'Said Good-bye To May...

...and I'm always kind of sad to see it go. I love the month of May, I've loved it ever since I was a little girl and my Mom told me that May was the month of Mary. We have lots to celebrate in May with birthdays and Mother's Day, and Ray & I were married in May, and our son Erik & daughter-in-law Lori share the same Anniversary! It's also usually a very pretty month here where we live too, flowers and trees blooming, sunny days, blue skies, and lots of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors before the heat and humidity of Summer sets in.
Although there is always a sadness too at the end of May with Memorial Day, I really do have mixed emotions, it's usually a nice time where we get together with friends and family, someone always has a barbecue and/or a pool party, and there are parades, and we're usually celebrating a birthday or two that weekend. But it's sad when you think of fallen heroes. So there is lots of joy tinged with sadness. But I guess that's life in general.

Here's how we ended the month:

Ray finished my shelves in the back room. I'm very happy!


And he opened the pool...


...and of course Jayden was the first (and only) one in the pool despite the cold water temperature!



After a week the water warmed up a little and a few more brave souls took the plunge!



Jayden is getting braver and taking his life jacket off more often now.


And we had a barbecue over Memorial weekend...

Our niece Erin and her boyfriend George...


...and the delicious cupcakes she made!



Our nephew Mikael relaxing on the floor...


...and one of his many tattoos (ouch!), this is one of his more colorful ones!



Ray's brother Donald and his sister Susie...



...and we also sang 'Happy Birthday' to Donald!

Make a wish...





...now smear your name for luck!




And the next day we attended the parade in our town, it was just a few blocks from our home and the weather was beautiful so we all walked there.



Jayden and Mia waited patiently for the parade to pass by (it was late getting started).




Mayor Bloomberg (in the pink shirt) took the lead (I have a feeling he was the reason for the late start).




Jayden and Mia loved the balloons, and they also loved that the company that supplied the balloons threw little beach balls to all the children along the parade route!
(I can't believe they allowed cars to park on the parade route this year!)




My brother John is a veteran of the Viet Nam war, he marches each year and he always carries the POW/MIA flag.


There were drummers and marching bands, but my favorite is the bagpipers.




The parade always ends with antique cars, and this year these tiny foreign cars joined the parade. I see them all over now, I guess they are easy on the wallet, but I think they are so comical looking.


May was a busy month, it was a beautiful month, and I was sad to see it end.

But June has lots of good things in store!
Best of all we'll be having a Family Picnic/Reunion on Saturday and family & friends near and far will be coming!
My youngest brother Joey, his wife Judy, and their youngest son Jake are flying here from Florida for the weekend. My nephew Thomas and his two sons Tommy and Eamon will be driving up from South Carolina. My oldest brother Tom will be driving up from Maryland, and my sister Marybeth will make the trip from Pennsylvania. I'm really looking forward to it!

There will be Birthdays to celebrate, and there is Father's Day, and Jayden 'graduates' from Pre-K this month, and Ray's office is having a race to benefit the Central Park Conservation and Jayden & I will join him in Central Park afterwards for a picnic, and there will be pool parties and barbecues on the weekends, so there are many good things to look forward to!

'Hope you all enjoy a wonderful June too!