Mother's Day

Mother's day was a 2 week long celebration for us this year!

It started out on Saturday May 8th. We had a busy morning with tee ball practice, then the first tee ball game of the season. I think we spent about 4 hours at the tee ball fields! Luckily it was a nice day and we could sit back and enjoy the sunshine. Eric's parents, along with Aunt Megan, Uncle Jeff and cousin Clara joined us for an afternoon of fun. Tyler's team should be called the Bad News Bears! They are all just kind of doing their own thing on the field!

After the game was over, and honestly, I didn't keep track if they won the game or not - Chloe and I headed into Salem for a Tom's shoes event at Nordstrom. She was having some shoes customized by an artist. If you don't know about Tom's shoes, it's a great organization and you can read about it here http://www.toms.com/. Chloe chose to have her olive green shoes done with a peacock feather. They turned out so cute.

After we finished up there, we headed over to my Mom and Dad's (aka "The PU'S) for a get together with my brother and his family, and of course, Grandma Great. We had a yummy dinner of bbq salmon (great job honey), loaded baked potatoes and a green salad. Dessert was incredible-a red velvet cake from Matt & Danielle, which somehow ended up going home with us. Eric was really happy about that :) We played a game my Mom had made up about Mother's and hung out and visited, which was really nice.

While we were there, Eric and the kids gave me my Mother's day gift, a new camera. Yes! Score! It's a light green Nikon coolpix. I don't know much about camera's, but Chloe told me it was a good one (she has the same one in black). Oh good, now my teenage daughter can tell me how to operate it and I don't have to read the manual...seriously, that was the exact thought running through my mind. I must be getting old.

This is the first pic I took that turned out. Oddly enough, Ethan (my nephew) and Tyler are both smiling, which I'm pretty sure has never happened at the same time! The boys had quite a bit of fun playing in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard with a bubble machine and a Thomas the Train pop up tent. I think they both slept really well that night :)

The next morning, Sunday was Mother's day. I wish I could say I slept in, but instead, I got up and headed out for my walk, which was such a treat! After walking my 3 miles, I came home and had a nice light breakfast. Then we loaded the car and went up to Portland to one of our favorite sushi places, San Sai. Tyler started off with some miso soup and soy beans (and yes, you can tell he really doesn't feel so hot in this picture).
Then our lunch arrived, yum!

We dined and visited, took our time and enjoyed. Tyler was a happy camper and totally content on sipping miso soup and eating soybeans. After we finished lunch, we took a small walk around NW Portland, and then headed to St. Cupcake for some dessert. Tyler chose the malt ball cupcake, yummy! I bought him the large size, because well, why not!

Eric and I both had a small toasted coconut cupcake, my favorite. Tyler and I did a "Cheers" before diving into our dessert.

We came home and all took naps. Yay, my favorite thing. Then we had sandwiches for dinner and played wii. It was a great day and many thanks to my husband for making it so special!

Our next celebration was on Saturday May 15th with Eric's family. Every year we get together to celebrate the "Gallinger ladies". It's more of an honoring ladies kind of day. Jeff, Megan and Clara joined us, along with Kali and Jason, Krista and Wendy, and our dearest family friends Jenn and Duane. We had a wonderful bbq with awesome burgers (again, way to go E on the bbq). Jason brought his to die for potato salad. Krista indulged us with Dave's killer bread buns and a sin dawg (you must try it) and Megs brought delicious fruit kebabs that were a hit with everyone. We had a great time visiting and laughing. We had the most delicious strawberry shortcake at the end of the evening. Duane taught me a new "technique" to do with the strawberries. You mash them w/ a tiny bit of sugar. Needless to say, that is the only way I will be doing it from now on. Thanks Duane!

Then, a funny thing happened...Jenn decided it was payback time. When her son Jordan was 5 years old (he will be 16 this summer) Eric taught Jodan the classic, "give me 5, down low, up high, and cut the pickle" & then tickle tickle. Well, Jenn passed this along to Tyler. All night long Tyler was looking for victims. I have to say it actually ended up being hilarious. We were all rolling with laughter at one point. What is better than a kid who is excited?

And speaking of kids, Miss Clara was a little trooper that day. She let everyone hold her, feed her, play with her, smiling all the while. Here is a pic of Aunt Krista with Clara.

The night started to come to an end...we exchanged some small gifts - Megan gave me some beautiful glad bulbs to plant - so thoughtful Megs! It was so awesome to spend time with everyone.

Jenn and Duane were able to stay a bit longer...so we busted out the wii. We must have played for 3 hours. 3 point basketball competition, sword fighting, bowling...the list goes on. It was a total blast and of course we stayed up way too late.

A quick self pic of E and I at the end of the night. I have very tired eyes...

And then a quick shot of my friend Jenn and I...

So that was our triple fun Mother's day. It was awesome to spend it with so many family and friends. I look forward to it every year. Thanks to all the women in my life who make it so much sweeter :)