* #AsBdayWknd

Friday (my birthday eve) + Saturday (my 31st birthday) = #AsBdayWknd

[picture of a picture: 10 years ago on my 21st bday]

Follow along this weekend on Instagram [ajsonnekmn]. 

We will be whooping it up in (one of our favorite places) HAYWARD!!!

* Mom Notes!

in honor of the just celebrating mothers day i want to once again link up for  today's "baby talk"

Due to the many things that I find myself doing, saying or enjoying the last ALMOST two years, I catch myself saying the following statement all too often "Now that I am a Mom..."

These are all things that I totally GET and understand while maintaining my role as Mommy. A lot of things I told myself, a billion times, that I would never ever do... and NOW, you guessed it.... I do ALL of these things and then some- all. of. the. time!

Ok... first of all I have a really really terrible short term memory (i swear i never used to be this bad!) but honestly, if something is said to me and if I need to remember that info for more than 2 seconds, I have to write it down or else its gone- just like that- GONE! no where to EVER be found again. SO... I have a pen in hand and spend a lot of time writing things down. Take no offense if I am taking notes while we spend some quality time out and about! ;)

Next... I should add the following statement to any resume that I create "highly skilled in the area of sweeping floors." I kid you not, I sweep my floors 2-3 times a day AND have a full dust pan every. single. time! It's gross and I am convinced that this is a combo of no longer having a dog in the house AND being and OCD Mom.

[my little helper] 

Another good one... I talk to myself, all day long! Most of the time Avrie is around to "listen". I can be heard talking to myself whether it be to repeat what I am trying to remember over and over again until I find a pen. Fact of the matter, I said I would never talk too myself as much as my Mom did/does... well now I do it and it annoys even me! haha

This one is random... I "fake" eat food- its the cutest thing ever that Avrie is such a good sharer and is always wanting to feed her Mommy but I don't like everything that she likes. Soon she will catch on to the fact that I will put the little green pea in my mouth and at some point make it over to the garbage can to throw it away- quick before she sees me do it. But for real, I hate peas enough that I can't even TRY to eat just one itty bitty little pea! This drives Aaron crazy he loooooooooves peas. BUT because I am Mom, and I know what's good for growing babies, I love making peas for Avrie to enjoy and let her "feed" them to me. ;)

[sometimes we eat with our sunglasses on]

[and those baked beans- NO WAY, MOM WILL NOT eat those!]

Recently... I am an over packer. You can never leave the house with everything but man do I try! Back in the day I packed 2-3 bags for myself for a weekend, NOW I have a little bag and then 14 bags of Avrie's stuff. I kid, it's more like 4 bags. She has her "Overnight bag", "Diaper bag", "Food/snacks/dishes bag" & "Toy bag". It's a lot but that's ok! An example of never having everything we need, on Sunday, at the zoo- Aaron cut his finger and was bleeding everywhere! Wouldn't you know it, I had everything EXCEPT a band-aid. go figure! But I did make a "mental" note (that I forgot about until right now) to put some in my purse!

A fun fact... I enjoy stuff that only kids might like; the zoo, the park, the circus, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, Disney movies, noisy toys, treats.. you name it! I love seeing the happiness and excitement of all those fun things thru the eyes of Avrie- and this is because, I believe (and it's been the trend of this post) I am a Mom!

[learning that swinging makes me motion sick at my age]

Now, I KNOW, there was more for me to add to this list but, remember me telling you I have a bad short term memory... yeah.... its gone- I'll think of it tonight while I am trying to get to sleep and thinking about everything I didn't get done today that I might try and do tomorrow.

 [she makes my everyday worth it!]

* My Mother's Day 2013

My Mother's Day started out like this...

9:16am: Mom wakes up, and reads in bed for a little bit [awesome!]

9:35am: Mom takes her time to shower & get ready [heaven...]

10:00am: Avrie wakes up, excited to spend a day having fun with Mommy and Daddy! [BEST part of everyday!]

10:30am: Dad makes Avrie and Mom a delicious breakfast [always better when someone makes it for you.]

11ish: We pack up the car for an afternoon at the Zoo!!! [PUMPED!]

...a perfect beginning to a fun day! 

 [mother's day daycare art = LOVE!]

Aaron , Avrie and I made our way down to Como Park Zoo & Conservatory in St Paul. With it being about 55 degrees & a little bit breezy we thought that it MIGHT not be as busy... well we drove up and it. was. busy! DUH! We lucked out with a really great parking spot and enjoyed our time walking around the animal park & como town- our park treat involved a hot bag of mini donuts, yummmm! The park, over all, really wasn't all that crowded, it was perfect.

[so many animals; 

snakes, fish, frogs, turtles, monkeys,

 penguins, buffalo, zebra, lions, tigers & bears...]

This was Avrie's first trip to the zoo and with how much she loves animals, I couldn't wait to see what she thought about everything. We spent a lot of time in the buildings, as the slightly chilled temps of this lovely Mn spring that we are having, still has most of the animals inside.

[giraffes have a "loooooooong NECK!!"]

After about two hours of touring around, we had visited everything the Zoo had offered for the day. It was good timing, with us in need of a late lunch.

[last stop, a turtle ride!]

We stopped by the Blue Heron in Hugo- had late (half priced) brunch and then headed over to Marine State Park on the St Croix to check things out. With this being about 5 minutes from our house, I am excited for it to be our little hot spot for the summer. Both big kids and little kids parks are REALLY cool! The beach will be perfect for weekends we can't be at the lake and there are a ton of walking paths & trails!

