May, what more can I say

By early May, Paul had put more hours into landscaping our lawn than either of us care of calculate. There were many, many trips to the home improvement store to pick up 20 landscaping stones at a time, plus sand, landscaping fabric, and bags and bags of mulch. But all those hours paid off; our flowerbeds are the best looking I've ever seen.

Nathanael's school had a very simple little Mother's Day program. The class sang a cute little song about mothers, then the kids were allowed to join us at the table, thus eating the fruit and muffins that were supposed to be for us, ha I did get a couple pictures of Nathanael with his best friends, Davi'yon and Annsley. I can't remember who that other white boy is. 

I chopped my hair. It didn't exactly turn out as I'd envisioned, but that's usually the way it goes. I certainly didn't end up looking like Reese Witherspoon, which was my goal. I guess there's more to it than the haircut. 

Nathanael procured a hand-me-down satchel from Mimi. Considering he'd been asking for luggage for Christmas for quite some time, this was right up his alley. He immediately packed the thing with first-aid supplies and other necessities. He now carries it to church with him every Sunday, packed with my scriptures, pens, pencils, paper, and crayons. And it goes on every car trip, whether day trips to Dollywood or longer trips. 

In May we learned that another batch of our favorite friends would be moving far away. Luckily we were able to make a quick trip to Dollywood together for a final hoorah. Nathanael and Eva were inseparable all day, riding all the rides together. They were too cute, holding hands around the park. Benny and Becca were the most amazing babies ever, never even getting grumpy as the got carted around for hours. It was such a fun day and we miss our friends so much. The good ones never stay. 

Somehow I managed to nearly forget about the strawberry picking season. We only managed to make it to pick one time. Truly disappointing. Nathanael is actually quite a helpful little picker, and Claire isn't so bad to have along, as long as she stays busy eating the strawberries. 

Nathanael had his kindergarten graduation program. It was actually a really awesome program. They sang lots of songs, recited lots of things they had memorized (including a Bible verse for every letter of the alphabet), played hand bells, etc.

Nathanael had his last day of kindergarten. I don't think he will miss his teacher, but I will miss having him around on Mondays and having the more relaxed schedule (getting him to school at 8:30, pick up at 1:45). Nathanael had a lot of success in kindergarten. He entered not reading a bit, but by the end he was able to read pretty well, especially when he put his mind to it. Reading certainly isn't one of his favorite things to do, but I am proud of his progress. At school, the students had end of the year standardized testing; Nathanael scored above average in most areas. I can't wait to see him grow even more in 1st grade.

And finally, I cannot close the recap of May without mentioning the massive splinter that Paul dug out of Sam's toe. He got it while playing barefoot in our backyard. Robin and I tried to remove it with tweezers, but because it had gone straight in, we had no idea what we were really dealing with. Poor Sam had to endure it until Paul got home from work, at which time Paul had to extract it with tweezers and a razor blade. We couldn't believe the size of the thing and poor Sammy was certainly glad when the operation was over!