Mother's Day

 For Mother's Day Melanie had made me a gift at preschool and brought it home the Thursday before, all wrapped and ready to go.  She was very excited about it, but very insistent I wait until it was actually Mother's Day to open my gift.  So it sat on the mantle waiting for the day to come.  When I was combing her hair on Sunday morning she asked what day it was (her typical question when I'm combing her hair in the morning) and when I told her it was Sunday she got really excited and exclaimed "It's Mother's Day!  I can give you your present!"  It was very cute to see her get so excited about the first present she's given me that was truly from her.

 Melanie with her gift, waiting for me to come downstairs so she can give it to me.

(You'll have to excuse her smile.  She's entered the inevitable "weird smile" stage.  This was the best one Matt was able to get out of her.)

 Melanie and me with her gift - a glass candle holder she had painted with flowers on it.

 Claire was a little sad/jealous that Melanie got her picture taken with me, so we snapped another one so she could be included.

After mass we went to brunch with Matt's family and then just hung out at home the rest of the day.  Matt, Claire and Amelia all took naps at the same time, so Melanie and I went outside to check on my strawberry plants since I knew they would be close to having a few ripe berries for us to pick.

The first strawberries of the 2011 season.

So much sweeter than the ones you buy in the store!

That evening we had our families over for some game time and dessert with the girls.

I always feel bad when we have big family gatherings at our parents' houses since it seems that inevitably someone ends up stuck in the kitchen and feels like they didn't get to spend much time with the girls.  My solution was to have everyone over with the specific intent of just having fun, and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Amelia enjoyed herself so much that she fell asleep before the evening was over.

So an uneventful day overall, yet so full.  We truly are blessed!