May

In May, the kids started bringing home all the random junk their teachers wanted to get out of their classrooms. This meant cleaning out their desks as well as getting to make claim on stuff the teachers no longer wanted. Nathanael brought home a whole collection of treasures but my favorite was two glue stick caps that he brought home for Claire "so she can have a tea party with her stuffed animals."

This spring, the boys tried out a new sport for both of them: flag football. They both had a blast, ended up playing on pretty good teams, and we really enjoyed watching their games. Nathanael's age group didn't have play-offs, but Sam's team made it to the championship game (which they lost). 

At some point we discovered several lesions on Sam's legs. They have no symptoms, they just look strange. With a little help from Google, I found a diagnosis I felt comfortable with: granuloma annulare. Still, at some point (it was probably in June, if we want to be technical), I took him to his pediatrician to confirm my diagnosis. The doctor was stumped and didn't even consider granuloma annulare until I suggested it. He referred us out to a dermatologist, which appointment isn't until January. I went ahead and scheduled Sam another well check with a new pediatrician (two strikes and Dr. Jones is out- the $2k case of strep that was NOT cancer, and no diagnosis for his legs) in August.

The end of school year activities commenced. I was so grateful this year for help from friends, getting the boys to/from school. I could not have gotten them both to school on time nor gotten them both picked up in the afternoons without assistance. Thankfully, my friend Kristy let me drop Nathanael off with her each morning and took him to school with her kids. And in the afternoons, Angela picked Nathanael up when she got her kids. Thankful for friends.

Nathanael received several awards at his awards ceremony, but the best one he received was in his class. His classmates voted him "coolest". Very fitting. He had a great year with our neighbor, Mrs. Cole as his teacher. He had a lot of fun, made lots of friends, and got in trouble some too. At the end of the year, it finally dawned on us that he has a bit of anxiety in relation to school, so we will monitor how that progresses in 2nd grade. 

Due to the boys' multi-weekly flag football games, we discovered a new favorite picnic spot. At the city park there is a huge, old magnolia tree. The tree has branches and offshoots that go all the way to the ground and if you pull apart the branches and climb through, it is like a whole little fairy world underneath. They love to play inside and climb the limbs, and we have enjoyed several  picnics in the tree's shadow. The kids think it's a special treat if we stop at Walmart for our picnic food and I let them pick out their meal. Twice it was popcorn chicken from the deli and nacho lunchables that came with a candy.

Paul went on a business trip to MIT in Boston. His current project is for MIT, taking an old Gulfstream jet and putting some sort of research stuff on it. I don't know. Something like that. Anyway, he got to go to Boston. Lucky him.

Claire, of course, spent most of May honing her cuteness. She really enjoys hot dogs, but she begs to be served them cold. She will often just sneak them right out of the fridge. She also continues to work on her drawing. It's always people with grass and a sun. Her people now include shirts and hair, if you can determine what represents those things. At any given time, the refrigerator is plastered with several of her drawings. She also knows where I keep blank envelopes and she goes through dozens each week, making her drawings, folding them up, and sealing them in envelopes for who ever she is thinking of at the moment. Usually, of course, it's Mimi, Yaya, or our neighbors. It is so cute to watch her run across the street to slip her little envelopes filled with her cute drawings into the mailbox at the Coles' house. She has a definite opinion about what clothes she's going to wear. I have to fight her tooth and nail if I actually want her to wear something specific. And if I actually do succeed (though it's not a battle I engage in regularly), she is bound to go to her room within a few hours, to change into something of her own choosing.

Nathanael's end of the year class party was a camping themed, hot dog lunch that I didn't have to do anything for except show up to off help. The kids got time to sign each other's yearbooks or memory packets and I was asked to sign every kid's in the class. I'm going to miss those little kids next year, although I'm sure I'll see many of them in Nathanael's class again. That afternoon, out of the blue, Claire completely crashed. She had some little virus with fever and exhaustion. Based on the pictured barf bucket, I guess she must have thrown up as well, though I can't remember that.

Best of friends: Kate, Zoe, Nathanael, Joshua, Whisper

Claire and Gabby

Claire and Fluffy

But no worries, I still took her to sweet Myah's baptism the next morning. As far as I know, she didn't contaminate anyone.

For Memorial Day, we went to a family cookout in the scorching heat. It was a Rogers festivity, so there were countless people there and everyone was trying to secure a small piece of shade underneath pop up tents, to eat. There was a water slide for the kids and we left Nathanael there after we left to spend way too much time in the sun without reapplying sunscreen. Luckily he was only mildly pinkened.

The last day of May was Nathanael's field day. There was just enough cloud cover to last until right before the kids finished outside. Field day is painfully boring to watch, let's be real.