Pool party.

This post is a little overdue. Mother's Day was amazing, complete with lemon curd crepes and fresh strawberries in bed in the morning, Mass and babies baptisms, a lovely afternoon backyard brunch with friends, visits with Grandma Great and Grandma, and a quiet backyard dinner with barbequed lobster, prawns and steamed asaparagus. I am so blessed. My husband is amazing and I know how lucky I am that he really tried so hard to make the day relaxing and special--all for me. Thank you, love. The kids were so good and I really felt just how lucky and blessed we are, that God gave us to each other. It was probably the best Mother's Day yet.

The Mother/Daughter Tea was a hit as well. Steve got home at midnight on Friday, got up early the next morning and helped (okay did it FOR me) to find all my china, servingware, and glassware for the table from our huge storage unit. It was so much fun to go up to the gym and see all of these tables, each carefully decorated with each hostesses personal style. One was Betty Boop themed, another western themed, complete with bandanas for napkins and cowboy boots for teacups, and another was decorated with ALL lace. My mom said that she could have picked mine out without even recognizing my china. I'm a calalilly, tulip, and lots of white sort of girl. Clean, simple, pretty. Or so I think. Everyone was dressed up. At one table, all the ladies and girls had big, fun hats on! I loved that idea. It was so nice to have my mom there, sitting next to me and Miss Ella. Some great friends and their little girls came. There was even entertainment for us. A Barbershop Quartet, clogging 3 and 4 year olds (who were rather scantily clad and overly made-up. Don't get me started), and even drawings and prizes. I had heard about, but never been to one of these "Teas". I will definitely be hosting again next year.

I know I keep saying it, but I am starting to feel a lot more tired. Wah. I know. I'm sorry. The good news is that there are lots of things I can do about it and I have been--including going on longer walks, trying to carve out rest time during the day, and letting myself just relax more when I can. In fact, I have what's sure to be a very restful, prayerful retreat coming up this weekend that I am SO looking forward to. It's about three hours north of here, almost to the Canadian border. The drive alone will be so nice to just meditate and say a few rosaries for specific intentions.

Today we are heading to some friends house for a "pool party". You know, the kind of pool that's about 5 feet in diameter, heavy plastic and has fish stickers on the bottom? It'll be so nice to let the kids splash around and even nice to just let us pregnant mommies rest,  talk and swell up in this 90 degree heat. We will snack on cold, crisp cucumber slices, grapes and sip lemonade. We will slather on sunscreen and discuss luxuries of the past. Belts. Pants with zippers. Red wine. Sleep. Our ankles.