Hey everyone! Happy Memorial Day weekend! It’s pretty thrilling to be on the brink of summertime, isn’t it?

I’ve been a busy bee, but I definitely wanted to take a moment and gather up all things spring from the past two months and do a little life update à la iPhone photos. So here are the April and May happenings from around here!

We started off April by celebrating Joe’s 36th birthday! We had one kid-free day as Joe’s parents offered to watch our minions and we spent the day doing all his favorite things: going for a trail run, rock climbing, cruising around Target, eating Jimmy John’s (because you need a sammich after all that climbing, running, and shopping), and generally just enjoying each other’s company and some uninterrupted conversation!

As per usual, April fluctuated between winter blizzards (and a snow day) to shorts and tank top weather as demonstrated above by Rosie. That first snow photo was taken on April 10th and the photo of Rosie in the tree was taken on April 17. Even though volatile weather is always expected in the spring time, I still found it kind of disorientating.

Speak of Rosie, she had her kindergarten orientation! I sure hope kindergarten is ready for her. After we attended her orientation, she professed that she was done with preschool and would be going to kindergarten from now on. I had to break it to her that she, in fact, still had to complete two more months of 4K and get through the summer before attending kindergarten. She was not pleased.

On Cece’s actual April 30th birthday, I chaperoned her class’s field trip to The Works which is a hands-on museum focusing on technology, science, and engineering (basically a field trip where I got all sorts of educated too.) All of the kids (including Cece) had a blast building catapults, working with simple machines, sensors, imaging and optical technologies, and so much more. It was a treat to attend with her!

With Cece’s birthday on April 30th and Ares’s birthday on May 5, we had a joint family party for them at Chuck E. Cheese with all of their similarly aged cousins. It was a whirlwind party (literally) of Cece trying to capture tickets blowing around in the ticket blaster, playing games, riding tiny rides, eating pizza, opening gifts, and reluctantly participating in the dance party. Thank you again to all of their aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who attended!

On that same day, Joe wrapped up his season of flag football with an outdoor game. I brought the kiddos with so we could watch him (MUCH to Ares’s delight as he loves being outside and football almost as much as he loves Elmo).

At the beginning of May, a few of my neighbor mama friends and I attended a glorious evening out at the Sundown Taco Showdown in downtown Hudson. We got to sample tacos from six restaurants in Hudson all while catching up and enjoying some (fairly) decent weather. I can’t remember whose idea this was, but let me just say… BRILLIANT! Can’t wait until we can go out again!

Mother’s Day this year ended up being pretty darn righteous. I made some time in the morning to do a little painting. I got showered with the loveliest of art pieces, cards, and flowers. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and took the kiddos to a really fun park and then finished off the evening with sushi. I think this may have been one of my most favorite Mother’s Days!

Also in May, Robbyn flew into town! Cece, Rosie, and Ares loved having Auntie Robbo to jump on and use Snapchat filters with. She and I enjoyed some time with my bro as well and we did what we did best which was make and eat some excellent snacks as well as tacos. I also got to join them out at Lolo and Key’s Café in Hudson. I’m just saying, people who love making and eating food are the best people and I sure have the very best people for siblings. Robbyn also joined me for one of the Zumba classes I taught which was such a treat! Thank you for flying on up here, sister! We all miss you so much.

I’ve had a big variety of photography projects over the past two months. In addition to shooting some family and engagement photos in April, I also held boudoir mini sessions again at Studio Apparatus. In May I held Mother’s Day mini sessions at Lake Elmo and photographed 10 beautiful mamas and their babies. I also shot my first wedding of the season in May along with newborn photos for my dear friends. I’ve also had the opportunity to attend a couple meet-ups with other local photographers (who are easily becoming some of my favorite people).

Between shooting, editing, emailing, attempted marketing, social media managing (and did I mention emailing?), this is hands-down the busiest I’ve ever been. The variety of sessions has really required a lot of planning, preparations, and shifting mindsets. The workload has also forced me to be the most organized and efficient I’ve ever been with my time. I can’t thank every single one of the clients I’ve had this spring enough for trusting me with some darn special moments. It’s not something I take lightly! If you’d like to see some of what I’ve been up to, here’s a link to my photography blog and some of my recent sessions

I haven’t been lifting the heavy things at the gym quite as much over the past month (I’ve been kind of trading morning gym visits for playground visits as the weather has been so irresistible). I have been getting into the gym to teach Zumba around once a week as well as getting back to Boogie Fit at The Dancing House. (Love, love LOVE!) I ended the month with going for a slow six mile trail run per Joe’s suggestion at Willow River. For not running since April, I was so surprised at how much I enjoyed the experience.

So there you have most of the happenings from April and May 2019. I’m basically bursting with excitement for summer. The kids don’t get out of school until June 12 so I’m hoping to use these next couple weeks to wrap up some photographic work as well as finalize summer schedules and get the rest of my spring cleaning done.

As usual, I know I talk too much, but thank you so much for reading if you made it to the bottom! I’ve been looking back through the pile of blog posts I have from nearly eight years of blogging and it just seems to incredible and unreal to have this life with a 8, 5, and 2 year old living in Wisconsin (never saw that coming!) and enjoying the heck out of it! Ugh, hashtag blessed for sure.

Everyone, I hope you have a peaceful and blessed Memorial Day!