NYC

At the end of May, we were lucky enough to enjoy the 1st annual Wilhelmi sibling vacation. We went to NYC to visit J's brother and sister-in-law. We owe both sets of grandparents in a huge way for taking care of all 5 grandchildren (our 3 plus our 2 adorable nephews) in order to make it happen.

We had a wonderful time! We ate at fabulous restaurants (dining 2 tables away from Katie Couric one night). We had a picnic in Central Park, complete with Popeye's fried chicken and cupcakes. We went to a show - August: Osage County. We celebrated 3 birthdays and an anniversary. Some of us enjoyed a little late night pizza and we were definitely all sleep deprived. We tried to do as much as possible in the short amount of time we had there.

The Big 60!

My mom celebrated her 60th birthday in May. We (my brother, his girlfriend, J, and I) threw a party in her honor. We figured this was quite an accomplishment for the mom who always knew she wouldn't live past 50.

We love you, Mom! Here's looking at 60 more...

Cousin Time

In May, we were able to make a quick trip to Winnie for some much needed "cousin time." Our boys love it there and always beg for more time with their cousins. The boys do play rather well together. It's fun to watch them in action!

Once Upon a Mother's Day

Once upon a time, there was a mom who was super busy. She meant to blog about her family every week, but somehow time got away from her. Alas, summer arrived! She was able to renew her commitment, and their life became amusing to others again. (Please accept my apology for the hiatus from blogging. I promise to do better!)

For Mother's Day this year, we went to Perla's. We opted to leave Mighty Moo at home with a sitter. I think it was a good decision. Uncle Ben was actually able to join us at the table for a short while. The food was fantastic and the company even better. The boys were fascinated by the food...shrimp with the heads still on and fish with heads, tails, and eyes.

K even asked to take the fish bones to school. Luckily his teacher is amazing. She agreed to let him study the bones for a week as long as they lived in her freezer in between examinations. I hope we are this lucky next year!

Surviving First Grade

Being a first grade teacher, I cannot place any blame whatsoever on my child's teacher (We absolutely adore her and all she stands for in the classroom and out of it). All of his pain and frustration is self-inflicted...not sure where he gets the perfectionist, over-achiever, people pleasing traits from, but they are here to stay nonetheless.

We just survived our first dramatic and drawn out homework episode. I think it might be a world record. We started at about 5:30 and finished at 8:45. The assignment was innocent enough. "Do a nature smart and word smart activity to go along with the book you read tonight." He interpreted this statement as a project. He has been reading a Magic Tree House book called Revolutionary War on Wednesday by Mary Pope Osborne. He chose to depict the setting in a diorama in order to show how the weather impacted the story. Our results are shown above. This was his idea and his work. I assisted only with making the 3D elements stand when glued.

If you ask my mom, she might say that I got a taste of my own medicine tonight. She has probably been waiting for about 25 years to see this happen.

Another Baseball Weekend

We welcomed May at the baseball fields. We had 2 games on Saturday and 2 on Sunday...not to mention a soccer game at 8:00 am on Saturday. The highlight of all of this is definitely the photos we took. Some are of the games and the players, and some are of the rest of us trying to cope! Enjoy!

K and M seemed to have other ways of entertaining themselves. M played trash man, picking up all of the litter at the ball park. He then entertained himself by filling his shoes with rocks and then discarding them all together.

K brought his two of his Tech Deck skateboards to help pass the time. The boys worked together to make a road through the rocks for a tired school bus and hummer. They ended the weekend by playing baseball with water bottles. K would stack two bottles on top of each other. He would say, "Pitcher, pitch." M would use another water bottle to hit one off the "tee." He would follow up by saying, "Batter, bat."

Needless to say, we had good sportsmanship on and off the field!