S/O Anyone have a Mother's Day that surprised them

When I was married my ex never really thought he should do anything for me for Mother's Day. When we got divorced, I started planning what I would like to do with my daughter. She always ask what I want to do. I tell her, make the plans and pay! We do exactly what I would like to do to celebrate being a Mom, we have a fabulous day !

This year we went to see the dressing Downton exhibit at the Biltmore House.. and then had brunch! She made me a little breakfast in bed (Brunch wasn't until 2) and a beautiful card!

It was perfect!

my 19 year old got all the kids up, ds 21, dd 12 and ds6, at FOUR AM and made me breakfast in bed, from recipes, that they shopped for the other day... and a 2 lb bag of hershey kisses. i always wake up freakishly early, was up at 5:30 and got on my laptop and he messaged to see if i was up, in they all came with cards and breakfast... i've been tearing up all day long thinking about these kids setting alarms and getting out of bed at 4am just for me!

Usually all Mother's Day is at my house is we order out for lunch. And I'm the one making the phone call. And cards. Last year dh worked so it was pretty much nothing. Our anniversary this year, everybody BUT my dh and kids wanted to make a special day for us. So I really expected nothing.

I posted on my thread yesterday that dh had plans he was afraid wouldn't come to fruition. He hooked up with a friend who picked up flowers he had ordered. When I was out yesterday he had dd make a cake and also get makings for homemade ice cream sandwiches. That was all his idea! He ordered Chinese for lunch when I was on my way home from church.

DS16 stayed home with him in case he needed anything. He used the time to make me a giant heart shaped cookie and a really nice card.

I felt very celebrated and special Today.

Yes because we celebrated Mother's Day last Sunday, it was a fantastic day, and we expected this weekend to be jam packed with kid activities. But then the kids got sick so not so many kid activities. DH put his chore list aside and spent his time doing things I like to do; yesterday we drove an hour to an organic greenhouse and I just about bought them out of flowers with nary a word from him about the cost. Last night we had a picnic and nature scavenger hunt with my parents, sister and her kids. Today he planned to drive to visit his mom's grave (2 hours away) before coaching dd's soccer game that she wasn't able to play in. He got up early to go with me to the first local antique fair of the season before he left for the other activities. And then we ended the day with ds' singing recital which was wonderful, even though he is still sick. I was kind of dreading this weekend in the way I dread all weekends which are jam packed with kid activities with no break and it ended up being a lovely weekend, start to finish. DS did make a snarky comment about it being Day 3 of Mother's Day which he thought was ridiculous but I just filed that in the fourteen year old boy mental rolodex. He doesn't quite yet have his dad's way with making someone feel special

I'm very fortunate in that DH takes Mother's Day very seriously and spoils me silly. Flowers, gifts, not allowed to do any chores and he takes care of dinner. The kids are great, too. Cards, hugs, homemade gifts and I get told 'Happy Mother's Day' multiple times. DS17 even mopped the kitchen for me today and DS20 scooped the litterbox.

However, my most favorite Mother's Day ever was when my two youngest were just 8 and 6 (they are now 30 and 28). They got up early and decided to make breakfast for me and serve it to me in bed. And, oh! what a breakfast it was - orange juice, a 3 day old donut and cheese toast. The toast came with Smarties (the candy) on top of the cheese.

In my excitement over the feast before me, I leaned over the tray to admire and exclaim over what they'd made for me.

Somehow, I missed the fact that there was also a candle on the tray. A lit candle.

Yep, caught my hair on fire. Big 'whoosh!' and then flames coming from my head, lol.

L

ETA: The hair-fire got put out quickly and yes, I ate the 'cheese w/ Smarties on top' toast.

I wake up crazy early on the weekends and like to enjoy a little time to myself before everyone gets up. I swear DH drugged the kids, because I woke up a 5am and enjoyed more then 4 hours of me time before anyone else woke up. I caught up on 3 episodes of Grimm, drank coffee, made mini-muffins, made jello, did a 45 minute workout video and got into the shower...all uninterrupted. When I got out of the shower, they were awake. My youngest made me get back into bed and he brought me a bagel toasted with butter to eat in bed.

Then I took the kids for haircuts, went to see my Grandma, went to see my Mom, picked up some flowers for the front porch, planted the flowers just in time for the rain to come. The rain let up long enough for me to grill and then it rained some more. I'm fairly certain we did haircuts last year on Mother's Day too. Supercuts is pretty dead on Mother's Day. LOL

Well yesterday morning my husband went out and bought a suit, tie and shirt for my son's wedding in 19 days.

Seriously I did not need breakfast in bed or a mothers day gift. All I needed is to cross that one thing off my list of many things left to do.

Why did we think doing the wedding ourselves was a good idea.

Part of us have lingering colds so cancelled extended family so we didn't spread it. The weather was grey and rainy. We hadn't expected to be home so we had no food.

