The Zorio Family: May 2019

May always, always is a busy month! With it being our third birthday party month in a row (Clayton-March, Carter-April, and Dawson-May) and then with the "end-of everything" programs/parties etc. It also feels like a month full of so much excitement when all the kids can talk about is "what are we going to do this summer?!" and how many more days until summer break. As I think I mentioned in a previous blog, we didn't do any spring sports this year-well, other than running club and gymnastics...and we were still doing choir and Dawson was still doing "breakout" at church, but no sport with games and practices-and, as much as I LOVE cheering them on in sports, it was kind of nice to have a little extra time to enjoy the spring weather...walk, ride bikes, and fish in the neighborhood in the evenings. I will definitely remember how nice it was to be able to take advantage of the pleasant weather. Our neighborhood pool opened at the first of May, so we swam...A LOT this month too.

the weather was very nice this month, so we took full advantage and went to the Botanical Gardens two or three times. This picture was early May when we went during the Chinese Festival of Lanterns.

John brought a Ranger home for the weekend, and these two thought it was fun just sitting in it in the garage! Haha!

toSince our neighborhood is brand new and part is still under construction, Clayton LOVES seeing all the equipment on a regular basis. His favorite piece of equipment has long sense been the motorgrader, so his dreams came true when he got to climb in this motorgrader in our neighborhood. Happy, happy boy!

Running with my almost 10 year old runner! I run very frequently, and he's still too fast for me! I have to work to keep up with him!

these three big kids had their end of year choir performance. Dawson had a speaking part and Carter had a duo. All three kids did AWESOME! I was so proud!

As I mentioned, we swim all.the.time!

When you swim too much and you ask your Mommy if you can lay down to rest! NEVER HAPPENS!

toAs the conclusion of Running Club for Dawson at school, they had a 5k. Dawson did amazing finishing under 30 minutes-they didn't do exact times. He is such a great runner I shouldn't have been surprised but it was SO hot and it was after school one afternoon, so I was pretty impressed he could do it so fast under all these conditions! He really enjoyed Running Club at school this year.

Dawson's birthday weekend.

I had a fantastic Mother's Day. I'm so very thankful for these sweet kids that I wanted to go somewhere special that they enjoy for Mother's Day-so we went to Top Golf!

we had friends over and when it started raining outside we broke out the play doh...so fun!

See that turtle that Claytons looking at beside my planter on the patio? That's ...The turtle that wouldn't leave us! This turtle was in our garage on Saturday then on Monday it reappeared on our back patio where it stayed ALL day. The kids had fun watching it.

The boys had field day at their school which is a huge deal there! Here's Carter with one of his school buddies soaked from the spray of the firehose.

Being sprayed by the firehose was definitely a highlight. I'm glad that we got there just in time to see them enjoying this...so fun!

Dawson enjoying field day too!

Sometimes I feel bad that I have to drag these two along to every.single.thing for their older siblings, then I look at a picture like this and remember how much fun they had watching field day, getting shaved ice, and them getting to see their big brothers!

The weekend of Lolly's 60th birthday we drove to Tennessee to celebrate with her. Not only were we celebrating her birthday, but also her retirement the previous day!.

we all unintentionally color coordinated!

while we were in Tennessee for the weekend, we also got to visit Nana and Grandad and swim with Zoe.

we enjoyed roasting marshmallows at Lolly's

we had a great weekend visiting! On the way back to Alabama we decided to stop at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. We had a blast!

we got such a kick out of this! Clayton told his he was going to make a "grumpy" face for a picture, and this is what we got...sure enough, looks pretty grumpy! HAHA

Clayton's favorite part of this huge aquarium always seems to be the Touch a Ray Bay where you can touch sting rays!

We wrapped up the homeschool pre-K year for Nora Kate. She's beyond ready to go to the kindergarten now, and I learned a lot and loved teaching her this year! I'm so thankful we did this.

Last day

Last day of third grade!

Dawson received FIVE awards at 3rd grade awards day! So proud!!!!

The kids made a giant, and I mean giant, list of summer fun things we need to do this summer, in their opinion. One item on there was going to the botanical gardens.

These four melt my heart! First day of summer break and they are all so happy to be back together. Sweet, sweet!

First day/last day!

At Annie's birthday pool party!

we had a full weekend! After the birthday swim party, we headed straight to Decature for the Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was AMAZING! Here's my summer girl with her unicorn face paint!