Mother's Day 2014

Mother's Day this year was low-key and pretty great. It sort of started on Thursday when Grant came home from school with the card he made for me and a little plant waiting to sprout (which actually had a little bud this morning!).

My first Mother's Day card that he wrote his name in!

My little plant...loaded with sequins :)

Friday afternoon, Husband came home with some pretty flowers that he and Grant had picked out for me. They're so pretty and they're still making my house smell so good!

I looooove stargazer lillies

Husband told me it was "my weekend" and that we could do whatever I wanted. That made me excited but I tried not to get carried away :) On Saturday I had planned to run errands, so we all went and stopped at the museum on the way. It's so fun to wander around there watching Grant get excited about everything. 

"Can I put my hand in his mouth??"

Sunday morning I woke up with Grant's face in my face and him telling me "Happy Mother's Day, Mama!" Never a bad way to wake up.

I also got one more present Grant made me at school :)

I've always wanted to do Mother's Day brunch (I'm relatively easy to please...especially if food is involved). So we had made plans to eat with Husband's mom and stepdad. We went to several places trying to find a place that didn't have a crazy wait time and in that time, Grant decided to tell us he felt like he had to throw up. He never did and ended up eating lunch but we went home after brunch anyway. 

With Grant feeling better, we went out a little later to look at picnic tables. I've been really one and with the weather getting nice it would be great to eat dinner outside, yes? But we didn't find one at the Lowes we went to. Husband ended up pulling in the driveway with one on Monday and we ate dinner outside last night!

It was a really great weekend and we all got to spend time together having fun, which is really the best way to spend Mother's Day.

Mother's Day is always a little bittersweet for me, obviously. This year was better than the last couple and I know it'll get easier. It's easy to get caught up in the hype of the day and feel like you should be made to feel special that day. I had a little reality check Friday evening when my sister called to let me know that a very good friend of ours got some bad news. A friend who has had some very tough times in years past and faced every one of them with a smile on her face and a fantastic attitude. It made me realize how petty and commercialized Mother's Day has become and how lost the real meaning is. No, I don't have my mom around anymore. And as I helped Grant spell "Gramma" to write on the envelope for my mother-in-law's card, it's easy to feel a little sadness that he's not writing "Nana" on one too. But the reality is that even without my parents, I still have a lot. I have so much to be thankful and grateful for that aren't things. "Things" don't matter. Though I had a wonderful day and weekend, I don't need Mother's Day to make me feel special. Grant does that for me every day in big and little ways. I'm healthy, my family is healthy, we have a roof over our heads and food to eat. What made it a wonderful day was not what I got but that I got to celebrate the day with my husband and wonderful little boy and his grandparents that love him so much. 

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) Grant participated in his school's annual trike-a-thon to benefit St. Jude and raised $255 to help their efforts! And later on that day we took him out for pizza to celebrate and I surprised him with a quick pre-dinner stop at the park.

Riding for a cause

At the park

2) Saturday we had a fun little water balloon fight!

3) On Sunday, Grant had his first ride on the mower. He's always loved to stand at the window and watch Husband mow and he never asks to ride it. I know it's technically a no-no but the blades weren't going, it was just a ride around the house.

4) I got to make this fun cake for one of our directors who'll be leaving us soon.

I call it "Homeless Animal Cake"

5) I finally had some time to bake up some treats for the staff at Grant's school for Teacher Appreciation week. I made them this tray of goodies that has red velvet oreo truffle bars and my go-to chocolate chip cookies. They're an awesome bunch of people and we so appreciate everything they do for Grant!

Happy Friday!
Have a great weekend!

Water Balloon Fight

 Water balloons are the Devil.

Grant got water balloons in his Easter basket from Auntie Shauna...so maybe she's the devil. He actually got water balloons from the Easter bunny too but since we used Shauna's first, I'm just going to go ahead and blame her. On Saturday afternoon, while stirring dinner in the crockpot, I thought "Wouldn't today be a great day for a water balloon fight?" After several ridiculous attempts to fill them at the sink because I found the included nozzle to be useless, I was over it. That's when Husband found me p.o.'d in the kitchen and said "You know that nozzle is for the hose, right?" 

