Mother's Day Weekend

I went into Mother's Day weekend feeling overwhelmed by what lay ahead. I had a lot planned which wasn't so bad at first, but a last minute addition tipped me over the edge a bit and I had to do my best to be open minded about it all.

To start with, we had a school carnival to attend on Friday night. Riley's school was trying to raise money for things like field trips so it seemed like a good cause, and fun too. They had food trucks, games, an auction, and a book fair, but all Riley was interested in was the book fair. Go figure. We talked her into one game and a Kona Ice and then proceeded to hang out with a friend from work and her family that live nearby.

love the kid in the back

Saturday felt like one of the busiest days on paper, but it was actually a really great and somewhat relaxing day. I had planned to go to the gym, drop Riley off at gymnastics and then later a birthday party, before coming home to hang out with my birth dad and family before Jesse headed out for boy's night. Instead I worked out at home and then went shopping while Jesse carted Riley off to her respective events. She ended up coming home a little early from her party as the birthday boy went to the hospital with a high temperature (but is fine now). Actually, it was all a little weird since the kid's at the party were left with the remaining adults at the party while the birthday boy's parents took him to the hospital. One of them eventually called Jesse and left him a message that some kids went to the ER and he could pick up his kid at any time. When Jesse got there (a local bowling alley/restaurant), he couldn't find Riley anywhere and when he finally did, it appeared that the kids were just running around unsupervised. Not my favorite thing to hear, but she got home safe and sound.

We relaxed a little before my birth dad, and my birth brother and his family showed up. They called earlier in the week noting that they hadn't seen us in awhile and wanted to come up to the cities. We walked down the street to a park and then went and got frozen yogurt. We don't get to spend a lot of time with them and Riley hasn't been able to play much with her 3 year old cousin, Rowen, so it was a nice little visit.

After they left, Riley complained of not feeling well so we took it easy for the rest of the night. I worried that she might have picked up whatever her friend was sick with, but she was fine. I think she was mostly worn out from her busy day.

Since Jesse was out late playing games at his friends house, I got up early with Riley on Sunday. Once she realized it was Mother's Day, she went and woke up her dad and they presented me with the gift she made at school, a clay bluebird, and one of those 'about mom' questionnaires. I absolutely loved it and remember making a duck in school when I was her age.

My Special Mother by Riley

My mother is the most wonderful mom in the whole world. 

She's a pretty as a flower.

She weighs 4 pounds and she's 44 ounces tall.

Her favorite food is a salad.

In the good old days when mom was little she used to play with a ball.

I think mom looks funny when she giggles.

But I know she's really angry when she asks me to take a time out.

I wish mom would play games with me every day.

I wouldn't trade my mother for a fish.

Happy Mother's Day!

She verbally clarified that I don't really have to give her time outs, but my favorite part was that she wouldn't trade me for a fish - such a relief! Jesse went back to bed for a bit so Riley and I cuddled on the couch while she watched some (painful for me to watch) kid's show.

Once Jesse was up I noted that I wanted to walk around Bass Lake Park and then check out the new playground at Wolfe Park. We had a lovely walk, but the main playground wasn't completed yet due to the recent rainy weather. Luckily there is another smaller playground nearby which satisfied my daughter's need to play.

Thanks to this blog (and Timehop) I was reminded that we hung out at this same park last year on Mother's day where I have a similar picture of Riley and Jesse while they are spitting in the water (the fish would rush up and 'eat' the spit).

For lunch we met up with my in laws and had a lovely lunch together. They gave me a beautiful plant for our garden and helped deliver a bracelet gift from Riley. I'm quite impressed that she didn't say anything since she picked it out a couple weeks beforehand. We attempted to find a playground to hang out at after lunch, but it didn't quite turn out. Still, it was nice to spend time with both of them.

We came home for a couple hours before heading out to the Cheesecake Factory to meet my birth mom for dinner. She had reached out a few days before and even though the weekend felt packed, I don't get to see her much so I agreed to meet up. I should have spoken up more about where she and my birth brother wanted to eat, but I didn't know all the details until almost dinner time. I typically don't go to the Cheesecake Factory because there is always a wait, but will go there from time to time. Let's just say that Mother's Day is not the day to go... and bring 10 people. I had no idea there would be so many of us and even if there hadn't been I should have said no or suggested some other place. Basically, we showed up at 5:30 - shortly after my birth family did and was told that there was a 90 minutes wait. This was wrong and after 2 hours, we decided to order a couple slices of cheesecake and go home to eat leftovers.They were seated about 15 minutes after we left, but I'm still glad we left since it would have taken forever to get our food and my the time we would have gotten home it would have been way past Riley's bedtime. Anyway, we talked with our family outside for 2 hours which was much easier than trying to have a conversation inside the restaurant so there was a plus side to all of this, I guess.

4 generations

Over all, a fantastic weekend... especially the time I got to spend with my little girl and how much love she showed me. She's the best.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day really started for me on Thursday as my boss told me to take a half day one day last week. I'd been working really hard on some new products and was picking up extra work since a couple members of my team transitioned to new roles. So on Thursday I left work at noon, ran some errands which took no time at all (is that what it was like pre-kid?), and then headed off for a massage. I was in dire need of a massage as I was dealing with a pain flare up that was on week 2 and didn't seem to be letting up. I decided to book the massage at Benessere, a place a friend recommended as they provided myofascial release massage. This is EXACTLY what I needed, but so many places don't know how to do it right. This place was right on - not only did I feel like she worked my trigger point/knot out of my back, but I felt totally zen when I left the place. I will be going back for sure (for those in the Minneapolis area, this place offers your first massage at half price).

