mother's day

There's really no better feeling than waking up on Mother's Day and thinking about your child and how much you love them. For me it's still a very new feeling even though it's been a year and a half since Owen arrived. The idea of being a mom and having Owen call me "mama" a hundred times a day - it never grows old. Being a mom friggin' rocks!

We've been planning a playdate for a few months that kept getting pushed back because Owen was, surprise, too sick to hold it. Luckily we are going on 15 days and Owen is virus-free, so we held a playdate this past Saturday. Since it was the day before Mother's Day, I felt it was important for our kids to make a keepsake for this years Mother's Day. I designed a layout for print on wooden photo frames which were personalized to each of the 9 toddlers attending.

I took photos of all the kids when the arrived and then had the moms and babies stick foam embellishments around the frames to personalize it.

The other crafty thing I did for the playdate was to bake up these Mother's Day cookie pops.

We had extra green and yellow fondant from last week's Gumby cake so making these was pretty simple when much of the work was already complete. These are sugar cookies baked on sticks with three layers of shaped fondant pieces adhered with light corn syrup. I sanitized flower pots & some sliced pool noodles (used as frogs to hold the sticks in place) and then covered with lime green tissue paper. This really was a race-around-the-house the night before craft that looked like a million bucks!

I love the way they turned out because we've only ever used fondant for cakes, but it works beautifully for sugar cookies too. 

Every year for Mother's Day we brunch at Legends of Niagara Golf Course. This really is one of the highlights of the year for me. The food is outstanding and indulgent beyond belief. We were reflecting on last year's visit when Owen was six month old and showing his first signs of wanting to eat. A taste of whipped cream was his first taste outside of breastmilk. Now, this year he indulged in scrambled eggs, maple syrup & whipped cream on waffles, tater tots, meatballs, mashed potatoes, chocolate covered strawberries and cherries jubilee.

What a difference a year makes!