Some of the hands-on challenges of the baby and toddler days are behind us but we don’t yet have any of the oh-wow-how-in-the-world-do-we-navigate-that challenges I’m sure will come as they become older and increasingly independent. To put it simply: Motherhood is really sweet right now and that makes life really, really sweet.
Saturday
Our weekend kicked off on Saturday with some time outside as we loaded up the boys’ bikes and Rhett’s dirt bike and visited some local trails with Comet. Spring in Charlotte may wreak havoc on my allergies but man it sure is beautiful with sunshine and temperatures in the low 70s.
We made it back home around lunchtime and Ryan and the boys worked together to make an early Mother’s Day meal of grilled chicken thighs, corn on the cob, salad and watermelon. Summertime cookout food is a favorite of mine and it totally hit the spot! After lunch, we visited with our neighbor (the house whose roof you below!) who recently got a golf cart and encouraged us to take it for a joy ride around the neighborhood.
What is it about riding in a golf cart that instantly makes you slip into care-free vacation mode!? It was a blast and the boys were all about it!
Once we made it home, we didn’t have too much time to spare until we had to head off to Chase’s final flag football game of the season.
(Game Day top: Target but last year / Pants: Ruti / Rope Tie Sandals: Amazon / Bag: Clare V.)
We arrived an hour before the game so Chase’s team could hold a mini practice of sorts since their weekday practice was cancelled due to rain. As the kids were practicing, we were witness to another game going on that got incredibly heated. We’re talking lots of cursing and coaches and parents yelling at each other and the refs… all in a youth rec flag football game. We haven’t run into something quite this crazy during our youth sports experience thus far but it was so disheartening to see. We had a talk with our children about how even adults don’t always speak to each other respectfully and this is not okay and I just felt horrible for the kids who were on the teams in the middle of such intense adult conflict. Everyone eventually calmed down and ended the game with handshakes but it had all of us feeling a little on-edge as the next round of games began.
Despite a rough start to the overall ambiance of our final flag football game, the game itself ended up being the very best one we had all season! At halftime we were down two touchdowns but our team came back to win in the end by one point and the boys were absolutely thrilled!
(Shout out to our favorite kickback rocking chairs! This is the chair I got for Ryan for Father’s Day a while back that I ended up ordering for myself because it’s so comfy. I swear we’ve had 3 other football families end up ordering them after they tried ours.)
Flag football was a new sport for Chase and the majority of his teammates this season and watching them learn and improve week over week was a really cool experience. Chase ended up scoring two touchdowns in their final game which was a huge deal for him! When I asked Chase what it felt like to score a touchdown he said, “Kind of like the best moment of my life but also like ‘Oh my gosh I just scored a touchdown!!!!'” It was so cute to see him absolutely buzzing on the way home.
The boys didn’t even come inside once we made it back home and we all went immediately into the backyard for family football. Everyone was on a football high and we did a Mom and Dad vs. Brothers game that ended in a loss for Mom and Dad. You’re shocked about that one, aren’t you? Ha!
Sunday
Sunday was Mother’s Day and we continued our tradition of a Mother’s Day trip to the zoo!
(Athletic dress: Beyond Yoga but old — I found a bunch of sizes and colors on Poshmark though! I’m in a medium.)
The North Carolina Zoo is about 90 minutes from our house in Asheboro so we usually only make the trek once a year but it’s always such a wonderful spot to visit, especially in the spring.
(“Act like you see a lion!”)
It’s the largest natural habitat zoo in North America — Ryan tracked our steps and we walked 5.5 miles! We love beginning our zoo visit with the ultimate hack I’ll share for any local friends: Park in the North America parking lot and then walk on the connector trail a little less than a mile to the Africa entrance and enter the zoo there. This will save you a lot of time in the end because you won’t have to backtrack through the zoo to the parking lot or wait in a long line for the tram, as you’ll end your zoo day in North America where you initially parked. It works like a charm every time!
The zoo was busy but not too packed and we spent several hours wandering around, looking at the animals and just enjoying a beautiful day outside together as a family. The bee exhibit got a little extra attention from our crew since our bee-related interest was majorly piqued following our Secrets of the Bees family movie night last weekend!
We arrived back home from the zoo in the late afternoon with one mission in mind: Get Comet outside! This looked like kayaking in the lake because Comet has quickly morphed into quite the water dog.
Even though Ryan took Comet on a 3-mile run before we left the house on Sunday, he was more than ready to run and play by the time we got home. He happily splashed around in the lake and swam his little heart out! (A doggie life jacket is en route and arriving Wednesday because he has officially outgrown the one we had for Sadie.)
After some outside playtime with Comet, we headed inside for showers, pajamas and Mother’s Day cards and surprises. We were also quite excited to see a new feathery friend on our bird feeder!
We looked him up and learned the bird is a male rose-breasted grosbeak stopping by our feeder along his migration route. Cool, huh!? Our bird feeders truly do bring us so much joy!
And now it’s time for me to sign off and get this Monday started. I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you!
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