Mother's Day

I spent my afternoon today cuddling my oldest in the sunshine.

This morning I was awakened  by the sound of babies eating their breakfast. Soon I made my way downstairs and found that Stephen had made me a beautiful breakfast of his patented "pancake petals" with fresh strawberries (courtesy of Dad). The beautiful peonies are from Dad and Mom and the orchid was my Mother's Day present from Stephen, Ada, Margot and Oliver. 

We settled in to eat breakfast together but soon there were little bugs crawling towards the table and loudly protesting at being left out of the celebration.. so we put them in their seats and gave them their first taste of pancakes.

The girls are fully dressed for Church.. I am still in my PJs. 



As you can see.... the pancakes went over pretty well.. they ate FOUR!

Ada was particularly excited to celebrate my special day.. or maybe it was the pancakes. 

Here we are, the lady Shinglers all dressed up. 

Those are little bows in their "hair".

Kisses all around. 

This weekend has been fantastic. We spent all day yesterday at Mom and Dad's house visiting. Gram and Aunt B came over for lunch and Page stopped by after work (I forgot the camera). We sat on the deck and ate Mom's fabulous food and enjoyed the weather and watched the babies play and be adorable..what a relaxing way to spend a Saturday. 

Today, aside from my special breakfast, I was treated to an afternoon of grilling chicken and veggies for fajitas, loads of peaceful conversation while the babies napped, and then another wonderful grilled meal of hamburgers at Ellen's and David's complete with homemade french fries! It just couldn't have been better.

All day, all I could think about was the day my babies arrived. I remembered the way my heart jumped and the tears flowed when I heard Ada cry for the first time..and how it jumped again when Margot made her entry into the world. I remembered that moment when I was being wheeled down the hall in the hospital towards the operating room, when the nurse stopped and to show Stephen the room where he could change into his set of scrubs. Such a brief moment, a moment in which I tried desperately to remember every detail from the look in Stephen's eyes to the way my arms trembled as I hugged him goodbye. He would change and then join me in the O.R., where I would already be numbed up and ready to go. This was the last moment of our lives together as a twosome. When he saw me again I would be a mother and he a father. It was gone in a flash. In what seemed like seconds we were tumbling head first down the rabbit hole that is parenthood. Savoring the days.