Mother's Day, er, Weekend . . .

I believe in dragging celebrations out a bit. Like, I often wish facebook friends 'happy birthday' the day after their actual birthday. I'm sure most of them think it's because I'm forgetful, or lazy, or just want to stand out from the many other well-wishers. And they're right. But it's also because I want to help them extend their birthday as long as possible!

So it was with Mother's Day; I opted for fun adventures all weekend long, starting with a Friday evening trip to the Botanical Garden with the little boys and Grandma Pam.

It was National Public Gardens Day, so admission was free . . . which is definitely what prompted the visit :).

We had lots o' fun wandering around and looking at all the different plants, going over bridges, relaxing in the swing, trying to decipher the little map so we could find the bell (made all the more frustrating by the fact that we could hear it being 'rung' every so often, taunting us), and most importantly, trying to keep Clyde's Crocs rock-free (a task which proved even more impossible than the eventually successful finding of the bell).

The next morning I (no big deal) RAN FOR LIKE THREE FREAKING MILES IN A ROW, hooray! And it's okay if all you marathon-ers are snickering a little bit right now, I don't blame you :). I have never been a 'runner' and I am definitely still not a 'runner', but I've been trying . . . slowly . . . to become one. So when some friends from church organized a group to do the Susan G. Komen 5k Race for the Cure, I let Paulina talk me into joining them! I was pretty nervous and definitely prepared to have to walk at some point (my longest consecutive run before Saturday was around 2 miles) but everyone was right and the adrenaline totally kicked in and I ran (well, jogged) the whole dang thing.

We didn't end up running as a big group, but thankfully Tasha and I stuck together - I would not have been able to power through without her. And a shout-out to my awesome mama who came and cheered me on near the finish line, I was definitely struggling at that point and her encouragement totally gave me a push I needed right then. (Man, I should clearly never attempt anything longer than a 5k if running for just over thirty consecutive minutes was this dang hard, haha!!) Anyways, it was super fun and I'm psyched to do some more 5k's - I've almost convinced Heidi to do one with me next month . . . right Heid??

After the race, my mom and I went straight to get our hair done, yay for mother-daughter pampering! The absolutely amazing Nicole did a chemical relaxer on my hair, and I loooove it.

Soo this is my sad 'phone self-portrait at 11:30pm at Walmart so I could show Sam and Heidi my hair' picture (what, like you don't have one?), but it's the only one I gots from that day, so it'll work.

That evening, post-haircut but pre-Walmart, Chuck and I went to an Elder's Quorum date night playing games at the church, which was really fun. I contributed some vocals to Rock Band, Chuck got reacquainted with the board game CLUE (hilariously driving Kara Walker craaaazy in the process), and Nicole and I humiliated ourselves playing the silly raft game on the Kinect. Good times!!

And then it was officially Mother's Day!

My thoughtful parents-in-law sent me these beautiful flowers, which I have managed to not kill yet. Thanks again Mom and Pops!

Will made me this darling work of art at preschool - making me so, so proud that my sensory issue kiddo braved putting his hands in paint for me!!

Clyde made this cute framed picture for me at Playschool. Please take a moment to appreciate his facial expression. This is clearly how the little lad must look whenever his beloved mother is not around.

He also brought this cute paper home from church that day, and more amazingly, went up and sang with the other Primary kids during Sacrament meeting! I was pretty sure he'd freak out and not go up, but with a slight promise (bribe) of cinnamon rolls after church, he marched on up and sweetly sang!

After church I took a nap and Chuck bravely attempted to heed my request and take a picture of the boys in their cute yellow church shirts.

The little photo shoot (shown chronologically) apparently started out promising (albeit somber), then came to light, er, life a bit in the next shot, then got a bit wild/fun/crushing, just to finish off more somber than before - I'm guessing in response to some sort of cross between a Mother's Day guilt trip - "Come on, all your mom wants is a nice picture of her boys" and a good old-fashioned threat - "Okay, I guess we can't play any Lego Star Wars after all if it takes too long to get a picture".

Basically we've realized that candid is the way to go as far as photographing our children - here they are playing at Grandma Pam's house that evening.

The grown-ups played too: Settlers of Catan, yay! Chuck couldn't decide who to let win -- his wife, mother-in-law, or brother-in-law whose birthday was the next day -- so he went ahead and diplomatically schooled us all. Thanks honey!

Me and my mama. She's one of my favorite moms ever :). I've said it before, but I think one of the reasons that Chuck and I go together so well even though we are sooo dramatically different is because our moms are so wonderfully similar. Incredibly supportive, generous, kind, thoughtful, creative, 'time ambitious' - that's a nice way of saying they think they can do more/drive farther in a certain amount of time than they really can, and are thus late frequently, fun, sweetly nostalgic - that's a nice way of saying they never throw ANYTHING away, smart, and unconditionally loving. We love you both lots and lots!!

The b-day boy and his mama.

Me and my boys - the reasons I wake up in the morning.

(Usually around 2am when Will randomly decides to be awake for an hour, around 5am when I get up to make Chuck's lunch and get him out the door for work, and around 7:30am when Clyde decides to get up for the day).

Man I love them :).

Happy (quite belated) Mother's Day!