Smoke Farm Excursion

Mother's Day was spent at Smoke Farm, Northeast of Arlington, in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

A hike through tree tree stands and large open fields led to...

 ...the Stillaguamish River.  Boys and sticks:

I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day :) Smoke Farm was awesome.  We are hoping to return and camp up there in August for their lo-fi art festival.

Mother's Day Tea Party

Thanks to my understanding boss, I was able to "escape" an all day meeting for several hours today in order to attend Silas' preschool Mother's Day Tea Party.

The delicious lunch was prepared by the children. When I got there, Silas led me into the room and right to our designated places (marked by our personalized place-mats). After the main course, the children all brought their mothers dessert, and then helped clean up.
We had a printed menu listing our lunch and tea selection, and on the back were quotes from each of the kids, listing thier favorite things about thier mothers. Silas' read: "I like to play with her. We play the bus game. We drive buses around. She cuddles with me at night." Yep. That sounds about right :)

I was also delighted to receive a beautiful flower brooch that he had made for me.

Thank you for a wonderful early Mother's Day, Silas!

Happy Mama's Day!

Happy Mothers Day!

May 09 Book of the Month

Announcing Planet Silas' May 09 Book of the Month:

Duck by Randy Cecil.

This may very well be my favorite picture book (though it might be tied with The Gardener by Sarah Stewart). I have such a strong sentimental attachment to this title, that I fear a short little write-up can't possibly do it justice. Moms, this is the perfect book for you to read to your little ones on Mother's Day (as I will surely be doing). The companion book to my April botm, Gator, Duck is the story of a carousel animal (Gator's dear friend) who dreams of flying even though she cannot possibly hope to do so with her heavy wooden wings.

One day, a fuzzy yellow duckling wanders into the amusement park and Duck adopts him. They do everything together and Duck teaches Duckling how to do all of the typical duck-like activities--with one big exception: Despite her efforts, Duck cannot teach Duckling to fly. The day comes when Duck must take her little one to meet a flock of "real" ducks. That is also the day she must watch as Duckling finally flies...away...

The intense joys and sorrows of parenthood are so carefully and beautifully rendered in this book. It is the sentiment that we must eventually let our children go when the time is right for them that particularly gets to me. Every single time I read this, I envision dropping Silas off at college for the first time. I just can't help it.

Watching Duckling fly away isn't the end of Duck's story, nor of the relation between this mother and her son. If we've given our children the love and closeness they need as they grow, they won't forget that. Duckling doesn't.

I won't give away the ending. It will be much better if you read it for yourselves.

Happy Mother's Day, mamas :)

Mother's Day: lotsa love for lotsa moms

Happy Mother's Day, Mamas! This year, it was great to celebrate Mother's Day both with my son and my mom. We had brunch next door at Patrick and Shannon's. Another mom was present too--Patrick's mom decided to surprise him by flying in from Missouri completely unexpectedly yesterday (well, ok, we knew she was coming, but Patrick had no clue)!
And a shout out to some other moms: Grandma G. (Drew's mom--we love you!), Jessica R., who's celebrating her first Mother's day as a mom, with her darling babe, Liam (otherwise known as Niblo), And Jessi L., Alden's mom, who wins Planet Silas' honorary Mom-of-the-Year award.
And here's a flashback for you--Silas and me a year ago, circa mother's day 2007.

He's grown a wee bit, don't ya think?