Mother's Day Moments

Mother's Day 2013

 Jack: {almost} 27 months old

Mama: {almost} 35 weeks pregnant (to deliver at 39 weeks)

We spent Mother's Day together as a family on a truly perfect day. We went to breakfast at one of our favorite local spots from our pre-Jack life, and then took a nice little stroll along the coast. As you can see from the second and third pictures, a sure fire way to get Jack to smile for the camera is to let him run wild. I love watching his adorable surfer shaggy hair flounce all around as he sprints for joy. John pampered me with such a wonderful and special day--no diaper duty and no cooking duties! Among my many spoils was a gift card for a couples private gourmet cooking class! How fun will that be?!

I am now in the final countdown until our second baby arrives. We hope to order a few pieces of furniture for the nursery this week (keeping the room very clean and simple until the gender reveal, and then I'll create something really fun) and deep clean all of our infant gear. I also need to pack a hospital bag within the next few weeks, and knowing that I'll be admitted for 3 days, it needs to be a pretty well thought out bag. Last go-around, I wasn't at all prepared for my 5 day hospital stay or the C-section recovery, so I'm relieved that I will have more knowledge this time.

Hope all you Mother's out there had a lovely Sunday and were made to feel very special :)

Floridians

{below set of pictures are from our little getaway to St. Augustine, the oldest settlement in United States circa 1513}

We are back home from a week in the Sunshine State! 

It was a pool-golf cart rides-grandparent time cycle on repeat. Actually, I should also insert lots of Dad time in there too and having his best friend with him all the time was super exciting for Jack. From about minute three of our arrival, Jack was already ordering Pop-Pop and Grandma to "sit!", "play!", and "walk!" with him everywhere. We were in Florida to visit my husbands family, and take a small babymoon to St. Augustine where my husband could golf and I could enjoy not running after a two-year-old for 10 hours a day. The weather was mild and pretty and Jack made some very special memories with his grandparents, who live in this great retirement community. It's the only one of it's kind in the world, actually. Everyone (literally) drives a golf cart as their primary mode of transportation, which is so cute I can't even stand it. There's a whole infrastructure just for the carts. Some people really go all out and customize them, for instance modeling theirs after vintage cars. I have this running term in our house that's in some of our books to describe old cars---"old-timer." On our first day, we spotted an old-timer-esque golf cart, and I said "look Jack, an old-timer!" From that moment on, every single golf cart we saw was an old-timer, or in Jack lingo "old-tima!!!!" We just had to be careful who was in our direct line of hearing when Jack would shout this...nobody, even retirees want to be called old-timers ;)

I'm already working on a post about traveling cross-country with a toddler. Whether you are 32 weeks pregnant like me or not, it's exhausting. New places and new faces for my little guy mean nearly non-stop energy. Jack comes even more alive with a large audience and new experiences. I think he took one official nap in 8 days, with a few cat naps here and there, never slept-in once, and went to bed late everyday. I can't even imagine what it would have been like if it was just John and I traveling somewhere alone with Jack with NO HELP, so a big thank-you to all the family who entertained Jack for us!

Now it's back to our regularly scheduled routine...

for now...

until it gets shifted once again when our baby number 2 arrives in 6 weeks...

Lush Spring

Acres and acres of dreamy brightly-colored Ranunculus flowers, cascading down and making a picture-perfect blanket of Spring beauty...that is what we saw today at the magnificent Carlsbad Flower Fields. 

We love going every year, as you may remember from this post. Jack was more interested in the enormous tractor that would drive by as part of the many added attractions to the fields, but he was pretty content to run up and down the rows of flowers or sit atop John's shoulders. Then there was this cute moment at one of the "photo areas" where he plopped down, sat right in the middle of a bed of flowers, and looked up adoringly (see the picture of him with the yellow flowers). My heart just about melted. 

Over at the Carlsbad Strawberry Company, just down the road from the Flower Fields, patrons can grab a big ol' bucket and fill with hand-picked luscious ruby red strawberries. They really are natures candy I tell you. Jack was oh-so-gentle and delicate last year with this task: he was patient, curious, and followed my instructions perfectly well. This year? Not so much---well, at first. He was much more into squeezing the life out of each berry, watching the bright red pulp slosh through his fingers and run down his shirt. However, once I convinced him that there was a "game" to be played and to help Mommy drop the all the big strawberries into the bucket, he was good-to-go.

Now...what to make with all my goodies?

{I'm thinking PIE}

Good Morning Sunshine

It's so good to branch out and connect with other stay-at-home moms who are eager to set up playdates for their little ones. I have recently become better at keeping up with my local Moms group, and I can't say enough good things about having a community like this. Moms need other moms just as much as kids need other kids to socialize with! It's my favorite part of our week. I hosted a little morning playdate last week and loved it! I find that babies/kids behave really well at other peoples houses because all the toys and books are new to them. It's a buffet of fun. Jack loves having people over to show-off his latest tricks, to chat a mile-a-minute with, and just as a change of pace to being "stuck" with me all day. 

All this had me thinking about cute and whimsical ideas for making snacks fun {and healthy} for toddlers. So, I rounded up some of the most inspiring playdate food ideas out there to share with you.

Who knows?...maybe I can actually pull some of these adorable creations off one day...

Blackberry Black Sheep, here.
Melon Ice Cream Cones, here.
Robot Melamine Plates, here.
Dino Sandwich Cutters, here.
Re-Usable Cupcake Lines (for filling snacks), here.
Airplane Sandwiches, here.
Berry Fish, here.
Heart Melon Skewers, here.
Veggie/Meat/Cheese Cutters, here.

Heart Cookie Cutter, for cutting fruit, found here.

Flower Cupcake Liners, for filling with snacks, found here.

{I filled with organic Puffs and organic Honey Sticks}