What a Weekend!

We sure did pack a lot of fun into a few days this weekend. 

With Hannah's 6th birthday and Mother's Day falling within days of each other it was unavoidable.

I started on Wednesday to make this lovely creation for Hannah's birthday on Friday.

I had quite a bit of anxiety making this beauty.  I'm not much of a "fun cake" mom.  Around here it's usually, "What flavor of cake do you want?" and I make it in 13 x 9 pan, frost it, add a few sprinkles and if they are lucky they get a couple figurines on top.  I have never used fondant and was pretty nervous hoping I could make it work.  I was extremely impressed with the end result.  It's not perfect (I kind of obsess over the imperfections) but still pretty good.  I know the Barbie cake is not a new idea but Hannah had never seen one before and she is in love with Barbie and Polly Pocket right now so I thought this would blow her away and make her feel extra special.  I made this while Hannah was at school so it was a complete surprise.  She knew I was making a Barbie cake, but remember how I described my cake making skills, I'm pretty sure she thought it would be a rectangle cake with a picture of Barbie on it.

It's kind of become a unspoken tradition that birthdays start first thing in the morning.  I always decorate the kitchen after the kids go to bed so that when they wake up it's birthday time!  I always want them to know first thing that WE know it's their birthday.  I never want them to feel like we forgot or are unprepared for their special day.   That's why all birthday pictures are in the kitchen with my kids looking splendid after restful nights sleep.  :)

That's the cake under the birthday bag.  

The other reason I wanted the cake to be a surprise is that the 

Ariel barbie I used was one of her presents.

Hannah got lots of barbie/polly pocket/princess things.  We went from no Polly Pockets in our house to an explosion of Pollys.  We gave her some, Aunt Jana gave her some and Grandma Taggart did to.  Good thing we don't have very small children in this house or we would have some serious choking hazards with all those itty-bitty clothes and accessories.

At school, the kindergarten had a Mother's Day program. 

Lots of songs they had learned throughout the year.  Hannah couldn't be happier that her show landed on her special day.

Another fun thing that landed on Hannah's birthday was the school's family fun run and carnival.  Wow!  What's better than a run and carnival to celebrate turning 6?

Well how about winning the race for your age group! 

That's right, Hannah was the first kindergartener to cross the finish line of the 5k.

Yay for families!  Yay for races!

Now I know you all know that I like running but I did not pressure this clan into running on Hannah's birthday.  It was completely her idea.  She wanted to run the 5k (not the mile route that was also an option) with everyone for her birthday.  So we all signed up, got cool T-shirts, and Ethan and I even won a little prize in the drawing at the end.

After the race we headed to the back of the school for the carnival.  And when I say carnival I mean a bunch of blow-up bouncy things and food stands run by the teachers.  

Not super fun for parents but way super fun for kids.  They had a ball.

 The best part were the friends. These are just some of the many friends she 

got to play with at her "birthday party."

It was like I had planned this whole thing but I didn't have to, the school did it for me.

What's a carnival, or party for that matter, without FOOD.

Playing sure whips up an appetite.

 

This is JayDee's "don't even think about sneaking any of my nachos" face.

After the carnival, we headed back home to finish the day with cake and ice cream.

Grandma and Grandpa Taggart, BriAnne and Joey, Milan and Eden

and some friends came to wrap up the celebration.

Oh and there were a few more presents.

A Rapunzel tower complete with a glowing haired Rapunzel.

Fancy!

I won't go into detail about the rest of the weekend but as you know Mother's Day was Sunday.

I had a lovely day.  Again presents first thing in the morning. . .lots of sweet notes, a homemade bouquet of flowers from the yard, a bowl of Corn Pops for breakfast 

and two new outfits for church including a smokin' hot pair of shoes.  

JayDee hit it out of the park this time.  He hates shopping for me (without me) because he is just convinced that he can't shop for girls but he also knows that I love surprises.  So he sucked it up and headed out to conquer and he did!  His confidence is greatly boosted as is my wardrobe.  :)

I got to take a Sunday nap (which hasn't happened in forever) and then off to my parent's house for dinner.  Any day I don't have to make dinner is a good day but when my dad makes dinner it is a real treat.  I wish everyone I know could come have dinner when my dad cooks.  

It is always amazing! He missed his calling in life.  He should have been a chef.  Seriously.

I love being a mom.  It is the absolute most challenging experience and though it changes as the years go by it never gets easier, the challenges change too.  But when I have a weekend like this one, with good solid quality time with the people that I love and see those beautiful smiling faces I can't think of one thing I want to do more in life than be a good mother.  I fall short of that goal some days but I constantly rededicate myself to my job because my children deserve it!