May, what would I do without you?

The month of May has been so jam packed with fun and adventure I've been feeling great anxiety at the thought of organizing my thoughts and pictures enough to document it. And when I feel overwhelmed with a task, I generally just put it off until the anxiety and procrastination feelings grow so ginorm they overcome me completely and I start short-circuiting and doing the robot.

Until Sam slaps me repeatedly and I snap out of it.

Now that I've had a good post-breakdown slapping, I'm ready to post the night away. So, just settle right in with some popcorn and a bottle of gin and prepare yourselves for the longest post in blog history.

First, a little flashback to Easter. Just a teeny, itty bitty little flashback.

We had an exuberant Easter feast with all of our favorite friends, of course.

And sent the munchkins on an extensive easter egg treasure hunt. Leah was really feeling the Easter spirit here in preparation for it...

The babies of the five Business School organized crime families...

These little subs were all born this year... From left to right:

Jude (Matt and Mimi), William (Amber and Mark), Eve (Me and... TBD) and Skylee (Linc and Carina)

Here we have Eve and Jude offering William a coordinated judo chop. It's clear from Skylee's jubilant expression that she ordered the hit. She's a ruthless leader, that little Skylee.

Next!

We take our Mexican holidays seriously, so we had to have a little Cinco de Mayo fiesta by breaking into the church and making cafe rio salads...

May 5th is also my sissy, Bethany's birthday! And so, Cinco de Mayo happens to be my very favorite holiday.

And then the boys had a volleyball dunking contest. Because volleyball is the official sport of Mexico.

On May 20th, I turned 26 years old. That's right. I'm legit. I don't really know why 26 makes me legit... But trust me, I'm way more legit now than I was at 25. Don't know how. But you better believe it.

I wish there was some wisdom I could impart with you all now that I'm 26 and know a lot about everything, but nothing is striking my fancy. Mostly because "Ni Hao, Kai-lan," is on right now, crippling my brain with Chinese and enthusiasm.

And so, I'll just tell you what we did to celebrate.

First, the girls took me to dinner to Leona's on my birthday eve and Carina made me a fabulous cake--but, her camera revolted against her and we all ended up looking like smudgy blobs in the pictures. So I have no photo evidence to share of our magical girl's night out. But it happened. Don't you go tellin' your friends I'm making it up.

On my actual birthday, Sam took me to lunch to our very favorite place, Capitol Grille...

...and gave me this fabulous camera.

It's amazing how many times I thought, "Oh, I need to take a picture of my new camera to put on the blog..." and then my brain fried at the thought of taking a picture of my new camera with my new camera. This mental merry-go-round happened no less that 15 times...

Then Sam asked if I wouldn't mind snapping a few photos of him for his eHarmony.com profile....

And we played this game for 3 or 4 hours....

Next we headed to the park for some tennis (don't be alarmed, sisters. i've become a recent tennis enthusiast and will convert you when we next meet).

Sam revealed his next gift in the form of a mind-blowing juggling routine. Didn't even know he could juggle. It was like I was married to a whole new man, the way that juggling lit up his eyes. Just look at him. Finally in his element, jugglin' away.

And finally, the whole gang headed to Promontory Point for a bonfire/hotdog/s'more par-tay.

There was a lot of drunken celebrating going on...

Leah worships the ground Brooklyn walks on... you see by the intense emulation. I keep trying to tell her to play a little hard to get, but she's powerless against B's feminine wiles...

Leah and Avery looking more delish than those mallows they're hoarding...

The Eagle Scout program works, my friends.

In the end, it was simply the power of love that got that fire roaring. Just look at Matt snugglin' right up, giving that little baby flame all the love and tenderness in the world..

Sam looking regal and hot after dominating the fire...

And by hot, I mean like, HAWT. And by dominating, I mean like, peeing on it.

All mah single ladies, all mah single ladies! With husbands and children...

"No mama! Don't burn the mahshmawows!" She was vexed by the whole idea...

There are really no words to describe the fabulousness of my birthday this year. I mean, I guess this picture sorta sums it up...

But not really.

During the bonfire some of us decided a road trip was in order. And so we girded up our loins and headed out the very next day to....

THE EAGLE RIDGE GOLF RESORT AND SPA IN GALINA, IL!!

