May 2026

 May flew by and we had so many adventures! Ash and I visited the library to celebrate the 80th anniversary with snacks, friends, and fun. Quinn didn't wanna go, so he missed out, but Ash had fun. Anything that involves snacks is pretty much a guaranteed winner with these children. Mollie captured a fantastic action shot of Ash frog jumping across the sensory mats and then his Spiderman landing 😂.

The following week, when we visited during Story Time, Miss Lacey turned on the Party Freeze Dance Song, and I just happened to take a perfectly timed photo of Iris turning around to share her excitement over it with Asher. Now, on the regular, Ash becomes a third appendage attached to my body when we're there, but that song is nostalgic for them from Miss Tella's days of being Story Time leader. It was enough to get Ash up off my lap and dancing along 🥰.

We got to peep the new sound garden out back of the library, too. Some of it was there before, but the new landscaping made it more accessible and pretty!

🎶🎶🎶

We got to watch Kate's middle school softball team, which has only been active for two years, win the LKC championship against Tyler. It was a nail biter, with both teams taking the lead and even tying it up at one point. The NMS team pulled ahead at the end and Kate made the throw that ended in the final out! They did amazing and I'm so proud of them!

🥎

Mother's Day weekend was celebrated with our annual trip to Stacy Family Farm for some strawberry picking. The boys were apprehensive because the weather was iffy, but we made the trip anyway, running into some drizzle on the way down. It was a good lesson about not letting a little rain ruin the day. Luckily, the rain took about a twenty minute break when we arrived, just long enough for us to pick 12 pounds of berries! Quinn helped Philip and Ash helped me, and we liked seeing who could find the funniest shaped and biggest ones. We stopped at the Jug in Newport on the way home, so any grumpiness from the rain was washed away with ice cream anyway 😉.

The boys had both made me Mother's Day gifts at their schools, playgroup, and with their dad 🥰.  This certainly was a holiday of lessons because we had to have a discussion about gift giving. Quinn made me a million drawings, most of which were a full sheet of paper with just the words "Love Mom," written on them, which he later explained meant he loves Mom, which is a lovely sentiment, however, 52 (literally) pieces of paper was excessive. Philip and I both tried telling him that he had made me plenty of artwork and I felt very loved and didn't need anymore, but he wasn't hearing it. He then told Ash that the two pictures he made for me weren't enough, so we had to have a talk about quality versus quantity. Also, while Quinn was busy using up every piece of paper in the house, Ash was bored and driving me nuts, so I told Quinn what I really wanted from him was for him to play with his brother and give five minutes of peace. He said he didn't want to do that, he just wanted to make me more artwork 😑. So, I, again, nicely, explained that gift giving should be centered around what the receiver wants, and not just about what you want to give them. I think he started to understand, but I'm sure this won't be the last time we have this conversation. When he went back to school, I sorted through his pile and any of the pieces that didn't have the words dead center got cropped and I put the half sheets back in his desk drawer for reuse. He was excited to discover he had "baby papers," as he called them 😂. He didn't ask where they came from, so I didn't volunteer the information. 

At Playgroup, the employees had found some caterpillars and we watched them go through their metamorphosis over the course of the month. We got to watch them be released once they reached their butterfly state. 

We got a membership to Oglebay Zoo last fall, so we made use of it and took our first trip of the year. It was our best trip yet! We got there last in the afternoon, so next time we will plan to leave earlier so we can spend more time. The obstacle course is now free to use, and we had never done it before, so they were excited to try that out. We had packed our lunch, so we stopped there to eat and then they climbed across it for far longer than I would have expected. We missed the last train ride of the day, and we only had about 5 minutes to bounce on the big blob thing, so we're planning to go back soon. 

That trip was extra exciting because we got to see the tortoises "fighting" 😅, and Ash was centimeters away from petting the kangaroo's ballsack 😂😭🤦🏻‍♀️. 

I got to attend Quinn's Make and Take Day, where I went with his to school and did activities with him. I also volunteered to help with his Kindergarten class picnic. It was an all day event, so Philip took the day off work to hang out with Ash. At first, I was helping with face painting, but then another mom said that she would need to have a job that involved sitting, so I traded out with her and just walked around with Quinn's group of kids. They didn't really need me because they were already being chaperoned, but I knew he wanted me to. He and his friend, Ravi, were the two in the group from his class, and they had a great time together. 

Make and Take Day. We got stuck in traffic on the way home due to a wreck just past the school, and Quinn asked if he could take pictures on my phone. That is usually a no, my phone isn't their toy, but I let him just that once. I regretted it when I saw I had about 100 selfies like the ones below.

🙄🙄🙄🙄

Class Picnic: dino racers, 

and soccer,

and bubbles,

and good old fashioned racing. Quinn tells me all of the time that he's faster than the kids he races with on the playground, but I've never known if that was actually true 😂. I don't know how that happened because he literally complains every single time we want him to walk somewhere 🙄.

Ash also had end of the year festivities, his graduation and class picnic. The ceremony was themed around this year being the 250th anniversary of America's birth, so they learned some patriotic songs to sing. He can't see a flag without announcing it and calling it a "grand old flag." 😂. He and Iris practiced that song anytime they were together in my car, for some reason, which was super fun for me, as you can imagine 🙃. They also sang Rockin in the USA, which Ash still belts out occasionally. 

The ceremony itself was way too long, and included a slideshow that we couldn't really see because they didn't turn the lights down. I'm thankful that both boys got to attend Little Red Schoolhouse for the introduction it gave to them to school, but I'm not sad that I won't have to attend another graduation ceremony there 😂. 

🥹🥹🥹

Ash's class picnic was the following day, and it was supposed to take place at the park, but the weather didn't cooperate. Dawn set up an obstacle course in the gymnastics studio instead, and Ash and Iris had a fantastic time! I'm sure they liked that better than the park anyway, so that really worked out. 

totally blurry because he didn't hold still for 2 hours 😂

We went strawberry picking a second time and got 12 more pounds 😳. We froze a good bit of the first round, but Ash was also on a kick and he probably ate 3 pounds by himself 😂. The boys were super excited that one of the employees asked us if we wanted to ride on the Gator over to the backside of the field. That made their day!

Market season kicked off at the Wetzel County Farmers Market, aka Thursday Night Social Club. We want to get some stickers made that say that 😅. I love seeing my farmers market friends! Quinn spent the first couple of weeks obsessed with building a "camp," as he called it, over by the mini golf. It kept all of the market kids busy for the duration, and we parents got a couple of hours of premium adult talk. It was awesome while it lasted!

Their "bed" they built 😂

Mollie and I had a memory pop up from the market four years ago, when Iris was about 8 months old and Asher was 2 months, so we had to recreate it. 

We were twinning with our Wetzel 4H trail hoodies, that day 😊. We tried to get the kids to do what they did in the other photo, but that was a no go 🙄. We'll give them 4 more years and try again 😆.

Speaking of the Wetzel 4H Trail, had a great time hiking with the boys and Sophie. We went on the new trail and found the new Almost Heaven WV swing. We saw lots of beautiful scenery, like the four leaf clover that I didn't pick, and some wild daisies that Philip accidentally picked with his toe shoes 😂. 

No hiking outfit is complete without the lei you get on your last day of kindergarten 😂