happy birthday AnneMarie...and all about mother's day 2004

We had an extraordinary weekend! This was the best Mum's Day I think we have spent in quite some time. Last year we had good intentions of racing home to Virginia from Colorado to see my mother for Mum's day and her birthday, but the entire day (as well as the day before) was spent driving as we didn't get to their house till about 2am. So this year was definitely more relaxing and enjoyable.

My parents came up on Saturday and I had a lunch prepared for everyone, which consisted of deli sliced chicken breast sandwiches on kaiser rolls, homemade pasta salad and for the grand finale, a New York Style Cheesecake I had made the day before. After that we were completely stuffed but my Dad really wanted to go Geocaching. Those of you unfamiliar go here to read all about this activity.

So everyone got packed into vehicles, doggies included, and we made the trek out to some remote swampy woods to recover the "treasure". I wish I had not left the camera in the car, as noone I know would ever believe I let the dogs get as dirty as they did, but they had FUN. They romped through the swamp, tracked about a million scents, ran through thickets and fallen trees; they had a blast. Of course this area was about the most tick infested area known to man (we had lots of tick checks to do once we got home, we were covered), but irregardless, it was wonderful to get out and about and have a good time. After this we went over to a local park for another adventure, and a much more tame walk in the woods (on an actual path) to find another Geocache. This time Aoife and Reilly jumped into a stream and swam, thus managing to remove the mud which encrusted their legs. After which, we went to the park area and threw the ball to them for about an hour. Combined with the miles we had walked (they ran) and the ball throwing, needless to say we had two very worn out Jack Russells. They, of course, got scrubbed down upon returning home and had some serious down time for about 24 hours.

Saturday night after dinner we all went to the gym on Base but apparently they close early on Saturday evenings. We normally go during the week so were not familiar with the weekend hours. That was alright though, we all got back here and went to bed. We had had quite a long day. The fresh air did everyone good.

Sunday Greg made us all a scrumptious breakfast and served it up with delicious coffee. My mother and I opened our cards (we had opened the gifts to each other the day before). Clare and I had been working on "top secret projects" the week prior, and had managed to make my mother a garden stone for one of her gardens. Since we are all gardening fools, we love little things to decorate our gardens. Clare and I made one together for our garden and we then made one for Mum's. I have a photo of each, which you can see below.

the garden stones Clare and I made, the first is ours, the second is my mother's:

Garden stones are a neat craft and they are fun to make, it allows you some creativity to do whichever design you desire with the glass beads, and saves money as most nicely decorated stones run about $20 and up. I also hand painted a little wooden box for my mother...by the way the angel painted on the box is holding a vacuum cleaner. Weird to most people, amusing to us clean freaks.

the little wooden box I painted for Mum:

Clare and Greg bought me some Toile decorative plates to add to my collection and Clare also presented me with some hand painted magnets and a photo frame she made in school. Oh, Mum gave me a set of three beautiful floral printed silky cosmetic bags.

Sunday then was spent on the Great Hunt for Roller Skates. Not inline skates, but actual roller skates. This Wednesday Clare's school is having a roller skating party at the newly remodelled local rink, and I really wanted her to have her own pair. She is about at that age where roller skating becomes your life. Well, that's how I was anyway at that age. You'd think skates would be relatively simple to find, but since the inline craze hit in the 90's I suppose regular skates became obsolete. And even moreso in such a small rural place as Dover. Mum, Clare and myself hit all the stores including the Play It Again shop which sells second hand sports equipment. Headed over to the Mall even...no such luck. We got home and I of course found dozens online. Too late to order any to get here in time for tomorrow's skating party, so we will just wait till we are in Virginia next time and go to the sporting goods store. Oh, the convenience of living in a city!

We got the guys together and scrapped the idea of making dinner here so headed out to La Tolteca for a meal which would require people waiting on us for a change.

My parents had to get back to Richmond so left around 6pm with a three and a half hour drive ahead of them. We had a great time and a very Happy Mother's Day.

Last but not least, my mother and I on Mum's Day morning...yes I have some severe bedhead going there, but that's alright....