Erin-and-Brad-ish things from May

In a span of 5 days, we celebrated Brynna's birthday, multiple days of Brad's graduation activities, Mother's Day, and my birthday. WHEW. May is busy for everyone, I know. Coming out of pandemic scheduling (i.e. not much of anything) into this year's May craziness was a shock to my system.

My birthday was two days after Mother's Day, and I came downstairs to this sweet pile of presents wrapped by the girls:

They used boxes they could find around the house + hair bows from our stash. It is THE sweetest when they do that.

I had lots of kind Facebook birthday wishes, including this fun collage from one of my college roommates.

Bill and Barbara drove over so that they could stay with the girls for us for a couple of nights. Brad and I had always planned to go on a celebratory trip when he graduated, but the trip that we had always envisioned wasn't really a possibility this year, so we decided to go to Wilmington, NC (on the coast) for 48 hours until we can make a bigger trip happen sometime in the future.

This stowaway came with.

I pretty exclusively took pictures of her.

We were only there for 48 hours, and I spent 7 of those hours fighting a migraine. That was disappointing, but we rallied the best we could and ate a lot of good food.

Brad's brother and his wife sent this beautiful charcuterie board as a graduation gift! And then, my friend, Katie, stopped by with flowers and coffee for a birthday visit. 

At the beginning of June, Brad and I were able to go to a wedding! Well, we couldn't go to the actual wedding ceremony, but we went to the reception! Maskless and with people. It was SO MUCH FUN. 

It was fun to get to celebrate things with Brad. Really grateful for all of the thoughtful gifts, the babysitters, and opportunities. It was great to be normal-ish again!

Mother's Day 2021

Last year, I took individual pictures of Brad and the girls on Father's Day, and I LOVED it. I made an actual note in my calendar to remind me that I wanted to do the same thing on Mother's Day. Here's the result for 2021 (I'm planning to do it every year that I can for the rest of time):

Hallie, 8 months

Brynna, 3 years old

Lily, 5 years old

Claire, 8 years old

Erin, penultimate day of 35 years old

I love them. The girls AND the pictures.

Brad the Grad

Brad's graduation with his doctorate was somewhat surreal. Surreal in a good and a weird way. Surreal in that we've worked toward this goal for our entire married life, so finally reaching it is surreal. And also surreal in that there wasn't an actual moment of graduation. Like so many elements of Pandemic Life, Brad's graduation took a hit. There was no official ceremony. No hooding. No pronouncement of doctoral status. We didn't actually know- until several weeks later when his diploma arrived in the mail- what date on the calendar Duke recognized as his graduation day. So surreal.

That said, we did participate in several festive and significant activities to commemorate the event! 

Claire made the MOST PRECIOUS banner for Brad

On Thursday, Brad's program (the Graduate Program of Religion/the GPR), hosted a Zoom recognition for their graduates. It was very meaningful and my favorite of the graduation events. Each advisor gave a few comments about each graduate, followed by a few words from each graduate. It was during the girls' nap/rest/independent time, so I got to sit and watch the whole thing.

Cold brew cheers-ing afterward

The Graduate School hosted a drive-thru graduation celebration...thing...on Friday. We had to sign up for a time to go by, he received his diploma cover and a few gifts, and we got a few true photographic gems:

One of his "gifts" from the Grad School

On Saturday, we sat and watched the recorded commencement address, followed by slides of each doctoral graduate. Watched a whole lot of slides to see this one for 3 seconds (they went by degree earned, not alphabetical order):

Saturday afternoon, we hosted a drop-by graduation party at the park across the street from our house. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures taken, but we had a great time eating snacks and chatting with friends from all different corners of our life here in Durham.

Duke-themed party outfits

Friends and colleagues of Brad's from his academic track. We like all of them very much. And go to church with two of them.

And here are some family pictures with Brad in his regalia (or his "costume," as Claire called it):

I am sad that we weren't able to go and see Brad receive his hood and diploma in a formal ceremony with all the pomp and the circumstance. After waiting for such a long time to have that moment, it was really disappointing to miss out on it. BUT, we did as much as we could to properly celebrate him and his massive achievement, pandemic restrictions or not. We're all so SO proud of him!

Brynnie turned 3!

To kick off our very busy May, Brynna turned 3! Wasn't she JUST BORN? Sheesh, life comes at you fast.

The big girls made her a birthday banner.

She LIVES for the hype of her birthday.

Claire made her this decorative necklace.

She was feeling it.

Mom, Dad, and Amiee came into town for birthday/Brad's graduation weekend, so they got in on (and greatly contributed to) all the fun!

And true to form, Nana threw Brynnie a fantastic family birthday party! Flamingo-themed. "Fingo," according to Brynn.

She had gifts from friends and family, near and far:

She's holding a flamingo charm for her charm bracelet, as well as a plastic calculator from the Dollar Tree. She was equally enamored with both. Thanks, Nana and Poppy!

Puzzles from Brad and me. She is a PUZZLE GIRL. And she's very good at them.

Craft supplies from Uncle Tim and Auntie Jenna and Zoey!

Another book about our beloved Claris (from Aunt Sue)

Butterfly backpack from Aunt Donna and Uncle JD

Fluffy flamingo purse and fancy sunglasses from Mrs. Romine

More themed clothing that thrills her heart

May 7-May 11 were full of: Brynn's birthday, Brad's "graduation" and festivities, Mother's Day, and my birthday. Mom, Dad, and Amiee were here for everything except my actual birthday.

Dressed for Brynn's party

Taking a "selfie" with her "phone" (calculator)

On Mother's Day, we ended up not going to church. Our church requests that if anyone has any symptoms that *could* mean COVID, that you stay home. Claire and Lily both had some seasonal allergies that weekend, and even though we knew it was allergies, we stayed home. That said, I still had them get dressed for pictures (they weren't so sick that this was a cruel mom move, btw).

It went super well, as you can see. It is a REAL challenge to get everyone looking and smiling at the camera at the same time. Bless us.

We had a great time celebrating Brynn. She's a sweet and sassy firecracker and doesn't look like any of us. We're so thankful that she's a part of our family!