Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms that read this!

We spent all day yesterday at the Flower Market in Wilmington. We went with Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop, Aunt Kristen, and Uncle Jimmy. It's become a tradition to go on Friday before Mother's Day every year, but this year Friday was a complete washout with heavy rains most of the day. Saturday ended up being a pretty decent day weather-wise. It was especially nice having everyone there. With 4 kids it's almost necessary to have everyone there. Kaeli spent a lot of time riding the "big rides" with Aunt Kristen. Paige kind of went back and forth between the kiddie rides and the big rides. Pop-Pop really helped by going off with her when she wanted to do the bigger rides. Of course, Ryan and AJ spent all their time on the kiddie rides. We have lots of pictures that I will get on here within the next couple of days.

By the way, I should describe the Flower Market for those that aren't familiar with it. It's a big event held on Mother's Day weekend every year. All proceeds from the event go to local children's charities. The Flower Market has a little bit for everyone. There are rides, of course. There are also lots of booths with people selling hand-made crafts, etc. There are several tents filled with all sorts of annuals, perennials, garden vegetables, hanging plants, etc. all for sale. Then, of course, what event would be complete without a huge selection of foods? Every year we give the kids some money and they use that money to buy my Mother's Day gift. It works out well because then I know that my gift was specifically chosen for me by the kids. With all the pretty things around, it's always interesting to see what the kids decide on for me. The girls really get excited about giving the gifts they found.

This morning the kids and Steve woke me up with breakfast in bed. Right now it's still a bit challenging to have breakfast in bed. Kaeli and Paige are finally old enough to just watch and talk to me as I eat. Ryan and AJ just want to eat everything on my plate. Of course, Steve just fed them before he even made my breakfast. But, for whatever reason, they seem to think that the food on my plate is FAR better than anything else. They seriously look like little vultures....and that's exactly what Steve calls them. :) I don't mind, though, it's part of the charm of the whole event.

When they bring me my breakfast, they also bring me the gifts from them. I just love seeing the excitement and pride on their faces as I open everything. Before becoming a mom myself I never could have understood just how happy small child-made trinkets could make a person. I don't know what makes me the happiest.....there are just so many amazingly wonderful aspects to the whole event. For example--after I put the girls to bed last night they stayed up "wrapping" my gifts in plain white copy paper. That's all they had in their room and they didn't want me to know what they were doing. They didn't have any tape, so they just had to fold the paper. Kaeli had even used the copy paper to stuff the bag the gift came in to make it look like a gift bag. I can just picture the two of them in their room last night working so hard to make my gift even more special.

From Kaeli I got a little heart-shaped pin to put on my shirt. She made it in art class at school. It was painted red with little white dots all over. She also bought me a very pretty picture frame and bar of hand-made olive oil soap at the Flower Market. She also made me a very pretty card that said "I hope you have an awesome Mother's Day. And I hope all your wishes come true". :)

From Paige I got a very pretty hand-painted square porcelain tile that she made in art class at school. She also bought me 2 bars of hand-made olive oil soap at the Flower Market. The porcelain tile was wrapped in a piece of construction paper with a beautiful picture drawn by Paige with the words "Happy Mother's Day" written on it.

Ryan gave a me a rose cut from our rose bush. AJ gave me lots of hugs and kisses. :)

Steve helped me build another box for our vegetable garden. In the new box we planted another tomato plant, a red bell pepper plant, a sweet banana pepper plant, 8 lettuce plants, and a cantaloupe plant. I'm so excited about how our little garden has turned out. Now we just have to see how well it grows!

Other than that we got some regular yardwork done and then had some friends over for a cookout. It's been a very busy day and I'm definitely just about ready for bed!