Mother's Day Weekend & Other News (Kara's braces)

Before I get to the weekend, on Wednesday, I was invited to have a Mother's Day tea in Luke's class. He didn't talk about it much, so I didn't think he was very excited. However, I later learned he had been talking nonstop to Thomas about it for weeks. The day before the big event, Thomas drove Luke to baseball practice and when they started driving, Luke said, "mom?" Thomas was confused and responded that I was at home. Luke told him he wanted to double-check before he talked about the Mother's Day party. You know, in case I had snuck into the van somehow. Anyway, it was a very sweet event. We had tea and little cakes and watched a video the kids' made. Luke showed me more stuff in his classroom and there was a selfie station. He gave me his gifts, including a very long paper (the longest he says he's ever written!) about why I am a great mom. It was very, very sweet. And, I loved it.

Not my favorite picture, but the only one I took.

Friday night, we went to the Florida Mall. Surprisingly, almost everyone wanted to go. We knew Anna would want to go dress shopping and figured Kara would join in. But Jack surprised us with wanting to go, which meant Luke had to come too. Luke wasn't happy, but it ended up fine. We had dinner at the food court. Side note--eating out has gotten crazy expensive! For the six of us, it was around $75, for a mall food court! No one got anything special. I think a couple people just had pizza slices from Sbarro. We went to Cracker Barrel a couple of weeks ago and it was $100. I think our eating out days will be few and far between! But, back to the mall. It became clearer why Jack had come, for some reason, he thought we were just eating and then maybe walking around. He did not realize dress shopping was involved. But, the boys went with Thomas and I took the girls. We started at JC Penney's, and they had a surprisingly great selection. We found several good choices and Anna picked a favorite and we got shoes to match. The kids shared some pretzels from Auntie Anne's and then Anna asked to get a second ear piercing. She has been asking for a while, so we agreed that as long as there was no wait, she could get it done (with her own money). So, she did. I had given my phone to Luke, so no pictures unfortunately.

It was a fun outing. I liked shopping with the girls. I learned that Anna was asked to the formal by a boy in one of her classes; she told him that she was already committed to going with her friends. Neither girl is interested in "dating" at this point, for which I am very grateful. They are at an interesting stage in life now. Obviously, they aren't close to being adults, but they also aren't little kids anymore. I am enjoying the in-between stage and the evolution in our relationship. 

Saturday, we went to Leu Gardens and the library. It was a nice, easy day. I really enjoy Leu Gardens and it was a good time to visit. The entire garden smelled so beautiful.

The butterfly garden was very active. Thomas got this awesome shot.

Sunday, we went to Fun Spot. We had bought tickets last June and they were close to expiring. With so many weekend activities, it was hard to find a time to visit. So, Mother's Day it was! We got there when they opened and went straight to the go-carts. We rode all the go-carts and other rides. We had lunch (cheaper than the mall) and let everyone pick their favorites to do again. It was very empty. I guess a lot of mothers don't want to spend the day at an amusement park? Fun Spot is only a couple of miles from Universal, so I checked the wait times and saw they were very short. Hagrid's was only 45 minutes and the non-headliners were 10-15 minutes! So, we decided to head there. We went and rode Velocicoaster (20 minutes) and Hagrid's (45 minutes). Those are two rides we can't use our express after 4 passes for, so it was almost a reverse day. Often we go and ride everything but those two rides. This time we rode them, got ice cream and left. We obviously could have done more, but it had been a long day and people were tired.

This was my favorite picture of the day. Thomas insisted he won, Kara was protesting (Jack won on the match with me and Luke)

The kids all gave me gifts. Jack wrote a beautiful poem, Anna wrote a letter, Luke also wrote a poem, and Kara made me an elephant (my favorite animal) out of the Mardi Gras beads. It was a very good day.

Luke and Kara went in the pool for the first time since it was redone. They both said it was nice. I tried going in with them the next night, but it was too cold for me. 

Today (Wednesday) Kara got her braces off! She spent the last week very excited.