Mothers' Day!

Today was such a fun, crazy mothers' day! First of all, we woke up to snow. It was not that cold outside, and the snow was very wet, but it was definitely snowing big heavy flakes, and enough to stick to the ground. It was nice for the kids to get one last good romp in the snow in before we head to a warmer climate.

This girl was working the whole time on making mini snowmen which later turned into towers when Jake pushed everything over and she had to rebuild.

Em made regular-sized snowmen. She was pretty serious about the whole business.

Two little cuties. Jake's face almost didn't fit inside his hood!

One of Em's creations.

Caleb was there too.

Even before all this though, my day was filled with big events. The kids spent most of the day yesterday making cards and planning an epic mother's day party. After church today Emily came up to me and said, "okay, count to ten and then come to our bedroom." So Joseph, Jacob, and I counted, then went down the hall to their closed bedroom door. When we opened it, the three older kids jumped out from where they'd been hiding and yelled, "Surprise!!" They then ushered me into a chair they'd dragged in for the purpose and proceeded to present me with many, many mothers' day cards. I think Jake made 3, El made 4, Caleb made 6, and Em made 4. All taped shut very, very securely (to ensure no peeking before card-opening time).
 Here is a sampling of their work:

Jake's are on the left, El's on the right. It would probably be worth your time to click in and look at El's close up - that girl on top is pretty awesome. And each of those sequins on the bottom card? Painstakingly taped on one at a time. The flip side of the page looks very similar, as did her other two cards. Lots of sequins (which she calls 'squeakens'), lots of tape.

Caleb's on the left, Emily's on the right. Caleb draws a lot, but doesn't seem interesting in advancing his technique at all. He doesn't bother with silly things like switching marker colors either. Em is always sweet and thoughtful in her pictures for me. The two that I didn't show are drawn entirely in orange and yellow because she knows I like those colors. In fact, one is a drawing of "orange-yellow land," which of course, was created in my honor.

While I was looking at the cards Emily led all the kids in singing a couple of mothers' day songs (and also a song from Tangled for some reason). It had been awesome to hear them all practicing in a coordinated, organized manner this morning, and I loved seeing Emily look so proud and in charge with her carefully written list of songs as everyone followed her lead.

After cards the three older kids and I played a rousing game of Monopoly Jr. while Jacob helped Joseph prepare some food for dinner and an awesome cake for after. I was so tired that all I wanted to do was flop down onto a couch and lay comatose until Joseph called me for dinner. But the kids were so excited to follow their party plans and make my day special that I faked some energy and enthusiasm and sat down with them to play. And you know what, it was actually really fun! Those three are old enough to actually sit down and focus and understand  what's going on. They're getting to the point where they get that it's just a game and we play it for fun and it's not the end of the world if things don't go their way. I was really grateful to have a chance to spend some happy time with them.

This was an unplanned portion of the party - the sequin shindig! Some unknown child had exploded a bag of sequins all over the schoolroom. It took a long time to clean up, but was at the same time pretty awesome. Jake kept running out to the living room with the soles of his feet caked with sequins. We had many sequin trails throughout the apartment. (But things are only made better with a bit of sparkle, right?)

So, the other day at the store we got some corn dogs and giant marshmallows. And a few other things - I promise, those items were really not my sole purpose for grocery shopping. In fact, I don't think we've ever bought either one before, ever. So the kids were really excited when we mentioned maybe using them as our after-church snack today. Emily was excited enough to tell all of her teachers and friends and random people in the hall that when she got home she'd get to eat corn dogs and giant marshmallows! Joseph said he could almost hear those people thinking, "so Daddy's cooking today, huh?"

The snack was very much enjoyed.

 

 
All in all, it was a really fun mother's day. I did feel loved by my family and I enjoyed all the special things we were able to do... even the corn dogs and giant marshmallows. :)