May.....

What a fantastic few weeks we've had.  May is apparently all about Sydney!

First we celebrated with her birthday dinner at Miyakos.

Dad's Dinner 

We always take our kids to the restaurant of their choice ON their actual birthday.  This year, Sydney's birthday fell on a Monday and she has dance class on Mondays, so we decided that we would go to dinner the week before.  And so began the three week birthday celebration....

Brian and Sydney

Me & Dad

Liv & Mimi

Next we had a mini family celebration the Saturday before her birthday with the grandparents and Beth and her family.  Sydney wanted a Spongebob and Cars cake.  She did NOT want that at her "friend" party because she figured they'd make fun of her.  So, mom made a fabulous cake for the family party.

Sydney's Spongebob & Cars cake

I love that my girl didn't care that Spongebob and Cars are the craziest combination of themes - we had Cars plates, Cars napkins and Spongebob cake plates.  She was a happy girl!

Blowing out the candles!

Opening presents - girl made out like a BANDIT with ll these celebrations!

THEN we had 10 YES - 10 - 9 year olds over the house last Friday night for a sleepover.  They ran around like crazy, played flashlight tag in the back yard (only two minor head bumps and no blood so we'll call that a success!), did each other's hair and then fell asleep by midnight.  Of course, they were up by 6:30 a.m., but whatever.  Sydney had an awesome time - and so did I actually.

Running off their sugar high...

The group

Sydney being goofy

That Sunday was Mother's Day and we celebrated by  shopping for flowers for the yard and planting them  and having dinner with mom and dad.  The girls made me these :

Stained glass butterflies - made by my girls

Mom is taking stained glass classes so she helped a little :)  I need to get a better picture with the morning sun coming through the window - they really look beautiful...

This weekend is Sydney's dance recital.  I'm so looking forward to seeing my baby on stage again.  The girls took a few years off from dance and I have MISSED watching them dance.  They have both now decided they miss it and will be throwing themselves into classes in the fall.

Sydney Dance 2012

Once thing that might put a damper on our recital fun is this:

Yes, that's right.  The recital is in downtown Frederick  - which is awesome - I'll take you on a tour one of these days - but which is VERY inconvenient when you have heads of state from all over the world, their entourages and clan estimated 3000 press descending on your little town.

The G8 Summit happens to be this weekend - in fact it's already begun -  and protests are planned at the park which is 2 blocks from the theater.  Parking is going to be a bitch but I'm hopeful that will be the ONLY issue we have this weekend.  

Once we get home from the recital I don't plan on leaving the house until the Summit is over and done with.

Good luck to my Sydney and send good thoughts to my little town as we are invaded this weekend!