Happy Mother's/Birth Day!

Well, I really should have blogged in small chunks over the last four days, but never found the time to do it. So, once again, here's another marathon post from Chelsea.

My weekend was amazing. It was one full of family, and lots of time with my husband too. I am one of those people who has a "combo birthday" almost every year. This year, my birthday fell the day after Mother's Day, so it was a fun few days of celebration!

Let's start with our first day of celebrating:

Friday, I got home from getting my hair cut (four inches off, by the way!) and found out that Mark had arranged for his mom to come over so we could go on a date. The plan was to go shop for our digital camera that was to be my Mother's Day and birthday gift this year. So, we headed that direction and somehow got distracted by the mall on the way. (I have NO idea how that happened!)

Now, let me explain that our yearly tradition for my birthday has always been a shopping trip with my hubby to Ann Taylor Loft (my favorite clothing store on the planet.) The important parts of this trip are:
1) a night out without children where we shop as late as we want without strollers or diaper bags and THEN eat dinner at 9:00 if we want to.
2) once-a-year actual shopping by my husband. I had to teach him how to do this early on in marriage, where he actually walks around with me (rather than sitting on the bench outside) and picks out the outfits he likes the best (I love this----it reminds me of growing up when my sweet dad would accompany us on shopping trips and actually picked out clothes for us, found the right sizes, and had opinions on what we tried on, along with mom)
3) And, of course, the last important part---I get to take home my favorite clothes as my gift each year!

So, let me just say, that the digital camera is on hold for a while. I was way too successful at the mall "on the way"! But, it was such fun and helped keep the tradition going! We had a fabulous kid-free dinner with time for conversation and no reason to rush, which was wonderful. And after checking out the movie theater selections (and the millions of teeny-boppers attending the movies that night), we decided to rent two movies, which we promptly fell asleep to by the time we got home to watch them.

So, thank you, Grandma Cheri, for keeping the girls while we had a date night to celebrate!

Okay, day two of celebrating: Saturday morning we woke up with lots to do for Kendyll's big ballet recital that afternoon. So, I started making my lists as I always do, getting organized for my day. But, not long after that, it was decided that the girls and Mark were taking me to breakfast for Mother's Day (since we would be out of town on Sunday). So, I threw my lists out the door and enjoyed the day anyway!

So, off we went to Breadwinners, one of my very favorite breakfast spots anywhere. We had a delicious breakfast outside on the patio and the girls were perfect for me. :) Then, we took Kendyll to the ballet store to pick out a special ballerina doll and new ballet shoes for her big day. The rest of the day was spent running a few errands, practicing a few ballet moves for her show (although that didn't last long!), taking good naps for the recital, and meeting up with family for Mother's Day hugs and cards before the recital began. Happy Mother's Day Mom!

And, here are a few pictures of the cutest ballerina around: Kendyll had so much fun at her recital and felt like a queen. She had SIXTEEN family members come to see her show, and she truly felt how special she was from each and every one of them. She got flowers, Hawaiian leis, gifts, and big hugs. She told me as we left the theater "Mommy, my mouth cannot stop smiling!" That summed up her day perfectly. We were so proud of her up on that stage, and enjoyed seeing her personality in her performance. She is such a mix of her two parents. She hams it up just like Mark, looking for us in the audience and remembering to smile the whole time. But, then she spent half her dance routine looking for her spot of tape on the floor because her teacher told her to stay there. (following the rules like her mommy). We had a fun day and got Sonic ice cream on the way home for such a great performance!

Well, I will finish with Sunday and Monday this afternoon. I'm even getting tired of reading this, so I'm sure all of you are! I had such a great few days, I don't want to leave anything out...which always leads to a novel with way too many details! So, I'll see you this afternoon for part 2.