May always seems to be a busy month. Is it because it’s spring-almost-summer and trees and flowers are busy blooming and leafing and just generally showing off? Because it’s the last month of the school year and teachers and kids alike are champing at the bit to get to the finish line?

For us it’s busy at least in part because it’s the month of birthdays. My Aunt Julie’s birthday is on Cinco de Mayo, and this year my Uncle Bill & Aunt Kathy hosted a dinner at their house in honor of both events. There were delicious enchiladas and homemade guacamole along with fresh lemonade served in margarita glasses. Annalie waited impatiently for her cousins to arrive and then disappeared with them the moment they got there and got so involved in a long, complicated game of hide-and-seek that we barely saw her again till it was time to leave.

Annalie’s birthday is this Saturday, May 9th. In our playgroup in Maryland there were three other kids and one mom with May birthdays. Even though we don’t have those parties to go to this year, we’re having two parties for Annalie (a smaller family one with our good friends the Jays and a bigger one with more kids and friends). Then there’s Mother’s Day. We’ll probably all go out to dinner, and then Troy is taking me to see the new Star Trek movie at my request.

On Monday Troy has to leave again, and we’ll be sad. He’ll be gone for a while, but my mom isn’t going home just yet and I think we’ll find ways to keep ourselves busy. Then before we know it, May will be over and Troy will be home and summer will be here.

But for now, we’re in party-planning and entertaining mode. The party favors are made, the menu is planned, the pinata is sitting on top of my fridge and the presents are waiting to be wrapped. Annalie’s started getting cards and gifts in the mail (like the nail art stickers in the photo below, from Great-Aunt Janet and Great-Uncle Larry, which she immediately sat down and put on her fingers and toes) and we’re all getting excited for a fun weekend.

Of course, that’s not even considering the fact that we’re heading back up to Julie’s for a visit next week for a few days, and then Rapunzel‘s birthday party a week from Saturday, and our possible trip to Las Vegas to visit my cousins the week after that. Did I mention that May is a busy month?