Sunday, May 17, 2015

Mothers Day 2015

Mother’s Day was a week ago, but I’m just now getting to our pictures from Mother’s Day.  I feel very blessed to be the mother to these two little girls.  They are both very different, but they are both very sweet and loving girls, and I am so thankful to have them as daughters to celebrate on Mother’s Day. 

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The day wasn’t without its mishaps, but it was still a good one. Mark started the day off by getting donuts for breakfast (my favorite), and trying to get them from the brand new Duck Donuts that just opened in Herndon.  He left at 6am, ended up getting lost on the way, and once he got there (still before 7am), there was a line out the donut shop over 100 feet long (not counting the huge line inside Duck Donuts).  So…after waiting in line and not moving for several minutes, he bailed on his Duck Donuts idea and picked up Dunkin’ Donuts and headed home.  I didn’t mind as I love donuts no matter what, but we’ll have to find a way to get those Duck Donuts somehow.  Obviously they must be pretty good!!!  Then after church we set out for a hike.  The girls love hiking and were having fun exploring and trying to catch the maple tree seeds that were fluttering down from the trees every time the wind blew. 

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Cayenne was having fun racing through the trees, finding a friend to play swim fetch with, and stalking out all kinds of interesting things. The second mishap of the day came when Cayenne was swimming with her new found buddy and got trapped behind a log in the water that she couldn’t get over. Rather than realizing that she could turn around and swim back around the other side of the downed tree, she just kept trying to get over it to swim back to shore.  That plan wasn’t working for her, and she was starting to really struggle, so since Mark was a ways down the riverbank and not able to see what was going on, I had to take off my shoes, roll up my pants as high as they would go, and wade waist deep in very mucky mud and water to lift our baby dog over the log and let her swim back to shore. So, we all got sufficiently muddy, but we had a fun hike on a beautiful day.

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After our hike, we got showered and ready to head over to the Williams house for a Mother’s Day dinner with the family.  This was the site of our third mishap of the day.  We were bringing over an appetizer, meat to be cooked for dinner, wine, and a cake.  All except the cake were in an insulated bag.  We all loaded in the car, and upon arriving at the Williams house, we realized that the bag full of all the food wasn’t with us.  Mark remembered setting it down on the counter when he gave Cayenne a treat just before walking out of the house.  So, he let us out at the Williams house and drove all the way back to our house to get the food then returned – still with time to get the meat on the grill, so all ended up well there also. Dinner was great, and this was our opportunity to celebrate our wonderful mother and all that she means to our family.  We had a great evening together, and it was a nice way to round out Mother’s Day. 

So, even though the day had several mishaps, it’s only fitting for Mother’s Day in a way.  A typical day as a mom never has everything going perfectly.  There are countless mishaps that happen all the time, and the best way to make it as a mom is to not get too worked up about the mishaps, and keep on going, hoping it all works itself out in the end.  So, in that way, this day was very appropriate of a true ‘mother’s day’ where there’s normally lots of love, some mishaps, frustration at times, and always times of joy – when at the end of the day, it all just works itself out.

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Friday, May 01, 2015

Last First Grade Field Trip

This past Friday was Lyla’s spring first grade field trip which means this is the last time we’ll ever be on a first grade field trip.  Hard to believe!!!  I got to chaperone this trip, and it was all about visiting monuments.  I snapped a few pictures with my camera phone, and even though it was sunny, the weather was much more chilly than we expected.  Thankfully, we were slated to do a lot of walking which helped keep us all relatively warm (since we didn’t dress for the chilly temps).

We got dropped off at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, then we walked over to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

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From there we walked to the Washington Monument and stopped for a snack and a class picture at the base of the monument, but it was incredibly windy at the base, so after a quick snack and picture, we set off to walk to the Lincoln Memorial.

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By the time we got to the Lincoln Memorial, the wind had died down, and the sun was shining on the steps of the memorial.  It was warm and comfortable, so we hung out there for awhile, ate our lunch, and watched a dance performance being filmed at the base of the steps.  The kids got a chance to run around and play in the grounds near the memorial, then the bus picked us up there, and we headed back to school.  We had a good time, but we were exhausted when we got home!

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Nina’s class had a short field trip the same day to the local high school to watch the first act of a play they were putting on.  It’s hard to believe the school year is winding down and planning for the end of the year is in full swing.  This school year has gone by so fast.  I can’t believe we’ll have a 2nd and a 4th grader in the fall. These girls are growing up fast.

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