Mother's Day. Family Day.

My Mother's Day started off in the traditional way: breakfast in bed.

Eric made it, while Caitlin observed the production of eggs, toast, grapes and tea. Caitlin made me a sweet card that brought me near to tears. (On Saturday, I received two dozen blushing roses, so flowers had been checked off the list early.) Shortly after I finished sharing my grapes with Caitlin and eggs with Kaboom, the twins came in and snuggled me for awhile.

It was a full bed, let me tell you!

Then we ran around the house, getting ready for our brunch with Grammy, Grampy, Jenni and her tribe.

Bret, Jenni, Max and Axl

It always takes us longer than expected to get out of our house for any kind of travel or errand. "Where are your shoes?", "Where are MY shoes?!", "Need diapah change!", "Haven't you brushed your teeth yet?!"

Finally, though, bread and camera and babies and gear in hand, we trundled off.

Brunch with the family pretty much guarantees bagels, cream cheese and salmon. There were no complaints here!

Then, after we destroyed ate lunch, we went down to the park for some play time

and some family photos.

Who are these crazy people?

Emma got to "walk" Bowen, Jenni's new puppy.

We met a lion.

Saw some monkeys.


Met someone famous.

and we ran around a bit.

Eventually, it was time to say goodbye and head off home.

To take a swing in the hammock...

and shoot some pictures of just me and the kids, when it struck me that I didn't have any pictures of me and those critters that made me a mom.

I had the bright idea of shooting it in the yard, in the hammock.

Which was a crazy idea until I thought about throwing some chocolate chips in, to lure the kids to me and to sweeten the deal. Which worked. Sort of.

Choklit! Nom!

Chagrin. I has it.

It took a lot of shots (and applications of chocolate chips) like this:

To get just one that looked like this:

However, I find that we must suffer both for love and for art.

"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." - Man in Black

And while my days are often book-ended by whining, crying, screaming and messes,

Emma, in under 3 minutes, while we were right in the next room!

these are the faces that fill it. These are the moments in between the arguments, the constant badgering to "Brush your teeth!" and "Put that down!". They fill up the empty spaces in between one breath and the next. They can be so sweet they make my teeth ache. They fill my heart. These are my children and they are the reason I am a mother. They are the reason I stay, every day, and keep saying the same things over and over again.

"Brush your teeth!"

"Don't hit your brother!"

"Leave the kitty alone!"

But, most importantly: "I love you."

Happy Mother's Day.