Mom Knows Best

She claimed she didn't need a nap.

I think her hair proves otherwise.

My Birthday

Today is my birthday and guess what I got? Dave took today, all next week, and the following Monday off of work. I get 11 whole days of not feeling like a single mom starting my day alone with the kids and doing breakfast, schlepping to and from the schools, birthday parties, playdates, grocery stores with the kids, feeding lunch and cleaning it up, figuring out dinner, getting it ready before karate, doing homework with the girls, settling their disputes, managing our finances and paying the bills while the kids are downstairs bickering, keeping the house clean, doing the laundry and making the beds... you get the idea- without any help from anyone physically or financially until Dave gets home at 7pm. Okay so he does books and bath time. But really if he came home by 8pm, I'd have the kids in bed by 7:30.

So I have 11 glorious days days off starting now.... and I'm loving it. Dave's taking Liv to school, then baking a cake with Ava as well as cleaning up the mess (ahhh relief), we are going to pick Liv up together and go out for a late lunch and then take the kids fishing for the afternoon. They are really enjoying this and it's virtually free so it's all impossible to say no- plus there's the giant sand pit that the kids get to play in while they are there. Saturday we have another birthday party at Black Diamond kids place for their friend Joe from soccer and our every Thursday playdate. Then the next week all the school schlepping, breakfast/lunch making, karate taking, I am free from doing. That Friday we have a morning fieldtrip to the farm to plant a few different plants and play with the night crawlers and after that by 2pm we will be camping in a cabin for 4 days on the river enjoying Memorial Day weekend. This campground has a heated pool, movies under the stars, a playgound, a dog park, marshmallow roasting, or you can do your own thing at your cabin while sitting on your porch swing. The girls are loving the fact that they get to sleep in bunk beds and I am happy that Dave and I get to sit on our swing at night like a couple of old people enjoying each others company.

Snails

Ava has been in love with snails, ladybugs, worms, Rollie polies, lizards, and pretty much anything considered creepy crawly for awhile. She spends all day every day looking for these guys in the backyard. I took her to the zoo and did she see any animals? No. Her face was looking straight down the entire time trying to find anything that was moving. When we are at karate and she has to sit on the ground and wait her turn to spar is she watching the other kids? No. She is focused on the floor and feverishly searching for bugs which she gracefully hands to her teacher before she spars and promptly wants them back when she's finished. She hasn't quite caught on that he smashes them but whatever.

So today is Ava's show and tell at school. Last night she and her daddy went on a snail hunt before bed in the backyard and neighbor's yard and they found 9 snails. Ava wanted 12 because there are 12 kids in the class. So this morning her awesome daddy went out snail hunting at 3:30AM before leaving for work and found 5 more. How happy was Ava when I told her what he found?? Sooo freakin' happy. So she carted her little friends to school and plopped them down on the table and all the kids came running to look and they surrounded her. If you could have seen her smiling little face. Ava was in full snail heaven. And as the other moms looked at me with the, "oh great snails..." look, I smiled away letting them know there was enough for everyone to take one home. Ha! They looked mortified. It was awesome.

The one that got away

So far so good. Olivia caught this guy and then she hooked a 5 pounder on her princess pole except when Dave tried to get it into the net the line broke. It would have made an awesome photo as the fish was half her size.

But then together Liv and Dave caught this guy. He was 2.7 pounds and 18 inches long!! Very impressive for our 3rd time fishing.

And Ava did what Ava does best- relax.

We are going back for the big guy... Now it's become a competition between Olivia and I against Dave and Ava to see who can catch him.

Friends

My friend came over with her husband, daughter, and nephew this week. Arturo, the husband, cooked all of us lunch while the rest of us hung out in the backyard.

All three girls found a place to dig in the dirt and that's where they stayed for a good two hours. It was as if the dirt was the best kid sitter ever. It was great having Amparo visit and I can't wait to see her again.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day we went to the zoo with Rachael, Eric, and Nick. We all brought lunches and spent the day just hanging out together having fun. It was an easy day and exactly what I needed and wanted.

Afterwards we headed to their house for a BBQ and a little more relaxation. I loved that the kids all got along and the best part of the evening was that the men did all the cooking and the cleaning. Should be Mother's Day every day!

Karate Rocks

My little powerhouse...

Olivia's got the legs!

Mother's Day Tea

First of all, my daughter rocks!!!  Olivia's class invited all the moms to come to class so they could give us our Mother's day gifts and serve us tea and sandwiches. They set the tables with china and flowers and greeted us at the door. They seated us at the table and offered us...

fruit that was brought on a silver platter. Each child took turns serving their mom.

Ava had helped herself to the watermelon before I could snap a photo but I think you can get the idea...

Here they are all waiting their turn to serve the sandwiches, cookies, and scones. They even have the waitress towel over their arms and are prepared.

After all the food was served the class, led by Olivia, recited a thank you message for all that we do for them and they gave us a letter saying why they are thankful for us.

Olivia did a little dance while leading the class.

And my gift... this beautiful necklace made by the sweetest girl in the world.

I think that says it all!!!

Scrumptillious

So today Dave made a comeback after being skunked by the girls on Easter Weekend. He caught this big catfish and...

These two trout. We didn't stay at this location very long due to the high number of rattlesnakes out here...

And as you can see the girls are sitting in some tall grass by the water. So after catching two trout we were on our way to a less scary place which is where the catfish was caught.

Yum Yum grub time!!

Makes me so proud... eating the tail!

The little gobblers.

So of the two kids of fish we all agreed the catfish was the meatiest and best tasting. We will definitely have to go back to that spot again. The fried fish pictured above didn't have the head on since it was too big for my daddy fryer but the smaller one did and Olivia wanted to eat the face and eyes. My grandfather would have loved her. I think there's a little part of his spirit in her. Ava was totally against seeing it caught and then eating it but after the ketchup came out, all we heard was, "More catfish please..."

Look Out!!!

Ava's first time sparring and she showed no fear. I think she actually said, "Mommy, when do I get to do that again?"

And what got into this one? She was so shy at first. Now Olivia can't wait to beat them down.

Playdates

A friend of Olivia's wanted to have a bike race at the park with all the classmates.

Everyone brought their bikes or scooters along with their lunches and we stayed and played for 4 hours. It rocked and the kids were worn out and ready to leave.

Then the next day Olivia went to Grace's house after school for a play date so Ava had Kaylee come over to play. This was Ava's first play date just for her with her friend. She was stoked.

They had snacks together... laughed together...

and of course they collected a menagerie of bugs together.

That was a pretty cool day but after the friends left and Olivia was picked up we had karate...and then things really picked up.