Mother's Day 2013

I was blessed to spend Mother's Day with my lovely mother, my Nanie, and my darling children.  I am blessed with the best Mother on the face of the earth.  I am the luckiest daughter in the world. I have two amazing grandmothers and incredible aunts who love and have set Christlike examples for me my entire life. 

  

I am also grateful for my wonderful Mother in law and the wonderful son she raised.  I missed seeing her today and my other grandmother and aunts.  

My cousin took this picture of the four generations for me today.

I love this picture, even though or maybe especially because, I am still 40 pounds over weight and Molly is still doing her crazy face in all of our pictures. But here in this moment captured for my posterity, they will know that we were real people, with personalities who loved and laughed and that I let my daughter wear pink polka dotted rain boots with her dresses when it was sunny outside.  

Here is my mom, her mother, and two of her sisters, my Aunt Linda and Aunt Annie.  I admire and love each of these beautiful women in our strong Matriarchal family.  I come from a line of strong and courageous Southern women.   (I only wish I had inherited their cooking skills).

And here is a pic of just my beautiful 92 year old grandmother.  I hope I look this good when I am 70.

One of my favorite parts of the day was getting to skype with both of my sisters.

My children and hubby spoiled me rotten today.  Chad and the children surprised me with an iPad mini.

Molly gave me a sweet card she picked out at the store with a castle and princesses.  She gave hugs and kisses all day long.

Here are Ryan's gifts and cards to me that he made at school. He is quite the artist.  I love this daffodil picture!

This interview with Ryan was so sweet! I loved his answers! Andrew had just done a measurement project for school where he had to write down the entire family's height after measuring each of us.  And yes, cuddling is my favorite thing to do!  But please don't break Ryan's heart and tell him that Chad is actually my favorite cuddle buddy.

This is a portrait of me my little artist made at school.

And his sweet letter to me.

 "Mom, I like it when you cuddle me.  And took me to violin.  And take me to restaurants, and to get desserts.  And get me presents."

I am pretty sure Ryan's love languages are physical touch and gifts.  :)

Ryan also went up on the stand today and stood up tall and sang every word of the three songs looking and smiling at me the entire time.  This is a huge deal for my very shy little Ry-guy.  At Easter, he hid and looked at the floor the whole time.

Andrew made me a card with 4 parts....and left it at school.  Here is the one he recreated at home.

The first was a Mother Acrostic Poem.
Magic
Optional
Terrific
Heroic
Energetic
Ripe

Not sure how I feel about being called optional or ripe. But I will take the rest!  Especially energetic.  Oh how I wish that saying it would make it so!

6 reasons I love you.
1-Kind
2-Gentle
3-Nice
4-Playful
5-Energetic
6-Awesome
7-Loving
(I said, "Andrew, it says 6 reasons on the title, but you wrote 7."  He answered, "Mom, that is the funny part!")

Top 3 places you have taken me
1-Disney
2-Sliding Rock
3-Myrtle Beach

Mothers by Andrew S.
Are a light in the darkness
A warmth in a frost
and a mask in the shadow.

Andrew painted a pot at school and planted a marigold.  He painted the Japanese symbols for light, night, frost, and shadow on the pot that correspond with the poem he wrote.  He did not want me to see the present before Mother's Day, so he hid it in his book bag.  The whole thing dumped out and he had to have a little help from his dad to re-pot it.  The little marigold blossom was a little worse for the wear. It was bent and drooping.  But the little blossom was still yellow and lovely on Sunday morning.

 My life is so full today, so happy.   10 years ago I yearned for and prayed for the life that is now mine.  I know it might be a bit dramatic to say so, but my heart overflowed with gratitude when I saw this droopy little marigold today.  I thought of the love and care my eight year old boy took to try and hide his gift from me, so that it would be a surprise.  I could not help but think of the black and dead and brittle marigold I received for Mother's Day 10 years ago. How sad and hopeless I felt that day, and how perfect my joy is today.  Today, three beautiful children went to the front of the church with their primary friends and sang Mother's Day songs to ME, smiling and waving at ME the whole time.  Three beautiful children made ME cards, gifts, and breakfast.  And most importantly, three beautiful children call me MOMMY.  The most beautiful sound in the world.  I am grateful for the amazing gift that is mine,  and pray that I never forget to thank Heavenly Father for the blessing of Motherhood.  I wish I could freeze time.  The moments are going by so quickly.  Childhood is so fleeting.  I am not ready for this season to slip away.  I promise to be grateful while it lasts, to enjoy each magical moment, and try hard to live each day so that when they are no longer little and bringing me marigolds, I have few regrets.

Disney World Day 7: Orlando Temple and Church

On Sunday, we took the children to walk around the grounds of the Orlando Temple, then we attended church at the LDS chapel across the street.  I love being able to visit other LDS congregations when we are on vacation, so that our children can see that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the same, no matter where we go.  

After church, we headed back to the resort to eat lunch and to spend the rest of the day together, enjoying quiet family time with Grandma and Grandpa in our condo.   It was nice to have some peaceful down time before we had to drive back on Monday morning.  And it was a good opportunity for us to teach our children that Sunday is the Sabbath Day, even when we are on vacation.

