The End of Elementary School

 It's the end of Max's elementary school career and there were plenty of things scheduled for the last week of school. There was lunch with your sixth grader out on the lawn.

He finished strong by getting a PACK award and landed on honor roll again. 

Officially, the last morning of school.

On the last day of school, I volunteered to help set up the 6th-grade party. I thought this would keep my mind busy and stop thinking about how time is going by so fast, but that didn't happen. As I was setting up, it just made me get all the feels. I was in charge of putting together the balloon arch, so that was fun.

Following the party was the annual 6th-grade clap-out. I have usually watched this from afar while I waited to pick up Max on the last day of school, but this year it was his turn to participate in the clap-out. I was expecting lots of tears (from me) but it wasn't that bad. I was more excited to see him and his friends walk out, knowing there is so much ahead of them. 

Following the clap-out was the annual pool and water slide party. This year, our friends hosted and had everyone over. It was a hot day for supervising the party, but the kids had fun, and I had plenty of mom-friend time.

We celebrated the 6th-grade promotion and Max's excellent grades at Salt Cellar, where Max ordered the lobster tail. 

It was a successful 7 years at Basha Elementary that included a pandemic. I can't be more excited for Max to enter junior high and meet new friends while we continue to watch him grow.

House Guests and Mother's Day

 Aunt Margie came to town and brought her friend too. They spent their time in the pool soaking up all the AZ sun. We did go out one night and introduced them to Waymo...the self-driving car. This was a fun experience for them and entertaining for us to see their reaction to the self-driving car.

I was sick this weekend, but we still managed to get out and go to the bars.

I was spoiled on Mother's Day by Max and Andy. Of course Max made us breakfast in bed while we watched our favorite movie. I then spent the afternoon in the pool with Max and our house guests. 

Andy made dinner for everyone that night. The next day, Aunt Margie and her friend headed to the airport to head back to WI, but not before getting a pic with Max to show the height difference.

WI Wedding Weekend

The first weekend in May, we took a quick trip to WI for a cousin's wedding in the WI Dells. When we booked the hotel we decided to stay at the Kalahari so Max could experience the largest indoor waterpark. I am not a waterpark fan, but I ended up having a great time. It was very impressive, and I highly recommend it. 

We landed in Madison on Friday, and drove to the Dells. We ended up spending Friday evening at the waterpark. I did not get in the water on Friday, but Andy did the slides with Max. 

Grandpa T, Grandma S, and Mackenzie's family arrive and we all sat around catching up while the kids enjoyed the rides.

Beau also joined in on the fun with Max and Andy.

Saturday morning we headed back to the waterpark, and that's when I joined in on the fun. The slides were fast and a lot of fun. Max and I had a great time on all the slides. The water was a bit colder than I hoped for, but once I was in it was fine. 

Matching swim shirts with grandpa, Max and Beau.

The waterpark fun ended, and we got ready for the wedding. It was held close by, and it was a beautiful wedding. It was also fun to see Andy's extended family, whom I have not seen in a very long time. I also felt really short chatting with Andy and his cousins all night. 

We had a great time in the Dells and look forward to visiting WI again in June.

Rounding out April

 Following Andy's birthday, he volunteered to chaperone the 6th grade science day field trip. The 6th grade class took a bus up to a camp near Payson and spent the day doing science activities. They left Phoenix at 6:00am, so it was a very early morning, but Max slept on the way to camp.

Max said this was a very fun day and was happy that his dad got to volunteer all day. Andy and another day had a group of 10 or 12 kids to watch. I believe this is a day Max won't forget since he talked about it for the next week.

Following the field trip, we got a visit from KB. She was in Las Vegas and decided to drive down and visit us for a few days. This was great catching up in person. We even had dinner with TK and SK while she was in town.

Max is now taller than KB, which is kind of funny.

I volunteered for the last time to teach Art Masterpiece at Max's school. This was definitely a bittersweet moment. I have been doing this since Max was in 2nd grade, so it was emotional.

We had dinner with Grandpa T and Grandma S one last time before they headed back to WI.

Of course, we saw the Michael movie. This was a movie Max and I had been waiting to see...mainly for the music though.

I ended up getting a last minute ticket to a B2B marketing conference in downtown Phoenix. I ended up staying downtown so that I didn't have to drive back and forth. This was a good conference and had great networking. They had the Fray perform one night at another venue, which ended up being a lot of fun.

That rounded out April. Next up, a quick weekend in WI!

Happy Birthday Andy!

 We celebrated Andy's birthday the way Max wanted. Max has been dying to take Andy to Caldwell BBQ and thought this would be the best time. Max loves this place, but not as much as his dad's BBQ. Max and I have had it a few times, so he wanted to take his dad. We got the family of four meal with pork, brisket, and turkey. We chose their potato salad and coleslaw for sides. Their pulled pork is amazing, but again, Andy's is better.

We did presents.

Andy chose Coldstone for his "cake" instead of a real cake.

Another year around the sun and a very happy birthday to Andy!

Happy Easter

We started the Easter weekend by decorating eggs. This is always a fun time.

We celebrated a win!! Andy and I enter into March Madness brackets with our friends, and whichever family loses has to buy the other family dinner at Ocean 44 or Steak 44. We won for the second year in a row, so a toast with champagne was definitely necessary.

The Easter bunny came and gave Max a very nice basket and hid eggs throughout the backyard.

It didn't take Max too long to find all 30 eggs.

But, he had trouble finding the straggler high up in the tree. Andy had to help get it down. Soon, Max won't need any help. He's now taller than me.

We hosted a very small group for Easter lunch/dinner. I was very bummed to realize that night that we forgot to take the annual photo in the backyard. I honestly can't believe I forgot to do this. With no photo evidence to share, we had Grandpa T and Grandma L at the house for Easter ham, potatoes, and Max's favorite corn.