Mother's Day Weekend

There's this place in town that is all set up for daling little girl parties with different themes, dress up and all the fancy details a little girl could wish for. They were having a fashion show at the mall along with a mother/daughter tea, and we heard about it beforehand, so we were able to get the girls all set up to participate.

Ruby, Alice and I went to the "tea" beforehand, and then Chris caught up with us to see the show. It was darling. Right up there with having your child participate in a wedding...just so fun to see them in front of everyone, and for complete strangers to be oooohing and ahhhing over their darling-ness. Of course, it was super fun for the girls, who looked forward to it for over a week and were so thrilled to be princesses for a few minutes.

This funny face is classic Ru. She's happy, and wants to smile, but she stops herself! I always tell her, "SMILE!", but it never fails that she opens her mouth really wide to stop the smile from sneaking onto her face.
All the girls came up with their own posing idea, and Ruby chose to do a little ballerina twirl and then a curtsie. It was really cute. She did a great job!

Alice was totally herself, and came up with an interesting combo of poses. She walked out kind of fluffing her tutu, and then she planted her feet front and center and pulled off a really princess like hand roll...similar to what you would do when singing "Pat-a-Cake". She just stood there doing her original rolling of the hands and then she flashed the crowd and "I love you"! It was so darling. I wish our video camera had worked because it would be fun to watch over and over again (at least for Chris and I).

Then everyone came out at the end for a bow, and these two girls had obviously taken charge of little Alice back stage, because they were very nurturing to her, on stage.

After the show, we went up to my cousin's house to celebrate her adoption of her son (he's lived with her like 11 years now), and then to my folks' house for a movie. On Sunday morning we had a nice brunch with my folks and my brother Jordan before heading home for afternoon church. Ruby sang a few sweet songs with the other primary children during the congregational meeting, and then all the moms were given some nice annuals to bring home.

Mother's Day has been a hard day some years. I think it is because I get my hopes up really high and then I spend all day believing that I can't lift a motherly finger for a second, and so it can almost ring kind of contentious when I constantly defer every petty responsibility to Chris. So...this year, I had no expectations and planned on treating it like any other day. That way, my husband's extensive and sincere efforts could be appreciated and not fall short.

This was a nice year, I had a decent amount of R & R on both Saturday and Sunday, but I didn't go for the full-on diva act. Chris made me a thoughtful meal after church, and then we made a little fire in the backyard and roasted marshmallows.

It was a really nice day! Happy Mother's Day to you all!