On Monday morning, we packed up the van and headed home.  It was hard to leave.  And hard to come back to the busyness of our reality.  I miss vacation.  I miss having my children and husband be my only responsibility.  We tell our kids, "Scribners pray hard, work hard and play hard."   We played hard.  So now it is time to work hard, again.  :)

***I know I have a lot of friends and family who read our blog who are not members of our faith.  Here is a link to a brief description about our belief about the Sabbath Day, in case you are interested.  Our family is not perfect at this, by any means.   But we do strive to follow these guidelines, to the best of our ability, and have received many wonderful blessings from the Lord when we keep Sunday a Holy Day.

  

Disney World Day 6: Downtown Disney...With $$$

We gave the children an opportunity to earn their own money to spend at Disney.  They worked very hard the two months before our trip and earned quite a bit of spending money.  They also shrewdly negotiated an extra $5 each by choosing NOT to buy pizza on pizza day at school each month.  A lot of these jobs are normally part of their responsibility charts and they do not receive any payment for them.  But we shook things up a bit for the sake of the learning experience.

Each had chosen to spend some of their money during the week at the parks, but the bulk of their savings were still available for them to spend during a quick trip to Downtown Disney, after the Magic Kingdom on Saturday.

Molly debated back and forth between a Jasmine play set with little figurines and a tiger.  Then she spotted her leopard.  And there was no question what was going home to NC with us.

Ryan had chosen to buy a sword at the Magic Kingdom, but still had enough left over to build his own light saber and buy a Hero Factory toy from the Lego store.

Andrew has not chosen to willingly spend any of his own money in over two years.  He earned quite a bit of money, and then brought some of his savings with him to ensure he had enough money for what he really wanted....The Ninjago Temple of Light.  He also had enough leftover to buy a Chima set with his Disney money.

We ate dinner at the resort and let Molly take a nap.  She was exhausted (and maybe just a teeny bit, okay a lot cranky).   I am so glad we did not have to go out to eat with the children any this week.  They were so grouchy by dinner time.  It was nice to just hang out at the resort.  When Molly woke up, we went back to the pool for one last time.  Molly and Andrew loved the water slide.  Molly spent the entire time she was at the pool each time we went on the water slide.  Ryan did it once, and decided once was enough for him.

Disney World Day 6: Back to the Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom is way too big to do in one day with three little ones.  It really is too big to do in two days.  I wish we had been able to go there three times during our trip, but none of our feet would have endured it.  The kids all had their favorite rides in mind that they wanted to try again, and some new ones we had not made it to on Tuesday.  It was a Saturday and it was the busiest day we were there.  It made me so grateful that we had chosen to take the kids out of school and not visit during the summer.  (Can you believe that I, Danielle,  am the one saying that?)

I did an absolutely horrible time capturing memories on camera our last day, but I did a fabulous job being in the moment with my children.  For which I am truly grateful.  I am kind of sad though that there are no pictures of several of the really fun things we did, now that we are home.

We rode the Astro Orbiter for the first time and then rode Space Mountain again.  Next we raced over to Barnstormer.  This time, Molly gleefully skipped on.

Molly really wanted to ride Dumbo again, but the boys were not interested.  So they were the ones who waited for once.

Everyone was excited to ride Buzz Lightyear again, too.

I had read the children an abridged version of Tom Sawyer before our vacation.  They enjoyed exploring the Tom Sawyer Island, especially the fort with the cannons and rifles.

We headed to ride Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain, next.  Grandma and Grandpa rode Splash Mountain, then headed out to do some shopping.  Molly was too short for both of those rides, so she and I rode on the train around the park.

Next we all rode the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride.  Ryan bought himself this sword.

It was so crowded, we couldn't find anywhere to sit down and eat our lunches.  We settled down on a corner of a bridge, and as we were finishing, the Steam Boat came rolling by.  That was pretty neat.

We had used swap passes on the two mountain rides, so I took the boys back on them while Chad took Molly to this fun Laughin' Place playground.  When we arrived, this cute little girl walked right up to Molly and said, "Oh, Snow White, you are here to play with me!"  She took Molly's hand and lead her all around the play ground the entire time. There was also a little boy who fell down.  Molly walked over, scooped him up, and kissed him.   It was very sweet.

Chad then took Molly to ride the Carousel, her favorite thing the whole trip.

We ended our day at the park watching a show on the castle steps and eating Mickey Mouse Ice Cream.

Here is another picture of Molly in front of the castle.  Isn't she sweet?

And here is my very favorite picture from the entire vacation.  Here is her crazy smile she has been doing for us the past few weeks, only PERFECTED!  One eye closed, tongue out to the side, hands in the air, and see through dress.  All we said was, "Molly, give us your best fancy smile."  You are welcome.

Then we headed back to the hotel, exhausted after 5 straight days at the parks.  We ate dinner at the hotel and went swimming.

