BIRTHDAY/MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND

Just another one of Ben's writings... which I promptly mailed to my brother!

We have had a great family weekend!  It started when Dave got home from work on Friday!  He took the plunge and bought a boat a few weeks ago!  I have not been as enthusiastic about this purchase, but seeing the happiness in Dave and the kids has made me more exited about it.  When we got to the boat, we were greeted by a beetle of some sort so the kids freaked out while Dave bravely killed it!

Ready for the maiden family voyage!

Still smiling as Dave picked up speed!

We stopped at this little island thing-a-ma-jiggy (don't know what to call it really.... marsh?  I don't know) and had dinner and let the kids play around.

The LOVED jumping off the boat!

Our first trip out was definitely a success!

On Saturday, Dave took the kids out for a little mystery trip!  There are these beautiful wild flowers that grow on a highway near here, and I say every year I want to stop and take pictures in the flowers... well, Dave took the kids and got these great pictures for me!  He framed them and had them wrapped for me this morning!  Here they are:

Last night, we had a date night and I didn't know that he'd also arranged for some other friends to meet us out for dinner!  We had good food and great company without kids!

Today was my birthday / Mother's Day day!  We had a nice relaxing morning at home and then after church we had a picnic at a park.

Maaike's latest interest:

After lunch, I took Maaike and Ben to a Mother's Day Tea at my grandmother's place.

After dinner we got to eat this beautiful homemade cake!  Dave really outdid himself this time with chocolate cake and ganache topping.  He may or may not have gotten the riot act read to him years ago when he came home after having quickly bought a cake at a local grocery store... and he may or may not have known my feelings about a homemade or store bought cake that was at least edible... or maybe it's all because he's such a great husband that he usually makes me homemade cakes for my birthday now!  Whatever the reason, I know he loves me muchly and appreciate his baking abilities!

I put 2 pictures with the kids because I love Ben's face in the first picture but Maaike and Lexi's in the second.  So decided that since it's my blog, I can put them both on!

A whole lot of yumminess!

While I'm not thrilled about being 35 (it's just really close to 40), it was certainly a fun, fun day and I treasure these memories I have with my family.  I have realized that Dave and I rarely take pictures together anymore and will have to fix that soon!