The Heyday of May

May is only half over, but so far it has been a pretty amazing month.

So when I left off, Charley was busy preparing for her school's annual Mother's Day Tea. Here are the kids and I getting ready to head into the "tea party."

As you can see, she made me a very cute party hat, and we snacked on yummy finger foods, juice, and she even made me a special keepsake book. It was a pretty fun thing to be able to share with her . . . and she was especially excited to attend a REAL tea party, not just a pretend one with her stuffed animals.

That very same day, we began a very special weekend that has been in the works for a long time, since November in fact. I didn't really want to talk about it until it happened (so that it didn't get jinxed), but now that it's happened, I'm excited to share. It's a long story how we ended up being able to stay at this place, but the short story is that after failing to win a bid on this place at Charley's school auction last fall, we ended up meeting the owner anyway who just happened to be a co-worker of Brian's (who cut us a very good deal) . . . so four families pitched in, and this is what we ended up with . . . a 6000 square foot, 6-bedroom suite, beach house at the infamous surfing area, Pipeline, on the North Shore for three nights . . . with a grand total of eight adults and nine kids.


Here is our view of Pipeline from the house . . .

And of course, the ladies. . .

The kids (six out of nine anyway) . . .

Most of Brian's buddies at work knew that we were all staying up there, so one of them arranged for our own personal fly-by of a Coast Guard 65 . . . I think that is Brian waving in the distance . . . And last but not least, our sunsets . . .

It was a pretty spectacular weekend, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity kind of thing. The kids were all very good, everyone got along great, and we all had a chance to relax for four straight days. The last day of the weekend was Mother's Day, and Brian was sweet enough to let me sleep in, had coffee and breakfast ready when I woke up, and he even bought me a French Press coffee maker that I've been wanting. Probably the best Mother's Day ever. The weekend was bitter sweet in that it was our last "hoorah" for our friends, the Murrays, who will be leaving us in a couple weeks . . . but hey, quite a way to say goodbye, huh?

The very next day my mom arrived for nearly a month visit. As usual, everyone was very excited to have her here . . . the kids began the Grammy torture right away.

Just a couple days after she got here, it was time for my good friend Heather, to have her baby. As you may recall, my friend Heather and I go way back to when we were 15 years old working at the water slides in Montana, and she has taken good care of me every since we got here. She was sweet enough to invite me to the birth of her third (and last) baby. After hanging out at the hospital for nearly 12 hours, their baby girl arrived . . . Sawyer Kate Clark. Here are the proud parents . . . . And their beautiful baby girl.

She was perfect in every way, and her arrival was made even more exciting by the fact that they didn't know what they were having and she already has two older brothers. It was a pretty amazing experience for me to share with her, especially since I've never experienced anything like that aside from being the one giving birth. I was pretty honored to be a part of the whole thing.After being stuck inside for a couple days, we decided we needed to get the kids out, so on Friday we took them to the beach, followed by a Luau at the Air Station that evening where they gorged on pizza and shave ice. On Saturday my mom and I snuck away from the kids and hit the Farmer's Market on the North Shore, followed by a lunch of coconut shrimp, followed by a visit to the Ward Shopping Center downtown . . . a pretty fun girls' day. On Sunday the whole family hit Shark's Cove on the North Shore for some pretty cool snorkeling.

Yesterday was a zoo field trip for Charley's school, so we headed downtown bright and early for a hot morning with a million other kids. Rather than bore you with lame animal shots, I decided to post this picture of a neat banyan tree that the kids were playing in before we went into the zoo. Pretty cool tree fort if you ask me.

And today Zander got to attend his first birthday party WITHOUT his sister, which was a very exciting event for him. Here is a cute picture of Zander, with the birthday boy Jake, checking out Jake's new presents.

And last but not least, here is a picture of my mom holding baby Sawyer just this afternoon . . . such a beautiful little girl!

Whew! And there you have it, the last two weeks. I wish I had been more diligent and could go into more detail about each of these events, but time just keeps slipping away faster than I can keep up.

So for now I must run, as my mom just told me that Charley is trying to nurse her toy monkey downstairs. Apparently Heather's visit today left an impression.