Going into the weekend, I knew my favorite weekend of the year was certainly going to look a lot different than our typical Memorial Day weekend….no Viva Vienna, no barbeques with friends and family, no going out to eat or anywhere. But we were determined to make the best of it.

We started our long weekend early Friday by having a wacky school day, which included a visit to the Reston Zoo, a trip we have never done before due to it being overpriced; however, with the zoo being turned into a drive through zoo and very few places to go these days, we figured why not.

Look at this guys hair!!!  It’s gettin BIG!

When we got home…we had two lessons.  The first was a lesson of the importance of brushing one’s teeth!  The second was a creative writing exercise about the girls experience.  Avery did a few types of poems!

Harper’s poem.  I thought a miracle had happened as her spelling was superb…turns out she was asking Google.

Emerson’s acrostic poem.

Saturday brought a family walk through the woods, with the girls complaining about the muddy trail, mud getting on their legs, spiders, branches in the path, the threat of poison ivy, the temperature being too hot, too hilly…and I’m sure there were others.  I threatened to leave them in the woods behind our house to navigate their own way home should the complaints continue.  They knew I would never do that so not sure my “threat” had much of an impact.  We had a good walk nonetheless at least in terms of exercise!

The rest of the afternoon there was a lot of playing outside, bike riding, softball playing, and chapter book reading.

Saturday night we had a delightful charcuterie board with cheeses and meats from a combination of The Oakton Wine Shop and The Italian Gourmet.

We enjoyed a delicious bottle of Pinot Noir and after a glass, I was full of laughs as I rocked my new “garage only” crocks through the neighborhood.  Man I looked ridiculous but I had a great ab workout.

Sunday we picked up some fresh fruit from Depauls. We called our order in and they dropped it in our truck…the norm these days.

We surprised the girls with a trip to Wendy’s drive through and they each indulged in their own frosty and they enjoyed it in the car.

Justin and I had a date night Sunday.  We ordered take-out from Clarity and ate in the “pit”…it was delicious…we will definitely need to do it again!  Meanwhile the girls “watched” themselves with a night full of sugar cereal and binge movie watching.

Justin and I finished our night off with a walk, Nintendo playing, and Netflix watching.  It was certainly a different Memorial Day Weekend than years past, but the girls still rocked their Memorial Day clothing, which had just arrived.  Missing Harper as she had thrown up in the car about 20 minutes before this picture was taken….we think she actually got car sick…having been int the car so little over the last few months!

Memorial Day 2021…hope to be wearing these same shirts celebrating with friends and family.

Wacky school Friday included me taking the day off from work and having quality time with the girls.  It was hot and we took an activity break to walk to the field off Hillington.

These three are mine.  Days are sometimes hard, and I often miss the innocence of the baby and toddler phase.  I miss my perception and ability to experience life through their innocent heart and minds. But then there are times like this…and I just sit staring at the picture, reflecting on the fact that THESE THREE ARE MINE!!

Harper was running wildly through the buttercups, calling me over to each section saying “Mama, aren’t they so beautiful”.  “Yes, Harper…they absolutely are beautiful”.

A gentle reminder that no matter how old they get or how much I miss the baby and toddler phase, life is filled with abundances and beauty – even when babies and toddlers are no longer in the picture – just look at this these buttercups and this cutie!

Today Justin turns 40.  We have been joking about this day for a few years. It’s a running joke that I am 9 months older than Justin.  So me being in my mid-30’s before him was ‘oh so funny’ to him as was each year that passed after that as it just meant I was closer to 40 than him.  Even though we have been nearing 40 the last few years, it still seemed like a distant milestone until all of a sudden it wasn’t.  We are both officially 40…both officially Yung No Mo!

In February, Justin and I decided to go to Charlottesville, VA just the two of us – we were going to stay in a cute cottage slightly off the grid.  The girls were going to stay with my parents and Justin and I were going to have some quality down time together.  We cancelled last month when we realized we were going to be celebrating his birthday in quarantine.

While it wasn’t my birthday and the plans weren’t what we originally anticipated, I think it was a great low-key birthday celebration if I do say so myself!

We kicked off the celebration on Friday when Justin woke up to a massive Happy Birthday sign in our front yard. It came courtesy of Card My Yard and since they were sold out for Saturday, I figured starting the birthday celebration on the 8^th was perfect!

It was a rainy day, but we managed a few pictures and a walk in our neighborhood in between the rain.  

Saturday morning was like Christmas morning.  Bacon in our family equates to Christmas and we had bacon!  Not only bacon, but also sausage, eggs, fruit, and lemon muffins.  We leisurely ate and enjoyed the delicious food and each other’s company.

Presents followed breakfast.  Several shirts were in order as were socks, two koozies, a Golden Girls journal, and a homemade Top 40 card with a Chinese Proverb Yung No Mo that had us hysterical all morning.

The weather was cold today…only around 50 degrees and cold, but there were pockets of sun among the winds and we still took advantage of mother nature with an hour long walk and then a short bike-ride in our neighborhood.

Since we ate a big breakfast at 10:00 a.m., we turned breakfast into brunch and skipped a real lunch.  Instead we surprised Justin with a Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream sundae bar for lunch.  The girls thought it was totally nuts.  It was delicious and fun and so wonderful not to have to make a real lunch for the first time in months!

Brophy and Donald stopped by for a few socially distant driveway beers…an event that if you indicated would be the way they would celebrate together several months ago, I would have thought bummer, but with reset expectations, it was truly wonderful to visit with them…despite the fact that they couldn’t even come in to use our bathroom and had to pee in the woods.

We were going to do dinner in two parts.  First an oaky bottle of Pinot Noir and a charcuterie board with cheeses and salamis that I got from Oakton Wine Shop and Caboose Brewing coupled with a whole wheat boule that I made!  A combination of the wine, the massive amounts of cheese that we consumed, as well as the thought of not having to clean up a bunch of dinner dishes, made us realize we should turn our charcuterie board into dinner. 

There was no need for a second part…the shrimp and New York Strip would wait until tomorrow.

With full bellies, we had family fun in our make-shift photo booth.  Look at this guy…turning 40 and all has made him turn furry!

Justin’s expression in the last picture sums up how his birthday ended!  We went on a quick after dinner walk in the brisk May cold after our photo booth session and then Justin capped off the night with a few outdoor social distance drinks with a neighbor. Yung No Mo had a great birthday and I think it is “safe” to say, it was one like no other.