An Early Mother's Day

 {Russian Sage, Primrose, Shasta Daisies, Icelandic Poppies, Dianthus, and Verbena}

With the arrival of warmer weather, I've been bitten by a gardening bug!  Perhaps it's because I've come to the conclusion that we will probably not be going anywhere anytime soon (if at all), and I just want to up our curb appeal for my own enjoyment, or perhaps it's because I'm just happy that it's finally getting warmer and seeing all the bright colors makes my heart sing.  Whatever the reason, I have made it my mission to find as many perennials to fill in the gaps in our front flower beds as I possibly can!  Something about knowing the flowers will keep coming up year after year is super satisfying and exciting to me.  :)    

{Moss Rose, more Dianthus, and Woodland Phlox.  And I want to get some more Primrose to put in the space there.  Not pictured -- the side of the house by the garage, where I got a bunch of Daylilies in "Chicago Apache" and "Rocket City" to plant.  I'm SUPER excited for when those start to bloom.}

Since I've been going a little crazy with buying up flowers, I told Scott that they can totally count as my Mother's Day gift.  ;)  Hahaha.  As another early added bonus, Ethan gave me this card after Mutual on Wednesday night.  Apparently, the theme of the evening was the importance of mothers and the activity was writing letters to their moms for Mother's Day.  Obviously, I wasn't going to wait all the way until Sunday to open it up and read it, so Ethan willingly allowed me to rip into it that night.  Hahahaha.  :)  The result was the best thing I've read in a long, long time.

Dear Mom, Happy Mother's Day!  I wanted to say that I am so grateful for all the little things that you do.  For the past 2 months, every day, you have driven all the way to the school, just to pick me up from track.  I know that you hate chauffeuring people around.  (I looked up how to spell that.)  We'll have to work on that vocabulary.  I also love so much when you buy me little treats and leave them on my bed.  It really shows how much you care for me.  Without you, there would be no way this family would function.  We would be living in squalor, as you would say.  You are an amazing mom and I wouldn't choose anyone else to be my mom.  Happy Mother's Day!  Love, Ethan

That pretty much made my whole year right there!  Alex and Jane also showered me with early Mother's Day love when they got home from school today.  Jane was so excited to give me the book she had been working on for the last several days and Alex couldn't wait to give me his card either.  What would we do without elementary school teachers being the driving force behind all the sweet little Mother's Day tributes that come home with our children??

And finally, Mother's Day will be EXTRA special this year because it will be Isaac's very first day in nursery!!!  Yay!!  This will be a bigger gift for Scott than for me since he's the one who wrestles him during the second and third hour of church while I teach my Youth Sunday School class and then play the piano in Relief Society, but regardless, it will be really great!  I can't wait to see what other Mother's Day surprises are in store.  ;)

{I love that little face.}