May Days

I love the month of May!  I am very sad that it is almost half over!  May means that spring has arrived and the days are getting longer and warmer.  The month is full of programs, recitals, track meets, and field trips.  I love that almost everyday is different.  I am not the type of person who enjoys or embraces change, but I love and thrive on having no routine.  That’s why I love summer so much and I feel like May is preparation for the lazy crazy days of summer.  Yesterday, I kept track of my trips up and down 4th Ave, and by the end of the night I counted 12! Twelve!  Cade is going to get his school permit today, so that will cut down on my 4th Ave. trips significantly!  That brings about a whole set of other stressors for this mother, but we won’t talk about that now.  Here’s just a little glimpse of May 1-15. 

Helping Grandpa B plant his garden.  Here they are working on the peas. 

Lots of outdoor projects.  We trimmed our evergreen trees in our front yard way up.  Bryan trimmed some of our big trees in the backyard.  Bryan is in his “happy place” when he is trimming trees!  We also restored a very, very old picnic table that I got for free off Sioux Center Swap.  It was probably one the my favorite DIY projects to date.  However, I am working on a couple of planter boxes that I am quite excited about as well.  We are doing a couple other project on our deck that I can’t wait to be done!  

15! 

My baby boy turned 15 on May 4 and he is becoming a man right before my very eyes.  They measured him yesterday at his high school physical, and is now 5’11.  At Christmas we were the same height.  That means he has grown almost 3 inches in 5 months! He has a 34 inch inseam and a 29 inch waist.  Finding jeans for this kids is virtually impossible.  He is almost a cell-phone owner as well.  We went today to pick out his phone.  He has waited very patiently (for most of the time) for this opportunity.  I hope he takes it seriously.  

Cade is still playing basketball, running track, and started baseball last night.  It stresses me out, but he loves it!  I love that whatever sport he is participating in at the time, is the sport that has his heart.  He doesn’t really love track, but when he is at that meet, his heart is in it!  He has been hurdling, which again, stresses me out.  He has done a really nice job on the hurdles and improves his form and times each meet.  I begged for him to try and get out of running the hurdle races, but he really enjoys running them.  He has also done some high jumping and often runs in a couple sprint relays.  

The first weekend in May was spent in Minneapolis with his AAU basketball team.  The decision to allow Cade to play with an AAU team has come after a couple of years of asking lots of questions, doing lots of research, and many hours in prayer.  So far, it has been a very positive experience and Cade has been stretched in so many areas.  April and May have been filled with weekend trips to Sioux Falls for workout’s and practices.  He will play one more tourney after Memorial Day weekend in Omaha, and then he will have some time off for baseball.  He will start back up with basketball again in July.   

Miah ran in the Dordt track meet yesterday.  She ran in the 4x100 and also long jumped.  She had never long jumped before, so her first couple jumps were very entertaining.  

I know nothing about long jump, but after seeing the pictures of the first jump, I wondered if it might help for her to stay a little more compact…as graceful as this first picture looks!  I shared my little piece of advise and asked to just try it.  

I learned two things from yesterday’s track meet:  I am sure I should be a long jump coach and this girl is coachable!  Her second jump was significantly better. 

She also ran in the Hershey’s track meet on Saturday.  The girls ran the 4x100 meter relay.  They got first place…we won’t talk about how many teams were in the race.

Amirah had her TK program last week.  It was such a cute program celebrating all the progress they have made this year in TK.  We feel so blessed to have been able to take advantage of the TK program with both Romee and Amirah.  I can’t say enough kind things about her two teachers: Mrs. Vander Werf and Mrs. Van Ruler.  At the end of the program, the teachers spoke individually about each student and what made them special to them and their classmates.  Mrs. Vander Werf talked about how Amirah was a “sponge” in her classroom.  She quietly and observantly took everything in.  She told Amirah how much she appreciated her wonderful listing skills and how she could always count on Amirah to be listening and do as she was instructed.  She ended her little talk by saying, “And the one thing that we will never forget about Amirah….is that she LOVES her Cyclones!”  There was laughter amongst the crowd as Amirah smiled proudly next to Mrs. Vander Werf. 

  The highlight of the program for Amirah, was that Cade was there.  She loves her big brother so much!  With his busy schedule there are often times he misses out on the girls’ stuff.  He didn’t have anything that night and she was absolutely thrilled that he was going to be there. 

 

The afternoons I have alone with this little girl are numbered.  I love my afternoons alone with her and can’t believe that we are getting to the end of them.  I have treasured this year so much and haven’t wished away a single day.  I will miss my little grocery store helper, memory game dominator, and my basketball commentator.  Watching march madness without her next year just won’t be the same! 

(we were very bored in the Verizon store today..phones are not exciting)

The second half of the month is filled with field trips to the zoo and Pipestone, piano recitals, programs, a genius project presentation, graduation parties and with track meets and basketball games sprinkled in between.  I will treasure and enjoy every one of them!