My folks invited me to come to New York with them last weekend.  Ben offered to keep the kids at home, and the Masons came over to help out with them.  It felt so strange not to have little kids to manage and extra items in my luggage to care for them.

It was a fantastic trip!  Tons of great shopping and experiences.  We saw Tootsie and Hadestown on Broadway.  We saw the Camp costume exhibit at the Met and I got some extra time in the European halls (I'm usually dead-tired by the time I get up there, so I went straight there this time.)  We ate a ton of great food - so many delicious pastries!  We visited two unique yarn shops and I had to borrow an extra bag to get all my yarn home.  There were a few street festivals too.  Here's some pictures from the trip:

Sometimes I feel like everything is changing.  In the last month:

• We became a two-cat household
• I started yoga, and make it to those classes more often than zumba
• My last child finished Kindergarten
• My oldest is officially a "tween" (according to the library's summer reading program)
• We got a new car
• We got new callings at church (Ben is leaving primary after 6 years in this ward, I'm leaving YW after 3 years, we will both be Youth Sunday School teachers)

All good stuff!  I'm not complaining!  But I think it justifies how completely exhausted I have felt recently.

Despite the hectic weeks with new cats, school ending, and a birthday party to host, we have been shopping for a new car.  My little Nissan finally needed some significant work (new struts), giving me just cause to replace it.  We've been wanting a minivan for years.  Ben and I did deep research into SUVs, crossovers, and all the available minivans on the market.  Then we had to locate a car on the market that best matched the features we wanted.  After hours of reading, looking, driving, and haggling, we took home the perfect new car!

A Chrysler Pacifica Touring Plus.  It has a heated steering wheel for me and a DVD player for the kids.  It has power doors and a back-up camera - these are pretty standard nowadays but a total luxury for me!  We wanted cloth seats and the easy to stow flat bucket seats in the back.  I love being in a higher position on the road and having SO MUCH ROOM.  Sam is finally able to buckle himself into his booster seat because in my old car it was too cramped and squashy for him to reach.

               

I quickly added some minivan essentials: trash bag suspended from the front arm rests, and a tennis ball to help park in the garage.  Some things can't be improved upon with technology ;-)

              

Ben took a picture of my old car side by side as we were leaving.  They low-balled a trade-in offer, so we're going to figure out selling it after life calms down a little more.

I looked back in my blog to the last time I got a new car.  Might as well update the timeline:

Saturday we celebrated Jack's 9th birthday by playing mini-golf with friends!  This was the first time we held the party away from the house, with a smaller group of friends.  It was a total success!  Adventure Golf gave us a wonderful experience.

Cake time, and then presents and goodie bags were passed around.  For the last half hour the kids took ice cream vouchers to concessions for a soft-serve treat, then played in the Mine Maze until parents arrived.  No tears - even from Jack!  It was a slam dunk party.  (Especially with all the snow and rain this May, right up until Thursday we were wearing heavy coats!  But Friday and Saturday were sunny and warm, just perfect).

Sam and Jack wanted to bring balloons home for the kitties.  Freddy had a good time.

Not so washable.

And feeling a lot less coy after a brisk bath scrub.

The second to last day of school, I'm sitting in the parking lot, waiting to pick up the boys, when I get this message from Sam's Kindergarten teacher:

"Your son may have had a little too much fun this afternoon! You’ll see soon! Sorry..."

Hoo-boy, can't wait, I replied.

She was very apologetic and swears she would have stopped him, but he was very fast. I don't doubt it. Ah well. Here's hoping those markers are washable! What a way to end the school year.

oh my gosh...

You guys...

It's happening!!!

My hard work has paid off!! In two weeks they have gone from hissing constantly to cuddle neighbors. I predict by next winter they will be snuggle buddies!

Jack's third grade class has been studying native Americans for their last social studies unit. So today we went to Tocabe to try some authentic fry bread and wojapi sauce. Delicious!