Weekend Report and Menu Plan Monday -- May 10

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all of you fellow moms! I hope you all had as wonderful of a day as I did. This was the first year that I actually got to relax on Mother's Day. We went to Ed's parents' house and hung out all day. Ed smoked two chickens in his smoker, and the rest of the family came over later for dinner. The boys played outside and played inside, and generally kept themselves busy. They required very little attention and supervision from me, and what supervision they needed, they mostly got from Ed. So like I said, I actually got to relax a bit. (Which was good, because I'm afraid I've caught the boys' cold.)

It was also nice to have a relaxing Sunday because Saturday was super busy. We got up in the morning and headed out to the Truck Touch. The boys got to sit in a skid steer loader, a recycling truck, an ambulance, a front-end loader, a police car, a camper, a motorcycle, a fire truck, and a mail truck. I forgot my good camera, but I had my iPhone.

Obviously, the boys had a blast. They had such a good time that they fell asleep on the way home. And when we got home, they both went back to sleep. We had to wake William up to go to our next event--a mini-reunion with a bunch of my high school friends. I went to high school in Florida, and it turns out that a lot of alumni live in this area. So we all met up at a park on Capitol Hill. There were a lot of kids, and several who were William's age. The kids played on the playground and I started catching up with friends. William decided it was way more fun to play in the dirt surrounding the playground, and so did several other kids. It was pretty windy out, and between the wind blowing the kicked-up dirt around, and the kids building "volcanoes" in the dirt, William was absolutely filthy by the time we headed home. Filthy, but very happy. After the picnic, we headed over to Ed's parents' to spend the night. Seth went to sleep right away, but William still had a lot of energy. Ed and I went out for a late dinner date, but at 10:15, when we got back, William was still awake, lying in his grandparents' bed, happy as a clam, and chattering away to his  grandmother as his grandfather lay sleeping. Too funny.

Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures at the reunion picnic, or many pictures on Mother's Day. I did get a picture of Ed with his smoker.

And I got a picture of Seth playing his favorite game. It's called, "I be wight back." He stands at the door and very earnestly says, "I be wight back." And then goes inside and shuts the door. Then he comes back out in two seconds and starts it all over again. It's quite fun. You should try it.

The weekend was so nice that it completely wore me out. I started getting a sore throat yesterday and felt achy off and on. This morning my throat still felt sore, and I was still feeling achy. So I took the boys to school and came back home. I felt better after loading up on Advil, though, so I ended up getting a lot done. I cleaned bathrooms, did laundry, vacuumed, dusted, sorted and organized toys, and did some meal prep. Like a dummy, however, I did not rest. So by the time I went to pick the boys up from school, I was feeling crappy again. Such is the life of a mom!

Speaking of meal prep, here is this week's menu:

Monday: Pork tenderloin (with this dry rub recipe), corn on the cob, green beans/salad

Tuesday: Chicken piccata, broccoli, dinner rolls

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner (waffles, omelets, or french toast with fruit)

Thursday: Macaroni and cheese with broccoli (special-request birthday dinner)

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: Eat out

Sunday: Either ribs or fish

Hopefully, it will be a good week. Thursday is William's 4th birthday (ack!) and his party is on Saturday. My mom is coming into town to help celebrate, so we're looking forward to her visit. And I almost forgot--Ed and the boys gave me a gift certificate to a spa for a manicure, pedicure, and hour-long massage. I can hardly wait! What a perfect Mother's Day gift.