Mother's Day weekend - was it already a week ago?!

The days seem to be flying by suddenly, at lightening speed. I wonder if its an end of school year kind of thing. May has never felt so hurried and crazy before. Maybe its because we weren't really living normal life in April? Who knows. Either way, its definitely picked up a fast pace.
School is coming to an end {only a few weeks left!} and our social life has picked up quite a bit, with lots of play dates, filed trips and weekly church activities.
Just when I think the week is dragging on, the weekend appears. Ahhhh.... the weekend.

The pictures in this post are from Mother's Day weekend. I have always wished holidays like Mother's Day and Father's Day should be on Saturdays. If you're a church going family, you probably understand why. I like to start those days off relaxing with my family. Its hard to do when you've got to get up and get off to church. Then we come home in time for naps and then its dinner time when naps are over for the kids.
So this year, we did a big family breakfast on Saturday. Jason and I made breakfast together and the treat that day was smoothies. We love breakfast smoothies.

I love meals where we sit down as a family and we each take turns changing the subject to things we want to chat about. Usually starts with Ethan or Rachel saying something, then Kara will suddenly talk about something completely off topic, followed by Jason or me bringing the topic back to something we all understand ;-) followed by Rachel randomly asking us if we lived in a movie "for reals" what movie would you live in, etc... my favorite part is when you realize the talking has stopped because everyone is too engrossed in their food. Ethan makes this weird, very soft humming sound when he's enjoying his food. It drives me nuts, but I have a feeling someday I'll talk about it with that "longing-for-those-days" look in my eyes as I remember back to his silly noises while eating. I recently watched a movie called The Switch {or something like that} and the actor, Jason Bateman, makes the SAME sound! Craziness.

Then there's the nightgowns, messy bed hair and sleepy bed eyes from a good night sleep. I love when they come rolling out of bed on a Saturday morning and come into our room, all excited to see that Daddy is home from work. You hear the feet come shuffling in our doorway, then a pause, then a gasp and a squeal {if its the girls, the squeal is inevitable} followed by them running down the hall to tell the other kids "Its Saturday! Daddy's home too!!!" Every Saturday isn't always so sweet and pleasant - some weekends begin with all of us running 5 different directions. Thankfully those are more rare than the relaxing Saturday mornings.

How do you like her smile?
She practices many a day. Its her new thing. She sees a camera, any camera and breaks out these hilarious fake smiles. She also talks in all sort of different accents {British being her favorite} and makes up all sorts of silly songs while she plays. The other day she said "I'm gonna go brush my teeth" and then for the next hour or so, we heard her singing those words as she played throughout the house. She's clever too and sometimes mixes words in with familiar tunes.
The tooth brush song was mixed with the tune to Come Thou Fount, which is her favorite song to sing in church.

this is usually her British accent face. Cracks me up. 

and this is what she calls her "Kara is 2 and a half" smile :-) Its also known as, the real smile. 

We buy our milk raw, from a local farm. The kids love it. In fact, several weeks ago we ran out and I was too lazy to go to the health food store and buy a 1/2 gallon until our next order came in at the farm and so Jason ran to Safeway and bought some regular milk there. I gave Ethan some of it and he sipped it, made the funny face and said "wait... is this coconut milk? what's wrong with this? it tastes awful" {he doesn't like coconut milk apparently}. 

Kara was very excited that our last order of raw milk came in 3 - 1/2 gallon containers.

I think she was most excited that she could pour it...

all by herself. 

We left in the afternoon for 'baby' Gideon's first birthday party! His parents did a nautical theme and it was so much fun! They had a water activity table, where you could fish and play with boats and then Gideon's Daddy {pictured} make a sail boat out of cardboard and wood for the kids to play in. 

I know its very typical to say this, but it really does feel like he was born yesterday. I remember going over to visit him when he was just home from the hospital and now he's walking, starting to talk, giving all sorts of on demand sweet smiles and getting SO big! 

like this little cutie-pie, Maggie... she's 6 months old! I have no idea where the past 6 months have gone. These sweet babies go to church with us, so we see them every Sunday {and Gideon comes to our house every Wednesday for Community Group} and yet they seem to still get big without us realizing it. Soak it in, new parents... soak it all in. 

these cute people were at the party too :) 

Mother's Day arrived and off to church we went! We tried to take a picture of the kids with me in the front yard, but Kara apparently had no time for it. She was insisting we go to church and not miss it. 

I was so glad Jason captured this picture - look what we go through to get her to smile! 

and we had no success getting a smile out of her. 

when I showed her this picture, she said "I think I was seeing a bug on the ground!" 

Yeah... right. 

Mother's Day was interesting and fun and relaxing. So in the end, it was lovely, but had an odd start for sure. 

We got to church, checked the kids into Sunday School, Jason and I went to "big" church, settled in for singing and then the service. I was very excited to hear the sermon because the Executive Pastor over our church was preaching and I've never heard him preach before. So I had been looking forward to that sermon for over a week's time. Just as he was coming out to preach, my pager for Kara started buzzing. I thought it was odd, since we never get paged for any of the kids. 

I ran to see what happened, worrying she was hurt or something and when I got there, I could tell right away what had happened. She peed in her outfit. Kara never has potty accidents. Its been several months at least. The teacher was very apologetic and when I locked eyes with Kara, she smiled and said "Now you and me get to go shopping for new clothes!!!" 

I can't help but wonder if she did it on purpose. Back when we were potty training her, we took her to Sunday School to see if she was ready to be there with big girl underpants and tell the teacher when she had to go potty. It wasn't a success. We got paged about 20 minutes into the sermon and Kara was soaked and crying. I took her a few miles away to Target and we grabbed a change of clothes, since I had neglected to pack a spare outfit :(
I think last Sunday she remembered that and decided if she peed, we'd have another shopping date. So we did :) 

I was so completely bummed to be missing church, I decided to shake the bad attitude and make the most of it. We first got some coffee/chocolate milk at Starbucks, then we went to Target and picked out a new skirt, new undies and new tights. We talked about how big girls stay dry in class and how from now on, Mommy will pack a spare outfit for events, just in case. 

She told me she wanted to be with me and not go to Sunday School, so I let her know that she was also allowed to do that any time she wants to. I don't want her to think she has to wet her pants to stay in church with me :) We ended up having a nice mother-daughter date and I'll catch the sermon online this week. My motto in life lately? "It could be worse." Applies to most situations. 

After church Jason and Josh {my friend Danielle's husband} gifted us with the day out, just the two of us ladies!! We took off to a delicious Pad Thai lunch and then went to see a movie. 

We had a blast being totally kidless and being able to talk and talk with NO interruption :) 

I love Danielle. She is very much like a sister to me. Not only a sister-in-Christ, but a real sister. 

I love our deep talks and the way she encourages me and I encourage her. 

I'm glad Washington got her :) 

I'm glad God had us meet each other over 10 years ago, only to end up living in the same state, going to the same church!  What are the odds? 

Mother's Day was wonderful. We came home after our day out and spent the evening with our families. I am a blessed woman and I'm thankful for days like Mother's Day to stop and reflect on God's goodness to me in my Mom, my Mother-in-law and my own journey through Motherhood.

I hope you all had wonderful celebrations as well!