Adventures in Wellonsland: May Madness

I know I sound like a broken record, but geez, time is flying! We are already into May! How did that happen? I am not sure, but at this rate I will soon be repacking the boxes I have spent only what feels like a few short weeks unpacking!

Like so many others, our May has been spent on the Baseball field. Lilly has practice/games on Tuesday and Thursday night while Lucy and Ben are only on Saturday morning. Coupled with Gymnastics and Swimming (for Ben) - we are full up on activities. Lucky for me, Ben's Gymnastics and Swimming is during the day while the girls are at school.
But let's get back to Baseball shall we. Lilly is on the Durham Bulls. It is a coach pitch team and they play with the no outs rule to begin the season. By the end of the season, they should be up to the 3 strikes rule, but I am not holding out much hope for that one. Lilly looks great in her uniform.

Her "at bat" wiggle is perfect, it is the actual contact with the ball that we need to do a little more work on.

Lucy was a bit reluctant to sign up for T-ball with Ben. But we talked her into it. Really it was the promise of a trophy that finally swayed her into playing. Is it wrong we used that in order to get her to play? Yes, probably, but don't judge. Lucy and Ben play on the Giants.

Again, these two have the attitude down to a "T", it is the basic fundamentals of the game that seem to be eluding them at the moment. But just for comparisons sake here they are in action.

In other news, I FINALLY decided to get an eye appointment. I am not a good role model when it comes to making hair appointments and apparently eye appointments. It has been YEARS since my last appointment - sorry Mom. But let's move on shall we? I went round and round with the medical clinic and finally was able to get an appointment. Problem was it was at 8:30 on a Friday morning. Jim "technically" doesn't have school on Friday so I was pretty confident that he would be able to take the kids to school for me. I put this appointment on our family calendar in early April. Sooooo of course he schedules an appointment during the same time frame! WHAT!!! I told him he was going to have to change his since I had mine on the calendar first. We compromised with him coming home to take the kids to school so I could get to my appointment on time. I gave him a brief run down on how the process works (complete with hasty drawings on the back of a piece of paper) but this was his first time taking the kids to school. Which, in retrospect, just sounds like a recipe for disaster. However, I felt confident that the children would be able to give him guidance if it came to that. Although I wasn't actually there based on his description I think it went a little like this.

Ha Ha Ha Ha, no seriously, I doubt it was quite that bad, but Jim said he did get several dirty looks. I, on the other hand, had jumped through quite a few hoops to make sure I wasn't late for my appointment. I shouldn't have bothered. I got across the toll bridge and was pulling up to the gate when I realized I didn't have my ID. No ID, no way you are getting on base. So I had to turn around drive BACK over the toll bridge, go home, get ID, then drive BACK over the toll bridge AGAIN before being allowed on base. The good news, I don't need glasses - YET. But based on how my luck is running these days, I will probably wake up tomorrow and be blind as a bat!

One of the coolest things we did by far this month was go to the annual sheep shearing at a local farm on the island. Apparently they open their doors once a year to let everyone watch the flock get their annual haircut. I use the term "let" loosely in that it cost us $10 to park our car! Of well, maybe we can deduct under "education cost". The kids had a ball, the sheep, not so much. I don't think they were quite as excited. Once the wranglers had the sheep on their bottoms though, they settled down. I guess they figure once they are seated, there is no hope.

Jim bought a kayak for his birthday.

He had spent MONTHS doing the research, which if you know him at all you are not surprised. The timing worked out that he bought it in May which was a bonus for me - one less present I had to shop for! I am tickled that the kids enjoy going with him. I am also pretty happy about the fact there is no room for me! I am looking forward to LOTS and LOTS of kayak time this summer. Here they are going for a quick spin around the rocks. I got to enjoy the silence. Kayaking is now my new favorite hobby.

What would May be without Mother's Day! It was a glorious day filled with flowers, homemade cards professing love and empty promises of good behavior and cleaner rooms. Sigh, love those. The highlight of the day would have to be lunch. We tried out a new place (to us) called the Creamery - thanks for the tip Rhonda! The food was good and filling but the surprise came at the end when the server asked if the kids wanted a sundae. Does she know who she is talking to? Of COURSE they wanted a sundae. I wish she had prepped us a bit better. I was expected something much simpler, much smaller. Each child got a very adult size portion of ice cream and three large bowls of the topping of their choice (chocolate sauce, gummy bears, sprinkles - you get the picture. Needless to say, it is now their favorite place! We are hoping to parlay that into maybe fulfilling some of their Mother's Day pledges.

The rest of the month, what little is left of it, we spent dodging rain clouds and cold fronts. Believe it or not, we had to break the fleece back out. Brrr! We were blessed with a few pretty days however. Here they are hanging out in the hammock.