbers this year. 

Plus Ken and I snuck out for a wedding.

Congrats you two!

I even had my very own Mother’s Day (not professional of course) photo shoot! 

We had a field trip to a local museum with homeschool buddies.

We broke out the freezies.

And worked on our meager landscaping skills.

Climbed trees.

Went on long walks. And learned our route to the YMCA.

Had lunch outdoors.

And started our Canada unit. 

We even managed a visit with the Schwartz family.

And S’mores on the bbq… improvising!

One of the things I love about May in Minnesota is that it does warm up. And this year we took full advantage!

Of course I cannot resist sharing the very first holiday I have EVER spent girls only! I think we did a rather good job making memories and friends to remember. We were invited to a family and friends bbq by the mother of the bride from the wedding in June (her daughters are Renee – Chris’s wife and Karen – Cory’s new bride). Renee was a total sweetheart and though she had to miss it for a family reunion (Chris’ side) she helped coordinate our ride – Cory picked us up after work and drove the van so I didn’t have to show my ineptitude at moving Echo’s carseat to a new vehicle! YAY!

But first… Ken had slept the night here with his evening appointments and left in the morning… AFTER helping fill the pool with air and taking out the garbage of course! While he was doing that and collecting any last minute necessities of course we had to bring out the American flag garland and our thematically perfect red, white and blue paperchain for some very adorable July 4th pictures. Sadly you cannot see in the picture but I am also wearing a USA themed tank top I picked up at Walmart (oops…).

After the pictures it was time for the first of our special treats – ding-dongs.

We did a quick with Daddy photo before hugs and good byes and then the fun REALLY began!

All girls all day… so we… made sticker pictures with July 4th ants picnic stickers…

Watched the original My Little Pony videos (and then moved onto MOST of Mastermind the movie)…

We ALL coloured pictures… I got them through a subscription to the site Little Learning Lovies (here) as a freebie for subscribing.

Then after lunch in the sunroom of buns and apple slices we did a wee bit of our mail schoolwork… Trinity is determined to learn to tell time to receive the reward Gammie has promised her and Echo likes nothing better than doing her worksheets.

Around 3:30 Cory collected us and the van and it was time to head to the party.

We got there at the perfect time. The family we met at the groom’s dinner who have 3 girls right around our’s ages were in the pool with their mom so the girls got changed too and hopped in to play.

There was a playset to play on…

A hill to dare devil drive down (which they ALL did successfully)…

And a delicious picnic dinner that included fruit and various salads and AMAZING chicken drumsticks all topped off with chocolate cake. Trinity cleaned her plate perfectly I was so proud!

After dinner was s’mores… Echo let me have a few bites of hers. More visiting… and then…

Cory

SPARKLERS AND FIREWORKS!

Cory and Echo hanging out together

Karen

A new little girl – Chloe

This is Trinity with a sparkler and the camera set on Fireworks!

We did not make it home until almost 11 o’clock. We had an amazing day, met tons of new people and played and ran and honestly had our best 4th of July yet (ok it IS our second but it was grand!).