May

..I sort of forgot May.  not forgot.  just got rather busy.  fortunately I started the post mid month.  I just never got around to finishing until now.

Grandma update:  the initial surgery (to remove the main brain tumor) went well and her recovery was going great.  Too good to be true and the incision began weeping, a sign that it wasn't healing right.  Staff infection set in, requiring a second nuero surgery to clean it out and IV antibiotics to be continued for a few weeks.  Radial surgery (radiation treatment) as been postponed until after the infection is gone.  Meanwhile, the flu became fast friends with my little E so we were no help or company to Grandma as I kept E home to prevent the spread of germs.  Then it was realized Grandma was having an adverse reaction to the antibiotic and landed in the hospital again to get it taken care of.  Her platelets had dropped dangerously low and it was definitely rough for awhile.  Things are much better now, the right antibiotics are doing their job, the incision is healing properly and she's feeling like herself again.  Still to come: another operation to insert a prosthetic piece of bone (to replace the infected piece that had to be removed) and radial surgery.

Husband and I had a great night to attend the wedding reception for my friend.  She was absolutely beaming and was gorgeous of course.  We spent most the night talking with friends and then going out for sushi after.

We started work on the yard.  After much deliberation, we decided to forgo the "one piece slowly at a time" plan and hire most of it out to get it all done this year.  So I met with several contractors to collect bids and work has begun.  A good friend of ours is a general contractor and is helping us out, arranging most of the work and guiding it along.  It will be slow but hopefully we will have a finished yard soon.  We had a garage sink installed.  We had the water softener system installed.  We had concrete poured (half of which will be torn out and repoured).  The work on the fence has begun.  etc.

Husband turned 32 but with all the chaos, the celebrating was a little scattered.  We didn't get to go birthday boarding this year (will have to reign check for next season) but I did make him a cake.  The girls wanted to get him popcorn for his birthday. So we did--32 boxes of various flavors.  So the cake was a masterpiece, looking very much like a red and white striped popcorn bowl with popcorn spilling out of the top (chocolate cake, buttercream frosting and mini marshmallows covered in white chocolate with a little yellow food coloring).  His birthday fell on Mother's Day so we had a joint family celebration dinner with one of my siblings and their kids and my parents.

Ballet recitals were a day long festivity (plus dress rehearsal the night before).  I took the girls to rehearsal and they did great.  E loved watching her sisters dance and she got to sit on the edge of the stage as a videoed the rehearsals.  Then my girls and I went out to dinner at Cafe Zupas, one of our very favorite places (I like the salads, they like the chocolate covered strawberries).  There were two different shows.  The 2:00 show had a Dr. Suess theme, borrowing characters and stories.  L was part of Horton the Elephants with her ballet classes dressed in pink and gray with fluffy tutus.  She did beautifully of course, I love watching her dance!  A was a kanagroo, wearing the most adorable costume ever.  The striped and poka dot leggings were held up with suspenders and at the waist, a big hoop, similar to clown pants.  It was fun and silly and their dance was so cute with plenty of hopping, bouncing and having fun.  During dress rehearsal, she had a great time, giggling and grinning and showing off.  During performance, I saw immediately upon her entrance that something wasn't right.  She was the saddest, most timid little kangaroo ever.  Her whole dance was done in a 4 inch space, right in front of her body, very contained and almost apologetic.  Her teacher told me later that for some reason, she hadn't understood she had to go on stage again and when she couldn't find me to reassure her, she didn't want to do it anymore.  Poor kiddo.  But she perked up quickly and they loved watching the second half of the show with us.

More recently we had a show and tell night.  I collected all the videos from recitals, assemblies and end of year preformances into one spot so we could have a big family dinner with grandparents are share all their videos.  (especially since Grandma didn't get to see any of it and even my parents didn't get to see the mid-week stuff).  halfway through copying, my computer crashed and ate the videos.  I cried.  Husband recovered as much as he could though.   (love that man, he is magic.) meanwhile, Lappy and I are not on good terms. 