After getting home, we put Avrie down for a late late afternoon nap (that i later had to wake her from) followed by a visit to my Mom's around 7pm to wish her a Happy Mother's Day! She made Avrie some french toast "breakfast for dinner" and she loved it. Avrie also had a good time telling grandpa about all of the fun animals she got to see. I later asked her what her favorite animal was and she said "ZEEBAAAAA" haha. She also made sure to tell me over and over that "buppalos scary" which meant, the buffalos were scary for her.

It was a pretty perfect day in my book!

I had all intentions of getting ice cream (my FAV treat) to top off this day, but on the way home from my Mom's it was after 9pm and Avrie was still not cool with me waking her up from her afternoon nap. I am pretty sure she would have slept thru the night had I not disturbed her, little one was pooped! And so was I. I was in bed and out like a light by 10pm! 

* Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day! Happy Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommies out there, Mommies to-be, Mommies to fur babies and just any other female that knows what it takes to care for another and to have someone be dependant upon you for just about everything!

[one of my most treasured pictures]

Some day's its the BEST JOB IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD and other days it's a really really and I mean REALLY "hard day at the office".

But no matter what, it's worth it for all the joy, excitement and love that each day brings my way!

I love my Mom and I know my daughter loves me as her Mommy, Mom, Ma....

 [me and my Mom: 1983]

I plan to be spend this day with those that I hold nearest and dearest to my heart, Aaron and Avrie. I will be back to let you know if it was one of those BEST DAYS EVER or a "hard day at the office" ;)

* last weekend 5.3 - 5.5

With this week already wrapping up and this coming weekend being a pretty quiet one (as of right now) I wanted to note the fun we had last weekend!

***Friday*** 

Avrie spent the morning with GG while I met up with my sister to browse the Spring/Summer From Yours to Mine, LLC children's consignment sale. We visited the Fall/Winter one last year and I am hooked. It's a great sale with a ton of really good finds! I scored big time again this year and spent less than last year!

[the loot!]

After our power hour, we met up with Mom for lunch and had a lot of good laughs about nothing particular in all. We always have so much fun together and it ALWAYS seems to involve fast food drive through! I told her we should hang out more often. :D

[seeeesters!]

Here is a look at all of the clothes that I brought home; tanks, tees, PJs, dresses, skirt, (not pictured) books & a puzzle- a Simba puzzle- SCORE!

 [one the best finds included the comfy track suits for fall/winter 

(these were a LUCKY find! $6 each! hardly worn at all)]

You guys. I am OBSESSED with garage sales and all the like so this time of year is SO FUN FOR ME!

 

[my HUGE Thirty-One bag packed full- all for $16!]

A couple weekends ago at the Forest Lake ECFE indoor kid's sale, I walked away with some really great gently worn clothes, a few toys, books, crocs. All of these items are like gold to us mommies!! Anyone else as obsessed as I am!?

[a halloween top, brand new sweater dress, summer dresses, a skirt, romper and tees]

***Saturday***

After breakfast and some playtime on Saturday morning we headed up to Ben & Lana's for Teddy's 1st birthday party! I can't believe he is already ONE! The house was full of family & friends to help celebrate this little monkey's big day!

[teddy LOVED his cool tye-dye cake made by mommy & daddy!]

I was also so excited to see, Ruby the min pin! (lana's dad's dog)

She reminded us SO much of out beloved Beeker! Avrie didn't seem too excited about the dog- which makes me feel better about the fact that she really doesn't miss/remember Tiki.

[hanging out on the back of the couch, remind you of anyone?!?]

Ruby's face REALLY looks like Tiki- this min pin, Ruby, is a little on the plump side- and about 5 pounds heavier than Tiki was. After following her around with my camera and getting to hold her twice- she was lucky to have escaped me. I wanted to take her home with me real REAL bad! Can you say min pin fever!? This is cool too, Ruby knows ASL (american sign language)!! Lana's dad is deaf and showed Aaron and I that Ruby knows the sign for "sit". He grabbed Ruby's attention, showed her the command/sign for sit and she did it, she sat! Coolest thing ever- our next dog WILL know sign language! ;)

[we were matching twinsies in our bright blue shirts and blue eyes!]

The party was fun and laid back, tons of kids- Avrie had a blast! We all ate food, visited, sang Happy Birthday to Teddy, ate cake, cookie dough dip, cupcakes and Teddy opened his fun gifts. We gifted him a mega blocks dump truck and a Star Wars Tee. With his actual birthday being on May 4th... it's fun saying "Teddy, May the 4th be with you!" This shirt was so fitting- and I just could not resist! Ben & Lana loved it!

After an attempt to try and get a photo of Avrie and Teddy sitting together nicely (psshhh yeah right!)- we headed out the door. It was 6pm and Avrie was begging for a snooze.We packed up, said our goodbyes and Avrie was sleeping literally 2 minutes into our drive back home. She woke up about 15 minutes before we made a stop at "uncle" chicken's house.

 

***Sunday***

Teddy got a REALLY cute kid sized picnic table as a gift for his party- and Aaron loved it so much that he HAD to make one for Avrie too! So this cute little table was his Sunday morning project and Avrie loved it. I love having such a crafty and talented hubby. He was inspired and recreated this table is less than 24 hours of seeing it. I am surprised he got any sleep- once he has an idea in his head, look out!

[i just LOVE her cute smiling face! Aaron's too- if only his hand wasn't in the way!]

For the second part of our day, the sun was shining bright so we spent the late afternoon hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa E's. We sat on the deck, in the sun, soaking up the warms rays and drinking cinco de mayo drinks; me... a couple lime-a-ritas! yummmm Since it was a random visit, we also decided to join them for dinner slow cooked smoked ribs- D-licious! Ahhh the perks of living close to Mom, tasty Sunday night dinners.

all in all, it was a perfectly great weekend! Here's to another one!