mother's day officially celebrated at last

So we finally got around to celebrating Mother's Day with my family.  It was perfect timing too, because my dad's cousins were here visiting from Holland!  I hadn't seen them in ages, like probably since high school!  So I guess it wasn't really that long ago, was it?  Ha! ;)

So the kiddos had lots of extra adults around to give them all the extra attention they craved.

They even got to play in the pool!

These two had so much fun. I think they forgot anyone else was even here!

Whereas the little ones got a little too chilly and needed some warming up.

The adults got some good conversation time in.

Anton and Yanni's (our relatives from the Netherlands) son and his wife are missionary doctors in Haiti, so we got to see a lot of great pictures of where they live and hear some very interesting stories.

We had such a great time catching up with them.  Wish we could've spent even more time with them!

And since this was a Mother's Day celebration, here's a picture of the world's best mom!

After all she's done for us, maybe one of us should've volunteered to scrape the dog poop off her shoes...

I think she was trying to teach us an important life lesson here: You gotta walk through a lotta crap as a parent, but it's totally worth it in the end (excuse my language).  Yup, pretty sure she did that on purpose.    She's always trying to teach us life lessons through visual imagery.  Great lesson, mom. Point taken.  ;)

Of course, the kids had lots of homemade cards for her!

Millie made her 3!

Even Tate made one (and he can't sit and color for longer than 30 seconds!)  

And Adeline made her a book full of Mother's Day poetry. :)

These kids sure love their Nana Lois!

And even though this Nana lives farther away, we could never forget about her!  She's dearly loved by us all as well and is such a wonderful mom, mother-in-law and nana!  We love you, Nana Brooks! See you soon!  :)

Hope you all got a chance to honor your mothers too! Have a great week!

one lucky mama!

Mother's Day started for me last week Friday at Adeline's school.  

The first grade classes had their annual "Mother's Day Tea" where they invite all their moms to come to their class and then they surprise us with treats, homemade goodies, songs, poems and more!

My favorite part had to be this darling book she made for me.

It's a book all about me! Complete with adorable pictures! :)

They sang the sweetest songs and said the cutest poems.

I couldn't stop smiling the entire time.  Every single bit of it was so darn cute and sweet.  I have to admit my eyes did leak a little bit... but I wasn't the only one! ;)

And here is the best first-grade teacher in the entire world.  Hands down.  No arguing with me on this one!  She is truly the sweetest teacher ever.

Saturday morning Tate woke up at 1:30 with a high fever and then again at 4:30 with vomit. :(  Poor little guy.  I knew right then that our Mother's Day celebration with my parents and brothers' families scheduled at our house for the next day would probably have to be postponed.  Especially since I was terrified it might be hand, foot and mouth disease (that is going around like CRAZY here!)  Thankfully, it ended up just being a fever with no more vomit!  We cuddled together almost all day, which was really quite wonderful!  

Sunday morning, I kept Tate and Millie home with me (incase Tate was contagious and to keep Millie away from the dreaded hand, foot and mouth!).  When Chad and Addie came home from church, we headed out for a yummy Chinese lunch.  Then we spent the rest of the day hanging out in the yard and going for a walk.  It was so nice! 

The kids had already given me beautiful hand-made cards that morning, but that evening the kids surprised me with this big card they had picked out all by themselves. :)

They caught me by surprise when I was coming downstairs.  It was so cute to see them all lined up waiting for me. :)

One very blessed mama!

So, Mother's Day may be over, but we still have a celebration to look forward to on Sunday!

Onto the rest of the week... the weather has been soooo gorgeous here!

 We spent some time at one of the parks here in town with our neighbor girl (and good friend!) Stephanie.

She let Tate fish with her and guess what....

  they caught a fish!

She took it off and let them touch it.

Then they threw it back in and tried for some more.

Millie and I watched from the sidelines with great anticipation!

 Here they are throwing food to the ducks.  You can't see them now, but they came at us in droves.  There were probably 30-40 encircling us, quacking loudly for our bread. It was a little freaky. I couldn't even get a picture of it because the kids were holding onto me so tightly.  They liked it, but were a little scared at the same time.  When the bread was gone, it was hard to convince them to move on.  I think they thought we were holding out on them. 

They did finally leave us in peace so we could focus on this adorable little family instead.  They were much less threatening.

So, there are a few of my highlights from this week.  Hope you're enjoying this gorgeous weather too!

all we need is a may pole...

Ah, May Day! 

So glad our neighborhood kids celebrate this fun holiday.  I did growing up (with my elderly neighbor lady - she would drop baskets of candy off at my door and try to hobble away before I caught her - how adorable is that?!?), but when I married a Michigander, I was made to believe I was making the whole thing up.  It really is a holiday.  It really does involve baskets, candy and a maypole.  I'd love to give you the whole history here, but seriously... you can google that yourself.

So here we are, loaded up with "baskets" full of snacks, waiting to be delivered.

Off to the first unsuspecting neighbor's house...

 Don't worry little Tater... someday you'll be leading the pack! ;)

Back after a nearly successful drop-off.  I guess Tate was just a tad too slow...

Time to pick up another load!

This time I gave some helpful strategy... let Tate get a head start before you ring the doorbell.  And it worked.  They got off scott-free! Seriously, I think I should get paid a consulting fee.  Like maybe a few Skittles or something?  No?

And not only did we give baskets, but we also received plenty!

Happy May Day!  

