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...