Mother's Day

Every Mother's Day for the past twenty one years of my life has consisted of a card or something else that was relatively simple. Since my Granny's Alzheimer's is progressing rapidly and my mother is a goddamn saint who deserves more than a card on the only day out of the year set to celebrate her role in my life I wanted to throw a party for them, the two women who I owe my entire world to. My Granny's birthday is also May 14th so it was sort of a joint party for that celebration as well.

Crepe flowers

So about a month ago I grabbed my crafty husband and a cup of coffee and a few pins later we had decided on decor and the theme of the soiree. We spent hours making flowers out of crepe paper and a beautiful flower arch(which we completely forgot about and never put up). We thought that just having a grazing lunch with a few appetizers (with something meaty and hearty for my grandfather) was the best idea so it wouldn't crowd my Granny's mind with a bunch of options on her plate. I have been collecting tea cups and pots for a little while now and thought having an outdoor spring tea party would be a beautiful idea. I had planned on making teapot shaped cookies and as I tried the night before they burned a few times before I threw the dough away and decided on picking up everything at the market the next day and calling it good. The weather was also not cooperating with our outdoor tea party idea so we scratched it, brought the party indoors and bought a lot of food at our lovely weekend market.

The day of my darling Aunt Sara came into town! It's been a few weeks since I've seen her so I was very excited she was able to come. I also rarely have weekend days off so it all worked out really nicely. I asked her to pick up flowers for Granny so she brought a beautiful bouquet of peonies for her and a bouquet of parrot tulips for my mum! They were all gorgeous and I was very thankful since I had forgotten flowers for my mum...I wanted to take lots of pictures of my family as I feel we don't have enough so I set up the timer on my camera and after many, many pictures we caught quite a few funny ones that express each of our personalities so well.

It was a great day and we all had so much fun. My Granny left me saying "This was the best day. Well, maybe not the best day but it was fun." So I took her honesty to heart and smiled.

My mum is a wonderful and strong person. She's everything anyone could ever ask for in a mum and I'm glad she enjoyed the day devoted to her.

Spring is FINALLY here

Trees blooming

This winter has been a very long one. Not being able to spend much time outside has definitely brought upon some serious seasonal depression. So now that it's actually dress weather (eee!) we're outside as much as possible. And it's beautiful. I've had two consecutive days off this week (woah) and we took advantage of them! 


Yesterday we went on a walk downtown and stopped to look at all the flower shops. I have my eye on a particularly large echeveria and might have to snag one up soon. We stopped at a restaurant on Dundas that has the best nachos and patio in London. After a pitcher of beer we headed home and had dinner on the back porch. Our bistro lights are back up and with the solar lights dotted around the yard it truly is magical at night.

Beauty

Pretty

I woke up early this morning and after a chai tea smoothie and some iced coffee I was raring to go! We didn't actually get out the door until around noon but we took Molly with us for a nice long walk and picnic by the river. Now Molly isn't the most in shape dog..we decided to follow her wherever she lead us and at one point she plopped down in the shade mid-walk, so we followed her lead and took a break. We ended up under a bridge by the river surrounded by canadian geese. Molly surprisingly didn't bother them but they made their position know and kept an eye on her the whole time. We didn't get back to the house until around 4pm. 

Handsome Husband

We had such a great two days off. The trees and flowers are blooming, the serotonin levels of the general population are high and everything is active. For it being such a long winter we're all so excited to see the sun and warmth again. Being from Florida we never had winters and I know that we've never appreciated feeling the sun's warm rays on our skin as much as we do now. Spring and fall are my favorite seasons. In the spirit of my favorite book coming out as a movie next Friday I'll end this with F. Scott Fitzgerald's analysis of fall and spring/summer in The Great Gatsby: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” & “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”