Mother's Day in Eight Photographs

We went to Myra's, where Jess and Will and Mary and David and four dogs all convened for a beautiful day together. Yesterday it snowed enough to accumulate, so the plan to have a picnic in our backyard was scrapped by my mother ("Jen, it's BLIZZARDING" she insisted yesterday). So we went to her house, ate the easiest dinner I've ever provided...we bought 3 rotisserie chickens, 1 lb each of 2 different salads, Mom made jello, and Jess cleaned strawberries for shortcake. Then we spent the rest of the day chasing toddlers and dogs all over the place.

We had sliding (the cousins are so sweet together. They are just starting to pay close attention to each other, and today they kept saying "My turn! Now your turn!" to each other).

Then we had a little banjo

And Shaun won the croquet game. He was so excited and classy he showed his belly. And I'm so excited and classy I put it on the blog.



We walked to The Station (yeah, Myra lives in a town where each business/location is just called "The [insert noun here]" The Church, The School, The Station, The Bank, The Park, The Bar...) where they had free sundaes for moms, and we bought ice cream for the dads and kids too (because we're such generous moms). I adore the picture of Will because 1. He's just filthy, which illustrates the excitement of the day, and 2. He looks so much like my sister. I love the picture of V because 1. she just has this look of adoration on her face, gazing on her ice cream cone, and 2. it's also obvious by the background that we're at The Station.

We walked home across the field that, when I was a child, held our family's lumberyard. Well, it had been a lumberyard (we pronounced it "lumbry-yard," by the way) but my grandfather, dad, and uncle had bought it and had been using it as a giant garage when we were born. It's a lot prettier (and safer and less rat-infested) now that the lumbry yard's gone.

When we got home, Shaun went out shopping for gifts (because he usually plans ahead like that), and said V had told hm what she wanted to get me on two separate occassions, so he was confident in his excursion. I thought maybe there would be Coca-Cola, or a Backyardigans Video, but V felt strongly that for Mother's Day, I should have Birthday Cake. So Shaun had the DQ write "Happy Birthday Mom" on my cake, and V and I each enjoyed a piece. At first I thought he'd just bought a cake on sale, since my birthday is 2 weeks away, but he explained that V had been very specific that I should have not just cake but birthday cake.

Best present ever.

Second best present ever? Shaun got me the book Bonk by Mary Roach. A few years ago for my birthday he bought me Stiff, and I adored it...Bonk is her latest venture. I love Mary Roach: she has a way of writing that is fascinating, informative but not dry, and laugh-out-loud funny. My only complaint about Stiff was that it was not comprehensive enough, because apparently I want to read more about death than just over 200 pages. I'm just starting the foreword on Bonk, but already I'm so excited to read it I can barely imagine having to still grade for the next week before I can really sink into this book.

So there's our day. We are so lucky to get to spend a whole day with both my Mama and Shaun's parents, not to mention my sister and her son and four crazy dogs. And birthday cake.

And a banjo.

Hope your day was swell too.