Perhaps you had breakfast in bed, got to sleep in a little, were able to escape for a spa day or a nice brunch or perhaps you were woken up a full 30-60 minutes earlier than usual by your children, one of whom carried a tea party basket full of homemade cards that she had worked on for over a week and kept hidden under her bed, cards that she signed from each child and my husband ("form, Tory").
They were super sweet and very detailed.
However nice they were it didn't quite erase the fact that my husband was out of town and that I was going to have to get to the grocery store with all three kids in order to pick up a few things for the barbecue we were going to later in the day at my sisters.
First stop, coffee.
Initially, I thought we would all go into Dunkies, sit down for a few minutes, eat a couple of donuts and then make our way to the supermarket.
This idea was quickly squashed. As we pulled into the Dunkies we passed a makeshift flower/balloon tent.
These are the tents with a spray painted "Roses" sign and giant carnival-sized pink stuffed animals hanging in plastic bags from the sides of the tent that pop up on Valentine's Day or Mother's Day as a last ditch stop for those who have zero foresight and are in pure desperation mode.
Guess what tent guys? Moms don't want giant, pink stuffed animals. Do you know who does want a giant pink stuffed animal? Five-year-old girls.
Know who wasn't going to buy her five-year-old girl a giant, pink stuffed animal from the side of the road? Me.
Thanks for ruining Mother's Day. To say the Lady was upset by this, would be an understatement. There were many tears. There was also no way we were all going to go sit inside and enjoy a pink frosted donut together, so I shifted Minnie-Ru into drive and we headed to the store.
There is nothing like having a Mother's Day brunch in the parking lot of a Fairway supermarket while listening to a Team Umizoomi movie. Umi! Zoomi! Umizoomi! Umizoomi!
Once the kids finished off their donuts, we headed in. I put a glazed-covered, still-in-pajamas-wearing QT into the front of the cart and tried to make it clear that the Ladies shouldn't be riding on the side of the cart. That lasted for about two minutes.
The Ladies were very helpful in picking out some hanging plants for my mom and for the Wild One's Omi, but like most trips to the store the need to leap and run and stop in front of moving carts overwhelmed them.
Good thing we only had a few things on the list to get. By the time we made it to the pasta aisle, QT had had enough. I relented, took him out of the cart and allowed him to dance in the aisle with his sisters to Mumford and Sons.
What can I say? The kid likes to move.
I was able to corral them to the check-out line and quickly pay. The Lady insisted on pushing the cart with no help. Just so we are clear, the basket was full of groceries, two hanging plants were hanging off the handle bar, QT was riding in the front and the Little Lady was holding onto the side. The cart was heavy, lopsided and she couldn't see over the top. We might have hit a few walls and doors, but we eventually made it back to the van.
Once there we revisited how unfair it was to not buy giant, pink stuffed animals.
I was eventually able to wrangle QT back into his donut-covered car seat and in an attempt to keep them all in one place for just a bit more time, we took a small detour to find two of the horses from last summer's "Horsin' Around" exhibit that had been bought by a family and were now just hanging out on their lawn.
Things were looking up.
Once home, it took another 20 minutes to get the kids inside. The puddles from the rain on Saturday were much too much of a distraction and I was just as happy to let them run around outside for a while.
In all honesty, it was actually a pretty good morning. It was a true reflection of Mother's Day to me. While it would have been great to have had a nice breakfast or to sleep for just a few minutes longer, I got to spend the day with my kids. That is something that I haven't been able to do for a long time and something I miss more than anything after going back to work full-time.
They may be too energetic in aisles, a little sticky, terribly put-out by stuffed animal injustices, and moved to dance at inconvenient times, but they are mine and I love them and I have become a better person because of them.
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