A Day To Myself

I'm a stay-at-home mom. This means that I'm with my precious, ornery children 24/7. I'm so very grateful that I've gotten to witness their first steps and first words, but sometimes they have me pulling my hair out by the end of the day. There are days I don't get to interact with adults. There are days I don't get to shower. There are days I can't get away from them for 30 straight seconds to pee or sneak a piece of the good candy. You know it's bad when you dream of having a nanny just so you can mop the kitchen floor without one kid hanging on your leg while the other is trying to steal the mop so they can "help".

Things like these can make one a little crazy.

You see, I need some time to myself. The problem is that I know I need this, but I also feel guilty for needing it. Again, I'm not Super Mom.

This year my Mother's Day gift was a day to do whatever I want. Yeah, that's right..a whole day. whatever I want. Do you realize what this means?!

--I can sleep in. I won't have to get up before dawn when my half-nocturnal children wake up. Hallelujah.
--I can carry a purse instead of lugging around the heavy diaper bag.
--I can actually walk inside a coffee shop and enjoy a latte instead of hitting up the Dunkin drive-thru.
--I can go shopping at a nice mall without managing my time around fussy kids and nap time.
--I can grab some girls and bolt to the closest winery. Any wine festivals happening anytime soon?
--I can bask in the sunshine somewhere with my eyes closed. I won't have to worry about if the kids are still in the yard. I won't have to get up every other minute to chase a bumble bee away or settle the fight over the blue sand shovel. I can just lay there. Maybe even fall asleep.

The possibilities are endless. It's not often I get a whole day to myself..I just want this one to be perfect.

What would YOU do with a whole day to yourself?

A Day Full of My Favorite Things

I was born to be the mommy of these two.

I had a lovely Mother's Day. It was a day full of my favorite things:

chocolate chip banana pancakes

church

a picnic at the lake

a playground

and snuggles

It was a perfect Mother's Day.

On top of that, my kiddos (with Daddy's help, of course) made me a coupon book.

I got coupons for "one full day out", "one evening out with just Kellyn", "one evening out with just Jude", and even "one evening of blogging" because

I got exactly what I wanted..plus an ego boost. :)

Happy Mother's Day

Yeah..that happened. I totally texted my Mom instead of my dad about her Mother's Day present. *sigh*
I guess there will be no surprises this year!

But seriously..

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.
You've been such an amazing example of a strong, godly mother and wife.
Through the ups and the downs you continue to draw nearer to Him.
There's no greater thing a mother can do than demonstrate God's love to her children.
And you have done do just that.
I love you, Mom.

 Happy Mother's Day, my friends.

Our Virginia Safari Park Adventure

If you've never been to the Virginia Safari Park, you need to go. Like, now. It was awesome and provided us with hours of entertainment. I promise you that the adults enjoyed this trip as much as more than the kids did! It was the best zoo we've ever been to!

And here are way too many photos to prove it:

Kellyn and Jude were so excited as we entered the safari gates.

..until the animals decided to shove their entire heads into our car!

I never wound up two windows so fast! Kellyn and Jude both dove for me to protect them from the giant moose and llama heads. We only captured Jude's reaction, but I'm pretty sure the rest of us felt the same way!

After a few minutes of convincing Kellyn and Jude that the animals can't get through their windows, they were excited again.

If you go to this park, make sure you buy several buckets of feed and hold on tight--the first animal we fed stole our only bucket of food!

This ostrich pecked our window and scared us all!

This zebra licked our window. 

And these are the guys who trampled Mufasa.

Alright, enough with the animals! Take a look at these cuties..

And finally--check out this pregnant goat! Let's take a moment to thank God that our human bellies don't look like this when we're pregnant!!! ;)

I'm sure you won't find these videos nearly as funny as we do, but here you go anyways:
(Please excuse the shaky footage and our weird, candid commentaries)

FYI the weird noise at the beginning of this one is not me!

If you go to the park, you must buy the budgie sticks to feed the birds! I hate birds, and this was still cool.

The End.

If you finished reading this jumbled post, good for you! ..and thanks :)

Our Road-trip {Via Instagram}

My husband had to go to Chicago for the weekend, so the kiddos and I decided to take a little road-trip to Virginia to visit my sister and her husband!

As you can see, Kellyn and Jude were very excited to go see Aunt Rachel and Uncle Mike.

I was a little nervous about taking a 4 hour drive with them by myself, but it couldn't have gone any smoother! (..unless we hadn't hit the three places of stand-still construction during our first hour on the road) They had lots of toys, coloring books, snacks, etc. to keep them busy. :)

diy post to follow

Our first night was just what we needed after our long drive: Playground+Popsicles+Movie=Perfect Evening

On Saturday morning we went to the Virginia Safari Park. Check out Kellyn and Jude's faces when we showed them the park's website!

Both of our kids are hard-core animal lovers. Seriously. They couldn't wait.

But that's another post for another day because I'm exhausted. I stayed up way too late hanging out with my sister all weekend. (Did we seriously not take a photo together this whole weekend??! I guess that's what happens when you have kids--they become the stars, and we forget about taking photos of ourselves!)

My hubby should be home from Chicago around 1am, and I'm trying to be a good wife and wait up for him. But I'm one tired momma. I have to last another two more hours or so..I think I can, I think I can! Wish me luck!

In the meantime, prepare yourselves for an overload of safari photos tomorrow!

Until then...

I hope your weekend was as lovely as mine. :)