A Day in Which I Killed It

Being a mother of two can be a rocky endeavor. I have a full post about my thoughts, feelings and impressions of mother-of-two-hood sitting in my Drafts folder, waiting for some finishing touches before I can share it, but for now, suffice it to say that it is a rollercoaster ride. There are some days when I feel like I'm totally nailing this gig, and everything goes smoothly and we're all in sync and happy and loving life. And then there are days like yesterday, where nobody is sleeping, and the tantrums are epic and maddeningly frequent, and my patience is embarrassingly lacking and everybody is just  NOT OKAY. Those days are tough and tend to end in tears for more than one of us, oftentimes accompanied by a shameful quantity of mint Oreos and/or wine for me.

BUT there are days when we do feel like we have it all together! To be honest, most days are some sort of happy medium between the two extremes, but every now and then we have a day in which I feel like I am Supermom and we are just KILLING IT. Wednesday was one of those days.

We had an epic morning of activity on Wednesday. Everyone was up and napped and dressed in time for a 10:00 a.m. departure (a rarity—usually getting out of the house is quite a time-consuming feat!). We bundled up and walked to the Skyway station to catch the train downtown.

It was chilly by Florida standards!

Ellie on the train

We met up with a bunch of moms in Hemming Park for a playdate sponsored by Jax4Kids.com, which included a "touch tank"...

Ellie checking out the turtles

...nature rubbings...

Making an impression of a seashell

...storytime....

Borrowed this one from Jax4Kids!

...and science experiments.

Ellie made sure to get a front row seat for the milk/food coloring/dish soap experiment!

Making glitter bottles with oil, food coloring, water and sequins!

We also played a "little" chess.

She liked the giant checkers, too!

When we finished all that fun, we crossed the street to the Main Library, where we made a tiger tail in Toddler Art class...

She loved this craft, because now she can be Daniel Tiger. And by "loved," I mean "sleeping with her paper tiger tail in bed with her each night" kind of love.

...then we hit up Music and Movement storytime...

Listening to Mr. Josh

E.J. got his own set of bells for instrument time!

...and finished things off by playing in the boat-shaped seating area (Ellie's favorite), where we made some new friends.

My little tiger

We managed to leave the library with minimal crying and resisting, and took the train back home, where everybody had lunch and naps.

That evening was Ash Wednesday, and we managed to make it to church with both children, and once again, nobody cried! Quite the contrary, in fact—they were both quite well-behaved and, frankly, adorable.

E.J.'s first Ash Wednesday

After church

Selfie with my Ellie

Handsome W. Men

Then everybody was off to bed in a timely manner and we closed the book on a pretty epic day. It's so nice to have these really perfect days from time to time! I really am blessed with one great family.