Happy Mother's Day to Me!

We kept Mother's Day pretty low-key (as we do most holidays) and it was a lot of fun. I got to sleep in a little, opened two fun presents from Adam and the girls, and then we all headed to Wal-Mart. I despise Wal-Mart, by the way. I hate the crowds, a lot of not-so-smart people all together in one place, the always-busy parking lot, etc....but sometimes you have to go there when you live in a relatively small town in the South. The "BIG" present for Mother's Day was a decent backyard kiddie pool. Doesn't sound all that exciting at first, I know, but it really will be "the gift that keeps on giving" around here. Being about 6 months pregnant now, having a 3 and 1 yr old, and just starting the insanely hot and humid SC summer, I had to have something easy to entertain the kiddos all summer long. So, we opted to move the patio furniture off the deck, put down the carpet squares that covered our floors in Japan, and turn the backyard into the main play area. I'm SOOOO pleased with the result! Elise loves playing in the water, but the other little pools we had required inflating and deflating each day, they got filled with grass in the front yard that they were disgusting, and they kept getting holes in them (probably b/c they were $12 pools...). It was exhausting to spend 1/2 of the girls' naptimes inflating, filling with water, dragging chairs out front, etc...and then sitting in the 100 degree afternoon heat on the front of the house! So this was our great solution! I feel very blessed being a mom to these girls (and the little boy in utero!)! It was a great Mother's Day.

Daddy and the girls working hard to set it up. Adam calls this Ainsley's "Jane Fonda" look.

Elise LOVES to use Adam's air compressor air gun to inflate things.

We even "splurged" on the $15 Little Tikes slide to go inside the pool! They love it.

It only took Elise about 10 minutes to figure out she could do this! She is my kid after all...