A Mother of a Day

Oh friends, where to begin on this... the mother of all Mother's Days?  It was filled with all sorts of merriment and excitement and through no lack of effort on anyone's part ended up with me stripping puke covered clothes off myself not 1, not 2, but three times.  Them's the makings of a good story.  Too bad I'm too tired to tell it really well.  Still, I will try my best - this is, after all, for posterity.

Really the whole shebang started a week or so ago when Mimi and I were trying to decide just what we should do for this Mother of a day - eat the usual Sunday fare at Hilldale Court?  Dine out?  Include children - if so how many?   I totally made things more difficult by wanting to have at least the girls with me for the special luncheon - It seemed odd to have a mothers day celebration without at least one of the cherubs credited for giving me the title.  So now the question was where to go - tea rooms in the area apparently near extinction - kid friendly but not Applebees or Shells was an other difficult task. Mimi gamely took the challenge and after much finger walking secured reservations at the Captains Cove up on the Mountain.  The inside was lovely dining and the outside featured an equally lovely patio by the stream that was converted to look like an old pirate ship.  Yaaarrr!

With that settled we moved onto what lovely child craft could we do for our beloved GG, Auntie, Mimi, and Grandma - something that each kiddo could contribute to in some small way.  After some deliberation I settled on Handprinted Aprons and Bags.  Saturday - the day of Emma's now infamous start to a week of puking - the girls and I fabric glued decorative ribbons and flowers to shopping bags for our honorary Mothers.  I realize that this is particularly lame and that anyone worth their salt would have sewn these items in place - for longevity and all - but I do not sew - or rather I do not own a sewing machine.  Interestingly enough- a sewing machine makes my pre-birthday and Christmas lists every year, but always ends up eliminated for more practical items - or a new snazzy top.  And I really have no idea where to go with one... So to this end, Mimi safety pinning my girl scout badges in place when I was younger - much to my mortification - makes OH so much sense.  MIMI!!!  They now make this RAD glue - bonds in less than a minute (because we were usually pinning in the car) and you can wash it and everybody and no one will know that I didn't sew the girls badges when they get to that age!  Hurray for technology!  See, check out our results:  Snazz-a-razz!

While the crew was napping I set up shop in the upstairs hallway and used iron on letters to label each kiddos future hand destination.  I even made one for myself but was super bummed that between the MiMi's and eMMa's and grandMa's that we were completely out of M's for MoMMy... so I decorated mine with Katie.  The minute I finished that Tony walked in the door and said "Oh you wrote Katie!  Thats nice, I thought you may have done Mom..." "I can't, we're out of M's".... "Well yeah, but you have 10 W's don't you?".  GAH!  This is why I wait to do things until he's around!!!  But let me tell you, those babies are ON THERE.  ANYWAY, after dinner - daddy helped with a constant rotation of hand painting/printing/bag rotation/clean up until we had 5 pretty jazzy looking mothers day gifts. 

I apologize for my stinky pictures... another thing that's always on my pre-list?  A new camera... The good kind with the lenses and stuff like the big people use.  But there is always the siren call of an Anthropologie blouse to lure me away.  Regardless of poor photography, obvious smears and slip ups... thumbs over letters... excess glue locals,  I thought they turned into a pretty sweet little keepsake.  I've often regretted not doing something with the kids handprints sooner.  I had visions of making little plaques for each of them on their first birthdays, but that never materialized.  I'm actually so glad that we did this, just to have a record of how small they were.

So back to the ACTUAL mother's day celebration - Tony was super sweet and made a lovely breakfast for me.  One that I enjoyed tremendously and not one child ate.  In retrospect we know why, at the time it was just supremely irritating.  Emma and Belle helped wrap the gifts and then we moved out to the front bench to wait for Mimi who arrived on the dot of 12 - as promised, with Gg and Auntie already buckled in.  I begged Tony to snap a quick picture of the girls and I before we left.  There is little redeeming value to this picture.  I look goofy.  The girls didn't want to sit there, they wanted to go hug Mimi, Tony said he couldn't see anything in the glare and just snapped blindly - I'm actually amazed we're all even in the picture to be honest.  But from here it was all downhill - and this picture, which I'm pretty sure I'll be thankful for a few years from now - was the crest on the roller coaster...

Midway up the mountain my little mateys (remember we're going to a Pirate Ship!?!?  Funny right? - Yaaarrr 'tis!) in the back of the car started whimpering.  Emma fell asleep.  Belle kept doing that tell tale odd dry cough and saying her back hurt.  I urged her to close her eyes - assuming she had car sickness.  I was convinced that as soon as we had some fresh air they'd both feel better.  Emma perked a bit at the mention of hot dogs.  Belle still looked green around the gills.  We were able to pass out our gifties and the girls played nicely at the table with the little restaurant packs I had brought to entertain them.  The adult ladies all ordered a drink - of the adult variety and we thought that a little shirley temple would be a cute treat for Emma and Belle.  Turns out I was SO wrong.  Turns out that this "pink drink is spicy"on their tongues.  Turns out this pink drink makes us gag.  Turns out that with a few sips of that pink drink I will be running, holding Belle, regretting the decision to wear heels, towards the bathroom where Belle and I will both be covered in puke just as I'm pushing open the door to the restroom.  That's right me'hardies... what I'm trying to say here is don't order shirley temples.  Ever.

So the next 30 minutes was spent with a little whimpering and underwear clad Bella standing next to the bathroom sink wrapped in my scarf as a sort of mock dress, while I washed and washed and washed her dress and then stood waving it under the dryer while shooting "back the f off" looks to anyone who looked at us like we were insane.  After washing down my legs and feet and the bottom of my dress we returned to the table with a much happier Belle.

I took her and Emma on a tour of the grounds, we checked out the Pirate Ship, searched for treasure, but as time wore on, Belle grew quieter and quieter.  I still hadn't made the connection that this was a stomach bug - I now thought she got sick from the car ride but was hungry and empty (a combo that makes me sick all the time.)  The tiny bite of crouton proved me wrong as we once again made a mad dash to the bathroom.  This time I called for Tony - thinking he could come get Belle (as I didn't have a car to take her home myself) - but it turned out ALex had commandeered the phone earlier in the day, turned it on, and then buried it in the laundry basket, so I couldn't make any calls.  I turned to PopPop, who gamely arrived 30 minutes later to find Belle and I wandering the grounds (I couldn't risk brining her back inside) and chattering about the water snake we had just found, and the fountain, and her treasure, and oh - pop pop sissy ate my hot dog and now I don't have one and I really want a hot dog.  PopPop calmly handed Belle a bucket as he buckled her in and said "sure honey, we'll go get you a hot dog if that sounds good to you".  Fatal words PP, Fatal words.  I would later find out that Belle threw up in the line at Shells and PopPop, being a first hand contact, ended up horrendously sick two days later.

What I remember of the lunch was lovely.  Dessert was even better.  I ate it all cold and we held up other diners with this crazy goings ons... I still think it was lovely to get out of the house - even for a bit - and I'd love to go back under better circumstances - but if I had known what we were in for I would have selected a cook out on Hilldale Court over the Puke filed Pirates Cove any day.  

When Emma and I were dropped off by Mimers later that afternoon I found Tony on the couch with a puke covered Jack - his contact had been made - and that, mateys, was only the middle of a very long stretch that would become the remainder of my Mothers Day.  I was one outfit in.  I had two more to go... It was a classic day, one for the record books, and one that I'll probably chuckle about years from now.  I'm glad I have our little bag to remember it.