Happy Mother's Day, Birthday, & Anniversary

May is always a little crazy with all the birthdays, Mother's Day and our Anniversary, but this year things were a little different due to Covid 19...

All I wanted for Mother's Day was to see my kids again, and just talk and catch up, which luckily I got to do via Zoom!

It was so wonderful to laugh, talk, and see them smile! (Breck keeping us entertained, as usual) 

Sean showing us the Covid masks he and Brittney made out of old t-shirts (they have since invested in official masks).

Brittney and Sean also sent me this wonderful bath set for Mother's Day!

And we sent Mom a pretty mask,

and this card and hummingbird picture, which Brad says 'only a Mother could love'! (He's not wrong ... it's a paint-by-sticker picture that I made for Mom, but it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped)

My birthday was the day after Mother's Day, and above are the lovely gifts I received from Aubrey, Merinda, and Brad.

I also received another bath set from Christen, 

along with this amazing homemade carrot cake with lettering she made out of actual carrots!  

From Mom I received a thought book and this little porcelain doll which was my Great Aunt June's (who has since passed), which was such a thoughtful gift!

The Holts gave me a basket full of all things relaxing,
 
and the Hansons put a smile on my face with my favorite soda and bouquet of balloons. Via mail, I also received more gifts, cards, and well-wishes, that all touched my heart!

Also for my birthday, Brad wanted to throw a big birthday party for me but I rained on his parade and said "no" to any birthday party or gathering because of Covid 19. So he presented the idea of having a Mask-querade party with less than ten people, and everyone keeping six feet away. With all the thinking he put into it, I definitely couldn't turn him down! 

The first picture is of the super-creative invitations Brittney made for the party.

So the Holts were the honored guest (knowing that we had already spent time with them and nobody got sick). And like the invitations suggested, they all came prepared with their individual masks ...
Austin in his BYU Cougar mask

Aubrey with a princess mask,

Christina's wale and underwater-theme mask with matching headband,

Merinda's mask that she wears to work at Chick-Fil-A,

My matching purple floral mask,

George's Hugh Jackman (Huge Jackman) mask, 

Brad's transgender mask,

Rex's shaggy dog (or Sean Costello) mask, 

and Veronica's supposed-to-be-a-cat-but-looked-more-like-a-mouse mask!

We needed a neutral party to judge the masks so we sent the pictures to Brittney and Sean who came up with the above winners. And since we were all winners, we each received a prize, handpicked (from the dollar tree) from our host Brad ... 

It was then time to remove our masks and EAT!

Brad ordered take-out from Qdoba, the closest thing we have in Kentucky to Cafe Rio! 

The kids enjoying visiting with real-life people again!

It was then time for dessert ...

my favorites ... red velvet cake, 

and Christen's super yummy carrot cake!

The other great thing about my birthday was a surprise visit from Breck & Iris!

Not only was I super surprised to see them (so much so that I didn't have any food to feed them) but they came bearing gifts as well (Iris was embarrassed about the duct tape on the gifts but I was impressed, because not only does duct make the world go around, but they actually had wrapping paper, and it even matched the duct tape!) ...

My very own X-box

with camera thingamajig (sorry-I don't know the official names of anything gaming)!

Now my kids know that the word "gamer" might as well be a swear word in my house, but if it means someone who uses their x-box to watch dvd's, listen to cd's, and play Just Dance for endless hours, than I guess I am a gamer (oh my, what has Covid done to me?!) Above is a screen-shot of one of Merinda's and my Just Dance scores ... we were both Superstars (who cares if it was the easiest level) but she clearly beat the pants off me (literally ... due to me sweating profusely!)

Breck got me all set up (it took a few tutorials) with a user-friendly guide, and syncing of the TV/X-box remotes. 

He then unpacked all of my dvd's and cd's (after being in storage for years) and put them in one of my new accent tables! 

He then found all of our family games and put them in the other accent table. It really was organisational genius!  

I sure had a good time with the kids here!

We showed them around our new neighborhood,

and the beautiful golf course ...

We even got to see a little of Aubrey!

And of course we played all kinds of family games together (my favorite thing ever!)

I just want to thank Breck and Iris for taking the time out to come and visit, and for the very thoughtful (and useful) gifts! I had such a wonderful week, and can't wait to see them again soon, only this time, we'll take the road-trip to Virginia! 

After all of the festivities (of which we had been truly missing in our lives lately!) we had a nice quiet dinner out (which is also a rarity) at a Mexican dive. It was so nice to eat out again, and enjoy good food that we didn't have to prepare or clean-up! Happy 29th Anniversary to my dear husband Brad, I sure love you!