fiesta

 On Friday, May 16th, Finley's school performed their annual Fiesta Cultural!

 We weren't sure how Finn would handle the dancing after his surgery, but he did great!

He's in the back row of this photo, so it was hard to get a good shot of him.

 I got some video of his dance, but will have to get help from the husband to actually share it.  :P

 After the performance...with a little brother photobomb blur.  :]

 Nice work, Finn!

 With Memaw & Papa!

Mummi & Pappa were there too, but they were smart & made their exit before the masses.  It was SUPER crowded.  :\

 Finley & the Chase kids.

Sadie's last Fiesta.  She's moving up to 6th grade in the fall.

Finley & the Ruddick boys.

All the Hecht cousins!

 Finley's favorite classmates: Ellen & Natalie.  :)

Finley's super, awesome, amazing blessing of a teacher, Sra. Colon.  She was hired as a sub/temporary teacher, but she stayed on all year & did such a wonderful job with these first graders.  We've been so blessed with fabulous teachers for our children!

mother's day, neighbors & the garden

 A bit of randomness, but I want to share these photos.

Me & my children on Mother's Day.

Seriously. So lucky to be their Mama.

 Cedar & our neighbor, Prescott, have become such great friends.  Lucky boys!

 It's nice of Prescott (& his parents) to share their swing set with our boys.  Every day.  :P

 Photos from around the garden to remember what it was doing in May.

 Bearded irises

 Sugar snap peas

 Spinach, lettuce, walla walla onions, & carrots

 Raspberries!!

 We get such a huge harvest from our raspberries!  I love them!

 Beets

Tomatoes

We got a dozen volunteer tomatoes this year.  I moved them all into one bed & am curious what they will end up being.  I'm pretty sure they will be cherry tomatoes, but we'll see.  Either way, I hope to be swimming in tomatoes in a couple months!  :P

chuck e cheese

We managed to get through seven and a half years of parenting without hosting a Chuck E Cheese birthday party.  Well...our streak came to an end when Cedar decided that he needed to have his party at Chuck E Cheese's.  I blame TV commercials at the grandparents' houses, but it was probably inevitable.  ;)  

Our original party time had to be rescheduled, after Finley had an unexpected appendectomy, but the new time worked out perfectly!  We were there around dinner time on a weekday & were practically the only ones there!  It was really nice.  

Cedar requested cake pops for his dessert, so I tackled making those for the first time.  They must've been just what he wanted, because he ended up referencing those cake pops for weeks afterward...he even wrote in his Mother's Day card to me that he loved my cake pops & loved me because I made cake pops.  The cake pops made an impression on this kid!  But man, I love that I was able to do something so simple to make him feel so special.  Love him!!  Also, Kenton & I joke that sugar is Cedar's love language, but it's becoming clear that it's not too far from the truth.  :P

It's hard to believe that our little boy is 5 years old!  He's such a joy to raise & always manages to surprise & amuse us.  He's thoughtful & inquisitive.  He has great ideas & really thinks through things.  He figures things out & moves cautiously.  Cedar can be timid in new situations, but doesn't take long to warm up & feel at home.  He hasn't even started kindergarten yet, but is already starting to read & figuring out early math.  He's funny, silly & full of excitement.  We love having Cedar in our family & can't imagine life without him!  What a blessing you are, Cedar T.  We thank God for the gift of you.

finley's appendectomy

 On Friday, May 2nd, Finley woke up complaining of a tummy ache.  He thought he might need to throw up, but nothing happened.  He was shivery & shaky, but didn't have a fever.  So I kept him home from school & worked from home.  He went most of the day without any other symptoms, but started having a slight temperature around 4:30 pm.  He & Kenton stayed home from a get-together with our small group from church for Cedar's birthday.  When we returned, Kenton went to the store to get some snacks that Finn could eat if he started feeling better.  While Kenton was at the store, Finley started pointing out pain in the lower right side of his abdomen.  Having had my appendix removed myself, I instantly started a google search for symptoms.  It didn't reassure me.  When Kenton returned, I started asking Finn more specific questions & had him to try to stand up straight to walk.  When he couldn't really do it, we decided that Kenton should take him to the ER, just in case.  I honestly thought we were over reacting.

The check in process went fairly quickly & Kenton had a feeling (based on the reactions of the medical staff) that our suspicions were correct.  So Kenton's parents came to our house to stay with the sleeping Elsa & Cedar (it was about midnight by now) while I headed to the hospital to meet up with Kenton & Finn.

After a blood test that didn't reveal anything, they did an ultrasound & found a stool stone stuck in his appendix.  When the doctor told us that it was, in fact, appendicitis, I was shocked!  He's so young!  Just 7 years old.  Poor guy.  But we caught it very early & we could wait until the morning to do the surgery.  I went home to stay with the little ones while Kenton & Finley got checked into a hospital room.  The next morning, I dropped Elsa & Cedar off with Kenton's parents & met up with the boys at the hospital.

 They do a good job in the pediatric unit at Riverbend.  He got to keep his hand made pillow case & was given a toy too!  

The hardest part of the hospital stay was the waiting.  Finley hadn't eaten much on Friday & was not allowed to eat or drink anything before surgery!  He was so thirsty & hungry!  It was hard to not be able to help him out.  :(  The one thing that always cheered him up was the heated blankets!  :P

Elsa & Cedar came to the hospital with Kenton's parents & my parents joined us as well.  We ate lunch while Finn was in surgery, but it was so fast that we didn't have much time to kill!  They only took about 30 minutes in the operating room & then a bit more time in the recovery room while he woke up.

 Out of surgery & he's finally able to have something to eat & drink!  Yay!

 Kenton & Finley stayed one more night in the hospital.  They were discharged around noon on Sunday morning.

Home again & sitting up!  We're so proud of our first born.  What a trooper!

We were supposed to have our family party for Cedar on Sunday morning, so we had to reschedule.  Cedar didn't really notice & was just happy to have his big brother home.

cedar's big #5 birthday

 On Thursday, May 1st, our sweet Cedar-boy turned 5!  We started the morning off right with presents & fun cereal!

 The boys spent much of the warm afternoon in the sprinkler.  I tried to keep them from messing with each other too much & encouraged them to do some fancy jumps while I photographed them.  But as you can see, boys with be boys!  They are brothers to the core & can't help but mess with each other.  Luckily, there were mostly happy smiles from these two.

 We ate dinner with Kenton's parents (pizza for the birthday boy!) & they gave him a super cool remote control car!

We finished off the full & fun day with swimming lessons for both of these kids.  They've both enjoyed it so much & have made great progress.  We had such a great experience with our local community center.  Their teachers were excellent!  Way to go, Finley & Cedar!  What a fun way to end the day.