Mother's Day 2016

As we do most years, we traveled up to Ashburn to celebrate Mother's Day with our moms. George hung out with all the kiddos and his parents the day before while I got to spend the day with my mom and sisters shopping and going out to eat. It was so nice!

I was supposed to go see the new Captain America movie that night with George and his dad and Allen, but after a long day, I ended up staying with the kids and trying to get some rest. I was pooped!

Sunday morning, George and I made breakfast for George's mom while the kids drew cards for Grandmom and Grandma.

Making shaved ice with Grandmom. She's so fun!

Crepes, anyone?

The Scholz came over and shared breakfast too. 

For Mother's Day this year, we wanted to do something special for the grandma's, so I made this:

I made one for Grandmom and one for Grandma. We had a fun time taking pictures for this project and I love the way it turned out.

Our attempts at a picture with Grandmom:

After crepes, we ran over to my mom's house to celebrate with her!

Grandma with her notes from the kids:

And of course it wouldn't be Mother's Day without family pictures!

Jason and Austin

Something happened and Cole started having a hard time. Just pretend he's smiling in these pictures.

This was the best we could do before Mommy was done. Good enough!

Group shot: Mom with most of her kiddos and grandkids.

(again, pretend Cole is smiling...)

Miss you, Chad!

We had a delicious dinner with the family. George was in charge of the gravy, as usual.

And after dinner, we celebrated Amy's Birthday with a carrot cake!

I also got a special gift from Grandma Brewer, all the way from Florida:

Thank you, Grandma! The baby will love them!

My mom's gift wasn't finished because I wanted to include Laura's kiddos in the frame, so that evening I took some pictures of Mason, Grant, and Austin to include.

 Here are my favorite pictures from our project:

The kids were such good sports and even though we had to do it in the rain, we got some good shots.

Playing on The Lawn.

Jude is a big help and corrals the kiddos for me.

Cole insisted we take a picture on the train tracks. It was raining and the only train tracks I could find without a fence around them weren't very "picturesque", but it was perfect for Cole.

And now Laura's kiddos!

Happy Mother's Day!

May Misc: painting, bubbles, worms, and a moth

These two LOVE to do art projects. Most days Cole will spend at least an hour at the table drawing pictures (mostly of trains, but he'll occasionally branch out--he drew our house the other day, and some animals!) and sometimes Lily will join him.

On one of our errand runs, we discovered these bird houses at Michaels on super-sale, so we get them for the kids to paint. Jude has yet to do his, but Cole and Lily couldn't hardly wait to come home and decorate them.

Cole's pirate ship had to be blue, of course.

Working hard.

Lance and Jude are winding down in their semester of piano lessons and prepping for their recital on May 17th. I can't believe how far they've both come in the year and a half they've been playing. Lance in particular has picked it up and seems to be *almost* enjoying it. Almost.

Most of May was rainy and wet, so any dry moment found us outside.

Blowing bubbles before bed one night:

Jude was very proud of his new trick: catching the biggest bubble back on the wand!

This kid...

...is turning into quiet the young man. I still can't believe he'll be 11 in September!

Love it when all my kiddos play together.

Bender has to be part of the action, too. This dog loves his tennis ball almost as much as he loves his family. I think we'll keep him.

With all the rain came mud. And with all the mud came the worms. These night crawlers provided about an hour of entertainment for our bug-lover and her brother one day while Lance and Jude were at school.

Lily refused to put them down. I felt a little sorry for the things after an hour of "gentle" play. Hopefully some bird came and put them out of their misery.

Cole's favorite were the "baby worms". He's on a baby kick right now and loves all little things: baby cats, dogs, jaguars, and apparently worms.

Cole, you're almost as slimy as that worm. Where is your mother? Can't she wipe your face?

This girls brings a smile to my face every day. I can't get enough of her!

After discovering these worms on our back patio, the kids have searched every day for new slimy friends to play with. Delicious.

We woke up morning to this beautiful moth on our front door:

I've never seen one this color before! 

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. We want to play in the sun!