So things went a little smoother after that (in my defense, we never used real water balloons as kids...we just found leftover birthday balloons which are much sturdier!). I was crouched in the front yard filling balloons and getting soaked for at least 30 minutes. Once my pile of filled balloons out weighted the ones that had exploded in my face, I was feeling quite accomplished. Grant was at the window the whole time supervising "Hey what are you doing with those? That one just 'sploded! That orange one right there. You need to pick up the pieces." Very helpful.

Eventually...it was go time. Husband came outside to watch and take pictures. He didn't think he was going to participate...so I made sure to nail him with a couple balloons :)

Grant thought we were just going to toss them around the yard. He was ecstatic when he found out he could throw them at me. They were a little tougher to break than I thought they'd be (given how many of the little bastards blew up in my face) so I had to make an effort to try to pop the ones he threw at me. He loved it!

I love this one :)

And just so yo don't think this was one-sided:

Believe me, of the three of us out there...I was the one soaked the most. How much fun we had kind of made me forget what a pain it was filling the balloons (until we were done and I had to nurse all the cuts on my fingers from tying them). And Grant had such a blast. He's never done water balloons before (that I know of) and he loved every bit. He even asked if we could do it this weekend too. I said maybe. My hands have to heal from this one first!

2014 Trike-a-thon

This past Friday, Grant got to once again participate in his school's trike-a-thon to benefit St. Jude (last year was his first time...you can check it out HERE). When I told Grant that we were signing up to do this again this year, he asked what it was. He got really excited when I told him that he was going to be able to ride his bike at school with his friends. When I explained that it raises money for kids who are sick, he looked confused and told me that none of his friends are sick. I explained that he doesn't know these kids but they're in a hospital and his school is raising money to help them. When I signed Grant up, I set his goal at $200 (since he raised that last year when his goal was $100). Every time we got a donation for Grant, I told him about it and how we were getting closer to his goal. He always got very excited about donations (probably because I was too) and he'd say "It's for riding my bike...and helping."  

The day of the trike-a-thon, I had volunteered to help out so I was there to watch all the classes. But when Grant's class came out I kinda just became Mama again for a while. The crazy Mama that runs around with the camera.

Headed out to the "track"

The trike-a-thon is held in the school parking lot. They rope it off and make a "track" so they can ride around in a loop. They all did really well!

So happy and excited!

I could hear him making "vroom vroom!" noises
every time he passed me.

Nothing like a family picture when I've spent the morning sweating!
But Grant was so happy and we were so proud of him :)

This year Grant raised $255 which, I found out through emails I received every time a donation was made, is enough to provide a family at St. Jude with a meal card for a week. So THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who made donations to help support Grant and the families at St. Jude! 

During one conversation that morning I found out that the school has been doing this for 10 years and has raised over $30,000 for St. Jude in that time. 

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1)We took a day trip to the beach on Saturday and had so much fun together!

2) Sunday was just about as gorgeous as Saturday so I had some playtime outside with Grant. We went for a bike ride then played soccer & baseball.

Showing me where his home run was going :)

3) I love when packages from my sister come bearing bags of delightful coffee. I can't find get Green Mountain coffee in bags here so this is a treat but the golden french toast flavor is one of the few flavored coffees I'll drink. So yummy! If you're a coffee lover and have never had Green Mountain coffee...you're depriving yourself of greatness.

In one of my favorite mugs.

4) Grant wrote his name for the first time! He is a boy obsessed with practicing letters right now and last night he wrote Dad too :)

5) Today Grant will be participating in a trike-a-thon to benefit St. Jude at his school. We've been helping him fundraise for it and this morning I got to tell him that he met his goal - and since then exceeded it - of $200! He was so excited. I know he doesn't fully understand the concept of what they're doing, but he does know he's trying to help people and I'm so happy that that makes him happy. He's also super jazzed about getting ride his bike at school :)

Happy Friday!
Have a great weekend!