Celebrating wonderful Mother’s!

Our new livingroom project! Mike and I are so excited about our new built-in's!

Our old set up..... with NO storage at all!

Aiden sitting on a chair that was Grandpa Hopkin's when he was younger.

Meanwhile, Chris scored Grandpa's chair!

Two Lovely Ladies: Grammie Tag & Mamie Hopkins celebrating Mother's Day!

Mike and Grandpa grilling Mother's Day dinner.

Aiden was determined to put the bike helmet on without help. This was the result. A good attempt at least!

Chris LOVED Mamie and Grandpa's big dump truck!

One proud Grandpa and his boys: Chris (L) and Aiden (R)

The boys working in Mamie's gardens. Chris (L) and Aiden (R)

Stopping for a hug after bath. To have a twin.... life is good!

Trying on their new bathrobes from our friend Paula Moran that finally fit! They were excited to be big boys after bath! Chris (L) and Aiden (R)

Happy, happy Mother's Day to all of the special women whose love, support and selflessness we celebrate today!
This week was a bit different from our normal week in that we missed having baby Ashley around as she was on vacation this week! On Thursday, we packed up and headed for a visit to Umass to see my old friends and co-workers. A & C were shy but loved getting to meet everyone. I have never seen Aiden cling to me as much as he did on Thursday. It was so nice to see everyone and the boys were so lucky to be so warmly welcomed, spoiled and loved. I love staying in touch and am so lucky to have made so many wonderful friends. After naps we headed outside and enjoyed the gorgeous day.
Friday we did nothing. I repeat, nothing…. It felt strange but great and we had a VERY productive day of cleaning, sorting and organizing as we waited for the sunshine to appear and dry up the grass then we headed out to burn some energy. Our living room project is finally finished... well sort of. Our final touch will be new couches which we are debating purchasing. I LOVE having storage in the living room and am enjoying having a new place to decorate. We are going to make two smaller doors to cover up all of the UGLY dvd's on the left side shelf. We are also going to finish doing crown molding throughout the living room. It feels great to be working on home projects. We had postponed all home projects and extra's since I was pregnant so this is very exciting for us and is over two years in the making! I really enjoyed woodworking and it was a great way for Mike and I to enjoy some time together after the boys when to bed.
Friday night Mike was happy to spend some time with his friend Joe and I was happy to see him enjoying himself so much.
Saturday we were thrilled to spend the day with Grammie Pt. She was a great sport and headed over to our house early to check out the Suffield May market with me. Daddy watched A & C and let me and my mom out on the town. We had a ball and came home with many new plants and big plans for our garden. Nap time for the boys was the beginning of gardening for my mom and I. She was a SUPER help and now I am totally motivated to keep going in my gardens. Thank you Mom!
After work, Dziadzu headed over bearing a Mother's Day gift for A & C. Spoiled, I know! We now have a fun new sand and water table and enjoy this summer! It was a hit and they were wet head to toe in no time at all. Mike and I headed out to go couch shopping after dinner and found a few sets that would work well for our family. Now it's just a matter of deciding when it is the right time to buy.
This morning Mike and I had nursery duty at church and were so excited to be working with our friends Jenny and Megan. We had a blast catching up, (okay, that was more me than Mike… Mike played video games on his cell phone) and A & C did great in the two year old room. We headed home for naps and some play time and are heading out shortly to visit with Mamie, Grandpa and Great Grammie Tag for Mother's Day.
I was pleased to receive an unexpected Mother's Day phone call from an old friend from Umass. Loretta was an 80 year old graduate student who I had the pleasure of working with during my time at the university and she is still sweet enough to stay in touch. It made my day! She said it well when she said that "time is accelerated when you are enjoying the lives of young children." How true and what a true blessing it is! Thanks Aiden and Chris for letting me have the pleasure of raising you and proudly calling you my own! I love you both more than you'll ever know.