Call Her Blessed: One Lucky Mama

I was so spoiled this Mother's Day! My sweet husband let me sleep in (ahem, I admit this is nothing new since he gets up with the kids every weekend...I know... he's the best). I woke to the sounds of little voices saying "Happy Mother's Day! Open mine first!" and little elbows and knees climbing over and on me to get a good spot to watch me opening my treasures.

I had an idea that it would be a great day since I managed to avoid wetting the bed when Thomas stomped on my bladder and no one woke me with the words "Wow Mama, your breath is stinky!" ;-)

The thing they were all the most excited about though, was the cake. They'd made me a special Mother's Day cake, complete with homemade butter cream chocolate frosting. Guess what I had for breakfast :-)

Then I called my own Mama and thanked her for being so wonderful.

Then I got off the phone and let myself feel sad for a few minutes cuz I miss my Mom.

And my Grandma.

Then I decided I had to be done feeling sad and to just enjoy the day even if I couldn't take my Mom out to pizza.

Since we're blessed to live near several grandmas, we got loaded up in the car to make the rounds. First stop was Hubby's mom. She has a nice little play area with picnic tables, so we packed a lunch and ate there with her. I was so thankful for a sunny day.

Here's Clara's "I'm trying to eat here, Mom" face:

Sammy's "I love it when you take my picture....how 'bout a wink" look:

Thomas's "I'll indulge you with a fake smile instead of running away" look:

And Ben's "I guess I'll sit here and smile since you threatened my life if I ran" look:

After lunch, we dashed over to Great Grandma's to drop off some goodies, and then it was home for Thomas' nap. While he slept, we planted the lilac plant that my wonderful man gave me and I went for a (rather painful) run.

No celebration of anything having to do with me is complete without Mexican food, so we met Grandma and Grandpa for dinner at my favorite restaurant. Their spinach enchiladas are so yummy, they almost brought me to tears.

I've been eating too much salad.

I just had to take pictures of the homemade goodies the kids gave me - they're so precious to me!

Sammy made this wonderful "flower" for me with the help of her preschool teachers. The photo is simply the most beautiful photo of Samantha I've ever seen!

She also drew a picture of us together and signed her name. My baby girl is getting so big!

Ben made this sweet fridge magnet at school. Look at my handsome boy! How priceless are sweet and thoughtful teachers?

Thomas drew me a couple of pictures too. Apparently, he thought his gift lacked a little zip because he ripped the gift bow off Ben's gift, attached it to his drawing, and presented it to me with a big kiss (complete with the "mmmmmaaaaaa" sound effect) :-)

And Clara - she made the most incredible book for me. She did all the writing and drawing with zero help from anyone. I could just see how hard she worked on it.

"My mother is very nice. She is 28 inches tall. She weighs 52 pounds. She has blue eyes. She has brown hair. The food she likes best is Pesdu (pizza??). Her favorite color is blue.

Pizza is my mom's favorite food, but she doesn't like cat's"

"She spends most of her time doing: Red's book's (reads books...can't tell you how thankful I am for this instead of 'being on the computer')

The thing my Mom likes to do for fun is: tac Picxrs (take pictures)"

"My Mom helps our family by: git grsres (get groceries)

When my Mom daydreams she thinks about: that hre cod sta in bed olda da (that she could stay in bed all day!!!)"

"If Mom could have one wish come true, she would wish for: That Bale is aliv (that Bailey is alive)"

I suppose I should have been a bit more melancholy over this final page about our dead dog, but I couldn't help bursting into laughter at the picture of our little spotted dog (she even drew the detail of his differently colored eyes!) with his legs in the air and a smile on his face.