Days of May!

It took me quite awhile to take down my easter decor and all my bunnies (Caleb says I have a problem, haha!) but I finally got some spring and summer stuff up! The cute lemonade flag was from Kirklands this year and the flamingos doormat is from Target! My poor hubby was shopping with me the day I was looking for new stuff-- poor thing! ;)

The new church we became members of puts on a mother/daughter lunch at a local country club every year, to celebrate mothers day. When they started talking about buying tickets for it in church one day, I knew I wanted to go. Turns out it was for girls 12 and up since there was a speaker coming I guess, so Brooke just made the cut and thought she was hot stuff! ;) Rachel was a little bummed she couldn't go, but we assured her that her time would come! We took Mom with us and had a great time. They had a brunch spread of fruit, casseroles and yogurts. And they had a few singers from church that sang some songs that were mother/daughter themed. Tears were just flowing down my cheeks during one of those songs and Brooke looked at me like I was crazy! But she will understand one day! After we ate, there was a lady who came out and spoke to us and I really liked her message. It was related to birds, and we all left with a cute little bird keychain, that I added to my set of keys. 

On Mothers Day morning, Arnold had to be at church really early to play with the praise team. I joked that he got lucky with that one because I had to stay at home and get the kids ready for church and there on time! He did pick me up breakfast before though ;) We went to church and the pastor gave a wonderful speech on the importance of mothers. Then we met up with my parents at their country club for lunch. They had an incredible spread, and an entire room of just desserts! I wish I had taken a picture of it! Rachel found the shrimp cocktail station and loaded her plate up with that! That's my girl ;) After lunch I headed into town to do a little shopping ALL BY MYSELF! Then later that evening Arnold and the kids took me out to one of my fave restaurants-- Dos Amigos! None of my family really care for that place too much, but it was my day! ;) And Rachel WAS happy with the cheese dip ;)

Mom got me this gorgeous North Carolina plaque.. I think you can either hang it up or use it for a cutting board maybe. But it was so cute that I hung it up in the living room. It has so many NC towns on it.. Hickory even made it on there! ;) 

Arnold got me an ancestry kit that I am SO excited to use. You have to mail off a spit sample (yuck) and in 6-8 weeks they mail you back information about your background, traits, etc. That is so cool to me because I was adopted and don't know a TON about my background. The kids got some some pioneer woman dishtowels that I had been wanting. they know me ;)

Brooke had her Spring band concert! I am really proud of her. She has really enjoyed playing the trumpet for the past 2 years. And she is pretty good at it, too! I guess she got Arnold's musical talent, because it sure wasn't from me!!! ;) We sat through the 8th grade band performance too. They even played Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes, which was cool. I dig some White Stripes. I know, I have the strangest mix of music loves-- just ask Arnold!!! 

We hadn't gone bowling in a LONG time.. so we decided to go one Saturday. Arnold has his own bowling ball that was his grandpas, and he just had to take it with us. It kept getting stuck behind the pins though, haha. None of us are really good bowlers. I am embarassed to admit our scores. Although surprinsinly enouugh, I won!! I just like to beat Arnold at things ;) I think Rachel got bored but was most impressed with the jumbo soft pretzel we got her from the snack bar :)

We had to hit up Cracker Barrell one Saturday morning for brunch.. we LOVE that place. We are all big breakfast food people-- well not so much Caleb but he is weird ;) haha! Everytime we go the kids have to get a candy from the country store. I don't mind the candy either.. I like the old fashioned cinnamon candy sticks. 

We love going to the mountains! So we went one weekend to Blowing Rock. We stopped by Julian Price Park. It was PACKED! But the kids got in the creek and played for a little while.

We stopped at all the overlooks and took pictures of course.... It was very windy that day! Our hair was out of control!!

And of COURSE we had to stop by Kiliwans and get icecream!!! I may or may not have stopped by OshKosh and gotten Rachel a few new summer outfits too.. even though she didn't need them! ;)

Arnold's company gives their employees free memberships every year to our local science center. I LOVE that! We hadn't been in awhile, and they had just started up the Butterfly exhibit for the summer, so we decided to take the kids last weekend. Brooke kept chasing the butterflies around and tried to get them to land on her finger, but they never would. They were probably scared of her! ;) Rachel said that was "yucky" and she didn't want butterfly "tenticles" on her, haha! Caleb mostly just watched everything going on. 

We also had to make a stop by the aquarium to see the fish, turtles, and all that. The stingrays were very active that day and kept coming up to the top of the tank and Brooke would reach in and touch them. The man working there also picked up a starfish out of a tank and let her hold it. That kid is not afraid of anything... she is nothing like me! ;)

We enjoyed a fun Memorial day weekend! We took the kids to the movies to see Aladdin! Aladdin was my 2nd favorite Disney movie as a kid (Little Mermaid is first!!) and I have been dying to see the remake! It was amazing! No one will ever top Robin Williams as the genie, but I liked Will Smith's spin on things. Arnold though Jasmine was quite the looker ;) haha! 

Arnold and I were both off Memorial Day Monday, so we were pretty lazy all day! Then we went to Mom and Dad's for dinner. They cooked ribs. I do NOT eat meat on a bone so I just ate corn on the cob. But Arnold and the kids LOVE ribs, so they were happy. I just had to show this picture comparing Rachel to the first time trying Pop Pops ribs whens she was a baby, and now. We have kept the tradition up for many years now it looks like! 

Arnold likes any chance he gets to go to a music/guitar center. We had a guitar center open up locally awhile back. Although he has PLENTY of guitars already and they are SO expensive.. he likes to go and look for fun, and play some of them. Rachel went with us this past time, and checked out the keyboards. She may start piano lessons soon. She also loved playing the drums! Looks like we may have another musician in the family soon! ;)

For mine and Arnold's May date night, we went out of town to see the Collective Soul/Gin Blossoms concert! We both love 90s music.. and grew up in the 90s, so we thought it would be fun. It was on a wed. night which kinda sucked, but thankfully mom and dad said they would watch the kids that night for us so we could go! We actually took the day off from work and got a lot done at home that day. That evening we headed out of town, stopped to get some dinner at Applebee's, then went to the show. Gin Blossoms had come on and played ONE SONG when it started storming and lightning! they actually stopped the show and said it hopefully would come back on later. So Arnold and I waited outside with a bunch of other people (it wasnt raining!) and after 45 minutes the show came back! And we lucked out because some people actually LEFT for good, and so our row of seats wasn't as packed! Anyway, the concert was awesome.. we didn't get home until nearly 1 am, so we were exhausted later that morning when we got up for work. Guess we should have taken THAT day off instead! HA!