After the ballet show, we celebrated at the restaurant of their choice (Panda Express of course) and then Grammy, A, E and I came home while Daddy and Papa stayed with Libby for the 7:00 performance.  The second show was completely different, with all of the competition teams preforming their show numbers.  He hadn't been able to see those dances yet (Calling All the Monsters and Bathtub) so I'm glad he got to stay.

L had her first field trip.  She had been eagerly looking forward to it and she was near bouncing off the walls the day it finally arrived.  A friend that went as chaperone sent me a few pictures and she had a blast!  It was a children's museum (and a park for a picnic lunch) and she happily reported that she got to "play" all day.  Her favorite was the watertable but other than that, she gave surprisingly little information. 

With the end of the year, L also had auditions for next year's dance company  She attended the workshop, initially being very withdrawn and reluctant, citing a stomach ache.  But she apparently recovered quickly and had a blast learning the two combinations taught to her age group.  She returned the next day for review and the audition itself.  Her dancing was fantastic but as she waited for the other groups, she hung on the bars or made faces in the mirror being silly and obnoxious, which was a surprise to me and apparently something we need to work on.  A week later, teams posted and of course she made "Moonbeams" team which is what I expected.  congrats to my beautiful little dancer!

Our first summer activity has begun, overlapping the school year by two weeks.  They wanted to try soccer so we enrolled in a five week academy which has practices twice a week to teach them to play.  So far, it's been a mixed success. L loves it and dove right in.  She likes her coach, she follows instructions well and is having a great time.  A is in a different age group with a different, and thankfully very patient, coach.  She gets her feelings hurt easily, gets frustrated easily and has spent more time sulking on the sideline than playing.  It really surprised me, she wanted to play so badly and it seemed like it would be right up her alley, a good match for her personality and energy.  But I think she got discouraged by her initial attempts and that actually snowballed.  It got worse each week and by week 4 (our of 5) they begged to not go.  So we tried, and I really though it would be a great match for A, but turns out it was not a great experience.

A had her last week of school.  E and I got to go to the preschool's assembly.  The music teacher, karate teacher and movement teacher all led them in demonstrations of things they've learned and then their two head teachers led them in the assembly.  She started the assembly in a red cap and gown but discarded it early on when her hat wouldn't stay in place.  They each had a short speaking part and they preformed a few songs and poems they've practiced.  It ended with a presentation of certificates and cupcakes (the girls' favorite part).

For A's last day of school, they had a pajama party and she proudly wore her Rapunzel nightgown.  They took treats, played games, watched a movie and brought home a huge stack of projects and masterpieces she's worked on this year.

L wanted to dress up for her school assemble and looked beautiful.  They put on a 40 minute show with several songs they learned in Spanish and English.  Her speaking part was helping to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.  Her favorite part was one of the Spanish songs with lots of fun actions and the final song played for their exit, School's Out from High School Musical 2 (one of our long time favorite movies for some unexplainable reason.  A calls it "tramousine".  no idea why.)

That same day, L had the end of year banquet for dance.  It was a great dinner in a beautiful golf course restaurant (which I had previously not known existed).  We sat with two of her teammates and their parents.  The girls had a hard time sitting still so I'm glad we were n a side corner as they bounced around the whole night.  The instructors came up with clever awards for each dancer.  L received the "heart on her sleeve" award as she's very passionate and emotional.  The teacher also complimented how sensitive she is to others and eager to help them.

Memorial Day was wonderful.  I had been watching my nieces all week, much to my daughter's delight, they love playing together.  So Sunday night, we drove to my parents' hosue to visit and play and have a big bbq dinner with my brother and his family.  The girls were thrilled to have a giant sleepover with nearly all their cousins (at least those their ages) in the bunkhouse.  The next morning, we played for awhile and then headed south to meet husband's side of the family for our Memorial Day traditions.  We visited the four cemeteries in the area to pay respects and leave flowers.  Then we gathered for dinner at ChuckaRama where the girls devoured the dessert bar.

Throughout the month there was an occasional date night, lots of playdates and countless afternoons at the park.  Life is good.