Happy Mother's Day

This morning Ben and the kids surprised me with some "flowers"! Aren't these cute!?! They made them while I was on my moms' retreat last weekend. I'm so impressed. What a great man I have... truly, he is wonderful (and I don't tell him nearly enough).


Now, these fresh flowers aren't mine. I got them for my mom while she was visiting this weekend. She loves fresh flowers. They are so pretty. Unfortunately (or not), she is flying back tomorrow and will probably have to leave them. I told her if she could figure out a way to take them, that we would make it happen! However, I am glad to "take care" of them for her if she can't.

Madelyn made this plant for me at preschool. They are marigolds, which I fell in love with last summer. They are so easy to grow and maintain! The pink paper is a very cute bookmark she made as well. It has her version of her name on the back and her school picture on the front with some of her choice stickers. It is very much a snapshot of Madelyn at this time in life. Thank you, Madelyn!

And here they are all together. My gifts. My sister also got me some Lindt chocolates and the sweetest card. What a sweet sister.... (love you, Liz, and thanks for coming to see us!)

I was also blessed today with some time out with my sister and mom. It was wonderful to be able to sit with them in a German restaurant and just talk, laugh, cry, tease, hug, console... for a couple of hours without any other worries. Thank you, Ben....

Como Park

Here's some good pics from our outing to Como Park today - Enjoy!

Picnic in the park - $5 foot-looooo-ng!

Looking for trouble!

Beautiful flowers in the conservatory

GaGa is the best...

"Can I touch a fish?"

Flowers make girls happy... hint, hint

Evolution at it's finest

Mother's Day

WooHoo! My mom and sister flew in today. Although it hasn't been proactively planned, my mom and I (and occasionally my sister too) have ended up together for Mother's Day pretty often in the past 10 years. It really is wonderful and quite a blessing! This year my mom was teaching this past week in Milwaukee and she decided to come over for Mother's Day Weekend. My sister got wind of this plan and decided to join us. I'm so excited! Today we went to Como Park to picnic and walk around conservatory. The plants and flowers are gorgeous! This picture was taken at the Japenese Garden there.

Here's something for you, Mom! I found this and thought it would fun to fill out for you!

My mom is like no one else! She is wonderful, smart, incredibly busy...
I really love it when my mom comes to visit me
My mom likes to wear warm colors
My mom always tells me she loves me
The best thing she does is take care of people
It makes her happy when she helps people
My mom loves to relax by putting her feet up
I like it when she sends my daughter ecards
The best thing she cooks is chicken pot pie
When my mom shops she likes to buy practical stuff
My mom’s favorite household chore is ... what kind of question is that?
My mom’s favorite TV show is ER
If she could go on a trip, she would go to KAUAI!
I love my mom because she loves me

"Say-t-belt Mommy!"

I have this terrible habit. It is putting my seatbelt on after I've already started driving. Granted, I usually have it on before I get a mile down the road, but still... I know, terrible. Now, I *always* make a big deal about Madelyn having her seatbelt on before I put the car in gear. I don't have to worry about Greyson because I phsyically put his seatbelt on him, Madelyn does hers on her own. I guess the "big deal" about Madelyn having her seatbelt on has really sunk in, at least for Greyson. About two weeks ago, Greyson starting noticing that I don't have mine on before we take off. All the sudden I've been hearing, "Say-t-belt Mommy!", from Greyson at a polite but very LOUD tone from the backseat. I always say, "Yup, Mom should have her seatbelt on. Thank you." It is double terrible when your two-year-old is telling you how to be safe. All the sudden, after years of my bad habit, I don't seem to have a problem with buckling my seatbelt before I put the car in gear.

Cold Crops

Today I planted the cold crops - ones that can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked but before last frost. That meant getting out the tiller, preparing the soil (sidenote: Madelyn surprised me with this word today. She says she learned it on "Sid the Science Kid". Love that show.), mark the rows, plant the seeds (carrots, onions, spinach, pea, and broccoli), and then water. It was a couple hours worth of work but I loved every minute of it! I love gardening... I can't wait until mid-May when I can get everything in the ground!

I did get the strawberry plants planted earlier this week (not pictured). They seem so tiny now but from what I hear, next year and every year after I will be fighting to keep them contained! All I know is that I am looking forward to home-grown strawberries!

Coloring in the lines

Madelyn has finally given in to the “right” way to color! Ever since she started using crayons to color, instead of scribble, she has had a hard time staying the lines. Not only that, she has also had a hard time coloring a picture to make it look like it would in reality, like a tree with a brown trunk or green leaves. Instead the tree would end up with all black colored so that you really can’t make out it was a tree to begin with… and she liked it that way! Now, hear me say this, I’m not complaining – REALLY, I’m not! I love that she has her own ideas of how things should be. She is a very independent thinker! (And God, please, please!, may that work out in YOUR favor!) But I’ve had this thought that she needs to know how to color to be successful in kindergarten. I don’t exactly know why. And I’ve also known that if I pushed her to color “right”, she would continue to bulk at the idea. So about week ago I challenged her. I told her, “I don’t think you can color without going out of the lines.” I listened carefully (without looking at her) to see how she would take this. I knew she’d either agree with me (dead end) or she’d decide that she could and show me! I’m SO GLAD that she chose the latter. It really was a gamble on my part. The second part to coloring “right” was thinking about what color should be given to each item being colored. I casually pointed out a couple of days ago that each thing in the picture could be a different color and that she could try to make each thing look like it would “for real” if she wanted. And that was all it took! And that, my friends, is how we went from this:

To this:

I also figured out this week that Madelyn REALLY doesn't like it when I tell her that she has done a "great job!". Wow... I've been saying this about everything since she was a baby... so I've been trying to stop and instead say things like, "That is beautiful!" or "Way to go!". It's been hard but I'm seeing a big difference in how she is responding to it! Thank you, God, for this marvelous insight into my daughter!