Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies in my life - and I hope you all had a fantastic day with your families. I did (there's me with my mom on the left) - we had a great weekend. The main thing I wanted for Mother's Day was SEAFOOD! Sound strange? I know - but I've had a craving for seafood for a while now. So Friday night we took the kids out to Red Lobster where I enjoyed salmon and shrimp scampi and Jack and Noah chowed down on shrimp (Jack - likes the cold shrimp cocktail; Noah - likes it grilled). Forrest Gump would be proud, no? More on my seafood weekend below . . .

Saturday was a rainy, windy, frozen day - wind was blowing 50+ mph - but we needed to get out of the house so we headed to Borders and hung out there for a while - the kids LOVE it there - they dive into the kids section and are happy there for a very long time. Mark and I always get stuck in the travel section, browsing and planning our next adventure - his dream usually involves something in France, while mine are usually family-friendly and closer to home. :) This summer we're headed to the Grand Canyon, so I found a book to help us plan that. After a while we ventured home and were WAY excited to learn that our 4:00 p.m. soccer game was cancelled due to the weather. So we packed our overnight bags and headed for Spearfish.

That night we continued my quest for seafood and headed to Deadwood to the Silverado's buffet - all-you-can-eat crab legs - I was in heaven . . my absolute favorite food. Mother's Day was complete for me!! We went with my mom, dad, brother, his fiance, her son Cayel and the kids so it was a lot of fun. Jack loves crab legs as much as I do, so I was a crab-crackin' fool until my dad decided to help out and do Jack's for him. Anyway, then we headed back to my mom and dad's to play games. A great night!

This morning we all went to my mom and dad's church and then after lunch went on a long walk along Spearfish Creek. It was gorgeous out and a great way to spend the afternoon. I got some cool stuff from the kids - Mark always lets them pick out exactly what they want to get me, and it's always SO MUCH FUN to see what they come up with. Here's what they got me:

Yep, that's a Vikings jersey from Noah - an Adrian Peterson one to be exact - he wanted me to have one just like him and Jack and Mark; and you can't see it very well, but Jack got me my own Webkinz - the schnauzer. He's way cute, and Jack's so excited for me to "do Webkinz" with them. He warned me, though, saying "you can't sit on Webkinz (the website) all day while we're at school!!"

Last week was a busy week at school for the kids - on Tuesday, we had soccer, which ultimately ended up being our last game, since Saturday's was cancelled. Here's coach Mark with his team - a great group of kids, it's too bad the weather didn't cooperate much this season!

On Wednesday, the kids performed their circus musical, which was just adorable:

They also finished Awana on Wednesday night - had an awards ceremony and they each received an award for finishing their books. On Friday, my dad came and did a presentation for both their classes on seashells - he's become an expert after spending many, many weeks on the beaches of Sanibel Island, FL. He does a great presentation and gave each of the 34 kids a big bag of shells to take home. He was a huge hit, and I was so proud!! (So were Jack and Noah!)

Now we're headed into the 2nd to last week of school - amazing. I have my last MOPS Steering Team meeting on Tuesday morning - we're all going for coffee for an end of the year treat. Friday, the boys have their track meet they've been training for during gym class - it's an all day event. Friday we also leave for Willmar for Mark's cousin's wedding - this will be the kids' "first" wedding, so we're excited to see how they'll do with the dance, etc. It will all be good practice for Uncle Josh's wedding in September!
Have a great week . . . . . .