Mother’s Day Weekend 2023

Good morning friends! How are you? Did you have a good weekend? Our weekend was jam-packed but it was filled with good stuff — family, friends and plenty of time outside in the springtime sunshine!

Saturday

Our weekend kicked off at The Big Bounce America, a traveling inflatable event featuring the world’s biggest bounce house. When I saw it was coming to the Charlotte area, I knew our boys would be all about it and booked us tickets for the morning session for kids ages 7 and under.

(Top: Madewell / Leggings: lululemon / Bag: lululemon / Shoes: Reebok / Hat: Nike / Boys’ hats: Bitty Brah / Rhett and Ryder’s shoes: Natives — our favorite for summer!) 

All I can say is I’m so, so glad we went to the time for little kids because I cannot even begin to imagine the mayhem with older and bigger kids bouncing all over the place. I think it felt a little more chaotic than I anticipated in large part because it was really wet and drizzly outside so some grownups were falling down in the bounce houses which was a bit of a hazard for smaller children like Rhett. I quickly scooped Rhett out of the biggest bounce house (which our big kids LOVED, by the way) and Rhett and I explored some of the smaller, less popular inflatables which proved to be much more his speed.

Once Ryan, Chase and Ryder were done in the huge bounce house, we met back up and the boys all did a large inflatable slide together, bounced around in some of the other bounce houses and spent a lot of time going through the enormous obstacle course.

I joined Chase and Ryder for one round through the bouncy obstacle course and all I can say is I got smoked!!!

They took off and left me in the dust and I am sure I looked ridiculous making my way through a big bounce house obstacle course basically by myself. Haha! Let’s just say we were all wet and hot and sweaty by the end of this event! If this event is coming to your area, my main takeaways would be that it’s definitely better suited for bigger kids — Chase and Ryder were in heaven! — and I highly recommend wearing slip-on sandals and bringing socks. Socks are required and those who were able to keep socks on but walk all over the property in sandals that easily slipped off and on had it made, especially in the rain.

Once we were done at at Big Bounce America, we made our way back home for a late lunch and put Rhett down for a nap. We then went into go-mode prepping dinner and organizing our backyard for the evening because we had a bunch of friends and their kids joining us to use our firepit and make s’mores for the first time!

Everyone arrived a little after 4 p.m. and we had the absolute best evening. The kids spent hours in the lake and on the little beach in our backyard and we loved catching up with our friends and their little ones.

A few hours after everyone arrived, the kids all changed into their pajamas and we dug into a big spread of BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches (love this recipe from Ambitious Kitchen!), pizza (for the kids), black bean and brown rice salad, baked beans, curried corn and a fruit and veggie platter. Plus peanut butter chocolate chip brownies and cookies for dessert!

There were multiple moments throughout the evening where I found myself recognizing that our house was fulfilling the purpose we hoped it would when we purchased our lot 2.5 years ago. We wanted to build a family-friendly home with a yard and lake access that would be used by not only our family of five but also enjoyed by our loved ones and friends as well. Seeing our kitchen island filled with kids and then the boys’ bedroom filled with kids jumping around and scream-singing “We Will Rock You” at the top of their lungs felt like watching our vision come to life and my heart just felt so grateful.

All three of our boys were all up until almost 10 p.m. Saturday night and clearly on a high from playing with all of their friends. Saturday evening only served to make me feel all the more excited for summer. The countdown is on!

Sunday

Sunday was Mother’s Day! Going to the zoo is a bit of a Mother’s Day tradition for our family and one I absolutely love but I shook things up a bit this year and requested a family gardening adventure. We’re dipping our toes into gardening for the first time and spent the morning at Pike’s, a Georgia and North Carolina-based garden center.

I previously spent some time online Googling gardening tips for beginners but knew nothing could replace talking to someone who knows what they’re doing. Thankfully a woman at Pike’s served to be very, very helpful on Sunday morning and steered us toward the supplies and plants we needed for our gardening goals.

We have two garden boxes and are hoping to use one to grow organic vegetables and herbs and use the other one as a butterfly haven filled with butterfly-friendly flowers! The boys are seriously psyched about our gardening plans and already asked if we had any sprouts this morning. Now we are just crossing our fingers that we’ll see at least some growth in our garden!

The rest of our Sunday was spent at a local pond where the boys caught and released catfish and turtles and then we hung out at home for the rest of the day.

It was honestly a wonderfully chill Mother’s Day. We recently got the boys kid-friendly kayaks and the big kids cannot get enough of them. They are amazing and Chase and Ryder can both maneuver their kayaks really, really well. I actually used Rhett’s kayak to join the big kids on a hour-long kayak adventure yesterday afternoon during Rhett’s nap and loved exploring the lake this way. (I hung my legs off Rhett’s kayak for stability because it’s definitely not made for an adult. Haha! Rhett and I flipped over in it when we first tried to use to together — yikes! We’ve been checking Facebook Marketplace for an adult kayak but nothing has caught our eye yet.)

Once Rhett was awake, we made funfetti ice cream together and then all cuddled on the couch together for family movie night before early bed times for everyone. (Secrets of the Zoo: Tampa on Disney+ is our current fav!) It was a wonderful weekend with a nice mix of adventure and relaxation.

As for the week ahead, “Maycember” continues with field trips, summer birthday school celebrations and end-of-the-year events but it’s all good stuff so we’re trying to soak it up before school is done and summer is here. I hope you all have a great week!