Disney World Day 5: Hollywood Studios

When we watched the Disney Vacation DVD, Ryan saw lots of families in matching t-shirts.  He decided our family needed to have a set, too.  Then he saw pictures of my cousin's family in tie dye t-shirts, and he decided that they were a must have for our family, too!  With two birthday parties and packing before we left, I could not manage real tie dye, so we spray painted ours.  He was thrilled with the results.  And I am grateful he loved them.

With two Star Wars obsessed boys, I knew that I wanted to make sure our sons got to participate in the Jedi Training Academy.  We made reservations for breakfast, just so that we could be inside the gate before opening and race to the sign up building before all the slots were gone.  And our plan worked!  Andrew and Ryan were the very first in line!!!

Here is their Jedi Master.

Ryan was very serious training for the big battle.

 Darth Vader appeared on stage.

And each Padawan got a chance to duel him.

Andrew was feeling victorious afterwards.

As a group, they created a force shield and defeated the Dark Side.

I have a video of the whole experience, but still need Chad to help me load videos up.  I will send out a message when we get it loaded.

The boys were a little disappointed in the experience.  They expected it to be a little more exciting.  I thought it was awesome!

We were pretty bad the rest of the day at taking pictures.  Okay, really bad!  We rode Star Tours 4 times, went to the Muppet 3D show, and the Little Mermaid Show.

Then we stopped to enjoy lunch.  A little duck family wanted to share our lunch with us, which Andrew and Ryan thought was fabulous!  Then Molly decided she was very tired and wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep with her blankies.  Even the offer of going to see Doc McStuffins, her favorite, would not sway her plan.  So, I threw out my plan, and took her back to the hotel to sleep.   I am glad we let her nap, but sorry she didn't get to see the Playhouse Disney Show or ride anymore rides.

The guys all stayed at the park and watched the Indiana Jones Show and rode more rides, including the Tower of Terror.  Well, Ryan went through the line, then decided he would rather not ride at the last minute. Not that I blame him.  I wouldn't have ridden it either, if I had stayed at the park!

The guys came back and we headed to the pools and ate dinner.  Then we headed back to see the Fantasmic night time show.  I am so glad we did.  It was fabulous!

Disney World Day 4: Animal Kingdom

 In case you didn't get the idea from Ryan's Safari party or Molly's Pink Tiger party, or Andrew's going on three year long obsession with birds, the kids in our family like animals.  A. LOT.  Which is funny to anyone who knows their parents.  However, curiously, they aren't big zoo fans. Nonetheless, our kiddos were very excited to go to the Animal Kingdom.   Grandma felt well enough to come join us, despite being sick the day before.  We were so glad she felt better.

Andrew headed first thing to Expedition Everest with Dad and Grandpa.  Molly and Ryan and Grandma and I headed to Triceratops Spin.

Next we headed for the Rapids Ride.  We didn't want to take our camera on board, but Chad managed to get a couple of shots with his cell phone, through a plastic bag.  The kids loved it!  (Don't let Ryan's preride jitters face fool you).   And, since there was no line, we got to ride it two times in a row.  Molly was even tall enough to ride and felt very grown up!

After getting soaked, we walked around and visited some of the animals.  They were most excited to see the tiger and gorilla.

And of course, the aviaries were exciting to my bird enthusiasts.

 
We went next to the Flights of Wonder show.   We all enjoyed it!

I love this look of shock that we caught on Andrew's face during one of the bird's stunts.

Then the ornithologist running the show asked for a volunteer from the audience who was good at math.  Andrew's hand shot up into the air and he was chosen to go up on stage!  To have a math competition with a bird.  It was a magical Disney moment.

The host asked them both a math question, and had a contest to see who could answer first.

Andrew was more than a little bit surprised that the bird kept beating him.

Until the secret was revealed that the bird always answered four to a math question clue, and answered before the question was finished being asked.  Then they asked a question whose answer was not four.  And Andrew beat the bird on that one.  Thank goodness. LOL

It was an awesome moment that I will never forget.

Another fun and magical moment occurred at the Lion King Musical we went to next.   We were trying to figure out where to sit, and one of the hostesses, came over and invited us to sit up front in the reserved seats!   Then when the show began, one of the actresses chose to bring Chad up on the stage, introduced him to the crowd and asked him to lead our whole section in a wart hog call.  He was pretty much amazing.

 During the show, this awesome flame dancer impressed my sons.  Andrew leaned over and asked me if he could please take lessons to learn how to twirl fire.  This is the same boy who 5 minutes before the show started was sulking about having to go to some inside show and sit and be bored.

 And if our morning had not already been amazing, one of the dancers came and pulled Andrew onto the floor to join the Festival of Life parade!

We left the show and headed on safari.

We saw lots of awesome animals up close and personal.  My favorite was this elephant that we caught eating leaves from a tree.

Next the males over 46 inches tall visited the Dinosaur Roller Coaster.  That was the only one we went on the whole trip that Andrew declined to go on twice.

We ended our trip with the Finding Nemo show.  It was beautiful.  Although I am pretty sure all four adults were tired enough that we fell asleep for at least part of it.

We then called it a day, and like the previous day at Disney, we headed home for naps, swimming, and dinner.