We stayed for 4 days and 3 nights, and the trip itself will have to be its own post... but I will tell you, there was a lot of this:

Ghosts? Or near-nude husbands frantically streaking through the night? More on that later.

Here's a picture of Tiny Tuna, though...

And finally, after Sam's race, we topped off the month with an excellent Memorial Day Weekend of fun and food and friends.

I asked these burly men to flex their muscles for a picture and they all refused. Then I told them it was the muscles or a kissy face and...

MAGIC!!

The boys were playing football and bravado-ing around in general and I was basking in the shade with the ladies when Sam popped up and was like, "Hey did you see me playing out there?" I was like, "Uh, yeah, baby." And he was like, "Weeeell???" all impatient-like. And I was like, "Well what?" And then he said, and I quote, "Well did you wanna get some action shots or what?!"

OH. MY.

What a heffer.

Magically, the paparazzi ascended on their football game...

Lookin' good, fellas. Lookin' real good.

And then Sam and Linc jumped in Lake Michigan to cool off...

Oh May, you've been good to me. In fact, you've been magical. And its with your ending that I have to face the reality of crappy things like graduating business school and leaving Chicago. And so with that, I'll go bawl my eyes out...

Over the Moon...

... with this guy...

... who, six weeks ago, very causally entered the Chicago Fleet Feet Sports Soldier Field 10 Mile Run. And then made it his beyotch. This morning. In 84 minutes. Right in front of my adoring eyes.

There were over 12,000 runners. It was a glorious event, indeed.

Oh, Sambino. You make your wifey so proud.

And don't think watching and being all a part of the drama and emotion and excitement of it all didn't make me think I could go right ahead and enter the Chicago marathon. Because I almost did just now. But then I decided to surf the net instead.

The coolest part about this particular race is that the finish line was right on the 50 yard line at Soldier Field, where the Chicago Bears play. It was pretty freaking awesome.

Those medals were pure gold!

We started the preparations for this morning's festivities last night with a ceremonial outing to Pizza Capri for some carb loading. Because we are super supportive, and generally willing to sacrifice for our husbands, the wives took part in the carbo extravaganza as well. The things we do for these boys....

Then, we woke with the sun and took our little stroller brigade to the metra...

...where the munchkins waited in squealing anticipation for the train to Soldier Field.

Carina asked to be in this photo with the kids. She really loves the camera. Such a ham, that girl!

It was a bit of a zoo trying to get shots of our boys amongst the chaos. In fact, one lady tried to make herself comfortable directly in front of me when I knew Sam was coming in, and I may or may not have threatened to punch her lights out. Or I may have just mumbled it under my breath. Or maybe right to her face. Or maybe I just mentioned that I felt like doing it in passing to my friends. No one will ever know. But let's just say, she left the stadium with a black eye. Or maybe she didn't!

Upon my request, Sam called me when he was a mile out so I could brace myself for his moment of glory. But all I could hear on the other end of the line was a bunch of puffing and gasping and belching. In the end, I just snapped pictures of every hottie with a beard and bulging biceps I saw cross the finish line, hoping one of them would be him. Can you find him? He's fist pumping with Mimi's hub, Matt.

Even Baby Eve couldn't deny there was magic in the air after her daddy big moment...

So, so proud of these hubbies.

Next stop, IRON MAN.

Little Lee Turns Three!

**It should be noted: Blogger crashed for like 3 days and stole the original of this post. This is the sloppy second version. Kill them. Oh, and Leah's actual birthday was on the 12th but I couldn't post because of said blogger crash. Jus' sayin.**

Oh little Leah Mae,

I can't believe you are three today. If I sit for too long thinking about you being all big and three and no longer the little cherub who used to rub my upper arm raw to fall asleep, I will bawl my eyes out and slip into a sort of "time is going too quickly" funk wherein I binge eat and spend my days seeking out a bit of cushion to fall asleep on.

We've been through a lot, you and me. You ventured from your Heavenly Father's arms and down to mine during an exciting and crazy time. In your short life you've lived in five different apartments, in four different cities, in three different states. And we're moving again in a couple of months.

You have also been bestowed with a total of seven nicknames in the last three years. In no particular order:

Yitta Yee

Miss Mae

Turkey Sub

Schmeah Schmae

Schmee

Princess Leah

Leah Lou

... and they all fit you to a tee.