Since I had a little bit of time (and my camera with) I went across the street and took some pictures of the river. I used to live in this area and walking down by the river is one of the things I miss most. Note to self: come back here soon when you have more time to stroll (and take more pictures, of course).

Then on Friday, Jesse and I got some alone time when Riley went to a carnival with a friend and her family. The carnival was at the school Riley will be attending next year so I think it was good, not only because she had fun, but because it provided her with more exposure to the building she'll be in for kindergarten. She had a blast, and came home with a goodie bag, her nails painted, a butterfly temporary tattoo, and her face painted like a cat. 

On Saturday, I basically told Jesse some of the things I wanted to do for the weekend and we did them. I got time to myself, time as a family, one on one with Riley, time to work on a project, dinner out, and a visit to the park to take pictures - it was a busy day, but we pretty much did everything I wanted to do.

We started out the day at the gym, then went to Menard's to pick up some paint for Riley's room, and some pillows for our new deck furniture. Afterwards, while Jesse mowed the lawn, Riley and I hung out on the deck while she had a snack lunch (she absolutely did not want lunch - she wanted a snack. So I made her a snack lunch in an ice cube tray. It was a hit). 

At some point we all headed inside where Jesse and I ate some of the beef stew he made and then I got some free time to work on Riley's room. We are doing some updates and the first step was clearing a few things out of her room and washing a wall where there used to be a wall sticker. I know it doesn't sound like a glamorous or relaxing time to myself moment, but the fact that I could be productive and not worry about what my kid was up to (or have guilt that I wasn't hanging out with her) was marvelous. 

Riley eventually needed to rest so I was kicked out of her room and think I watched an episode of Vikings, some photography tutorials (I learned like 3 more editing techniques - so exciting for me!), and probably did random stuff around the house like laundry until I had to go wake Riley up. 

We had yet to go to a park and take pictures as I requested so we decided to get dinner at McCoy's which is right next to Wolfe Park - one of my favorite places for Riley to play and for me to take pictures and it's close to home so that's a bonus.  

They cut down all the weeds and grass around the pond which made it look a little rough, but it allowed me to get fairly close to these turtles. Glad I decided to bring my 50 mm lens for these pictures as my 35 mm lens has been living on my camera lately (the 35 mm is a great lens, but the 50 mm was better for these pictures).

My wish out of all this picture taking was to get a picture with my daughter. I don't have a lot of pictures with my mom and realized that I'm usually behind the camera myself so I am trying to be more intentional about getting in front of the camera, especially with my family.

I had to tickle her here to get a genuine smile out of her.

And then it turned into this.

Ok, I'll play along too.

This may look like a quiet father/daughter moment on the edge of the pond, but if you look closer you will see that they are spitting into the water. Apparently, the fish would all rush to the surface thinking it was food... and maybe it was for them. 

Not sure if I'm proud of this or not, but she was pretty talented at this.

Riley was really into us taking pictures and often made suggestions as to where we should stand. She asked to wear my scarf so I had to capture a picture of her in it. She was beyond giving me a 'normal' face and was deep into goofball status at this point. So dramatic, this girl. "Hey Riley, can you bring it down a notch?"

"Like this mom?" Ugh, apparently my aristocratic daughter is ready for prep school, daaarrrling. I should also note that the next day Riley 'helped' me edit these photos. I tried to show her a little of what I was doing and would ask her for feedback, but her favorite part was when I asked her to name the picture for when I saved it. This one she dubbed "Mr. Face". Lolz.

Might as well capture pictures of my husband however I can. 

Trying to leave the park, but silliness continued to prevail.

More turtles! Usually we see more ducks here, but this was certainly a turtle night.

We passed by a stage on the way out and I thought "this would be perfect for her silly pictures", but when she got on the stage she was suddenly all business. Go figure.

Saturday was really a great day. Seriously, a great day. It wasn't so different than other days except I felt way more productive. I think it also made a big difference that I knew I could name what I wanted to do and then I did it (guilt free). I really need to do that more often (and not wait for Mother's Day weekend to do so).

On Sunday, Jesse got up with Riley while I attempted to watch network TV in bed, but there wasn't anything worth watching so I headed downstairs and decided to make french toast. My crew had already eaten so it was all for me, but Jesse couldn't resist the smell and had a small piece himself. Such an easy thing to make - why don't I do this more often?

Jesse and Riley also gave me the sweetest card ever. I totally got all teary eyed as it listed out "what we love about mom". My favorite was when Riley wrote "she reads stories with meat night". Lol, actually, it said "she reads stories with me at night", but it looked like the first version which is almost better. Because of it, Jesse has suggested we start a meat night. Uh, ok. Another favorite was "we take pictures with mommy". Yes, we do.

Gifts with sentiments like this are the best. Its not so much about getting a gift, but being made to feel special. And these two made me feel super special. I love them so much. (Side note: I should mention that Jesse and I celebrated our 6th anniversary recently and he got me a book and a card while I got him nothing. I mention this since I totally called him out for not getting me anything for my birthday. We've never really given gifts before on our anniversary, but we always try to do something special. I've realized that the anniversary for Jesse is probably like the birthday for me. It's just a really special day.)

The rest of Sunday morning was pretty lazy - although I will say I transitioned out of my PJ's and into jeans way too early. That was a big miss on my part - I say one should stay in your pajamas or comfy clothes as long as possible. At one point we went to Byerlys, ate lunch and both Riley and Jesse took a nap before we headed out to an early dinner with my in-laws. We came home and went on a walk where we barely made it back home when it started pouring seconds after we got in the door.

Such a great weekend which ended with a tasty cup of tea and an intended half (but really an entire) scrumptious chocolate cupcake. The best way to end this wonderful weekend. I'm one lucky mommy.