A Family Anniversary and Mother's Day

On Sunday, we celebrated being a family for officially one year.  We also celebrated Mother's Day.

We met Jarrett's Mom, his Dad, and brother Jeremy for lunch at Postinos.  It was great as we were able to sit outside in the beautiful weather and listen to a band play while we enjoyed our relaxing lunch. 

That afternoon Jarrett had to work but he asked me not to plan anything that evening as he and the boys had planned something special.  When Jarrett got home from work around 5:30 he told me he was going to make me/us dinner and then he had a special place for us to go right around sunset.  When Dad announced he was going to make dinner, he caught the boy's attention.  I couldn't help but laugh when Gabriel questioned Dad, not once, or twice but three times about if he was really going to make dinner.  He said, "Dad, you mean mom is going to make dinner and you will help?"  "Dad, can you really make dinner?"  "Dad, can we eat it?"

Guess it is pretty obvious who does all the cooking in our house huh?  Anyway I have to give Jarrett a ton of credit.  He made a delicious meal of Spaghetti Bolognese with garlic bread and strawberries.  I have to say we all gobbled it up and there wasn't much for leftovers (a sign of a good meal at our house).

Following dinner Jarrett and Gabriel had to run a quick errand and told Michael and I they would be back quickly.  Less than 10 minutes later Dad came rushing back into the house laughing, at the same time saying how sad he was and then asking me to have a good sense of humor when he showed me the next surprise. 

I told him I'd be happy with anything and he said..  "Just remember it is the thought that counts."  That's when I followed him into the laundry room and there stood Gabriel holding the following.  He said, "Happy Mother's Day Mom!"

All the men in my life admiring the dead or semi-dead roses they had just presented to me.

A close up of the beautiful bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day

Dad laughing and trying to explain to me how the roses ended up looking like they did.

Michael concerned that something has gone terrible wrong with this gift.

Yes, that is right, they presented me with dead roses, but aren't they beautiful?  So the story goes, that my thoughtful husband knows I tell him not to spend money on flowers for me because in the end they die.  So in an effort to avoid the heightened prices of getting flowers at the last minute, he purchased the flowers, including special water, and the flower food from the florist on Thursday (3 days before Mother's Day).  Isn't that thoughtful?  I thought so.  But with purchasing them in advance, his next problem to solve was to figure out where to store them so I wouldn't see until Sunday.  So he took them to my parents home just a few miles away.  They were too big to fit in the fridge so he left them on the counter thinking they'd be fine and not accounting for the heat we had late last week (and since the air wasn't on at their house, the flowers were a victim of the heat).  Thus the wilted, brown and sad looking, beautiful red roses.  Now isn't that the most romantic thing you've heard of?  I think so!

As we laughed and laughed, Jarrett just kept repeating how sad he was that they looked so bad.  I thought it was really funny and thoughtful.  And then Jarrett told me about the conversation he and Gabriel had on their way home from picking up the flowers.  Dad said all he kept saying was that he was so sad.  That's when Gabriel interjected and said, "Dad, if your sad, think of how sad Mom is going to be?"  Then just a few minutes later Gabriel tried to make the situation better by saying, "Dad, if you just give me a few minutes, I think I can make a few of them stand up straight." Isn't that sweet?  As Dad told me and even as I type this now, I can't stop cracking up at how funny the whole situation is (and in the end the only reason why it happened is because I'm cheap).

So after laughing about the roses and deciding to just "dry" them instead of put them in a vase, Dad said it was time to move onto our next surprise.  So he told the boys to go and get their presents for me and to get into the car.  We loaded the entire family up and headed to Desert Breeze Park, a local train park we like to visit with the kids.

Now that I know the whole plan it turns out Jarrett had a very romantic trip planned.  The plan was to walk around the park for a while and reminisce about our last year as a family and then as the sun was setting, he planned to stop along the path and have each of the boys and then him present me with a gift.  His plan was very similar to the manner he proposed to me (again at sunset, in a park, where he presented me with several gifts and then asked me to marry him).  I tell you, I'm very lucky to have him! 

Given that we've learned life with children never goes exactly as one plans, we should have known we'd be in for some curve balls.  As we arrived at the park the boys became insistent that they go and play on the playground equipment.  After telling them several times we'd do that later, we convinced them to walk with us around the lake.  Just a few steps into the path, the train that everyone rides started coming around the corner on our path, and even though we told the boys to stay off of the tracks, Michael decided at the last minute to run over the tracks and of course he slipped.  After a mad dash, and acting a scene right out of an old western movie, Jarrett frantically handed me Jack, even though I was already carrying about 6 other things and he made a mad dash to rescue Michael from the tracks before the train approached any closer. 

And then, once the train passed, even though we told the boys to stay with us, the train was too much to resist so they started chasing after it to try and jump on the caboose. 

I'm sure all parents can picture the scene now, but it would be safe to say, our nice, quiet, romantic and reflective walk around the lake, was more of a scene of chaos, like in the movie Speed when Sandra Bullock runs out of freeway and can't stop the bus.  Okay maybe not that bad, but between rescuing Michael from the train tracks, Jack from the huge birds that try to swoop down and grab him and Gabriel from almost falling into the pond, I was ready to just go home and that's when we got to the spot where Jarrett decided it was time to present me with my mother's day gifts.

At the top of the bridge near the playground equipment, the boys each gave me a gift.  From Michael it was a flower print made of his hand prints.  He said, "Happy Mother's Day Mommy, I love you!"  and then Gabriel presented me with  a card he, Michael and Dad had spent a lot of time writing nice words in.  And he gave me two pictures he and Michael had made.  They are beautiful and I will cherish them forever.  Upon Gabriel giving me the card he said, "Mom, can we go play now?"  to which Dad said just a few minutes and then it was Dad's turn.

As Dad tried to video what was happening as well as try to get the gift he had for me, our attention was drawn to Michael, who had stepped just a few feet away and was yelling for our attention.  In the middle of the romantic scene Jarrett had set up for us, we looked over to see this...

Hey guys, look I found some body's sock!

To which we replied, "GROSS Michael put it down"

Again we couldn't help but laugh and as Jarrett gave me another special gift to celebrate our life together, we laughed at just how comical the whole situation was.  And then, less than 20 seconds after the sock incident, Gabriel asked again, "Now can we go play?" To which we replied, "Yes, just be careful."

And in the 30 seconds later, as the boys raced off, Jarrett and I looked at each other, laughed and said, "This is the life we asked for, isn't is wonderful?"  Although we were joking, in reality, we meant every word we said. We quickly gathered up our belongings and headed down toward the playground equipment to watch the boys, but before we could even get to the bottom of the bridge, we heard Gabriel and Michael racing back to us with Michael in tears.  Covered in wood chips and with tears streaming down his face, Gabriel announced that Michael had slipped and fell into the wood chips.

At that point we had had enough and walked straight to the car to head home. As we celebrated our family and mother's day, it reminded me of all that this past year has brought us. We welcome chaos and in those first days when Jarrett and I walked around in shock, we now celebrate the chaos and think of it as our new norm.

Michael showing us where he scrapped up his cheek.

And Gabriel happy as ever!

This past Sunday was a reminder of just how lucky I am.  And even though the day didn't go as romantically as Jarrett planned, it was perfect to me, dead roses and all. Thanks Daddy, Gabriel and Michael for making it so wonderful and a day I'll never forget.

Until next time,
Angie

PS:  And in case it doesn't seem like it, there are even some great pictures we were able to capture.  Here they are as evidence..