what's up May.

Ahhh, my sweet, sweet hand-me-down Lenovo laptop from a thousand years ago... we meet again.  I missed you, old friend.  I'm so glad you're here for Blog Days once again.

I'm actually glad we're going back to catch up on old months of photos, for a couple of reasons.  First, this week was just a whirlwind: I'm working on planning the school year and I have SO many plates in the air.  I have been walking around with eighty-thousand tabs open in my mind and also on my computer.  Todd even took a day off work and single-parented the kids so I could lock myself in a back room and just have the mental space to plan without interruption.  I printed so much, I went through more than two reams of paper and an entire laser toner cartridge.  I ordered books and wrote out schedules and lessons.  I cleaned out last year's papers and filed them.  Today I need to go bind some things into books.  And all while we've still been plugging away at summer school.  It's all a bit crazy, but boring crazy, so I'm glad the whole post doesn't involve having spin "printed a bunch of stuff" into an interesting plotline.

Also, the babies turned fourteen months, I'm working on dropping some of their feedings in anticipation of weaning them, and Knox popped another tooth.  They're getting so big.  Which brings me to my second cause for joy at going back and looking through old photos: May was full of milestones, so let's go back and reminisce about when the babies turned one and when we were ending last school year.

The babies, being cute like always.

Rocco turned nine and a half!

We told the babies their birthday was coming up, and they seemed pretty excited.

We hosted an extended family party for Juni, Penelope and the babies, since their birthdays are all within a couple weeks of each other.  Juni and Penelope had earlier parties at home, so the babies got the main stage even though it was a joint party.

Birthday girl!

Birthday gnome boy!

This photo would make you think that the babies were simply confused by the lemon blueberry cake with candles I was presenting them with...

...when in fact, Knox was simply waiting for the perfect opportunity to swipe an entire blueberry off the top of his cake before I had a chance to mash it, then promptly swallow it whole and get it stuck in his windpipe.  The party took a pause while I had to dig down his gullet to fish it out, but then we got back into the swing of things.

He seems pretty proud that he was able to be the center of attention at a birthday party celebrating three other people besides himself.

All the girl cousins!

Blox for Knox

Tea set for Juni

Books and a pretty bag for Penelope

Moving beyond party news...

I spent plenty of time outside planning our summer school stuff.  Here I'm gathering books for Hospitality and Domestic Science for Penelope.

The kids got big pots and little Dollar Tree accessories with which to make fairy gardens, and my mom and stepdad took them shopping for flowers to decorate with.  These have turned out to be a huge hit all summer, and they have spent hours watering them, pruning and deadheading, and adding little woodland scenes, rivers, bridges, trees, and all kinds of things.  

I found these adorable dresses on clearance at Walmart for $3, so you know I had to get one in every size.

Twins are hilarious because of, well, all the obvious reasons and then some.  For instance, let's zoom in on their One Year photos...

Let's just call them Non and Plussed.

Getting showered with more gifts seemed to turn Lalie's attitude around.  Note to anyone reading: like daughter, like mother.

And here is where we hit Peak May: THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL PHOTOS!

The Babies, age 1, love all kinds of things.  Naps, milk, life.

Oey, age 3, wants to be a princess when she grows up.

Juni, age 6, loves Snow White and Pasta.  Don't we all?

Mom, age 39, loves every last one of these faces and wants to be their mom when she grows up.

Lalie, age 1, loves to go against the grain.

Callista, age 7, loves pink and pancakes.

Atticus, age 16, had a hard time limiting his favorite foods to what would fit on the tiny, dotted line.

Rocco, age 9, is going to kill time being a fireman and a race car driver until he's old enough to become President.

Penelope, age 15, is already halfway to becoming a mom and a writer.

Laurelai, age 11, loves garlic in her macaroni because she's a foodie.

This garbage man, age unknown, showed up at the right time during our photo session and the kids got to learn how the trash truck works. 

Finneas, 13, wants to be a WWE wrestler and was saddened to hear later of the passing of our dear friend and mentor, Hulk Hogan.  

And that was May!  We are missing like ten days of photos on the camera card, so I need to go back and see if I've missed any.  But even just these 2/3s of the month were packed full of fun and sweetness!

what's up April.

My photos!  My preciouses! I will never lets you go, preciouses.  Gollum.

This is the post where I start taking out my long-lost treasures and start examining them in the light.  Join me, will you?  The last photos I was able to post were from right at the end of March, so today let me just give a flyover of our April-in-photos, even though I did post some word-heavy and lackluster blogs after that, but those were dripping with sad colorlessness, so they barely count.  So let me reintroduce you to the faces we all have missed so much.

This little corner of the post is called, "Raising Rising Readers."

Oey looks like she was sleeping and then got blasted out of bed by a fan.  Also, she's reading Avatar.

Finishing up The Secret Garden at the end of the school year.  The ubiquitous Mt. St. Laundry in attendance, as always.

More Avatar.

Lolo, finishing up a school book as the weather warmed up.

And here we have, "Please Join Us For a Party."

Girls and boys are different.

This little section is called "Juni Had a Birthday."

Canus Lupes, Vulpes Vulpes.

She chose Sonic for her celebratory treat.

And this one is called, "PENELOPE Had a Birthday, Too!"

Our teenagers are allowed to have "friend" parties for their birthdays, so Penelope invited a few friends and all her siblings to a book-themed tea party.

These pretty girls dressed to the nines.

Penelope found a sweet vintage dress at the thrift store that was just perfect for the occasion.

They started the afternoon with a Make Your Own Bookmark craft.

Then they had tea and snacks and played a literature-themed trivia game.

Then they tried croquet, but as no one knew the rules, and the only croquet set we could track down didn't have the wickets, and as the boys were involved, it turned into a self-styled version of WhackBat.

Atticus got her a graphic novel version of Watership Down.

And she was thrilled to get the complete set of Avatar books.

And here we have a little section I like to call, "Easter 2025: On Which Day No One Was Sick, Which Was the Second-Largest Miracle to Ever Occur on an Easter Morning."

The big kids planned an Easter Egg Hunt for the afternoon, but it was pouring down rain so they moved it inside. 

I found a little Easter egg who found a little Easter egg.

And this one is known as, "Wait; Back Up a Minute... Maundy Thursday: What Everyone Thought."

"Confusing, but I like it."

"Just confusing."

"I like it."

"This tickles like crazy."

And here we have a little something I like to call, "The Babies, Hitting Milestones and Taking Names."

Remember, this photo is from April, so they were eleven months old then.

Two little hams.

PORK AND BEANS!

Here we have a little something called, "I Know What They're Doing This Summer."

Atticus started working on the Honda.

The kids got Grow Kits from Home Depot and worked on assembling them and planting some basil seeds.  Unfortunately, since it's been a few months, I can tell you how this story ends: the basil died, and then the pots fell apart and started to rot.  Anticlimactic.

And last, to close out our April flyover, is, "Proof That Boys are Cute and Also Super Weird, In That Order."

Whew!  Join me next time for the rundown on May!