Most years, Shawn will ask me what I want for Mother’s Day, and I will respond with my usual, “I don’t know…let me think about it.”  Which I never will, and then he’s left to come up with something on his own.  This year, when Shawn asked me what I wanted, I told him, without hesitation, “I want you to help me plant a garden.”  And he was all for it. 

Yesterday, we got the kids ready and headed over to the Farmer’s Market to hunt for plants. (Connor was riding his scooter down the sidewalk while he waited for us). 

After much deliberation, and after chatting with a helpful woman at the Farmer’s Market, we picked out buttercrunch lettuce, yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes,cherry tomatoes, green and yellow bell peppers, leeks, and onions.  Then we went and got flowers to plant in the partial sun area of our yard.  We got lillies, columbines, and a type of daisy. 

But, choosing plants was only the beginning of the work that had to be done.   See, to begin with, our yard looked like this:

 (The partial sun side of the house)

The full-sun side of the house, was just a big, open rectangle of yard, and Shawn had to hand-turn the soil. 

My sweet husband, in an effort to give me a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend, worked almost nine hours yesterday turning soil, pulling out ferns and bushes, all while battling massive allergies and a sore shoulder.  Because he’s awesome like that. 

The kids could not have loved being outside more.  They had a blast running and rolling in the grass. 

And Connor even convinced Daddy to let him help a little.

And when they were all done, we had a beautiful garden…

And some lovely plants that will grow into beautiful flowers before summer’s end…

And today, I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful husband who will work so hard to make sure I feel loved and appreciated, and I feel lucky to have three wonderful, beautiful children who make me feel lucky to be a mom everyday.