Happy Mother's Day

Wishing all the mothers, mothers at heart, and mothers to be a wonderful and happy Mother's day. 

I am truly blessed to celebrate my first one with my beautiful daughter, who has made my life better and full of joy.  Love you little A, this day celebrates you as well.  I am honored that I am your mother.  You are my most precious gift from God.

Mothers, enjoy your day that honors all the hard work you do, and all the love you give.

Celebrations

My first Mother's Day was the day after Lulu was born. She was born on Saturday, May 9th and we found out on Sunday that anyone having a baby on Mother's Day received a free digital camera, a gift from the Eastman Kodak Company. I remember feeling quite cheated, had I known there was a prize I felt like I could have mustered up enough focus and control to delay her birth by a mere 24 hours!

So...that was 1998, thirteen years ago. As of Monday, we will officially have a teenager in our house!! I still remember walking in the house with Lulu for the first time, we set the car seat and baby on the living room floor and The Mayor and I looked at each other and one of us actually said, "now what do we do?" We were both 27 years old and pretty smart but it still seemed like this little baby should have come with a big, thick owners manual!

So, go us! for getting her through the first 13 years of life, it is amazing to think how much she has grown and how much she has learned in that amount of time! So, in celebration of you, Lulu and your 13th birthday I will do the top 13 things I love about Alexa Laine (aka Lulu)...

13. You make glasses and braces look good!

12. You make one doozy of a pen out of duct tape!

11. You always replace the toilet paper with a new roll if you use it up! (you'll be a great wife someday 'cause that is our main job, ya know ☺)

10. You play the oboe very well!

9. You still love to do perler beads!

8. You have the lovely fingernails that I have always wished for

7. You aren't afraid to get on stage and sing, act and dance!

6. You talk to adults

5. You love flip flops and pig tails

4. You work harder in school than anyone I know and it pays off!

3. You always say "I love you" when you say goodbye or goodnight to us

2. You often fall asleep reading your Bible

1. You love the Lord

Happy Birthday Lulu, you make us proud!

Love ya girl!!

Okay, now here is a funny story about Lulu's brother, CJ. He is in fourth grade and is by far the funny one in our family. I do admit we are often laughing AT something he says or does and he probably could become offended but I think he realizes how goofy he is and enjoys his role of family comedian. So, CJ was chosen to take the test to be part of the gifted learner program at school (no, that's not the funny part ☺) The test had several parts and one was an essay. He came home and told us about it. The essay question was...if you could become any person or object from any time what would you choose? So, we are thinking that kids are going to answer that they would want to be the first astronaut to walk on the moon, or go back in time and be George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or maybe someone rich and famous. In my head, as he is telling us this, I am thinking that I will be so very proud if he said that he wished he could be Noah or one of Jesus' disciples or... So, what did CJ say??? He would like to be a coconut. Yes, a C-O-C-O-N-U-T. We all look at each other, a coconut? Yes, he says, because then I could just relax in a palm tree and look out at the beach and the ocean and enjoy the birds. Hummm...We all bust out laughing. CJ busts out laughing too. We start thinking about the teacher who will read the essays...Suzie wants to be the First Lady, Charlie wants to be a famous athlete, CJ wants to be a...coconut?! We laugh harder, and then Lulu says, "he'll probably get a lot of points for that answer!" He is a nut, if not a coconut!

I wish I was a coconut

And now, what was the best thing we ate this week? Lulu and I agreed it was a fresh dole pineapple. It was so juicy and sweet that we ate it up and didn't even take any pictures!

Happy Mother's Day!

free mother's day printable and a story

When my sisters and I were little girls, my aunt came to live with us for a time.  We lived in a big, big house  so there was plenty of room for everyone.  I loved having her live with us because it provided a different adult to interact with day by day.  And I knew, even though she technically had the ability to punish me if I was naughty, she was more likely to "let it slide" (let's just say, she knew how to make peas disappear from a dinner plate for you).

Of course I loved my mom, but it's safe to say every child has a different relationship with a mom versus an aunt.  I love when my niece, little L says I'm the best when I bring her chocolate cake (or a rock, she's not particular, haha).  Her Aunt Jenn and I can keep her pretty happy.  She loves us both, though in a different way than she loves her own mommy - who she loves the most!

Back to the point; my aunt was still young (16 she told me, but that was a lie!!), and didn't have any children of her own.  At school, in art class around Mother's Day, my class and I all got to make cards for our moms.  I made my mom a very pretty card, but I also had the ingenious idea to make my aunt a card as well.  I knew she wasn't a mom herself, but she was a woman in my life who I looked up to and she cared for me, so in a way I felt she may think of herself as a mom at heart.  If that was the case, then in my eyes, she deserved a card!

I was so excited about how smart I was to think to make a card for my aunt, that as soon as I got home from school, I ran to her room and proudly presented her with a Mother's Day card.  As you can imagine, this caused a slight drama with my real mom who thought I had just given my aunt HER Mother's Day card! But not so, I was one smart cookie, and there had just been a slight misunderstanding, and my mom also got her own beautiful card as well.  Crisis averted, hehe.

I know my aunt still has that card I made her to this day. At least, that's what she tells me. :)  She was touched that I somehow tapped in to the fact that even though someone doesn't have children, it doesn't mean they don't feel like they're a mom, or that they're a mom at heart.

Thanks for letting me share a little tidbit of life, and for all the "moms at heart" on Mother's Day, enjoy this free printable I had some fun whipping up!  Frame it, use it as a bookmark, or fold in half and give as a card to someone you think would be a great mom :)

Happy (early) Mother's Day to my own mom! And to my lovely mom-in-law! And to my Aunt R :)