My people were so nice to me!

We had a lovely weekend!

Since Hubs had the RARE weekend off (he usually works Saturday or a rare Sunday every week), we went to Amish Country. We were on a mission to order K- a new swing set. Hers has been way suffering and shedding major bolts and the only thing that is usable at this point are the two swings and that. is. it. We bought her a 4' x 5' super tower with a three position beam for 2 swings and one trapeze bar. It has a nice long slide and the good news is that it's heavy duty with commercial grade swings and whatnot, so we can play on it, too!

While in Amish Country, we discovered that it was giraffe weekend. There was a 4 month old giraffe from the local farm that needed to be named. We were able to meet little no-name, K- took part in a coloring contest and submitted a name for the critter. The bakery even gave her a free giraffe cookie.

We went to the chocolate factory (made good on our final Teacher Appreciation week gift), the bulk food store and the bakery. We stopped in at the cheese house for Hubs to use the facilities and the line was so long that we decided that a rest stop was all it would be.

The weather was still trying to straighten out from Fridays extravaganza of Festival of Scary Storms, so the wind was high, it was raining and the temperature had dropped. We did an early day at Amish Country then stopped in at DSW on the way to the in-law's.

Y'all I needed a new pair of walking shoes. I mean, truly needed. I had walked through the tread and on to the squishy foam sole stuff. I was able to score a pair of Saucony Grid Excursion TR 4 for $35.00 instead of $65.00. Since they are trail runners, the sole is a bit thicker and heavy duty. I think that these will hold up better for my walks back and forth to the elementary. I was thrilled that I found them on the clearance! Since we were spending it like we had it at Amish (see swing set purchase), being able to replace my whipped walking shoes cheap was a great thing.

We celebrated Mother's Day with my mother-in-law on Saturday evening. (K- and I celebrated with my mom and dad on Thursday night.) While there, she showed me some awesome shoes she found for K- for school for fall. Of course, I looked at Land's End online and found more school stuff. I mean, when you have good leather shoes on sale for $9.99 a pair, that's a great thing. I like for K- to have two pairs of school shoes. That way, if one breaks, we have another as a back-up. I was also able to find her polo dress that is uniform approved for $12.99. So, there I was, spending more money. Argh.

Today, I woke at 6:15 AM with a very eager 6 year old wanting to give me her Mother's Day gift. She made a lovely "stained glass" necklace for me and the kindergarten teachers worked together to make silhouette pictures of the kids. K-'s is gorgeous and I'll be purchasing a frame for it. After the gift giving, K- and Hubs brought breakfast in bed. I had scrambled eggs, toast with butter and cinnamon pear jam, a slice of upside down dutch apple pie and two chocolate/chocolate chip cookies. (K- did the menu selections.) Yes, I ate it all but one cookie.

Hubs bought me a gift certificate to our favorite nursery up the road and has a hanging basket to pick on on Tuesday from his co-worker. That was along with the weekend trips. So nice!

We hit the road early, as we had a two-ish hour drive to Columbus. Hubs wanted to take us to the Columbus Museum of Art. After making the drive, we discovered that about 1/10th of the museum was open. They had a wonderful! Chihuly exhibit, but the rest of the museum was closed for renovation. Hubs was livid. He was in the courtyard dialing as fast as he could to find another destination for us. He took us to the Franklin Park Conservatory and Chihuly Collection. Oh, they had gorgeous gardens with Chihuly installations amongst the plant life. We played, "Spot the Chihuly" with K- all throughout the gardens. We have fantastic pictures, though I admit that only had my cell on me. I left my camera at home because art museums don't want you taking photos. My cell might not be what I classify as a fantastic phone, but it is a rockin' camera that takes GREAT photos. We'll get those transferred off the phones Tuesday evening when Hubs brings whatever cord thingy back from work, but oh. I wanted to lick the Chihuly pieces! They were beyond gorgeous!

We loved the conservatory so much that we decided that would buy a membership (again with the expenditure of money) because we always go to Cleveland Botanical Garden. Between the two, we would have spent more and now we can visit 240 reciprocal conservatories and botanical gardens throughout the states. Since we had let our zoo and museum passes lapse, Hubs feels better that we have been able to pick up someone new to support.

So here I am, typing away the activities of our weekend. I've been rockin' the hazy migraine thing today. It's getting a little bit better now, but I think that an evening of good ole fashioned sleep may be the cure that I'm looking for.

I hope that all of you mothers had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Have a great day today!