May Day! May Day!

I only typed it twice, not thrice...so no real alarm necessary.

Rejoicing that May is nearly over and summer on its way!

May is always busy for us, mainly due to family birthdays and mother's day...but this one has really thrown me for a loop.

You know it is bad when your friend posts simple messages to you on FB like, "Kerry, are you still alive & kicking?" And then later follows up with a voicemail commenting that she's glad to hear my voice on the recording or she may have forgotten what it sounded like. So sorry Rachelle! I would be calling you now instead of blogging...not liking that you are an hour ahead!

We've celebrated 3 of the 4 family birthdays that fall in May...one more to go this weekend.  Memmy, or Grand Memmy as she is known to our girls, will be 98 on Friday.  She was born the year the Titanic sank...oh how things have changed during her lifetime.

Lily's ballet rehearsal/recital/pictures all went well.  The only hiccup was on mommy's part...pulled into the parking lot downtown with roughly a minute to spare prior to her rehearsal, and found a $10 cash lot was the only visible option for parking.  Pulled right into a spot as the attendant followed me to my car waiting for payment.  Dug and dug and dug some more only to find I had not a single bill on me.  Left the lot in search of a coin meter...thanking God for the coins on the bottom of mama's purse.  Fed the meter what I thought would be plenty of sticky, gummy, fuzzy coins from the bottomless pit of my bag...only to get inside and learn the rehearsal was running an hour behind.  Returned to an expired meter but thankfully no ticket.

Now Jade's recital is upon us.  Different school, different venue.  I am just trying to get past the tight requirements...as in the tights she must wear for pics and recital.  Two colors of tights! No costume change, just "ballet pink" ones for ballet and "light toast" for tap.  And get this we are supposed to layer them on top of each other for an easy change.  Um. Okay.  It is like really hot here already.  Never heard of such a thing.  Also, they strongly recommend buying two pairs of each color in case of runners.  That would be $60 worth of tights.  Seriously?  Do they not know of 99 cent clear nail polish? However the real issue with tights is that I can't find Leo's light toast tights in Jade's size.  I could give you a play by play run down on how I have spent 2.5 hours hunting for said tights between yesterday and today, but by the look on Jerry's face after I gave him my play by play, I will go ahead and spare you.  Even he was shocked though by the news that one lady had me try an intermediate size 7/8 on Jade...she told me just to roll them up at the waist.  She's 2 folks.  TWO.  And she is a tall two, but she does have a crotch to get past on the way to her waist.  Can you say elephant syndrome?  I should have taken a picture, but I was too flustered at the moment to find the humor in it.

So, all I know is that she will be attending the two upcoming dress rehearsals, picture day and recital in full makeup and costume...but if I can't find the dern tights they want in a size that fits, they may have to rename her Good Ship Lollipop number to something from Dumbo!

We are also preparing for Lily's Pre-K graduation.  She modeled her red cap and gown for us this evening.  So stinkin' cute.  I am trying to get over the fact that she will be showcasing one less tooth in all the pictures we take on that occasion.  Yes, today Lily lost her first tooth!  Exactly a month from the day that she realized it was loose. That bloody event coincided with Jade's tight dilemma this afternoon.  Good Lord.

Well, I am off to play tooth fairy! More on all that soon...hopefully tomorrow!

Recital Pics and Flowers Galore

Having Lily's dance recital on Mother's Day Weekend was perfect. I got to sit between my mom and my sister (two of the best moms I know), while bopping Jade up and down on my lap in anticipation of big sissy's show.

Then it was time.

What a minute! Which one is she? Yikes. Oh wait, there she is! Nope, that isn't her. It was so sad...I lost her so many times during the performance! Either her bangs being slicked back threw me or my eyesight is going downhill faster than I thought.

We were only allowed to video and photograph during the rehearsal...and I fear I probably video taped the wrong child, so I am holding my breath until the professional DVD arrives.

The venue was amazing though and served well for pictures. She was a rainbow butterfly in a Dr. Seuss themed recital. Her wings were backstage, so use your imagination!

And then afterward there were flowers.  An abundance of flowers.

Enough for several pretty bouquets...

And then Jerry surprised me with a Mother's Day arrangement.



Beauties everywhere I glance. And the fragrance? Delightful!

I think I could cook salmon, or boil eggs, or bring the cats' litter box back in.

Or I could just enjoy the sweet aroma...and not make it compete with anything else. Yep, that sounds wonderful.

A few of my favorite things...

First thing in the morning...

The Keurig! I am loving this housewarming present we got from Jerry's parents and uncle a while back.

Why I like it? I was the one forever not washing out the coffee pot or throwing out the grinds right away. Nothing to rinse out here...and you have to toss the "grinds" before you can make your next cup, so no issue there!

And the flavors are endless....my current fave? Anything made by Donut House...especially Chocolate Glazed Donut and Cinnamon Roll.

