The weekend was filled with those moments in motherhood you never forget. Friday afternoon Catybug “sprung” at me after school in excitement that she wanted two friends to come over. With a sigh and an eyeroll, I agreed. The inconvenienced, hates last minute plans mother in me was thinking “that new Wii ought to entertain everyone” (I really do try to avoid Drama! wherever possible.) Deep down, though, what I was really thinking was “I never got to do this when I was a kid. Say yes.” And I loaded up the car with children and we headed home.

There was giggling and talking and more talking, as you can imagine. They played the Wii, and I escaped out the back door to get up close and personal with far too many dandelions. Of course it didn’t take long before Chickeymonkey came outside to me crying that they weren’t taking turns, so I enlisted her eagle eyes for dandelion detection and she was a happy girl.

Just as I finished placing the pizza order (because that’s what you do, when you’re a cool mom), another of Catybug’s girlfriends stopped over on her bike. I went into “holy crap that’s a lot of kids” mode again, but it quickly dissipated and I welcomed her in. They decided to play outside, together. I sat down at the dining room table and began cutting lily pads (placemats for our Church’s mother daughter banquet) and waiting for the pizza to arrive. It was quiet in the house, and I could hear the girls all giggling and talking outside, and I watched them playing in the yard from the dining room.

The mommy moment kicked in when they all moved to the playset. Two on the swing, two on the glider rocker, and one in the clubhouse. All of them smiling and carrying on. A sweet smile evolved on my face and tears welled up in my eyes. This is it, I thought. This is what it’s all about. I wish I had this when I was a kid, all of my friends over playing on the swingset.

I wondered if the girls knew how precious that moment was, if they knew that they’ll be glad to have that memory when they’re adults, or when they’re lonely, missing their friends, feeling like they don’t have any, or are just having a sad day.

At that moment, I grabbed my camera and opted to capture that moment for them and for me. I admit, I felt accomplished. I felt like I had succeeded in Motherhood and I may have even put on a little awards ceremony in my head, just for me. (And I was also in the audience, cheering myself on.)

The pizza arrived and the girls all clamored into the family room around the super cool Ikea kids’ table to eat and watch TV. They gobbled up a full pizza in a matter of minutes, and of course no girly gathering would be complete without some soda spillage. I went from cool mom to maid in a matter of seconds as I went over the floor half a dozen times to get rid of the “sticky” (hate soda. HATE.)

Within a few hours (and a lot of yawning on my part, since last week was not a good week for sleeping through the night at my house), the girls parents had arrived, they departed and my girls were left with sad faces because their friends were gone. It was a late night for them, and we had an early morning ahead of us as our Church’s mother daughter banquet was scheduled for 10am Saturday and being on the committee meant I had lots of stuff to do to prepare, and had to arrive early.

There were over 100 women in attendance. 100 place settings at 15 tables. The theme was “puddles of fun” and the tables were set up like a pond, with lily pads under each place setting of food, that consisted of a cored and sliced apple opened for the lotus, a scoop of either chicken or tuna salad in the center with a gummy frog on top, all surrounded by fruit and set on a large lettuce leaf. Dessert was blue pudding with smashed nilla wafers and a frog – and the centerpiece (my Saturday morning task) was 2 fish in a fishbowl on top of a lotus and lily pad. Some of the place mats were froggy tic-tac-toe pads, and all the kids had fun and stayed entertained with those.

One lucky person had a fish drawn (by me) on their cup, indicating the winner of the centerpiece fishies. Everyone had a fun time and only one fish bowl was left unclaimed – they now reside here with our bird, guinea pig, rabbit and dog. I don’t expect their lifespan will be a long one, I tend to kill goldfish pretty quickly. I’ll keep you updated and you’ll all be invited to the stool-side ceremonies when the time comes.

The speaker talked about women. The changes in what society thinks “beautiful” looks like over the course of centuries. How sloped foreheads were “in”, corsets, shaved eyebrows, boyish rectangular figures, and long necks. How today, we feel the pressure to be beautiful in the way society has deemed what beautiful is for this period. She said we need to remember that we are all beautiful, because we look like what we look like. And that we are God’s perfect creation. It’s so true, and so easy to forget, isn’t it? We were all made exactly how we were meant to be, and I don’t know many people who are happy about that when they look in the mirror. We do need to remember that we are what we are, and honor that.

She went on to talk about the passage to womanhood. She told a story about how when she was young, she heard her mothers razor calling out to her from the shower – and went in and proceeded to shave her legs for the first time. If she had only known that she would have to continue to do that for the rest of her life, maybe she would have waited!

She talked about her first purse, and other “firsts” that made her feel that she was earning her way to womanhood. Catybug and I giggled over many of her stories, because she has already come into some of those things – particularly the shaving – and the blood and skin loss – and she could really relate. Chickeymonkey, the lucky one, is still little. If I could just *keep* her little … I imagine that three hormonally challenged girls in one 1400 square foot space isn’t always going to be pleasant.

Thinking back to when you were a young girl – when did you feel like you were more of a “grown up”? What moment did you think “NOW I’m a big, like mom.”

And also? You are beautiful. You. ARE. Beautiful.