Mother's Day Weekend Recap (in pictures)

Our Friday morning started out a little rocky with Merrill throwing up at 4 a.m.  Things turned around later that morning when I was treated to breakfast by Millie at her school.  Unfortunately, our good turn didn't last long.  I got a call from school around 11 a.m. telling me that Millie had fallen asleep in the reading corner and was running a fever of 102. 

Millie took an unprecedented 3 hour nap that afternoon 

Things turned around again when Grandma and Papa arrived.  Merrill was still not feeling great, but she was up for some hugs and snuggles.  Unfortunately, Millie didn't perk up until after Grandma and Papa left for the night -- but when she did she enjoyed playing with all the fun gifts they brought and of course didn't fall back asleep until 10 o'clock that night.

Saturday morning, Millie's fever was down and Merrill had remained vomit free for almost 24 hours, so we headed to downtown St.Charles for some window shopping and exploring

poor Merrill was still not feeling great

back home doing a little painting with Grandma

Merrill ALMOST made it through the day without getting sick again, fortunately she waited until we got home

looking deceptively better as her fever spiked again a couple of times over the weekend

Mother's Day gifts for Grandma and snuggles for me

Then we headed off to the Museum of Transportation to explore trains and automobiles

on the tram to the train

There's that look again, still not feeling great -- she started the day by christening me once again ...

riding a trolley

Enjoying a little sunshine after dinner at Massa's in Downtown Kirkwood.

 

Linzer cake for dessert back at our house with Grandma and Papa, Lainey and Grandpa and Brandon. 

What a weekend!

{Love}

Mani's

My sister and I were treated to manicures tonight from two of the cutest little beauticians I've ever seen :)

huh

One would think that now that I'm a full-time stay-at-home-mom again I'd be posting a lot more frequently than I did when I was working.  And yet, the numbers suggest just the opposite.  Part of the issue the past couple of weeks has been poor sleep for everyone.  Scott traveled for work for a couple of days the first of May and I never sleep well when he is gone, then the girls got sick over Mother's Day weekend, and on top of it all we've been attempting to night-wean Merrill and she has been protesting.  Loudly and often.  So, by the time evening rolls around and I have some time without little monkeys vying for my attention I don't seem to have the mental energy to string a coherent sentence together.  But, we are still here and time seems to be moving faster than ever.

We had a lovely Mother's Day weekend despite the girls being sick (high temperatures that turned out to be a sinus infection for Millie and a stomach bug for Merrill with random vomiting for three days).  We got to spend our weekend with Scott's parents as they were passing through on their way back home to Michigan from Arizona.  We all enjoyed spending time with them -- we made a trip to Old St. Charles and to the Transportation Museum and got to do a lot of window shopping and train exploring.  We had lovely weather, though it bordered on hot at times, and were happy to spend so much time outside (where we didn't have to worry so much about the girls spreading their germs around).

That's the short update.  When I have a few more brain cells that are awake and alert I'll post more about my Mother's Day breakfast with Millie at her school and our adventures with Grandma and Papa -- if for no other reason but so I don't forget the good parts of the past weekend :).

Day at the Beach

We didn't even have to pretend this time!  The girls and I had a great, spontaneous trip to my parents cabin yesterday.  The girls dug in the sand, swam in the lake, climbed a giant sand pile and then slid back down, chased butterflies on the beach, took a ride in the pontoon boat, had a good dinner and played monsters with grandpa in a "cave" before heading home for the night.  Millie said it best as we were pulling out of the drive to go home when she said, "mommy we have to come back to the cabin again because it was so much fun!"  I couldn't agree more and hope we get to spend lots of time out at the cabin relaxing and having fun this summer!

 Our decision to go to the cabin was a last minute one.  Wednesday night was not a good sleep night for anyone and the girls and I were both tired.  After lunch (and a school field trip for Millie in the morning), it was clear that staying home all afternoon with three tired and cranky girls (myself included) was not going to be fun.  Fortunately, despite a forecast of storms, the weather looked like it was going to stay nice for the afternoon so I quickly put swimsuits on everyone, threw some towels and sunscreen in a bag and some shovels and buckets in the van and we were off.  (There was a serious lack of thinking things through as I didn't pack clean clothes for anyone or snacks, or well anything else at all!  Like I said, I was tired... it all worked out fine in the end).  As I hoped, Millie fell asleep on the hour-long ride out to the cabin and got a much needed rest. 

refreshed and ready to play in the sand!

 The sand pile!  The girls are going to be bummed next time we go back and this is gone!

 Neither one of the girls could keep their little swim bottoms up ;).

playing monsters in the cave

which turned into playing tiny baby monster when Merrill joined in -- Millie declared this her favorite activity of the day.  Pretty high praise considering the rest of her day!!