Yesterday was mostly spent attached to my Kindle. Have any of you read The Hunger Games? I'm sure some of you have as I first heard about it on blogs. I started and finished the first book on Sunday, read all of the second and 75% of the third book yesterday, and finished the third book off this morning. Whoops. I love reading, but now remember that when I'm absorbed in a book I'm pretty useless at doing anything else except the essentials!!
Back to Sunday though, as well as lots of reading, I did manage to do some other fun things that day! Liam and I have our birthdays three days apart in May, and with Liam being in a new job now, this will be the first year we haven't taken the week off work. Liam's birthday falls on a Saturday anyway, but mine will be a boring school day Tuesday, so Liam and Izzy (well, and Toby but he didn't really know what was going on) made an extra fuss of me on Sunday to make up for it. No complaints here!!
I slept in until 9am when I woke up to the smell of cooking downstairs. Liam brought me up a tray with breakfast on, whilst a very excited Izzy bounced up after him!! French toast with banana, raspberries & maple syrup, plus my usual latte:
Liam took photos before bringing breakfast up, and he liked the look of the maple syrup on the raspberries!
After breakfast it was time for presents - it really was like my birthday! As with breakfast, Liam took photos of the presents before bringing them upstairs...
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| Love all the artwork Izzy made at school, and Toby made the blue hands at toddler group last week! |
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| Purple tulips are my favourite flowers :) |
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| Pretty earrings that Izzy chose :) |
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| Love this bowl and mug set (with Monday's breakfast) - so cute!! |
So many lovely presents, thank you Izzy and Toby!! (& Liam for helping them shop!)
Mid-morning the children had a nap, which is when I started reading the Hunger Games, and before I knew it it was time for lunch! Liam cooked again, such a treat to have a day completely "off" from cooking! I do enjoy it, but it's nice to have an occasional break too. He cooked this sweet potato and egg salad (minus the chorizo) and it was delicious!
I'd cooked this once before, but it must have been over a year ago as I used chorizo that time. Just as good without - griddling the sweet potatoes with garlic added lots of flavour, and I did add a bit of ginger-mandarin salad dressing to the leaves.
After lunch it was time to meet up with more family - my Mum, Grandma and sister Sarah - to go for a walk...
and then it was time for cake! I made a lemon drizzle cake (sandwiched with lemon buttercream, topped with lemon sugar drizzle and lemon glace icing - same as for Toby's birthday and Sarah's work leaving do) as this was the popular choice, but bless Izzy - she got Liam to buy a carrot cake as well as that is mine, my Mum's and my Grandma's favourite.
I had a slice of each. The carrot cake was pretty good for a shop bought cake (it was the one from Waitrose's fresh section) but could've done with more icing, and the lemon cake is always a crowd pleaser!
I also gave my Mum a couple of presents:
A voucher to have a manicure or pedicure, and a mug I ordered from Photobox with a photo of her and her daughters on it. I was really pleased with the mug - it arrived really quickly and seems to be good quality too. The photo isn't stretched or anything which I was a bit worried about.
Back home, the children were getting a bit tired and grumpy, so we chilled out on the sofas - them watching a DVD and me reading more on my Kindle (it was addictive I tell you - a sign of a good book!), and Liam cooked dinner! He insisted he didn't need (or want) any help in the kitchen so I left him to it, bliss. He chose to cook a meal that he has cooked once before - butternut squash and goats' cheese risotto:
Yum. I never really fancy cooking risotto, but whenever I (or someone else) do cook it, I really enjoy it. Must remember that for next time!
Once we'd put the children to bed, Liam and I finished off the day by watching a DVD (Liam's choice - Green Lantern - pretty good) and sharing a cider (apple with vanilla and cinnamon - Liam thought it tasted like bubblegum!) and finishing off the cake - there was only one slice of lemon cake left sadly but I was happy to polish off the carrot cake instead!
A really great day, thanks to all who were part of it! I couldn't remember how we spent the day last year, so I looked back at my blog post from Mother's Day 2011. Liam worked 7am-5pm, I was too tired to make myself breakfast, only managed cheese on toast for lunch, and we had meat-free burgers, chips and corn on the cobs for dinner. This year was definitely a huge improvement, although both years did include time with family...and purple tulips...win!! ;) In all seriousness, Liam and I are both really lucky to live close to the majority of our immediate families. It's so nice to be able to get together for coffees, chats, walks etc on a regular basis, and days like Mother's Day are a nice reminder of that...with extra cake added in as a bonus!! :)
How did you spend Mother's Day this year? Or what did you do this weekend if you didn't celebrate it? (the US don't celebrate until May I think?) I can't really remember what we did on Saturday. Not much I don't think. I made the lemon cake while Liam took the children to visit his Mum and Nan, but I can't even remember whether it was sunny enough to go out or if we stayed indoors in the rain. One of the reasons I like recording things on my blog - my memory is rubbish otherwise!!!
