Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day because Chelsea has always made me breakfast in bed. She's getting fancier! This year she enlisted Chris's help in buying a bottle of champagne for mimosas. I also got brie cheese, a strawberry and blueberry parfaitti, & chocolate croissants! Mmmmmm. You can bet I was a happy Mommy today! After my feast and mimosas I went right back to sleep. Chris and I didn't get out of bed until around 2:00 pm today. But we needed our rest because yesterday was laboriously fun!

We left the house around 10:30am yesterday and didn't return until about 11pm. We stopped at HEB for food supplies, ice, & drinks to sustain us for both the annual Art Car Parade and a performance of Madame Butterfly by the Houston Ballet at the Miller Outdoor Theater.

We collected an assortment of cheeses - a wenslydale with cranberries and some spreadable ones with crackers. Plus we got strawberries, cherries, nuts, and of course drinks - water, root beer and some cranergy drinks for the kids, beer and sangria for Chris and I. Chelsea brought her boyfriend David and David brought his sister, Amanda who was visiting for the weekend from college. She's a student at Stephen F. Austin. Yesterday was also the day we met Rhonda's friends the Bulgarians - Iskra and Itzo who were super nice and a lot of fun.

We didn't get a spot under a shade tree like I wanted but we claimed a pretty large part of the median with our chairs that we barely sat in the whole time. We were positioned such that facing in one direction we saw half the parade and eventually the beginning of the parade drove down the other side so we just had to turn around to catch the beginning. It was wonderful! Chris says this is the best parade in the northern hemisphere. At some point during the parade our friend Carl showed up so that was fun. He came with us to Star Pizza after the parade.

We liked Iskra and Itzo a lot! I'd like to have another chance to get together with them some other time. After the parade we went for pizza at Star but they left to go home afterwards and missed the rest of the evening. We also ran into Amber and Carlos at Half Price Books on Westheimer where we stopped to kill time between Star Pizza and the Miller Outdoor Theater.

Once we claimed our place on the hill and could sit for a minute I think each one of us crashed out for a bit. We were exhausted from the heat and being outside and probably not enough water. For whatever reason, I honestly thought we were going to the MOT to see an opera. I LOVE opera. If I had known it was a ballet I probably would have wimped out too. We all would have been at home asleep because I'd have given up and been on my way. So I guess it's a good thing that I read it all wrong because, man, what an awesome way to end a perfectly glorious day! The ballet turned out to be stunningly beautiful and the sun had gone down eliminating the burden of heat, night breezes swept up the hill. It was, in all ways, perfect. I was nestled between Chris and Rhonda with Chelsea, David, and Amanda behind us on the blankets. We drank a bottle of sangria and ate more cheese and crackers, hummus and pita bread, and wasabi nuts. Nothing but rich foods all day!

Chris and I took a stroll along the golf course beside the Miller. It was a beautiful walk in the quiet of night under the stars with soft grass under our feet and the swell of the music from the orchestra drifting in the wind from the hill. It couldn't have been a better day.

Then, this morning, I woke up to breakfast in bed, a lovely nap, and a perfect walk in Seabrook, Chris and I went berry picking! We have NO idea what we'll do with all the berries we brought home - I'm thinking of possibly making a pie. Today we had ice-cream with the berries.

Also, today, there was some really sad news related to the Art Car Parade. Apparently the curator of the Art Car Museum was struck by a car and killed right after the parade yesterday. It's the saddest news - here's the story.

Chris and I are both scratched up from berry picking. He said other families walking along the paths in Seabrook would be scandalized from hearing me cursing in the bushes. But the thorns! The stickers! The thicket of entangled prickly berry vines! Curse them! I look like I have some type of rash but it's just scratches from the berry vines. Each welt is a personal triumph for the delicious pile of berries now rinsed and sitting in my fridge.

Here are some of my photos from the Parade, Star Pizza, and the Miller Outdoor Theater.

LOVE