Happy Mother’s Day 2016! Finn picked out this lovely flower garden musical card that lights up and he was so excited to give it to me! He also, with the help of Debbie, painted the flower pot for me – the butterfly is made from his footprints! I just love it. And Kevin and Finn gave me a lovely handmade gray ceramic planter for our kitchen with a rubber tree planted in it. All things plants and I love it 🙂 Work is still crazy busy, but I did get to snap a photo of my most favorite spring flower – the bleeding heart!
This week’s theme was community helpers: firefighters! Finn made his own fire hat and fire truck. To keep with the theme daddy took him to Firehouse Subs for dinner one night too, along with an errand to get Lils some food. 
Finn loves being a helper, so he and Kevin each bring up a rolling bin after the trash man has taken away our waste!
Powell’s Touch a Truck was this week too, so it was a perfect fit for learning all about policeman, firemen, doctors, and such. 
And a fun trip to the zoo where Finn saw a playful kangaroo up close and personal!
I was able to break away from work to go to Finn’s Mommy and Me day at pre-school. He was so excited to have me there with him. He took me around to all of the toys he likes to play with and we shared a quick little muffin together. It was a short time, but it was so nice to go!
Finn and Kevin took a road trip on Saturday to Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong’s for a Mother’s Day visit. Unfortunately, no photos to share but I did hear fun stories of their trip to the new house. Kevin worked hard to cleanup the foundation plantings and mulch the beds too. I was jealous I didn’t get to go since I was working. I love yard cleanup!
Lily, or Lils by nickname, is such a sweet girl. You can kind of read her face here like “hurry up and take the picture so he’ll stop yanking my head”. Griffin climbs all over her, lays next to her, gets right up in her face, and does so much more. Oftentimes she turns her face away from him if he gets really close to her and he’s loud or boisterous. So it’s kind of funny to watch – she tolerates so much yet sometimes acts like she’s so over it. On the other hand, she follows this little guy everywhere and barks to protect him when we are playing with him and he screams or gets really loud. Protection and perhaps a bit of jealousy for attention too :). She’s been ok since Cammie’s gone to heaven, but she definitely likes to be with us wherever we are. We more frequently take her on trips with us and she get’s far more “human food” than she has is recent years. She’s a sweetheart. 
Our beans started out like this early in the week and by Sunday we were ready to plant! 
Mother’s Day was a beautiful day. We spent the morning taking all of our plants outside and planting many of them in the garden. Finn loves to dig the holes and play in the dirt. We planted pumpkins, mini pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, and watermelon. 
Later that morning we headed to Mansfield for an early afternoon visit and brunch with my Mom for Mother’s day. The Bethune’s were there too and we had a fun-filled afternoon of adventure throughout Grandma and Grandpa’s gardens, a trip to the Gorman Nature Center, and the finale at Dairy Queen – of course!
This week we got our hands dirty as we planted our yearly crop of seeds that we will transplant later outside in our patio garden. We also planted Finn’s Root Vue Farm (from grandma and grandpa Beilstein) this week too. Finn went back and forth between loving the messiness (“mom, it’s fun to get dirty sometimes”) to not being a big fan (insert whining and fussiness to get his hands cleaned off). I got everything all prepped while Finn was taking a nap and after he woke up and made it through his cuddle time (he’s been big into cuddling when he first wakes up, he just wants to be held) we started our project. He wasn’t as interested in it this year as after about 15 minutes he just wanted to go play! But, in the end we had 4 trays of seeds including quite the variety of veggies (cucumber, zucchini, tomato, pepper, butternut squash), herbs (green onion, cilantro, basil seedlings), and fruits (watermelon, cantaloupe), flowers and ornamentals (cosmos, zinnia, snapdragon, pumpkins, mini pumpkins). Our counters have been overtaken by seedling trays!
This week Finn also ventured to the pet store with Debbie and Sam. He loves animals, check out his grins! And of course one pic with his Lily girl and blue dog blanket. It’s become part of the routine that he cuddles with Lily at bedtime while we sing songs. And the blue blanket – he doesn’t like to sleep without it, and the soft, blue side always has to be the side that is against him :). 
Monster Sundaes. Anyone who has spent any bit of time with Griffin is well aware that he loves ice cream. Monster Sundaes, in particular. As I’ve mentioned before, each night when I put Finn to bed one of the last things he says is, “Mom, when I wake up we go to the ice cream place”. He follows that with a little giggle and an I Love You. It’s so sweet (and silly and cute) and I love it. It makes me smile every night.
Later that afternoon after we played in the front yard with Lily (and tried on Finn’s new rain boots – he was e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y happy to have his own pair now and be able to jump in rain puddles) we drove Grandma Armstrong back home to their new house. Griffin liked exploring the outdoors full of leaves, sticks, fallen trees, and such. We did a walk around the house to scout out all of the plants in their new yard too! They are really making headway on their renovations inside. Their master bath is really quite something. It’s a very unique shape and will have many water heads! The tile is in and looks great!
It was an otherwise calm and slow week around here. I’m thankful that Finn still loves to cuddle. Our morning routine is for him to get a drink and snack and come to our room to watch a show. He loves to sit in my spot and get under the covers ♥. 
And here is a sampling of Finn’s artwork from the week, both at pre-school and at home. He loves to paint!
