Mother's Day and the hard part of being a parent

I always look forward to Mother's Day. This is partly for the obvious reasons of a day when the kids think it should be all about me, so they try to do everything sweetly and nicely with no complaining. But really, it is a sign that the school year and all of it's activities are finally winding down. Delaney graduated from Kindermusik, so she is ready to start piano lessons in the fall, dance is almost over, the girls are halfway through their travels with the Festival court (the picture above was from the Wild Turkey Festival), and school is slowing down (the other picture is Delaney at her book character parade--she was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter). Mother's Day was wonderful--we finally had good weather, we went for a walk, got ice cream, and just relaxed most of the day. Drake is getting to be so fun--he is constantly calling, "ma-ma, mommy, mom..." and just keeps it up until I say, "what?" Then he'll go into some sort of ramble that only he understands, but it is just the cutest thing. The biggest memory I will probably have from this Mother's Day is Dawsyn and her dog, Snowball, playing in my parent's backyard. They both fell in the mud at the edge of the pond and were a mess. Unfortunately, two days later came one of the hardest parts of being a parent, having to tell the kids that Snowball had died. On Tuesday morning, I got up like I always do, very early, and started my routine. I went downstairs, turned on the coffee pot, and shut off the house alarm. Then, I let Snowball outside. About 15 minutes later, I opened the door to let her back in, but she wasn't there. I didn't think much of this right away because it was the first warm, not rainy, morning we had had in a long time, so I just figured she was just outside playing. After I finished my workout, I went back and called for her, but she never came. I finally woke Shawn up and told him that Snowball wasn't coming. He said he would go look for her. He found her in the field next to our house. She was already gone. We think an owl or hawk got her because she just had a little puncture wound in her chest. Shawn thinks she died from falling when the bird dropped her. Telling those kids was so hard. We decided to stay home from school and work. Shawn buried her and made a cross that says, "Snowball 2009-2011--Our Family's First Dog and Dawsyn's Friend". I know this happens all the time and I know the kids will get over it, but this was our first pet to lose like this and she was so much a part of every day for us that it is really difficult. As I told the kids, It is part of life and all in God's plan--but that doesn't mean we have to like it!