Month Of May Recap

May is always a crazy time of year for us. School in Georgia finishes up at the end of May, so finals and all the "end of school" hubbub fills up the May calendar.

May 3rd is Doug's and my wedding anniversary. We've been married 22 years. We just had a "low key" day and Doug took me out for a date night. It's nice that now Bri is 12, she's able to stay on her own for a few hours so that Doug and I can have some alone time. She actually loves being on her own. We give her rules to follow and she has to have her phone on her at all times while we are gone.

22 years married (28 together)...

Doug and I had a delicious dinner at a nice restaurant called "Fish Thyme." My favorite appetizer...fried green tomatoes...

A delicious steak, hash brown casserole and mixed veggies...

Doug anniversary gift to me was Tumi luggage to use on my trip to Hawaii. It's SO nice! And I got him a few Hawaiian-type shirts. We both were in a vacation frame of mind!

The next day, Doug hopped on a plane to Thailand. Yes, Thailand. He earned a trip to Phuket for his success at work (along with several of his colleagues). It was hard earned and I'm really proud of him for getting it. I was actually invited to go on the trip. Unfortunately with it being the busy end of the school year for Bri, and with our trip to Hawaii coming just two weeks after he would return from Thailand, it was just too much and too difficult for me to go with him. So, Doug took his brother Wes along. They had a wonderful time. They hugged on elephants, visited temples, cooked Thai food, went snorkeling and enjoyed all the beauty of Thailand...

I really wish I could have gone. But, I don't regret missing the 20+ hours of flying it took Doug to get there and then back home again. My focus was on my trip to Hawaii at the end of the month. 

May also means Mother's Day arrives. Bri and I met my mom, sister and the cousins for lunch on the Saturday before Mother's Day to celebrate a little early...

The kids absolutely love buffet-style pizza...

The moms all exchanged gifts...

I posted these collages (below) on FB on Mother's Day. So many sweet memories with my girl...

Here we are today...

Bri gave me some of her amazing artwork for Mother's Day...

She and Doug took me out for dinner at Ruth's Chris...

The food was just delicious...

The end of May brought all the end of school activities. Bri made one more visit to see the doggies at the shelter before summer break...

She participated in the middle school Olympics. She and her team got first place in one of their events...

Bri finished her pillow in her home economics class - it turned out so good!!!

Yearbooks came out...

Bri came home with so many signatures...

I had her hand out teacher gifts. These are little bags with some candy in them...

We did manage to squeeze in a lunch date on a Sunday in May with Maisie. It had been too long since the girls had seen one another...

Bri got on the "A/B" Honor Roll and was invited to the Honors Day Assembly...

I actually convinced her to wear a dress!!!

The kids walking into the gym...

My good friend Jennifer told me that when her son went to the assembly for 7th grade, the gym was filled with about half of the kids that got awards/honor roll in 6th grade. I wasn't sure if she was exaggerating or not. Well, she was totally right...

7th grade was TOUGH. The teachers say the kids are kind of "sheltered" in 6th because they are coming in from elementary school and learning the ropes. Well, that is so true. They were expected to do so much more on their own in 7th. And Bri's advanced classes were really tough and fast paced. I am so happy she made the A/B honor roll. 7th grade is no joke!! Congrats to all the kids that got honors this year.

Here is B getting her certificate...

Here are B and some of her friends...

Bri and her best bud Jackson...

Bri and her friend Shawn...

Bri and her school bestie Meredith...

And then it was finally the last day of school!!!!!

Bri was super happy when the day was over!!!!

This kid earned her summer break. She didn't get a "perfect attendance" award at school because she checked in late once and checked out early twice - the whole entire school year. But, she went to school every single day. She hates making up work and she rarely gets sick, so she just goes! So she gets a perfect attendance award in my book!

I spent several months preparing and researching for our Hawaii trip (and actually, this trip was years in the making - more on that later). Doug and I took a lot of time choosing the island we wanted and deciding on the things we wanted to do there. I bought new clothes for everyone and packing for our seven day trip (plus two flying days) took a lot of thought.

We were finally Maui bound...

I have one more post to write before I start writing about our Hawaii trip. We did A LOT in Hawaii, so it's gonna take me a while to blog about it. I posted some of my favorite Maui pics on FB, but I didn't want to bombard people with too many pictures at once. If you want to see our vacation adventure and see like a billion photos, you are welcome to come here and do it. If you don't, I won't be offended! But of course, I hope you do follow along!