Nine years, six years, and 2000 meters

All in all, May was a good month no doubt.  I was about to say it didn't feel that busy but looking back there was a lot going on and we hit a lot of milestones.  And some cute moments too.

 First up was our anniversary, and Lily helped us celebrate with a nice sign to hang on the wall.  Nine years, wow.  We celebrated by getting a babysitter so we could go for a day date.  Five hours to go on a leisurely bike ride through the city, go to an estate sale, eat at food carts, and see our first movie in a theater together since Lily was born.  That's right, it had been six years since the two of us made it out to a movie.  Considering it used to be about a once a month thing for us, it had been a LONG time.  We need to get out more, who's ready to babysit?


Pause for cuteness... and ice cream.

Lily's six!  Six!  That sounds like such a big number to me.  Last year she was wrapping up preschool and now she's about to finish kindergarten, a big reader and ready for some tennis lessons this summer.  She had a few friends over to celebrate with another Nicole scavenger hunt, a project to make fairy gardens to take home, and a piñata to whack.  It was a great party, worth all the hours of prep Nicole spent.

Lily ordered her siblings to dress up nice for her party.  Might be time for a new tie for Paul.  But he is the cutest gardener of all time.

Lily got invited for a sleepover at her friend Liana's house as a birthday present, and also got to go roller skating in the morning.  She definitely loves these big events and made Paul and Elise want to have a sleepover too.  Maybe this summer with Oma and Opa.  

Another pause for cuteness.  Lots of bike riding this month with good weather.

And last but not least for May milestones, Nicole closed out the month by swimming in a 2000 meter (aka 1.2 miles, aka 44 laps in a pool) open water swim at Hagg Lake with about 200 other swimmers.  Picture a giant school of piranhas in a feeding frenzy and that's about what the start of the race looks like.  She had put a lot of hours in at the pool the past few months as the plantar fascia is still nixing tennis, so it was fun to see it pay off on a hot sunny day at the same lake where we did our first Triathlon eight (gulp) years ago.  I'm really proud of her.  The kids were super impressed with mama and were great cheerleaders too.

Ok, one last blast of cuteness.