You've started to harness your inner WWF wrestler and have become a gentle and attentive big sister. This sends your mother over the moon. If my mothering produces no other result than you and Eve being best friends, I will consider myself victorious. Even if you become pot heads... so long as you're besties.

You have an affinity for drawing on the walls with crayons. And I've only been able to thwart your efforts by making you watch me break your crayons in half (aka snap their heads off) and pitch them into the garbage. All while pretending they (your crayons) are screaming. Anything less than this gruesome scene and you are unmoved.

You once saved me from a group of south side Chicago men who, upon seeing your angel face peering out from the back seat of our car, stopped their threatening advances and decided to leave me alone. The main instigator actually said, "Oh. I see your baby. You got lucky." I'm not sure what would have happened had you not been there, but for dramatic effect, let's just say you saved my life that day.

You are morally opposed to wearing clothing at home. As soon as we walk in the door, you begin shedding your clothing, and if I attempt any other activity, i.e. putting away groceries or feeding baby Eve, before attending to your nekedness, you morph quickly into a raging loon. I believe you inherited this from your Grammy. Your general attire of choice; panties, shoes and a few accessories.

You will currently ingest 11 items. Anything else, and I may as well be poisoning you. These items include, avocado, chicken nuggets, toast, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, cheese, grapes, strawberries, bananas, yogurt, pizza, and your very favorite, tomatoes.

You are obsessed with flowers and are constantly presenting me with dandelions, the only ones you are allowed to pick.

You have ridiculously long and luxurious curly hair and I am accused regularly by other people of lying about its natural splendor. In fact, at Disneyland, we overheard a woman pointing at you and saying, "Oh, wow, look, that little girl got her hair all done up to meet the princesses." And even though I did nothing of the sort, I felt overcome with immediate "Toddlers and Tiaras" shame. No one seems to want to believe I don't make you sleep in curlers each night... turns out the world's just not ready for your fabulous mane.

Every night we go to bed talking about Princess Leah. These stories always include Josh, Isaiah and Lucy, and your "best friends," Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel the Mermaid and Snow White. You are currently alienating Cinderella. She is not allowed in your stories or out of your princess drawer during the day to play. I'm not sure what she did to lose favor in your eyes.

After our Princess Leah stories, you want me to sing, "Ol' McDonald had a farm," with the order of animals going puppy, kitty cat, cow, duck, pig and repeat. This continues until you begin to snore. Only once the snoring begins is it safe for me to move. You'll be happy to hear you snore loudly.

You have recently mastered the art of going potty in the toiley. And you often shout, "Moooomm! I went pee on the floor!!" for me to come running in, only to find you perched on the pot, giggling away. You think you are super funny. You also find it necessary to "de-robe" in public before announcing you have to go.

You make your way into our bedroom every night by 2Am and swat the bottom of the bed until your dad and I wake up and acknowledge you. Then you scurry up the bed and shout around, "I'm coldy!" or, "There's scary monsters!" before settling in between us. You demand mama's pillow and daddy's "blank-let" and then let out a grandiose sigh once you've situated yourself comfortably.

I wouldn't have it any other way. Except for maybe you staying in your own bed all night and not waking me up or stealing my pillow. But mostly, I wouldn't change a thing.

Here are a few of the ways we celebrated your big day this year:

We started out with some good ol' fashioned birthday loot...

A new Belle dress for twirling...

And once we discovered your exposure to bikes has been so limited that you were a complete tard on one at the park the other day, we decided it was time you had one of your very own...

For lunch we went for a little Cheesecake Factory delight. You put together your birthday ensemble. I was quite impressed...

Dadbehindcamera/Mominfrontofcamera FAIL.

Somehow these pictures met your dad's approval after he took them and we moved on from the "girl's photo shoot" to....

Perfect daddy/daughter bliss...

That's better.

And you delighted in anything with a lit candle in it. Even a sacrament cup of whip cream...

After lunch we went on a summer clothes shopping spree.

The Par-Tay....

Pillaging the tasty loot before your guests arrived....

Opening presents amidst some of your favorite munchkins...

It was a glorious night for an even glorious-er little girl.

The morning after...

To Grammy, Leah has been doing this over and over for six hours straight...

And the Salazars, let's just say, Leah slept with this last night...

Leah, I love you more than I can say! Happy, happy birthday, beautiful girl.