MAY

One of the mottos of Western Kentucky University, where Justin and I met is 'Life, More Life.'  It has always seemed an odd phrase to me, and one without a lot of meaning, but that's sort of how I felt about our month of May.

The first of May we were returning from a major camp out with many American Heritage Girl troops.  I handled the finances for this big get together, and spent several weeks going over every penny in and out.  In the midst of that we finished up our school year,

  Nate finishing kindergarten.

 

We held a small end of term celebration with friends, food, and a couple of displays of what we learned. Here is some of our astronomy and geography work.

Our AHG troop was wrapping up our year, which also required a bit extra from us.  There was the crossing over ceremony to plan, organize, and hold.

Gabby moved up from Tenderheart to Explorer that night.  Her Daddy got to take her old vest before she crossed the bridge to get her new one from the waiting girls on the other side.

Here she's showing off that very full vest before we cut it up!

Both gals received Presidential Service Awards.

We filled in summer planning sheets for the older three kids, books to read, things they wished to accomplish, and set to work on those.

We attended birthday parties and last tutorial day.

 

We took hikes in the woods and Justin replaced some faucets and worked on some projects

 Then we took a trip to Ohio to visit Justin's parents.  His mother is ill, so our pictures are not with them.

 We visited a fun play ground that had both seesaws and this teeter totter.

To give us as long as possible with his parents we stopped in Cincinnati for the night on the way back.

We visited the aquarium in Newport, getting to see (and for Nate and Kate pet sharks), see the alligator come up for air, see a presentation on penguins, and much more.

 I believe this tank had sea horses.

 Thankfully Ellie was able to rescue Gabby from these horrible jaws!

 The jelly fish really are beautiful behind that glass where they can't sting you.

 Kate, at one of our favorite spots in the city, Eden Park.  She was only one when we moved from there.

Proof that I do exist!

 Justin showing the kids about the old reservoir.

The fam with what Ellie called 'the big toy,' where we stopped to meet a friend from the area.

This week, by contrast, has had not one blessed requirement beyond what running the house normally requires.  We have been to the pool 4 times, running a load of towels through every afternoon, just to repack it again for the next trip.  It has been a lovely relaxing change of pace.

We've a few things on the calendar for later in the month, but I think this is just what we needed after all the busyness, too bad poor Justin was at work this week, though, I think he sometimes finds work a little less overwhelming than life here.

If you made it to the end, maybe you're as tired as I was, I hope you can get a pool day in too!