belly up

i had high hopes for our morning. nothing too special, but just a little this and that out of the ordinary to show some love. 

what a bust.

exhibit a.

while both boys were excited to have balloons for valentines day, grey stared at an empty fish bowl. apparently my attempt to follow the instructions explicitly last night in giving our new goldfish a new home failed somewhere between 10:30 pm and 5:30 am. i had gone to bed so excited because i just knew the boys would be thrilled with their new little friend.

i came downstairs to a sad faced husband. our fish was belly up. so we scooped him out, sent him on a trip down a water slide, and left the empty bowl. the boys never knew that we already had purchased a fish that bit the dust. 

grey's reaction to the fish...bowl.

"oh a fish!!!!!! wait, where's the fish?"

we promptly informed him that he was going to get to pick the fish out himself. i'm pretty sure he was still devastated there was no fish in the bowl. 

exhibit b.

the heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes turned out great and were delicious. unfortunately, we were serenaded by tucker screaming for 20 solid minutes for who knows what. it was a fit of maximum proportions. and i could not figure out for the life of me what the problem was. we tried hard to carry on conversation as usual between the three of us but failed miserably. oh the screaming child just wouldn't stop. and to top it off, matthew felt horrible and couldn't even eat the delicious pancakes. oh dear.

exhibit c.

this is exactly how i felt all morning.

 pouty because it seemed as though everything was belly up. the boys fought all morning, we couldn't even color a picture without devastation, and grey bear got his feelings hurt and cried every time someone looked at him the wrong way. 

thank goodness i had already planned a day at the park with a picnic and a pond adventure. i knew that would be the ticket and thank goodness it was just that! smiling faces abounded and lots of energy was burned. we laughed together, the boys had a blast together, and i even caught them holding hands and running  around the pond together. then we went to pick out our new fish, sam. 

the turn around.

{a man walking by captured this stunning image for us. at least among my whale of self, there are super smiles on everyone's faces}

 thank you God for warm sunshine to induce a good nap and to turn our day back around :) things are really looking up.

p.s. i get to go on a date with my husband tonight. woop woop!