A Real-Life Mother's Day

By this time, I have had my share of Mother's Days. I am grateful for each one, but I am quite familiar with the routine. This year was going to be different though. This year I had some big plans, all involving my camera. You have to remember that I am still experiencing things anew during this first digital year. And I was going to record everything for posterity (and the blog) in a way I hadn't done since the very first Mother's Day right after Emma and Leah came home from the hospital.

However, even the best-laid plans fall by the wayside. Especially when you haven't yet completely gotten over your fear of making a complete fool of yourself with a camera in a public place. See, I had told Glenn and the kids that I wanted to go to breakfast/brunch for Mother's Day. There are a couple new places in the area that serve breakfast, and being that I love breakfast food, I have been wanting an excuse to give one a try. The children were horrified that I would want to go to a restaurant on a Sunday (heaven forbid) but I quickly reassured them that a Saturday outing would suffice. Well, Saturday morning rolled around, with its usual sleeping in (on my part) and struggle with the weekly chores (on the kids' part). No mention of brunch, so I ate my usual boring healthy breakfast fare. I wasn't going to bring it up again. I had already made some suggestions about the gift, and I wasn't going to be a pest about going out. It's probably better on the diet anyway, right?

Well, sometime around 10:30 Glenn realizes that we had not gone out. But at this point, I had not only had my regular breakfast, I had picked at the kids' PopTarts and munched on some Teddy Grahams. Way too full and way too guilt-ridden to splurge on a calorie-laden meal. Plus, Andrew had a soccer game at 12:30 and Glenn still had to take to kids out to buy the suggested Mother's Day gift. Glenn, however, came up with the brilliant idea to go out AFTER Andrew's game, since the place I wanted to try was open until 3 on the weekends.

This was a perfect solution. It allowed me time to hop on the treadmill and bank some expended calories which would surely be replenished in no time by the impending meal. It also allowed me to get away without cooking at all--the kids had a little snack before the game and another one before bed. This was shaping up to be the perfect Mother's Day. Now all we needed were some pictures as proof.....

The restaurant we went to was the Original Pancake House, not to be confused with the International House of Pancakes. I looked at the menu and wanted to order everything. Seriously. I was in my element. I boldly ordered the pumpkin pancakes (no surprise there), but I chickened out when it came to whipping out the camera. Oh the waitress was super nice and I am sure she would have been happy to accomodate, but there is something about pancake houses and cameras that don't mix (remember IHOP in Turlock, Jill?). So although I have no cute snapshots of me with the kids or luscious pictures of the food we ordered, I do have the logo, lovingly downloaded from their website:

Part 2 of the weekend's celebration came Sunday morning. Again, I had pondered and planned and thought all week about a great picture with me and the kids. I do not often seek out opportunities to have my picture taken, but this was my big day. Glenn and the kids piled on the bed at 8:30 with breakfast and gifts. How thoughtful of them! How wonderful that they are honoring me, their crazy mother! Let's immortalize this moment. No, wait....do we want to remember Mom struggling to sit up and open her eyes? Do we need everyone to see how she can barely read the cards because the light is too bright first thing in the morning? Is it that important to recall every detail of her puffy face and wild bed head? Never you mind, my friends. What is important is that my husband dragged all my kids to the store to pick out a gift that I wanted...the oven mitt, apron and dish towel from this lovely set from Bed Bath and Beyond. What is important is that all the kids had made me cards with sentiments and art work that would put American Greetings to shame. What is important is that I am so lucky to have a husband and kids who try so hard to make me happy. And that can not be captured on film. Or digitally.

Watch out, David Beckham

Andrew led his soccer team to victory Saturday by scoring half of their goals (2 of 4)! Andrew is a smart soccer player with quick foot skills and fast running. Too bad this is his final season...he will be turning his attention to the more mainstream American sports like baseball, basketball, and football. I just signed him up for baseball for the summer. I am excited to see his athletic prowess grow.
P.S. Sorry if the pictures aren't very clear...I have been using the sports setting on very low quality so that I can take more pictures and so that they don't take forever to upload.

I Looked Out My Window, And What Did I See?

Popcorn popping on our apple tree!
Our trees in back were overflowing with blossoms this year...the apple tree, the lilac tree, and the eastern redbud that we planted a couple years ago. And this being my first spring with the digital camera, of course I went crazy with the pictures. Sad thing is that now all the flowers on the apple tree are gone...so I am glad I got these shots.

Watch this video about LeBron James at home with his kid and baby mama, and notice a couple of things...first, how MESSY his house is, and second, that he has the same beadspread that I do! Someone in that house has good taste(at least in their choice of bed linens)!

GO TRIBE!

Our friend Andrea came to Cleveland to visit us during her break from BYU. While we didn't do anything really amazingly exciting while she was here, we did manage to take in the Indians game last night. We got a good deal on some great seats from Stub Hub. It was a chilly night, and we missed Grady Sizemore's 1st inning home run, but Cliff Lee pitched an awesome 6 innings and the Tribe dominated the game!

Andrea and me

Our view of the game

The DirectTV blimp (?) flying overhead and the new Progressive Field sign

The loyal fans...
bundled up and ready for action!

Grady Sizemore-love him!

Indians drummer John Adams--A Cleveland Indians institution

Asdrubal Cabrera at the plate (Glenn's fav)

Cliff Lee winding up for one of his AWESOME pitches

Glenn and the kids moved down to the front row near the end--the park was nearly empty. It was too cold, we were playing the Mariners, and the Cavs game was going on across the street at the Q. We left after the seventh inning stretch, much to Andrew's chagrin.

A shout out to the Cavs...what a bummer they lost by ONE point last night! Let's hope they can clinch on Friday!

Celebrating the big 1-0

Emma and Leah wanted a chocolate birthday party this year, and I was totally on board! They had a great time with their friends--I am just bummed I forgot to take a picture of everybody together. Here are some action shots from the big day.....

filling the candy molds

making chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles

"chocolate" pictionary

The girls put on a blindfold and big gloves and tried to unwrap Hershey kisses--

here's Leah's turn

CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN!

We had a fun time celebrating the new ten-year-olds!

The apple hasn't fallen far....

Despite the fact that Andrew is very much like his dad (likes obsesses about sports, likes to tease and bug and push buttons, craves my attention), he did inherit a couple of things from me. For starters, check this out:

Me, kindergarten, 1979 (left) -- Andrew, kindergarten, 2007 (right)

A bit uncanny, no? And then, there are these two separate statements which Andrew made yesterday, which undeniably proves our genetic connection:

"I love food."

"I never want to stop eating. I want to eat forever."

That's my boy.