Mother's Day re-cap

Ahhh! Mother's Day weekend. Am I the only persons who celebrates "Mother's Day weekend" as opposed to just Mother's Day? I'm not trying to be selfish or anything and extend the celebration- but over the years Mother's Day has become a weekend celebration for a number of reasons.

1. Sunday's are hard to deal with. We are regular church-goers and so we spend most of the morning there. Then we have a tendency to "end" Sunday's a little early because you have to get ready for Monday- be it getting lunches together or just going to bed at a decent hour in an attempt to be well rested- Sunday evening aren't really for celebrating. Unless you have a three day weekend then Sunday's are for partying!

 Anyway- back to my point. 

2. We have also come to celebrate throughout the weekend because my family has grown considerably since I got married. Instead of just celebrating my mom and aunts, I now have my Mother-in-Law and Sister-In-Law to celebrate as well! The more the merrier :)

So, unlike last year, this year Mother's Day was pretty uneventful. Thank goodness! I will never underestimate the value of low key. EVER! We arrived "home" Friday night at usual. Since it's staying light out later I appreciated this drive. We left around 6 pm and it stayed light outside until we were almost in New Jersey. We arrived around 9 pm (after a 20 minute bathroom and snack break). We normally eat Chinese for our "late snack" but my parent's weren't too thrilled with that idea this weekend. There are some comforts of home that will never get old and there's this place by my parent's house that really does have the best Chinese food (but that's a different post for a different day). Saturday morning was my usual Jersey routine of getting up early and heading to the salon to get my hair done (seriously, there's nothing like the comforts of home). After that hubby and I headed out to pick up some groceries. The original plan was to have take-out at my SIL's  but due to my new found diet (have I shared that here yet?) I'm not eating gluten. So, I wanted to have a few things on hand for me to eat. This turned into a full on food fest.

But wait, I have to back up moment. I almost forgot to mention how my Mother's Day celebration actually started a little bit earlier. This years my son's school held a Mother's Day breakfast!! I can't believe I almost left that part out. I was so excited when I got the email from his school about this event they were hosting. I though it would be so cute! I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to have the flexibility to go visit with him during the day. EXTREMELY. LUCKY. I can't share any pictures of the breakfast because a) too many children who aren't mine are in the picture and b) I sat down and ate with my son. I'm not all that sad that I don't have a ton of pictures. The look on his face when he saw me in their "cafeteria" when they came down for breakfast was priceless. He had no idea that I would be there. We ate together, laughed together, and he (re)introduced me to all his friends. I had permission (more like a request) from my supervisor to bring him back to work with me but I decided to leave him there. He wouldn't have gotten a nap if he did come and I knew he would need it. He definitely cried when I left but it wasn't as bad as when I left him after his Halloween parade.

So, back to Jersey. When we got to my SIL everyone immediately started cooking. I love her home for a number of reasons including the fact that she has a big enough kitchen that 4 people were cooking in it and we didn't get too much in each others way. We all had a chance to catch up and have a good time. 

After eating there had to be some pool time. Her pool is heated so even though it wasn't the warmest out- the boys got in... and loved it. Crazy.

After leaving my SIL's we headed to our friend's house. They are really good friends of ours who we haven't seen in quite some time so we were really happy to spend time with them.

Sunday morning we headed to church as usual. Service was great and all the Mom's were given gospel CD's as gifts :) So sweet those guys are. This little gem was from Mother's Day breakfast. The Men's Club usually hosts this and I am not sure how this happened but it made me chuckle. Let me know when you "find it"...

After church I forced my Momma into a mini photo shoot. Actually, she obliged without a fight and I am happy she did because they came out great! Thanks to my dad for being behind the camera. :)

Now, my son on the other hand... not so cooperative. But it's ok cause I still got this lovely shot.

The rest of the afternoon was spent having girl talk with my mom and playing with my son. I did help out a little in the kitchen. I was only allowed to stay for a little bit. I understand my family wanting me to "go relax" but I still have my mom and wanted to do a portion of the contribution. 

After an amazing dinner (full of all of our favorite foods) we indulged in desserts (my favorite part). My dad even got me some gluten free chocolate covered macaroons!

I received a ton of lovely gifts from my son, husband, and parents, and I am grateful for that. But I have to put the pause on sharing my joy and really try to convey to you guys how special the gift we got my mom was.

For months, she had been talking about how Oprah was going on tour and she really wanted to go. Honestly, for years our intention was always to get her to the studio audience for one of her talk shows but that just never came to fruition. We schemed, and planned, and schemed and planned and pulled off the unthinkable. We couldn't have done this without the help of my cousin but we did- and my mom will be attending Oprah's life class this fall. Here's what she thought about that:

After dinner and gifts, we took my son out for a drive. He got his motorcycle for Christmas but it's stayed at my parents house all this time (because he had no use for it at our house up until now). He loves this thing! So we took advantage of the longer daylight hours and let him have at it. 

As usual- I had an amazing Mother's Day. I am so blessed to be able to even be a part of this 'Hallmark holiday'. And here's a fun fact: The founder of Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis, never had the intention of Mother's Day becoming a commercialized holiday. It's intent was to create for the day to memorialize the contributions of Mother's to humanity (sparked by her own relationship with her mother).