The Stevenson Ohana: May 2025

Saturday, May 31, 2025

May 2025

May 2025:

Here is a bunch of random photos from the month! We had a lot of happy days this month and sunshine. The highlights of the month is Luke's birthday and baptism, French Open, Whitney & Ephraim's visit, and mother's day! These are the days!

We felt super grateful to have both sets of parents here for Luke's baptism!

Yummy pizza lunch date, thanks Dave for watching Lucy!

We had a fun post church lunch on Mother's Day that was a highlight of the month!

So fun having these two close by!

Best mom, mother-in-law and grandma! We love you Mi-Mi!

Mother's day lovin!

My highlight from the french open trip :)

Whitney and Ephraim! The best little weekend in May!

Majority of the photos from the month on my phone were of Lucy, we spend lots of time together when the boys are at school. She needs her own post to share all the funny things she does and say each day but sticking these all here for now :)

The girl loves BUTTER! Call her Blaine.

Always finding finger prints and spoonfuls missing from our butter dish.

She also loves dressing up. A lady at school pickup told me this month: "Every time I see your daughter, she reminds me of a fairy plum princess" . . . I was grateful she didn't say "orphan", because most the time we see people at school pickup, Lucy is bare footed with crazy bedhead wearing something ridiculously not matching or in costume.

She loves shopping :)

Monday, May 26, 2025

Double Header- French Open & Libema Open 2025

May 25th- May27th 2025- Attending this year's French Open was pretty special cuz Alyssa and I got to go together with my parents watching the kids for a couple of nights. It was a blast! It continues to deliver as the tennis mecca, getting to watch most of the matches with front row or nearly front row seats to top 25 players. It's amazing how after watching over 10 hours of tennis the first day, and then to be so excited to get back there the 2nd day for more and then is always so hard to leave. Such a perfect combo- all day tennis, being in Paris with Parisian bakeries in the morning and bakery sammies for lunch and dinner. The weather thankfully was better than last year (hard to be worse) and we had no rain delays despite at times iffy looking weather. Alyssa came prepared to do some work and art in between the tennis but she enjoyed up enjoying a lot more than she thought and was very much into the tennis and overall vibe. It was such a fun trip and so thankful for my parents watching the kids.

There's some matches that unexpectedly deliver and become the favorite of the day like this one (Griekspoor v Marcos Giron). The level of tennis and rallies was really high, two evenly matched dudes and a surprisingly raucous crowd of Dutchies and Americans each supporting their guy. Turned out to be one of the last matches going on in the outer courts so was fun to get some under the lights late night tennis.

A few weeks later we had a work outing to the Libema Open in den Bosch. It was really fun. First time seeing tennis on grass and it was a completely different vibe. Was really cool to see. Will definitely be going back next summer to this tournament. The vibe was really chill. Really pretty location in the middle of pretty Dutch country fields and the grounds were really pretty with lots to do for kids, foodtrucks and just a lot of hang space. Really enjoyed the time there and got to see some good tennis. Seeing Opelka in person was really cool and got to see Medvedev for a bit before we had to go. Cant wait to go back with the fam and my dad.

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Luke Lately: 8th Birthday Party!

May 11, 2025:

The weekend following your Baptism we celebrated your birthday with friends and did a very fun party! This year you decided you wanted your party at the "Fun Forest", I was really impressed you picked this place, because you had only done it once before and it was a bit scary for you that time. I was way proud and totally admired your bravery. It was a wild party, with 6 silly crazy boys full of energy and sugar.

During the party, the employees gave you guys a little lesson with how to clip in and out and then let you guys go for it! We were both shocked because there wasn't any supervision after they gave the lesson and you all were on your own to make your way through the ropes course. It seemed like it would never happen in the US, just letting you guys go free and clip in and out over some big heights and ziplines. Luckily everyone was safe and nobody injured. It was a fun day and your friends all went in and got you a big dino lego set you wanted. I love seeing you interact with all your buddies and it is especially fun hearing you all speak in dutch together. This was a very special day and we love you lots!! Happy 8th Luke!!

and of course we did some mickey mouse pancakes :)

Saturday, May 3, 2025

Luke Lately- Baptism and Confirmation!

May 3, 2025:

I can’t believe I have an 8-year-old!!! TIME FLIES! He is now officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Leading up to the baptism, I had a lot of mixed emotions. I wondered if we should postpone. Was he really ready? Did he understand the decision he was making? Did he feel it was his decision, not just ours? So many thoughts swirling in my mind.

But on the day of the baptism, and even in a few moments the week before. . . those questions and fears began to fade. As Luke answered questions during Family Home Evening and talked about his baptism, I felt peace. And on the day itself, there was just an overwhelming sense of calm and joy, even despite my mix-up in assignments of talk topics . It was such a special day! We were so lucky to have both sets of grandparents there to share it with us and so much love and support from our ward family.

It was a really good experience for Luke. When I asked him about it almost two months later, he said it was “a very good day.” He remembered the sweet talks MeMe and Papa Moncur gave, how super warm the water was, and, of course, the fact that he got some presents and someone gave him ten euros. 😉