mother's day 2012

I have a few mom's in my life.  Which makes me a pretty lucky lady.

My KC Mom, who had the fortune of giving birth to me, lives 5 hours away, so we didn't get to physically spend Mother's Day with her.  I did get online and have this book sent to her:

I stared at the screen long and hard... I very badly wanted to order one for myself as well, but I resisted the temptation (though it would have been so lovely) and I just ordered the one for my mom.

Which turned out pretty lucky because I found out via email on Mother's Day that I had won this very book from LDS  Women's Book Review.  I can't wait for it to show up!  Thank you Mindy!

My Julie Mom, who gets to put up with me  because I am my father's daughter, and my Suzann Mom, who gets to put up with me because I am her son's wife, live pretty close to us so we set up an afternoon with them.

I spent a couple of days before hand making some small gifts for them.

I had the kids draw flowers (which on some of them just turned into cards, but we rolled with it) and we stuck them in vases, as well as a small lotion.

And then I made these stinkin' cute cans with a few small goodies inside of them.

I stole the initial tin can idea from here.  The only problem I ran into is where they used pop top cans, I found I couldn't open the bottom of those because they were too thick for my can opener.  Which also meant that I wouldn't be able to use their cute label because mine weren't in pop top cans.  I think next time I do this I'm going to have to look at the exact brand of can that they used. 

They still turned out fun.

We met Grandma Julie and Grandpa Brent, Granny Suzann, and Aunt Lindee at Liberty Park for a picnic lunch.  Granny Suzann wanted taco salads so Lindee and I joined forces and made sure we had all the ingredients provided for the moms.

Granny Suzann showed up with her dragon kite.

Granny Suzann

Grandma Julie

Grandma Julie remembered that Grandpa Brent had a small can opener on his key chain so she went to work on opening her can to find the small goodies we'd hidden inside.

The kids threw bread at the ever present seagulls.

It was the perfect day.

Granny Suzann doesn't go anywhere with out at least one dog.  Poor Chloe has arthritis and can barely move so the circus took turns pushing her around in the baby carriage that Granny brought.

As if having six kids doesn't draw enough attention to our crew, let's add a dog in a baby carriage...

When we'd first arrived at the park the circus walked by two women sitting on the grass.  One of the women looked over our group and then looked at her companion and said, "you have got to be kidding me."

One of these times I'm going to have to say something.  But before I go and ruin a perfectly lovely post with a soapbox rant, I'll just say that you can go and read the rant here.

After lunch Grandma Julie and Grandpa Brent said their farewells and the rest of us wandered off to see what we could see. 

It was beautiful.

Well, most of it was beautiful :)

Brynn stated that she was tired and wanted a piggy back ride.  This is what she got:

And then it was Sean's turn:

It was a beautiful day.  The circus gave me wonderful cards, letters, and drawings.

And these beauties:

I'm pretty sure they're going to make me run faster.

Much love to the moms in my life.  Thank you for your unwaivering love, support, and constant advice.  I love each of you and the special qualities that you bring to my life. 

I couldn't imagine my life without any one of you.