A calorie free donut? Two or three every morning for me!

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Last thing at night...

Our king size bed. For all the obvious reasons, but also for it's ease in bed-making. I do NOT like making beds. How can I sleep in an unmade bed? Very easily...every night, in fact. Something I despise even more than the regular bed making is sheet changing. That is why our new king is one of my favorite things. It is nearly a perfect square. Actually I thought it was a perfect square until I just googled it...actually they measure 76 x 80, so 4 inches shy. But those 4 inches don't matter when slapping on a new set of sheets...whichever way you turn them, they fit! No fussing over finding the long vs. short side. Love it.

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Any time in between...when I have put off laundry long enough.

This Bounce Dryer Bar...

You know it is time to get a babysitter when Friday night conversation with your hubby lends itself to dryer sheet vs. dryer bar discussions. These are the reasons we came up with for why we like it so much:

Jerry's:
-He loves the space that he now has in the laundry cabinet that used to be taken up by the dryer sheet box.
-He loves that he doesn't have to remember to put one in. Or as he said, put two or three more in because he can't remember if he had already put a sheet in or not.

Kerry's:
-I love not having to remember to buy dryer sheets.
-I love anything that gets my hubby excited about doing laundry.
-I love not having to chase loose dryer sheets all over the house when folding! Those things seem to get away from me. Oh, and Lord help me, I am still hearing about the time one got left in Lily's napmat for school.
-and the smell...oh the fresh smell...so much stronger than bounce sheets.

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Tonight...

Little girl dance recitals!

Tonight is the night for Lily's big show. It is a Dr. Seuss theme and she is one of Thidwick's butterflies...a rainbow butterfly no less! CANNOT WAIT! If I can just get her bangs slicked back and staying put I will be one happy mama. Her teacher, a complete Julie Andrews, made it seem so easy during the hair/make-up demonstration...her words were, "just a little spray gel should do the trick". Um yeah. I mixed 3 products and a few cuss words together for the rehearsal and they kind of stayed.

I love her teacher though. Such a cross between Mary Poppins and Maria from The Sound of Music. She sings "A Few of My Favorite Things" with them each week, so one rest time I sat Lily down in front of Mary Poppins so she could hear her sing that song. Lily was frustrated and told me that song never came on...what? Duh...that would be Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Poor child. The next day we watched the correct movie and it actually provided some real rest!

Must run, can't keep Julie Andrews waiting...I don't have an umbrella to fly downtown with!

What are a few of your current favorite things?

No Schedule and Slimy the Snail

Ah. I have come to love Wednesdays. They are the one day we aren't running out the door to ballet or tap, or my part time job...which since our move is an hour from here (I know!). I mean, it was my choice to leave the girls in preschool out there 2 days a week...it seemed like a good way to limit their transitions during the move, but after all the driving I am not sure it was the best plan. They do make great HOV lane buddies though, and the plan is to work mainly from home starting in June.

Back to my point...Wednesdays are a great break. Yesterday we had NOT ONE THING planned. I considered inviting some friends over to play or going to visit my dad, but resigned to just spend the day with my two girlies and not venture anywhere. As evidenced in the video below there was time for playdough, paints and colors but apparently no time to break out the hair comb. Yikes...a little scary looking!

Just as our creative juices had been drained, we found a huge garden snail out back.



Have you ever seen such an active snail?



Slimy quickly became our entertainment for the next little while.

I texted a picture to my mom and she replied back, "Wow! That thing is huge, you'll have to pull up a chair and serve him a plate for dinner"! Actually I hadn't made a dinner plan yet, I was thinking that introducing the girls to a little escargot might not be a bad menu.

Thankfully Jerry recommended Mexican in honor of Cinco de Mayo, so Slimy the Snail lives another day.

The TWINS Birthday

We celebrated two special birthdays today...or one birthday for two special people...not really sure how that is worded!

Jerry's mom and uncle...twins...turned...well, hmmmm I'll just say somewhere between 60 and 65, but one notch closer to 65 than 60.



They drove here and we met up at Joe's Crab Shack (boy that place is LOUD...I think I am the old fogey). Uncle Howard treated us to lunch on his birthday, though we protested he said that since he had chosen the restaurant it would be his treat. I am thinking we'll let him choose our next vacation spot too. ;)

We came back to our house and tried something different for dessert. Cake balls. YUMMY. The shop owner described them to me as being bite sized pieces of cake, mixed with frosting and then dipped in chocolate. The result is very tasty!



The best part though was when Uncle Howard and Memmy opened their gifts to each other. Look at these shirts!

Don't they look like something a set of boy/girl twins would where on purpose!?! You know, to match but not be too matchy matchy?

Anyways, Happy Birthday guys! We LOVE you both and loved celebrating your birthday today...here's to many more! {Envision me toasting you with my margarita cakeball}