The Grads |
Maggie's sister/cousin |
The Grads |
Maggie's sister/cousin |
Valentine's Day Dance 2000 in Austria, about ten days before he asked me to be his girlfriend. |
My $99 David's Bridal dress |
Ahhhh Mother's Day. It was wonderful. I realize that I am in a very perfect stage of motherhood right now. Not only do I still get to celebrate my own wonderful mother, but I have seven pretty independent children with unique personalities who all love to call me Mom. Doubly blessed.
We went out to breakfast on Saturday morning all together, knowing we couldn't all go on Sunday morning due to Mass times and DRE duties. We went to a restaurant I have always wanted to go to, and it was delicious. I had the pesto omelette with tomatoes and mozzarella, so good. At one point while we were eating, I looked over and Declan (age 10) and Brendan (age 7) were cutting up their own french toast and everyone was behaving like little angels and I just thought "we made it!" Don't get me wrong, toddlers are my favorite and a cute baby will make my ovaries ache, but honestly, school age through young adult aged kids are really awesome. Don't let anyone tell you to worry about the teenage years, from my experience, they have been more fun than anything else.
Anyone else feel like there head is in a constant state of spin? Somehow we made it to Friday! With a First Communion last Sunday and the boys returning from college on Wednesday, and the Ice Cream Cottage opening yesterday...it's been a whirlwind.
The night before opening day, I sat with Phil and pretended to order things off the menu to make sure he felt prepared no matter what anybody ordered. Let's just say we almost forgot to buy bananas for the banana splits and shortcakes for the strawberry shortcake sundaes, so that was a good lesson.
We moved some things around inside the shop this year, as last year we opened in such a hurry and just kind of made do with the layout. The soft serve machine is now moved away from the takeout windows because it was loud and made it hard to hear the orders. We now offer chocolate dipped waffle cones (that live in the new cone cottage) and we got rid of the chowder and quahogs because the restaurants on either side of us are now open and serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We created a new frappe station with a bigger fridge underneath and added blenders to make more frappes quickly. We got a new toppings fridge which looks so much better. Here's a little tour:
Leading up to opening day, the weather showed rain through the weekend, but then on the morning of - sunshine! It looks like a dry (slightly cool and cloudy) weekend which we will take. We can't control the weather but it does affect our takeout business for sure. We had to take the littles to get a treat on opening day (and Ascension Thursday!) after swim practice:
We had a great first day, so many loyal customers came back. We are very blessed to be in this supportive town.
Other than getting the shop open, JP had an interview on his first day back from college, and he got the job! He will be working for an elderly doctor who needs his help as a medical scribe/assistant. JP said this doctor (a general practitioner and a DO) was sooooo nice and when he talked to his former scribe and an office worker, they said he is awesome to work for and that JP will learn so much. So we are all very happy for him! And the office is only about 12 minutes from home, even better. It's actually at the medical group that gave him a scholarship for college when he was a high school senior. Full circle!
He wore a suit to the interview, and when he was leaving, the doc said "You clean up nice but I never want to see you looking that formal again!" haha, sounds like the perfect job for JP :)
Have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend everyone! I hope you get exactly what you want!!
My lips WERE harmed for the sake of this photo |