Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day Weekend in the past (as in the past 2 years I've been a mom), Steve set the bar pretty high.  He would take over all tasks (like cooking cleaning) and give me as close to a vacation as possible.  This year, MDW lined up with the weekend right before Steve's big China trip.  So what should have been my weekend off, was more like a normal weekend as a family (he did cook me a meal and did extra dishes than normal).  I had to do laundry and get him packed since he was leaving Monday morning.

To make the weekend special, Steve planned a little day trip to Dayton on Saturday.  We started the morning off with a stop at the Wright Brother's museum and their cycle shop.  Halfway to Dayton, we realized we had forgotten the stroller. Bean was a trooper at the museum.  She wanted to run around all over, but we did our best to reign her in.  She loved pushing the buttons on the exhibits.

We loaded back in the car and then drove to Young's Jersey Dairy farm.  We got their in time for lunch.  Steve got a turkey sandwich with a side of fried cheese curds; while I enjoyed a delicious cheeseburger & fries.  Yum!  Bean pilfered fries off of me.  I'm pretty sure this was the first time that she ate whole fries and dipped them in ketchup on her own.  She loved the dipping and ketchup part!

After we ate, we headed over to a little petting zoo.  There were quarter machines that you could buy food to feed the animals.  Bean loved the goats and proudly fed them from her hand! I thought she would freak out, but she enjoyed it. We also got to see some pigs and sheep inside the barn, and some cows in the field.  It was getting close to nap time (and boy was Bean tired! She nearly fell asleep on the way to the farm).  So we headed back inside and got some ice cream before we hit the road.

The rest of the weekend was low key.  We spent lots of time as a family as well as getting Steve all packed up.  I kept hoping that the trip would be canceled (like last year).  I knew it would be really hard to take care of Bean on my own without Steve's help! Mainly, I didn't want to be the sole disciplinarian or the one to have to make ALL the decisions like what should she eat, when should she go to bed, should she really be allowed to play on the bottom step?? (You get the point).

(Geared up and ready to go!  First time wearing pigtails, too!)

(I felt like Bean grew up all of a sudden on this little trip.  She was this big kid that was interacting with exhibits and the space around her.  Here she is sitting in an ejection seat -- there was an extra exhibit about paratroopers inside the Wright museum.)

(At the dairy farm playing in the rocks while we waited for daddy to get something from the car.)

(Petting the goats! Note the outfit change.  I was too concerned her white shirt would get dirty, so I changed her shirt because I am that crazy about stains.)

(Feeding the goat with daddy.  She loved it)

(Playing in the mulch and rocks while we ate ice cream.)

(This girl LOVES to find tiny objects and put them inside something.  She does it all the time inside the house - collects weird things like hair ties and qtips -- and outside with rocks, acorns, leaves, etc. She thoroughly enjoyed putting the rocks in her little water cup.) 

(Soaking up daddy time by putting a basket over his head while he tried to sleep.)

(This poor little girl had no idea what the next 2 weeks would hold for her.  She did extremely well (no major meltdowns) accepting that Steve wouldn't be around for awhile.  I also think that by the end of the week, she was convinced Steve lived inside my phone (I would show her photos and videos often; plus, we got to skype a few times).