The Saturday 7

1. A few years ago, I signed up as a book reviewer for a Christian book website (booklookbloggers.com). But I never actually reviewed any books for them until this week. I requested a book, it was sent to my kindle for free, then I read it and posted a review on my blog - which I linked back to them. The book itself was nothing special, but how cool that I got it for free?! I think I'm going to start doing it more often.

2. I started another of my parenting books this week: Beyond Bathtime. I'm only a couple chapters in, but one of the study questions at the beginning was, "How are you a good mom?" I felt like that was kind of a stupidly profound question. I never pause to think of how I've been a good mom. I usually focus on my faults. It was kind of nice to give myself a little pat on the back this week and list some of the things I do right. One of them is that I love birthdays and celebrations and making my kids feel special. This might also qualify as a fault, because I can tend to go overboard, but I'm choosing to label it as a positive thing! Haha.

3. Lucy turned 7 on Thursday. I say this every year, but it boggles my mind that I'm old enough to have a 7 year old. And as I alluded to above, her birthday celebrations got a little bit out of control. Haha. She got the idea in her head that she wanted to go to a hotel for her birthday. We told her we could either go to a hotel or have a birthday party with her friends. She chose the hotel, I cashed in my credit card rewards, and we only ended up paying $35. But that was this weekend. We had to celebrate on her actual birthday, too!

4. On Thursday, I brought Subway to her at school for lunch. We went to the park after school, then opened presents when Justin got home.

More books! Yay!

Then we went to "the play McDonald's" for dinner.

We wrapped up the birthday extravaganza by renting "Sing" and watching it at home with popcorn.

5. On Friday, Justin took Lucy out for their annual "Daddy-Daughter-Birthday-Date." She chose shopping at Justice. And because Justin is awesome, he took her, let her put on their complimentary make-up, let her try on clothes, and bought her an outfit. She loved it.

6. Yesterday, we packed up half of our belongings for a one night stay in a hotel. I had to seriously pare down Lena's collection of doll clothes, books, and jewelry boxes, while reminding her to pack pajamas and underwear. Haha. Priorities. We got to the hotel at 2:30 and immediately jumped in the pool. Well . . . some of us did. Levi was terrified of the water and didn't stop crying until I got out and held him.

We went to Applebee's for dinner, where Levi very much enjoyed a juice box.

Then we found a really nice park to play at.

Finally, it was back to the hotel for more swimming:

Very nervous . . . please don't make me go back in there!

The girls love the hotel room and being allowed to eat snacks and play on their tablets in bed.

Levi went to sleep amazingly well in the pack n' play, and Lena fell asleep like this around 10:30:

Nose smushed against her tablet.

7. Today we celebrated Mother's Day with swimming at the hotel, a stop to see Justin's mom, then home to celebrate with my family. We had pizza because the moms weren't cooking, played cards, celebrated Lucy's birthday, and enjoyed each other's company. My kind of day! Justin took the girls to Meijer to get me some presents, and they came home with cookies, Dr Pepper, Riesens, and a sweet card. They sure know the way to my heart! I'm so grateful to be their mom!

8. Bonus point for more pictures!