It's mine...all mine!

warning: this is an excessively long post. grab your popcorn and get comfortable, folks. maybe use the bathroom first.
Alrighty? then here we go!Ok, I have to admit...THIS MOTHER'S DAY ROCKED!!!

It doesn't hurt that we kicked off festivities a day early--the more time for the family to cater to my every whim, the better, right? Yeah, it was all about ME this weekend, and boy, did I revel in it!

Um, ok. So, we've been working on a variety of projects around the house, but this weekend is generally the "safety zone" for planting--late enough that the frost doesn't kill but early enough that the heat doesn't destroy the fragile little transplants. Friday the kiddos and I ventured out to purchase our veggies of choice and survived the experience. Really, any shopping trip that doesn't contain several tantrums from Sheridan is considered a success! The one downer was that I couldn't lift the large, HEAVY bags of compost (I generally would've tried, but the old sciatic nerve had been acting up for the days prior and I was NOT interested in exacerbating the issues...) so we had to purchase those Saturday AM. Sigh. I hate it when my body doesn't cooperate with my grand plans. The older I get and more babies I carry the more it tends toward uncooperativeness (is that a word?). But we were talking about planting a garden (I wasn't very explicit about that, I know...).

Right. Planting a garden. You may remember posts last June that dealt with my nemisis, Morning Glory aka Devil Weed (that's what I call it around here. "Morning Glory" is far too nice a name...and really "Devil Weed" is far more appropriate to say around the kiddos than the words going through my mind as I try to rip that nasty, twisted, pernicious root out of my soil). Ok, so this year there is FAR less devil weed, although you never really get rid of it in my 'hood. Time to get on the gardening horse...so T and I spent 2 or 3 hours digging up the garden area (well, 1/2 of the area...it's too big for beginners like us!) and working in some nice, rich poo. Uh, I mean compost (it sure smelled like poo...). Jack and Sheridan spent the whole time finding the MANY worms and showing them to us and to each other. Again, success was had since Sheridan didn't put any in her mouth! Sheridan was trying to help the worms in Jack's hands by offering them dirt--huge clods of thick dirt that were bigger than she was. She kept talking about her "cute wittle wormies". She didn't want to go slide on the slide because of the wormies (she wanted to look at her buggies...). It was really cute.

We planted a ton of plants and are hoping that at least one or two work out.

Tyler treated us to dinner at Nicolitalia's, an East Coast style pizzeria. We both thought it tasted a ton like boardwalk pizza--the kind of greasy, delicious, fattening stuff most akin to the pizza you'd buy in Ocean City, NJ at the Boardwalk. And then, wonder of wonders, they had CANOLLI! For those non-Easterners, a canolli is a fried tube of dough that is stuffed with sweetened cream (marscapone?) and dusted with powdered suger. If you're lucky, there's some kind of chocolate involved. Well, these canolli were TO DIE FOR!!! Worth every last calorie. Better than some I've had in NJ. HEAVEN!!!!

Jack went to bed so excited he said he couldn't sleep. "Mother's Day is my favorite holiday! I can't wait to give you your present!" Wha...? This is the same 4 year old that regularly screams "Nooo! I want Daddy!"?

Um, and then I painted beadboard in Henry's future room, but that's another post.

Today rocked. I got to sleep in until 9er (Henry did want to eat around 4 am, but that's it) when the kiddos finally woke me up to come feast on belgian waffles with strawberries and cream. Sheridan couldn't wait to give me her gift. It was a purple baby doll, her dream (Tyler tried to talk her out of it, but she's pretty stubborn and had been talking about getting me one for weeks). Jack wanted to get me a movie so I finally got Enchanted (I'm pretty stoked about that, but the baby is WAY more funny). Henry got me a cookie sheet. Tyler got me a NEW CAMERA (finally moving up from the 3.2 megapixel one that has done the job but...yeah, it was time to upgrade).

Church went well. The kids were better than they've been in months. That's lucky since we got there late and none of the families I normally sit by had any space for us (my heart dropped when I realized that and I figured I'd be farming the kids out one by one as the chaos enveloped our pew). Jack got up to sing with the other kids and was ADORABLE! They sang a song about mothers (go figure, huh?) and when the words said "I love you" he signed it and pointed to me. Not subtly, either. Ah, yeah, I got a little misty-eyed. Then he came back to his seat and announced "I love you sooo much, Mama!" and gave me a big hug. I was in Mama heaven!

T pulled together a Freakin' Delicious dinner (grilled steak, sauted mushrooms, baked potato fries and green beans) and we had a family walk. I got to talk to my mom and wish my big bro a happy birthday. Kids went to bed well and now I'm blogging...yes, truly a fantabulous weekend! Thank, Ty!