mama's taking me to the zoo tomorrow!

I don't know about all of y'all, but I grew up on Raffi. Matt somehow had no idea who Raffi was until just recently and I feel like he was deprived as a child... (not really) but, really! Raffi was my first "favorite musician".... I really hope if you are reading this you, too, grew up on Raffi, or at least know who he is. SO much better than Barney or anything like kids have today. Matt and I do kinda like Yo Gabba Gabba... but, its no Raffi. For those of you, poor souls, who do not know who Raffi is... here is a glimpse:

Here's another, featuring the legend himself:

We had an awesome mother's day weekend, which by now I am sure you have guessed included a trip to the Zoo :)  The weekend started off with homemade sangria - soooo yumm - and tacos a la matt!  Saturday morning we woke up and went to our old favorite breakfast spot in Crestline, Big Blue Bagel.  We from there went to the Zoo!  It was Ben's first trip to the Birmingham Zoo, he's been to Nashville's a few times.  We were so excited to take him because he is really into animals right now. I'll let the pictures do the talking... it was SO much fun!

wearing our zoo shirt... so appropriate.

first stop, seal show!

we had great seats!

Ben loved the seal!

peacock just walking around the zoo...

look daddy!

ali-gator!

the monkeys! Ben's fav

whoo whoo haa haa

Ben being a monkey!

Elephant training!

we realllly loved the ewaphants!

"zebas"

"gafs"

"happy mommys day" as ben put it :)

lion training

raaawr!

Then it was on to the carousel...Ben LOVED the carousel.  We rode it 3x :)  He would have opted for a few thousand more, too!

we had to try out all of the animals....

then it was on to the water fountains!

cute little thing!

changed into shorts...

and he's off!

loooove this one :)

then spotted the carousel, again... :)

We stopped at sneaky pete's and then headed home for a 3 hr nap!

Shopping and dinner at Tazikis compelted a wonderful Saturday with my two favorite boys in the whole world.  Matt suprised me with 2 dozen roses of all colors, so pretty!! And some rocky mtn chocolate that we ate all of by the end of the weekend!  He and Ben gave me a sweet mommy/son angel and Ben pointed and said "mommy" & "ben" -- totally melted my heart.

Sunday was so, so rainy.  We woke up and had a wonderful breakfast compliments of chef matt and then went to church. Church was so great and of course, I was just overwhelmed by God's love and a feeling of gratefulness for Him allowing me to be Benjamin's mommy.  Being a mother has taught me so much about God's love and that the sacrafice of his Son is truly the ultimate gift to us. SO blessed!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to lunch at Zoe's and Ben just made my day with every single smile and cute thing he said.  I leaned in to take a picture with him and put my cheek against his and when I moved away he kept saying "kiss" because he wanted to be cheek-to-cheek again and take more picutres! It was sooooo cute.  Goodness I love that little boy!

This face is the only thing I need for the rest of my life :) however.... I was very happy to get my mother's day gift! First, Matt and Ben gave me one of those recordable hallmark books. The first page was Ben's voice saying "I wuv oo mommy. Mommy's day... i wuv oo mommy" - - - so stinking precious! The rest of the book was for me to record my voice reading a story to Ben.  THEN, my boys gave me a diamond-ruby band! Matt gave me a peridot necklace when I was pregnant because Ben was supposed to be born in August :) Little did we know, the little guy would come 3 weeks early and be a July baby! Ever since we have thought about getting a ruby piece of jewelery and I (geniously) came up with the idea to get a band for each child we have... with diamonds and the birth stone alternating.  I think Matt agreed only because he wants LOTS of kids and he knew this would motivate me! haha. Just kidding.

All in all it was a FABULOUS mother's day and I was completely spoiled and am so, so grateful for the love in my life.  I hope all the mommies out there had incredible days too - we deserve it! :)