M is for May!

As usual, it has been a very busy but fun month. With lots of wonderful M celebrations including Mother's and Memorial Days. May (okay maybe April) also saw the introduction of movies, a few more melt-down and a good amount of meat!

The beginning of the month was very busy with work with two major ACTIVE Life events in one week. Alex was a big help participating in both events and having extra Jake-time. They even went to see Miss Irene for another haircut.


My Mother's Day started a little early with a mom's only celebration at Jake's school. It was very sweet, they had an afternoon tea (of sorts) for us with flowers and presents. It was a very special thing they did for us and those kids are so darn cute together.

As usual, Alex and Jake didn't disappoint in taking wonderful care of me on Mother's Day. We had a very fun brunch with our friends Kenny, Cindy and Jackie Grossman at Moonshine. Due to the dinner we had in April where we had to wait 2 1/2 hours to be seated, we were able to 1) make a reservation and 2) be seated right away. It was awesome, particularly since the line to get in was around the corner. It was very nice and Jake and Jackie are so cute playing together.

We set up a little movie theater in the restaurant for Jake and Jackie. It was a lovely moment of quiet and cuteness as I actually got to enjoy the delicious food!

Someday, hopefully in the near future, Jake will finish with the "Cheese" smile! But darn, they sure are cute.
My real Mother's Day present came the following weekend when Alex and Jake sent me off for a day of relaxation. I got a fabulous haircut, massage and other treatments. The best part of the day was when Alex and Jake met me for lunch!

Alex headed to DC the following week for work and Jake and I had lots of together time especially since his school was closed for yet another holiday. And of course on the day that Jake was home and I was happily working from home, a work emergency took both of us to the office for a full day. I can't believe how good Jake was and despite my desire to get the heck out of there, Jake had a meltdown as we were leaving. He sobbed "go back mommy's office" almost the whole way home. It was sweet, in hindsight.

We were so excited to finally have a visit from Auntie Rachel and soon-to-be Uncle Warren. Rachel came in on Wednesday night to for work, Warren followed on Thursday night and Alex came back on Friday when the whole gang was finally altogether in Austin. Friday afternoon, while Jake was still at school, we headed out to one of our favorite spots to bring visitors, the Oasis.



Friday night was pretty casual after taking Warren, a grocery aficionado of sorts, to see our favorite Central Market. Saturday morning was fairly relaxed with some PJ time for Jake.


We headed out to do some exploring of Austin and look for popsicles. Auntie Rachel bought Jake a lollipop which might have been the highlight of his day. He even told Bubba about it on the phone. "Bubba, Auntie Rachel bought me a lollipop." I have lots of other pics of Auntie Rachel and Jake but they involve a wedding dress, so I'll have to wait to post those. It was a fun visit and we were so glad that they came to see us!

After a very busy and stressful work week, Alex and I were both happy to get out of town for a few days. It had been way to long since our last visit to Houston so we were very excited to see our good friends as well as lunch with Alex's grandma. After our visit with Grandma Berte we headed to dinner at the Segal-Miller house with the Helfman-Adler crew. I love watching all the boys (Drew-5, Jonah 3, Jake 2 1/2 and Nathan 1 1/2) "play" together, mostly nicely. It was so nice to be together with my girls and all those boys, Alex, Jon and Danny included.


On Saturday, Lisa and Alex started the day with an early run. The rest of us weren't up quite as early but with a house full of little people it wasn't long before we were all up and about. We had a fun breakfast at one of Drew's favorite places called "Tiny Boxwoods." Jake loved the giant muffins!
I'm not sure what was exactly involved in this shot but my guess is that there must have been a tickle monster involved!
That afternoon we headed to the pool to play and cool down. That night, thanks to Lisa's mom, we were able to have an adult only night out. We went to a very cool bar & restaurant in the Montrose area of Houston. We always eat very well when we're with Lisa and Jon and again, they did not disappoint. It was a very fun and needed night out!

Sunday Jake and I met up with Jes and Jonah for a walk and then the whole lot of us met up for breakfast at Goode Company. It was great to be able to let the boys run around the fountain with somewhat limited supervision, Jake only almost fell in once. :)


We headed back to Austin fairly early to have a little time at home for catch-up before the long weekend was over. It was such a nice weekend and so great to be with such great friends! In order of age, Drew, Jake and Nathan.

On Memorial Day we headed out to meet Jake's girlfriend, Leah, and her parents, Josh and Kelly at Famous Austin BBQ, The Salt Lick. The beef ribs were particularly delicious!



After lunch we headed to Lake Travis to take our first ride out on the Lake and Jake's first boat ride. Despite Jake's early refusal to wear his life-jacket and then complete and utter misery of being in the jacket, he eventually got over it and decided to have a good time and enjoy the ride. We found a great spot to park and swim. Leah couldn't wait to get in the water but Jake wasn't quite as sure about it until he finally got in and started to enjoy it.





In other random May cuteness:

Jake is now a pro at riding his tricycle. Good thing our house has such a good riding trail for him.

I also found a new playground for Jake that we've started going to on Sunday afternoons in an attempt to wear the little man out. He's still totally obsessed with the swing!Jake and I have done of few cooking projects lately, play-dough and brownies. Jake is really into muffins so the brownies were made in muffin tins to make the little man happy are are now referred to as "brownie muffins". Stirring, Tasting, Enjoying!


Finally, with the end of the school year approaching they had their final class pictures as turtles. Jake's individual pictures were horrible but wanted to make sure to remember the turtles in their class picture. Funny that the teachers seemed to take the best picture but I think he'll be glad to have this picture when they're all older. Maybe we can find a way to make them stay this way!