Mother's Day

Last week, I think it was, we put the truck to use . . . letting the truck be trucky! First, to move our new washer and dryer (still sitting in the garage awaiting installation following a laundry room gut), and then to move flooring (also awaiting the laundry room gut) and some heavy wooden beams to build me a wind-proof chicken-watching swing! Our other swing has been patched and mended a hundred times, and still the wind flipped it over and bent it into a pretzel shape again. I'm guessing that won't happen with the new design :) Working on this new backyard accoutrement played a big part in Mother's Day festivities, especially for the guys. Aww, such good guys! 

But first, Gabby stayed the night at my brother and sister-in-law's house, along with Grandma J and Auntie Z. When my bro and sis-in-law left for their overnight adventure, Gabby took charge of Mr. M. She got him loaded in his car seat and they met us at church. The first question for me was, "Aunt J . . . can I have a donut?" with a big smile. I knew that the week before, upon exit from Sunday school, the donut wall was empty, much to his disappointment, so of course I said yes! Soon enough, we had a chocolate-covered four-year-old in the row with us, and I ran to the kitchen for a wet paper towel. He also got the kid's pack for big church, and studiously licked his sucker while attentively listening to the sermon. I even saw him take the big breaths in and out that the pastor mentioned we should :) Afterwards, I took a very sticky four-year-old to the bathroom for a rinse. He wanted to be in all the Mother's Day pictures, and he was 100 percent welcome to do so!

It is not very often that Grandma J gets to spend Mother's Day with BOTH her kids!

The flower tree on the church lawn looked pretty splendid on Mother's Day--usually it is blooming at Easter, but not this year, it waited for mom's day. Caelan decided to get really into the blooms for some selfies, she's so funny! Girl loves flowers!

Later, C tossed a few pitches to Mr. M, as the neighbor dogs looked on in silence. Idk how that boy has as much energy as he does (maybe the donut and sucker at church?), but he ran with the puppy, threw her the ball 100x, played baseball with me, and then built a mouse village out of the wood scraps from the swing build. I'd say he had a pretty fun day!

None of us took time to capture a photo of our delicious dinner, but Buck grilled bone-in pork tenderloin--it was amazing! We roasted some broccoli, tried to raise some rolls (they were stubborn and did not), and fried up some pierogies, yum! After Grandma J and Z and Gabby and Mr. M headed back to the Acres, we sent Brennen with some cash to buy ice cream. Apparently the local shop is a health food store now, because the ice cream shrunk significantly and the price went up, ha! Trying to keep our figures and our wallets slim ;)

It was a good, relaxing Mother's Day, and I'm thankful that I got to see all my kids, got a nice message from Noah and from Noah's mom (who I haven't met, but sounds pretty great!), and that my guys were willing to endure the slowly rising heat to work on my swing project. Photos to come when it is complete!