Marney "Mo"ments: Sweet Mother's Day Weekend

I had a very special Mother's Day weekend! The entire weekend was spent with family! Lora and Gary got to fly down and spend the weekend with us! And they were able to extend their trip so that we could spend Mother's Day together too!

This is why I get to celebrate Mother's Day! My beautiful family!

Joe gave me flowers the Friday before Mother's Day so that I could enjoy them the whole weekend! They were beautiful and smelled so wonderful!

On Thursday, the kids and I picked up Gary and Lora from the airport. Grey (and Joleigh too!) were very excited to go to the airport to pick up Bobbie and Pop-Pop!

To start off...

When we got home, Grey wanted to play outside. A few minutes later, he came in to show Bobbie and me a snail that he found. He loved his snail. (Well, lets just say he loved the shell - the snail was long gone...) Bobbie named it Ernestine!

After a time, Grey noticed that he had misplaced his snail somewhere in the living room. He wanted me to help him find it, but I told him to try to look for it first by himself. I suggested that he go into his room to get his magnifying glass to help him with the search. He thought that was a grand idea and ran into his room! Suddenly, we heard his toy box tip over as Grey rummaged through his toys looking for his magnifying glass. Lora and I just smiled at each other just imagining what his room looked like now. After a good minute of constant rummaging, it became very quite in his room. Then, Grey popped back into the living room not with his magnifying glass, but with "better tools" - his goggles and pliers! Lora and I laughed so hard seeing Grey with his goggles over his eyes and pliers in his hand and smiling ever so big! Now, what tool do you think that snail would want Grey to use - a magnifying glass or pliers! (Mommy side note - Thank goodness the snail was already dead.) Grey found his snail very quickly, picked it up with his pliers and brought it to me!

And here rests Ernestine...

That evening...

we grilled out pizzas! Grey and Joleigh (and the rest of us kids) had a great time making our own pizzas! First we grilled the crust, then we piled on the toppings. We had to wait a while for the pizzas to get done but boy oh boy, was it ever worth the wait!

Yummy!

We all enjoyed our meal!

That night...

...was game night! Grey got to pick the game - and to our surprise (wink, wink) Grey chose Candy Land! He had a blast playing with Bobbie, Pop-Pop and Daddy. Joleigh was the little cheer leader. She clapped after every one's turn! It's so sweet to watch Grey play games right now because he could care less about winning! He is just enjoying the moment. As a matter of fact, he gets so excited when he picks up a picture card that makes him move back a few spaces!

And, even though he is just a couple of spaces ahead, he will say "You can't catch me!"

So darn cute - he just loves playing!

Later that night...

Bobbie read a bedtime story! Grey and Joleigh loved Bobbie reading to them!

The next morning...

...was Lora's birthday! We prepared a special birthday breakfast for her! I (tried) to make a spinach quiche with feta cheese and mushrooms. It would have been perfect if I hadn't put too much salt in it. But, we enjoyed the breakfast anyway!! Later that morning, Lora got to use her gift card to a neat store called "For Zion's Sake". If you are from this area, I recommend going - this store has products from Israel ranging from skin products to candles as well as literature and anointing oils. Afterwards, we went to lunch at a Greek Deli. That too was a neat place to go - the food was wonderful! I think Lora had a great birthday!

Later that evening...

...our neighbors found a snake in their yard, or should I say tree! This snake fell out of the tree and onto the ground where my neighbor was working on her flower beds. She was sitting exactly where it had fallen just moments before! She was shaken up a bit - I would have been too! I had just parked my car and was walking into the house when I noticed Ben, the dad, holding a shovel over his head. I heard Annabel, the mom, say that she thought it was a water moccasin. I then asked if they had a snake over there and asked them to wait to kill it until I got Joe. Joe in his bare feet and shorts runs over there and realizes that its a pine snake. He caught it by its neck and after letting the kids see it, we let it go out in the woods - far away from any house.

We are thinking that this may be the same snake Joe caught at my friend's house after it scared my friend and I to death! Joe caught it then too and he let it go in our back yard thinking it would enjoy the wooded area behind our neighbors house. We didn't think we would ever see it again! Not sure if it is the same snake, but it had the same markings and was just a little bigger in size. I will post a movie of us letting it go.

After an eventful evening...