Now please tell me at least some of you do this too! ;)

my latest project :)

The last two weeks I've had a nasty sinus infection and didn't really feel like going anywhere or doing anything.  I was starting to get a little stir crazy, so I decided maybe I should do something productive, so I painted our door to the garage in chalkboard paint!  My very clever friend, Katie L, gave me the suggestion when I was complaining to her that I didn't like the color of my door.  It's so nice to have friends who have good ideas!  She also told me about "chalkboard markers" so if you want something to stay on longer and not get erased, you can use the markers.  So like if you wanted to draw a calendar on your door like this...

then when you go to erase the dates/events, the calendar part will stay put.  And when you want to erase it, you can used rubbing alcohol and it comes right off.  Cool, huh?  Maybe you already knew about those markers, but I never had!  Maybe I need to get on Pinterest more... ;)

Below our family calendar, I made a chore chart for the kids and also made some magnets to go with it.

 

The "$" column is for chores they get paid for (just a quarter), so when they put their magnet there, I know I need to pay them.  Sure helps trying to remember if I gave them their quarter yet or not.  They don't take the magnet off until they have their money! :)

The kids LOVE their new chore chart.  They especially like getting to move their magnets to the "Done" or "$" column!

Here are a few examples of our magnets... they're not perfect, so please don't judge me or look too closely...

dusting...

cleaning the bathroom, setting the table

folding laundry, watering plants

If you've never made magnets before, they're easy breezy.  Here's a quick tutorial:

*You need (1) those glass round things (don't know what they're called, but you can find them in the floral section of Hobby Lobby), (2) some magnets (the round, stronger kind), (3) some clear tacky glue, and (4) hot glue or E6000.  I actually just used E6000 for both types of glue.  That stuff is seriously the strongest glue I've ever seen.  It ate right through a foam plate I had it on one time.  So don't put it on styrofoam!  And be careful because the back of it says prolonged exposure to skin has been known to cause cancer in California.  Not sure why just California... maybe their beautiful, tanned, beachy skin is more sensitive? ;) 

*Then find some cute clipart online.  Print it out on cardstock or matte photo paper.

*Use packing tape to "laminate" the pictures so they don't bleed when you glue them. (this is an optional step... some papers don't bleed as much as others)

*Cut the pictures into circles the size of the magnets.

*Use clear tacky glue or E6000 to glue the pictures to the magnets.

*When mostly dry, use hot glue or E6000 to glue the magnets to the back and Voilà! You have homemade magnets!

Back to the door, I'm not thrilled with this bottom part here, but I wanted the kids to have a place to create their works of art too.

If I decide to keep the frames, I may need my uber-talented friend Abby to come over and re-do them for me.  Up for a playdate, Abby? ;)

Here's what Millie and Tate did today.  It was too nice out when Addie got home from school, so she'll do her picture tomorrow.

Tate wanted me to draw a raincloud for him and he did the "grass."  ;)  And Millie's is a yellow heart in a blue sky with green grass.  Sweet. :)

And here's the door all together.  I thought it looked too busy with the magnets there, so I moved them so they line up down the right side of the chart.  Looks much better.  

And I'm still not sure about those frames... Maybe I'll do one big one to kinda match the chart and calendar?  Any ideas?

Oh, and here's a picture of the door before I did my stuff on it.  This was waiting for me when I came home from a retreat a few weekends ago...

Aw, isn't that sweet!

So now my sinus infection is over, but I'm on this nasty antibiotic until Sunday.  Seriously, the nastiest pill I've ever taken.  It's ginormous and makes my mouth taste metallic-y ALL DAY. It's so bad that it makes me nauseous.  Not kidding.  My doctor recommended sucking on candy to help with the taste. Also she said if I'm in the sun, it'll make me break out in a rash and it also causes the Achille's tendon to weaken and tear, so I can't do my normal workout. (This is what you get when you're allergic to penicillin and sulfa drugs!)  So my teeth might rot, I may gain 5 pounds this week, break into a nasty rash and tear my tendons... all thanks to my sinuses.  ;)  Has anyone else ever been on such a nasty antibiotic?  I never knew one as lethal as this existed!

And, just a reminder... please continue to pray for my cousin's son, TJ. Click here to read about him.  He's been without a feeding tube now for 26 days and is deteriorating right in front of his parent's eyes.  Can't even begin to imagine how difficult that would be. Please pray that God will take him home peacefully.  Makes me feel like a HUGE baby for complaining about my pill. Really gives life a whole new perspective.

this week

Yup. That's the most original title I can come up with right now.  I have a cold.  I'm tired.  But I just wanted to get these pictures on here before life ran away with me and I forgot.

Wednesday night we had a church skate night.  This was little Tate's first time skating.  He skated for about the first 30 minutes and then tuckered out.

 Addie and her friends helped each other out.  They were so cute.

Millie taking her try at independency.

 Sorry these pictures are so blurry.  I guess zooming in from the sidelines doesn't do much for photo quality.

Me and my little man hangin' out watchin' the big kids.

 Thursday night we dyed our eggs.  Yeah, I know.... kinda last minute, but we squeezed it in!

They did such a great job!

Sunday morning we got dressed in our best and started the morning with an Easter egg hunt.

On your marks, get set, GO!

Checking out the loot.

After an amazing Easter service at church, we headed down to my parents house where we posed in their backyard for a family picture,

looks like somewhere along the way the girls lost their arms...

spent some time with great-grandpa,

had a delicious dinner (which I have no pictures of, so you'll just have to trust me),

and had yet another Easter egg hunt!  

 Those guys know how to hide eggs.  Waaaaay out of any kids reach! ;)

And here are the kiddos with all their new found treasures!

Hope you all had a lovely week too!  Now I'm off to take some Benadryl and get some zzz's.  G'night!