Birthday/Memorial Day Miscellany

So we had a talent show and a preschool graduation. What else could we cram into the end of May? Lots, as it turned out!

Celeste and Aurora decided they wanted a "picnic" in the garage...

Yeah, this looks a little white trash, and the flies were annoying...but the girls had fun, so who am I to gainsay their enjoyment??

Lorelai had a "crazy hair day" at school...

 

Pretty sad that the only time I bother to do Lorelai's hair is on a day when it's meant to look insane. But I don't think she'd have it any other way. My tomboy doesn't need fancy hairdos to be happy. However, she did have kind of a sore scalp by the time this day was over.

 

That same week, Lorelai had an early-release day from school. Her friend Elnorra and her sisters came over for a long-afternoon playdate. So what did they play on their day off? "School," of course! Here they all are, completing their "writing assignments"...

A week or so later, Nathan celebrated his 36th birthday on May 23 (right before Memorial Day of course! Sometimes I wish his birthday was scheduled at a more convenient time of year. He seems happy with the arrangement, though). The actual birthday celebration was low-key; he got a new computer game from his brother, and a new board game too. The girls and I got him a sleeping bag, since he didn't have one. Thus continues my plan to slowly outfit our family to go camping properly.

Nathan is not a "birthday cake" kind of guy...he prefers pie. I am totally okay with this, because I love pie as well! This year, we made him the usual mixed berry pie (his favorite), and a frozen peanut-butter pie. I also cheated a bit and bought him a lemon meringue pie. Sadly, I didn't have pictures of any of these pies! So here's yet another pie I made the week before to compensate:

 

It's the first strawberry-rhubarb pie I've ever made, and I was pretty pleased with the results. I bought a large bunch of rhubarb from a local produce co-op, and decided to make a pie out of some of it and freeze the rest. The best part of making this pie? Lorelai was my helper! She sliced up all the rhubarb and strawberries for me, and stirred the filling together. It was fun to cook with my daughter!

 Our Saturday before Memorial Day was fairly uneventful (after the busy-storm that was my Friday: a Primary presidency meeting, lunch monitor at school, and the talent show that evening). Then, after a typically crazy Sunday (both Nathan and I had meetings all morning, I led Sharing Time in Primary and Lorelai gave a talk!), we had an exciting Memorial Day planned.

It began with a family triathlon!

This was something I've never done before, but it was so fun! A friend of ours in the ward (who is quite the Amazonian athlete) had originally proposed a full triathlon for all the women in the ward who were interested. You know...a triathlon...on a holiday morning...for fun!! Not something I normally do, but I was intrigued by the challenge of it. However, seeing as how I had no time to train for such an undertaking, I was silently relieved when everyone decided to do a smaller family triathlon instead. However, I was actually able to get some legitimate exercise in by riding my bike from our home to the park--a 5-mile round trip. It helped me feel like I'd still managed to push myself that day.

We started early in the morning (before the heat kicked in), and we rode our bikes twice around a short loop in the Safari Park in Rancho Sahuarita. After that, we parked the bikes and jogged once around that same loop. And finally, all of us headed for the pool, where we and our kids each swam a lap. It was the perfect way to start the holiday! Swimming outdoors in the early morning is becoming one of my favorite things to do. Everyone relaxed and visited (and splashed around) in the pool, and all was well.

The best part (for me) about the triathlon? Celeste rode her bicycle without training wheels for the very first time! Nathan helped her get started, but she managed to complete quite a bit of the course on her own! We were very proud parents.

After the triathlon, we dashed home and changed our clothes, then went out to brunch at International House Of Pancakes to celebrate Nathan's birthday. We got another nice treat there; our service was very slow (and the kids were driving us nuts by the time our food finally arrived!), but as an apology, the server gave us our meal 50% off! Hooray for incompetent servers (this time, at least).

Later that evening, our friends the Perrys came over for a Memorial Day evening spent eating ribs and mashed potatoes, and playing board games (what else?). It was a very enjoyable evening. Oh, that it could have gone on forever! Unfortunately, Nathan had work the following day...and Lorelai still had two and a half days of school left! Summer was almost here...finally. Just a few more things to do.

...like post this picture of Aurora with her chocolate "moustache" (from a baby shower in those last crazy days of May)