Conducting some fun

The start of last week was still hectic with Riley’s daycare being closed. Many thanks go out to Zak (Fort Worth high school student who’s school was also closed) for coming over on Tuesday and Wednesday to watch Riley. He was even going to watch him for us on Thursday, but we got word that Riley’s daycare was re-opening on Thursday and we were so excited to have him back with his friends. Having daycare close for a week reminded me of how grateful I am to have a really good place that takes care of him while Chad & I work. As grateful as we are to my parents and Chad’s parents, and everyone else who babysits Riley, it is nice to not have the stress of figuring out where he is going to go every week day.

Things are going well with the new puppy. She is doing great sleeping in her crate and it is a lot of fun to watch her and Niki wrestle. We’re hoping the extra activity that comes with having a puppy playing with you constantly will help Niki lose a little weight. Here’s a photo of Princess enjoying the hammock in our backyard with Chad:



On Thursday we got together with Lisa to celebrate her birthday! Of course I totally slacked off by telling her I would bake her a cake and then not getting around to it by Thursday, but we all had a nice dinner at Red Lobster: me, Lisa, Riley, Nana & Papa. I have to say that my favorite part was when Riley was sitting in my lap and then held out his arms to Lisa and went to sit in her lap. It made me a little sentimental as Riley never got to get really close to Jake and so watching Riley with Lisa is a little like getting to see what he might have been like with Jake.

On Friday night Chad had a show at Kids Who Care and so Riley and I brought him dinner up at the theater after I picked Riley up from daycare. We are at the age where Riley is unable to sit through a show because the moment he sees his Grandmommy walk onstage for her curtain speech he would start to yell out her name and then he just wants to be onstage with her. We are counting the years until he can be in Kids Who Care! But we always stay for the kids’ warm-up and as they run through any last-minute numbers because Riley can be onstage or right at the edge and yell and dance and get involved without bothering anyone (I think!). It is so much fun to watch him enjoy theatre and hopefully soon he’ll learn that it can be enjoyed while sitting quietly in your seat!

On Saturday morning we got up to take Princess to a vet appointment so she could get her rabies vaccination. We decided to switch to a new vet over by our house and we liked it. Princess did great and we got her the next month’s heartworm preventative and flea/tick medicine. We’ll have to bring her back in a month to weigh her again and get the next month’s medicine. The vet is not sure how big or small she will be once fully grown. He guessed she could be as small as 25 lbs, but we’ll see…He said she had big paws, but slender bones, whatever that means. We stopped at Whataburger on the way home and picked up taquitos to go and at home we discovered that Riley REALLY likes their hash brown sticks, which is great because Chad & I don’t really care for them so he was able to eat ours.

At 11am on Saturday we went to Riley’s friend from school, Ethan’s 2nd birthday party. It was at Forest Park and the kids had fun swinging and playing with toys and sidewalk chalk.

At noon we went over to the Forest Park mini train and all rode the train together. Krystal, Ethan’s mom is the ultimate party planner and she handed the kids all their favors before the train ride. They each had a conductor hat, a bandanna and a train whistle. Riley wouldn’t wear his at first, but at the middle of the ride he actually put it on for a few minutes! He was so cute!

Once we left the party, Riley was asleep before we even made it to the highway. After naptime we went grocery shopping where we picked up everything I needed to make Mother’s Day lunch the next day. That night I spent three hours in the kitchen prepping things for lunch and also making that cake I hadn't gotten around to making for Lisa. It was my first attempt at a bundt cake and it turned out looking very pretty! I am not sure what it tasted like as I gave the whole thing to Lisa, so hopefully she’ll let me know soon! It was a vanilla chocolate chip bundt cake and I must confess that the cake recipe was not completely from scratch….but the icing was!

Here is the cake pre-icing:

And here it is after icing (yum!):

On Sunday, I got up fairly early to pull weeds in the backyard. It looked like a jungle and as our moms, dads, grandmas and my uncle were coming over for lunch, it needed to be taken care of. Everyone started showing up for lunch just before noon and we had a spread of mimosas, cheese/crackers, and strawberry & lime infused water. It looked so pretty, but since I was doing all the cooking (except for the mashed potatoes that Chad’s mom thankfully brought over!) I forgot to take pictures of most of the spread! For lunch I tried a new recipe I found on parents.com for Pork Picatta. I also made the cheesecake cupcakes for dessert, but this time we covered them with strawberries before serving. Everyone was shocked to see me cooking, which made me especially nervous, but when the food came out everyone raved! I did remember to ask Chad to snap a picture when I was about halfway through my meal, so this will have to do:

We enjoyed giving gifts to our moms and grandmothers. They all got a framed finger paint piece done by Riley. (Remember last week’s finger painting extravaganza?) And both my mom and Chad’s mom gave me gifts as well. I guess my parents felt like they needed to give me something as they showed up at our house with a gift for Riley on Mother’s Day! They bought him a little Step 2 slide climber for our backyard and Riley had so much fun playing on it. We couldn’t get him to go in and take a nap for the longest time because he was having so much fun! But we are very thankful that they spoil their grandson. Here is a photo of him playing on it:

By Sunday night I was exhausted and couldn’t wait to go to bed! Oh, I almost forgot! Riley and Chad surprised me that morning with my Mother’s Day gift: a four hands massage! So even though I was exhausted from the weekend I do have that to look forward to! Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! I hope mine knows how special she is to me!