Happy belated Mother’s Day!! I hope it was a great one. Thanks to Alden and Kato being at Friendship Montessori School, this Mother’s Day has been weeks in the making.

First, there was the invitation to Mother’s Day Tea this past Thursday:

Then, there was the relentless whispering and secret-sharing that went on every day over breakfast and dinner. There was lots of excitement and stage-whispered talk about surprises. On the day of the Mother’s Day tea, I woke up to find the kids already dressed in their Teatime best:

Upon arriving at school, Alden gave me a lovely butterfly bracelet she had made and led me to the teatime circle.

Songs had been rehearsed for weeks, and were sung with alacrity by all the kids. My favorite was one in which the kids sang, “Mama, I love YOU” and pointed to their respective moms.

That might have been my favorite SONG, but I have to say my favorite part of the whole event was getting my cookie and strawberries.

I also liked looking down the row of well-dressed moms, perched cheerfully in their toddler-sized chairs with cookies and tea balanced carefully on their laps.

I think Alden’s favorite part of the event might have also been the cookie part:

Though giving me my Mother’s Day present might have also been a highlight:

We were asked not to open our presents until after leaving school, given that many of the presents looked the same and might get mixed up in the chaos. We then all convened outside on the playground for some running around and fun and photos, and Alden made me a dandelion crown.

Kato also celebrated Mother’s Day tea, and invited Annie from across the street to be his stand-in mother (she’s pretty much his stand-in mother in all other ways as well). He handed me his gift casually, on his way to the slide. I saved the presents for Mother’s Day proper.

Alden gifted me an awesome shrinky-dink pin with smiley hearts and flowers on it, and a lovely painted shell (which she subsequently asked for, to “add to her collection” – a collection of one, as far as I can tell):

Kato made an awesome stepping stone, which I plan to put in the garden in front of the house. You have no idea how many times I have trampled our curbside garden trying to get various things out of the car. It will be put to good use (Kato decided before I could grab the camera that it was way too heavy for a photo shoot).

Alden had also decided to make me an actual Mother’s Day card – when she makes a card, she doesn’t mess around:

This one featured me, holding a flower, with her and her friends Liza, Madeline and Mary Jane, floating in a sea of diamonds, with the occasional flower, heart, gift bag and present thrown in. The picture of Alden features a lollipop she’s just gotten from the bank. Everyone else is holding hands. We all feature belly buttons and gigantic ears with earrings. Quite a coup, if you ask me.

Our Mother’s Day outing was a trip to Turner’s Creek. We got a short but sweet hike through the woods:

Down to the beach for a picnic gourmet pizza lunch from Evergrain (THANKS, DOUG THE BAKER!!):

August refused to share and demanded his own slice:

We hadn’t planned on going for a dip, but it’s pretty hard to say no when the sun is shining and life is good.

There were some rock-throwing demonstrations:

And lessons learned:

And a whole whole lot of laughs:

Soon enough, the kids started getting cold, and demanded to be dried off and bundled up.

We headed back up the trail towards home.

I couldn’t have asked for a better Mother’s Day. And I couldn’t be a happier mama. I sure do love my babies.

And I see my own mama in all three of them.

Happy Mother’s Day, all. Even a day late, give your mamas a big hug.