It was the best Mother's Day yet!

We stayed home and chilled, I texted with family and friends and talked too. Surfed some, read, cleaned my closet.... Boys had gone shopping alone, funny cards and cute presents. I was proud of them! Eventually DH went to store for food to grille. It was perfect restful day.

Mine was really nice. Hubby woke up early and took the kids to pick out flowers for me. He and my oldest each gave me a bouquet of flowers and my youngest picked out an African violet plant for me (fingers crossed I won't kill it... I don't exactly have a green thumb). They made me a nice breakfast of pancakes and bacon. My sister bought me a pretty necklace! Husband got me a new necklace for a pendant I had. The chain it was on before broke so I haven't been able to wear the pendant but now I can wear it again! He also got me two types of candy that I really love (even though I am trying to exercise and eat healthier... haha! I'll make an exception and enjoy it.) My oldest bought me some flowers from a plant sale at her school and my youngest decorated a coffee mug for me at preschool.

Hubby said he had to run a few errands. He took my car and came back with the car washed, waxed and vacuumed! Seriously, my car was a mess before... we had a bad winter so I had sand/salt all over my car and just planned to wash it myself. Now I won't have to!

Kids didn't argue with each other. We went out to dinner at a restaurant I like. My youngest who can be somewhat picky actually ate and enjoyed an eggroll! My oldest behaved herself and didn't tell the youngest there was cabbage in the eggroll. Otherwise I'm sure she would have refused it. Oldest really didn't like her dinner but didn't complain about it (and we brought it home as leftovers, which hubby took to work as lunch today). So they made me feel special and everyone got along and had a good time! Couldn't ask for more!

My Mother's Day will be celebrated this coming Sunday on the 17th. Appropriate, as this is my DS's 27th birthday. Last week, he asked if we could have Mother's Day on his birthday, because he doesn't get paid until the 15th and he's got something planned for me. He's been out of a job for several years and he is so excited to actually have money to do something for me! lol Bless his sweet heart - I told him that every day he gets up and is breathing is my Mother's Day. I was out of town all day yesterday, so he did call and text me first thing.

I had a great day, although busy!

We are planning DS's graduation party for next weekend and there is TONS of yard work to be done, maintenance, pool vacuuming, planting etc. Our schedules have been so out of whack and crazy the last couple of weeks I've been the only one doing ANYTHING around the house to prepare for it.

DH woke up early and started on the hit list I had for him to handle, things I couldn't or didn't know how to do, and worked with me all day. DS and DD went with me to the nursery to pick plants for all the pots around the pool and that was really nice - they typically have no interest in that sort of thing and wouldn't choose to go with me any other day, but it was really nice for them to tag along and help pick plants and then help me plant them.
DD made me a beautiful picture on a blank canvas she found in the junk room and I adore it . She's so creative. Each of the kids got me a really funny card and wrote very sweet note. I also got the sweetest note via FB from one of DD's ex boyfriends who spent sooo much time at our house - it made me cry and made me feel SO good that I (and our family) had influenced him in ways I had never known. He told me he loved me and I was his second mom - and thanked me for putting up with him and feeding him all the time LOL. It was really great.

One of my good friend's DH is a firefighter and was on duty yesterday so we invited her over to grill out along with my mom and DH's best friend and his mom who is in town visiting. 

So although I worked the whole day through, it's work that I LOVE, and my kids and DH worked along side me all day.

All in all we had a great weekend. One of our cats had kittens on Saturday which was very exciting, and DD's play that she was the lead in was Friday night and we were all so thrilled with how well she did. And the weather was fabulous to boot - so yeah. It was a great weekend. 

DD was really sweet. She made me a piece of artwork (one of those drippy crayon things that dripped onto some of her unique drawings). She shopped for the materials, snuck away to make it, etc. We had a nice lunch at church. For dinner, DD made Cocoa French Toast with whipped cream. I'm not a French toast fan, honestly (shhhh), but she found the recipe, cooked, etc., which was very sweet. She also agreed to let me make coordinating t-shirts for Universal.

My exhusband never helped the kids do anything nice for me for mother's day.  Since the divorce, pretty much nothing has happened on Mother's Day for me.  This year, my mom decided she would cook us dinner.  So we went over there and spent the day with her.  It was nice not having to cook at all.  And she liked my gift.  After dinner, my 15 year old DD ran out to the car and she came back in with a gift for me.  Honestly, I was shocked.  I did not expect anything.  She had the nicest card and inside the box was a white cardigan sweater (because she knew mine had a hole in it) and a bag of Dove chocolates.  It was such a nice surprise.  

It's just DS (13) and I. We went to our favorite little place for breakfast and then just vegged all day and caught up on my shows. Every once in a while in between video games, he's shout out "I love you, mom. Do you need anything?"
It was perfect