Mother's Day 2013: Lookout Mountain

For Mother's Day, I requested breakfast in bed. Our little chef, Oliver, helped Dad mix pancake batter, and they whipped up some pancakes, scrambled eggs, and veggie "sausage" patties. The kids decided to climb into bed to eat with me, and Oliver declared it was a picnic. This was the best way to wake up!

This photo is pretty much my favorite photo ever. I just woke up, had hair everywhere, and couldn't keep my eyes open. Oliver decided to help Jo eat by feeding her pancakes. <3>

After breakfast, I asked to go hiking. I looked up some family-friendly trails nearby, and we decided to head to Lookout Mountain. There are numerous bike paths and trails throughout the area, but they have a pretty flat, 0.6 mile hiking trail from the Nature Center. On the drive up, we saw dozens of cyclists and joggers. At the Nature Center, the crowd changed, and we saw lots of families with small children.

Andrew put Jo in the hiking backpack. It's the first time we've used it since last summer, and she didn't remember it. She freaked out and started to scream at first. Once Andrew started walking, she calmed down and really enjoyed the ride. Here she is with her lovie, Tod the fox. Her Uncle Andy & Aunt Erin sent it to her for her birthday, and it is a very loved little animal.

As soon as we stepped out onto the trail, we spotted deer!

DEER POOP!

 

After the hike, we went into the Lookout Mountain Nature Center. Oliver loved exploring the poop molds they had. He got to compare elk scat with deer scat, which was very interesting to him.

Jo's favorite part was the animal pelts.

The kiddos fell asleep on the drive home. I was sleepy from the hike, too, so we made a stop at Starbucks. I bet they were busy today! When Jo woke up to a chocolate milk and cake pop, she was so excited that she squealed, "Yay!"

Once again, I had a very happy Mother's Day! Thanks for all of your hard work, Andrew! I feel incredibly lucky, and I look forward to seeing my mom this afternoon and Andrew's mom this evening. Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day 2012

I woke up this morning at nearly 7am and felt so refreshed.  It took only a moment to realize I hadn't fed Joanna all night.  She slept completely through the night!  No one could have given me a better Mother's Day gift.

I sat up and thought about going to check on her, and then I noticed the bed was empty.  I peeked out the window, and Andrew's car was gone.  A quick call informed me that my family was out at Oliver's new favorite destination--McDonald's.  They were going to bring me home an egg & cheese sandwich with a coffee.  It was the first time I can remember that I had nothing to do when I woke up.  So, I grabbed Andrew's work iPad and played a few games of Hanging with Friends.

When my family arrived home, we had a breakfast picnic on the bed.  I ignored the crumbs.  After everyone was fed, Andrew started the shower for me and then took the kids out to the grocery store to get things for lunch and dessert.  I got to take a completely uninterrupted shower.  I had time to put in my contacts, brush my teeth, scrunch my hair, and even put on a bit of mascara.  It was nice.  When my family got back, Oliver handed me a bouquet of lilies and said, "Happy Mother's Day."  With Andrew's help, he signed a card to me, too.  My favorite part of the day happened next: Oliver wanted to play "pretend baby."  He laid in bed and listened to me sing him lullabies, and then he said, "I love you, Mommy."  

We got everyone dressed and bundled up, as it was kind of chilly out, and we took a slow drive downtown.  We stopped at a coffee shop--Crema Coffee House--that I'd read about in our AAA newsletter.  We drove through a warehouse district to get there.  It was definitely urban, but it felt safe.  I enjoyed a soy latte with perfectly aerated soy milk (you'd be surprised how rare such a thing is!)--hmmm, foam!  The food was out of this world, too.  Andrew had the most flavorful vegetarian breakfast burrito, and Oliver and I split a vegan chai cupcake.  So good!  We ate so quickly that we were reluctant to leave.   

So, we set out on foot for a stroll through the neighborhood behind the coffee shop.  We passed some apartments and town  homes and entered a neighborhood of old, brick homes.  There were large trees that provided shade.  People worked hard on their small gardens, and plants and flowers erupted from fences around us.  I loved it!  We passed by a community garden, and Andrew and I shared our ambition for our own garden one day.  I commented how I'd really love to live in a neighborhood just like this.  I assumed the homes would be out of our price range, and I was right.  A glance at the house listings when I got home revealed that they ranged in price from half a million to $1.5 million.  It's a shame I have such expensive taste in homes.  This is why I dream to move back to the Midwest one day, where a person can buy a brick home in a neighborhood for what we pay for our town home here.  But that's another conversation for another day.

After our walk through the Curtis Park neighborhood, we decided to go to The Children's Museum.  Oliver flew paper airplanes, rode on a firetruck, and played with bubbles.  Even Joanna got to play at the baby pond. 

We took the kids back home for a nap, and Andrew made us lunch.  Then, we wiggled into our swimsuits and went to the rec center to swim, splash, and slide down the pirate ship slides.  Joanna is a natural and kicks and paddles her arms when we motor her around the pool! 

Once home, Oliver and I worked on making pie--chocolate truffle--and put it in the fridge to set.  Andrew took the kids for a walk and gave me some quiet time to myself.  Then, he gave the kids a bath, made Oliver a small dinner (as we weren't hungry, and I wanted to save room for pie).  We wound down upstairs by playing some games on the iPad together, and then it was the kids' bedtime.  They went to sleep without a hitch, and Andrew did all the dishes as I worked on laundry.  We ended the night cuddling and watching some old episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.   

It was the perfect Mother's Day.  I felt loved and celebrated, and I got to spend lots of quality time with the kids.  I am the luckiest woman in the world.