Meadow had an event at her school on Thursday night so we took Meadow out of school and left Friday morning. We took our old route to the cottage through Taylors Falls. We always drive by this place that sells bread.  Balsam Lake Oven Breads. We decided to finally try it out. Unfortunately the breadshop wasn't open but they also had this garden store full of hostas.   When we say full, we mean dozens of varieties. We had to get some for our work-in-progress gardens. There was even a swingset for the kids to play on while we shopped.    We made another stop to do a potty break/driver swap/playground time in Bruce.  Sometimes  we stop here and don't let the kids play. They were much happier that we let them have a good time.   This also gave Scott and I time to start booking our hotels for a trip we're taking in August. 

I don't work on Fridays, so those days are dedicated as Mama Theo days. We only have a couple more left before Meadow is out of school and then Theo will be in school in the fall. We had plans to go out for breakfast. I mentioned this to Scott the night before and he said we should go to Al's Breakfast.    The waitress gave Theo dinosaurs to play with while we waited for our food.   He sure loves his mama. I thought with the spring semester being done, and it being chilly, it wouldn't be busy but we had to wait in line for quite a bit to get a seat.  I honestly think it was pretty quick. These days they have you wait outside instead of behind the folks sitting at the counter. Was a little disappointed that the new cook had the griddle on middling temps. The pancakes aren't perfectly cooked, just seconds from burning, like they used to be. Yet it was still fun to eat there after many years.

I  know, I know we don't believe in fake holidays like Father's Day. But I got Brooke a plant stand a pot for mother's day.   This was my first Mother's day gift, I was so surprised Scott got me something. We generally only get each other gifts for our birthdays. Along with furniture buying recently we have also been collecting more house plants. Perfect for this new corner of our living room. Next I made apple pancakes for breakfast. Nothing like griddle pancakes at the perfect temperature. We also got this bar table to fill in the empty void in our kitchen.   Plus our counter tops are child height and we needed the extra counter space.  The kids made me a treasure map to find my gift from them.  Found it! Oh, look, the kids are actually playing in Funlandia between staring at screens.   To be fair, they have been playing outside more too.  Meadow made me flowers and Theo made me a card.  I gave Meadow a hug to thank her, then Theo joined too....

Folks, COVID is over, and the Mayday Parade is back! But first we had our good friends Davin, Dora and the kids over for dinner. After seeing them a week earlier, at Doralyce's birthday party, we invited them over.    We wanted to catch up and also thank them for the invite to the birthday party.  I made shrimp and grits for our friends.