how we did mother's day

To celebrate Mother's Day my sisters and I took my parents out to Carrabba's for supper on Friday night.

My favorite dish from Carrabba's is something not on the menu.....but is a special they sometimes have and they allow you to order at any time. Mezzaluna Carrabba. It is half moon ravioli stuffed with chicken, ricotta and spinach served with grilled chicken and sautéed peas. YUMMY! We also enjoyed a bowl of Spicy Sausage Lentil Soup. Donovan and I split the meal and it was more than enough when you throw in all the free bread you can eat. Hot and fresh out of the oven. Ahhh.....

There was not a table big enough for us all...so the kiddos had a table all to their own just about 5 feet from us. Scary sight...isn't it?

Look at these 2...they are quite the pair. They make each other happy. And you know what?That makes me happy. These are my parents.

I am embarrassed a little to admit that it has taken almost a full 20 years to accept my plight in life. My mom died when I was 13 and my dad remarried. It took so much time to accept all of these changes. None of that was gracefully accepted as a teenager. Some acceptance came as I grew out of my teens and into my 20's. And now I feel I can fully accept (now in my 30's) my step mom for who she is as my dad's wife, to me as a mother figure, and to who she is as my children's grandmother. She is wonderful to us. She loves that we love her cooking. She loves when we come to visit. She loves to come to our house and bring dinner. She is a sweet friend to me and very accepting of our family. I have learned a great deal by God's grace. I think #1 would be that none of this life has a fairy tale ending. I see this as I grow older. I have always looked onto mother/daughter relationships with rose colored glasses. Thinking....." if only".......
Have you ever done that? Thinking that if only this would have turned out differently I would be happier? But changing my perspective and God changing my heart has turned this step-mom/step-daughter relationship around.

Saturday morning my girls and I went to a Mother/Daughter banquet at our church. I invited my mother-in-law to come with us.

We were joined by some other family that we there. I talked them into sitting with us, and it was fun. Aunt Dot is always full of spice and sugar. I love it.



My mother in law, Elsie.

You know what I love? I love how Elsie loves my kids. During the time that the speaker was talking Suzy was getting a little restless...so I sent her over to Grandma. Grandma was delighted. Drawing for her animals and pictures. Elsie is so into her grand kids, and it blesses me so richly to see them interact. Thank you mom, for loving them like you do.




Saturday night we celebrated mothers day with our little zoo by going out to dinner. As you can tell my favorite past time is to eat out.

We went to Mishawaka and picked up a chicken burrito from Chipotle. Complete with lime flavored tortilla chips. We got that to go and walked next door to Chick-Fil-A. Yep. Mexican for us. American for them. Because.....

I had to take a picture. This is the sign inside Chick-Fil-A. :) The kids all made me homemade cards and it was so very sweet to see their hard work and energy go into making something special for me. Each of them have different levels of spelling and different skills when it comes to drawing. So very sweet to have 4 little cards. I also was given a rose bush, some chocolates, and a plump new body pillow. Which they did not bring to the restaurant....but had waiting on my bed when I got home. Ahhh...it was a replacement for the one Cindy gave me from 9 years ago, and it was getting kinda flat.





Later Saturday night we went over to my friend Julie's house. She was having an informal birthday party for her 4 year old, and asked our small group over. What a fun fun time. It was so relaxed and fun to be together. Carla in our group brought over some clothes she wanted to put on a garage sale. So we got to look through those clothes.

I promptly changed into the clothes I bought from her. Comfy cozy!! How fun. These girls make my life so much fuller! Love ya Rose, Carla, and Julie.

Here are all the kids from our group including Ryan - the birthday boy in the green and white stripes.

Sunday....the actual day to celebrate Mother's day...we celebrated my nieces 16th birthday. I forgot my camera! So very sorry. She has turned into such a beautiful young lady. I can't wait to show her to you. I will post pictures of that day..when she emails the pictures to me. Hope your weekend was well and spent with the woman who gave you life.

Quote of the day:

Suzy: "Do I need a coat to go outside?"

Me: "No, just a shirt."

Suzy: "Why? Because God made a beautiful day?"

little people who sit & man their throne, while I do all the hard work.

Taken just before we left for a mother/daughter banquet this morning. Pure sweetness. Too bad sweetness had to wet her panties in that cute little dress about an hour and 1/2 later.
Meanwhile back at the home front....Donovan was keeping the cash flowing in at our garage sale. And even roped the boys into trying to bring in a little extra, with a lemonade stand. They sold a total of 3 cups. Which really put our profits right over the roof.

After we recovered with a little nap we were off for a night on the town with my parents to celebrate Mothers day.

Betcha can't guess where I chose to eat????

Of course you might think of us insane to go anywhere with 4 kids for a sit down dinner. We were thinking that about 30 minutes after we sat down to eat. That was after 1 hour of sitting in the car to get to Carrabba's in Portage, and 40 minutes of waiting to be seated. (thankfully the weather was nice to be outdoors.) In the above picture we are still laughing at them thinking they are cute. They definitely kept us entertained...that is for sure. Because otherwise what we would really do?? Actually have an uninterrupted conversation with my parents or something??

But in all seriousness the wait for my dinner was worth every single minute.

The group. My step-mom, Khankeo and sister-Michele.
My baby sister....Michele. Who turned 16 last September.

Quote of the day: Actually was said on Friday by William.

I had asked William to help carry the groceries in after coming back from town. He then reported he had to go "potty" Perfect timing William. So after about 15 minutes I go in to the bathroom to see what is going on. He is sitting on the pot & the quote is.......................

"I'm waiting so you can do it all by yourself. I don't want to bring the food in."