Mother's Day

Ahh Mother's Day. The one day that moms get a little recognition for all that they do. It sounds like a great idea, but I know that it doesn't always happen the way that Mom expects or wishes. Sometimes kids and dads just don't deliver to expectation, or not at all.

I was very lucky this year. All of my family really made me feel like they were trying. Nothing is perfect, but I love them all so much, and my standards are pretty low. ;)

Caroline brought home this card that she helped make at daycare. I don't even mind that "pieces" is misspelled.

Max picked out this card (okay, so it's a birthday card, but Max was apparently dead set on the shark card that played music) and some (mostly dead) flowers. But, I really love that this is 100% my Max. He knew what he wanted for me, and got it. And look how good his name is getting!

We got around for church early, because I knew I wanted to get a good picture with the kids for my Mother's Day book. Max was kind of resistant at first, so the best shot, he still looked a little off. I still love it though.

And then Caroline was resisting pictures, and Max was loving on me, so then Caroline wanted in on the action, and I got this gem of a shot of my babies loving me. <3>

Caroline took her hand at photography, and she needs to work on her aim. I had to move myself in front of the camera for the shot.

So of course Max decided he needed to take one of me too.

At Sunday School, the kids drew pictures of their mom and answered some questions about her. Max showed me his drawing, "Look, Mom. There's a picture of you and your computer!" Oh, ouch. At least he thinks I'm twenty years old, and I always say "I love you."

Walter also ordered me a new mother's necklace with the kids' names and birthstones, but he doesn't know how Etsy works, so he didn't get a chain, and we're not sure when it's coming. But he thinks he got the names and birthstones right.

I'm going to call it a win, because they tried. ;)

Mother's Day Play

Thursday afternoon, Max's daycare class (the Geckos) had a Mother's Day Play. Walter and I were both able to make it. The story was "Who wants a baby dragon" based on a children's book. Each child was a character, and basically walked across the stage saying, "So-and-so doesn't want a baby dragon" until the last child, who is the Mommy dragon comes out, and she DOES want a baby dragon. Awww.

It was pretty cute, I have to say. Most of them muttered or whispered their lines, many said their lines as they kept walking across the stage, some didn't say anything at all, stood wide-eyed, looked around and left. My favorite was the first kid, who was Thomas the Train, but he wouldn't say his line, just "I wanted to be a super hero" before walking off. Haha!

Max was "Bumblee (the transformer) doesn't want a baby dragon."  I got there early so I could get a front row seat. I learned my lesson the last two times.

And we got cupcakes afterwards, so it was a great time.

Caroline

Caroline is at the really, really fun age where everything they do is pretty darn adorable. I could sit and watch her for hours and be totally satisfied and entertained.

She found a blanket, so that meant that she had to find a baby doll to wrap up and carry around. Well, then she sees this shopping card, so she needs to put her baby to bed. Then she has to find one of the binkies that she likes to play with and was trying to give it to her baby for night-night. Could she be any more precious? No, really?

First time blowing bubbles. She did surprisingly well! A little too close to the mouth at first, but she got the hang of it.

My shark girl, "rawr!"-ing for me.

Easter Sunday (Picture HEAVY)

Easter weekend, we planned to go to the PSU Easter egg hunt, and then drive to Tulsa to spend the rest of the weekend. The weather was lame (surprise, surprise, Kansas) and so we skipped the hunt and headed south a little earlier than we planned. On the way, we hit a fun car milestone and scored 1's across the board.

Sunday morning, (somehow I got a room to myself, and Max and Walter slept in the room with Caroline) Walter came in and said I needed to hurry up and get up because the kids were about to get into the baskets from the Easter bunny.  So I jumped up and grabbed my camera. I mean, does it get cuter than this?

The answer is yes. Yes, it does get cuter, when you pull out the Easter suit and dress. Gah! And my husband thinks we don't need to make more of these?!

We went to a church service with Grandma Jackie, Audra and Richard, which was really nice! I was a little sad that we didn't get to celebrate with our church family, but we had a great weekend in Oklahoma.

We took the opportunity at home to get some pictures of the kids dressed up. I couldn't get enough of them.

The rest of the family began showing up and we enjoyed lunch, and lots of treats.

Max was spelling his name for Amy, and he told her W, as in MaxWell, but just stopped so she thought it was an initial. We had a good laugh about Max W.

Then it was time for the Easter egg hunt! Caroline's first one! Max was so sweet, and kept helping Caroline find them. He can be such an amazing big brother sometimes. Like, it makes me want to cry. (Surprise, surprise, I knwo.)

Love her carrying it around like a purse.

So the eggs... the ones we dyed. I realized after I was done, that I had missed a step in the process. Basically I didn't cook them long enough, and we found out exactly what that meant when Caroline dropped one, and it splatted on the ground in a half cooked/ half raw mess of Ewww. Walter let Max break the rest of them in the ditch, so at least there was some fun to be had anyway.

And bubbles!

Neither kid napped all day, so they crashed before we could get out of town. It was a good weekend.

Max's Last soccer game

For Max's last soccer game, the weather was finally beautiful (and he was healthy!). Aunt Bonnie brought Susie, Emmett, and Olivia, and Grandma Sharon to watch. Grandma Karla was coming back through from a trip to Springfield, so she got to watch too. Max was thrilled to have a cheering section.

Once again, Max played awesomely. We cheered and cheered! He scored two goals, and I even caught one on tape, amazingly enough. I think we've watched it thirty times. He just smiles. :) (I also got a new camera for my birthday, so the pictures are better.)

Look at that leg action.

Praying before the game, which I think is sweet.

Good game...

Of course we don't keep score, but I'm pretty sure the Purple Team won the championship, and Max is MVP.