Proper Care & Feeding of Mom

I slept in this morning, but apparently the boys were up early getting ready for Mother's Day. I could hear them working early in the morning, but since Cole spent half the night waking me up to tell me that Chase was sleeping in his spot and he was there first and could I please make Chase switch places with him, even though I explained to him on more than one occasion that this was my bed and technically, they were both in MY spot and I was definitely there first...I was in no mood to get out of bed this morning, so I just went back to sleep. At about 8:30, there was a tap on my arm and an "Um, Excuse me, Mom? The surprise will be ready in a few minutes." Surprises in this house can be very good (as in, "I drew you a picture, Mom.") or very bad (as in "I drew you a picture on the wall, Mom"), so I figured I better get up and investigate.

When I finally shuffled into the living room, half blind since my contacts were still glued to my eyeballs, Chase & Cole popped out of their hiding places screaming "Surprise!" and just about scared me to death. The boys had been busy with markers and scissors and glue and had each made a card for me, plus a really fancy "brunch." On the menu were omelets (Charles cooked them, but the kids definitely chose the ingredients, because there were diced HOT DOGS in my omelet and it was garnished with ketchup), homemade "calamari," and Momosas (amaretto & pineapple -- because apparently what they've learned from us is that for mom to have a good day, she needs a drink with breakfast).

I just had to take pictures before I ate (you can see their "work" all over the table):

A closeup of the plate so you can see my "calimari." Yep, that's a hot dog with 6 legs.

When I was done eating (I shared as much as I could with them, but they watched while I ate every singe bite), Chase asked me what my chores are because they were going to do them for me today. It was almost too sweet to take advantage of, but then I thought that I wasn't likely to get an offer like that again, so I put them to work.

After that exotic brunch, I was a little concerned when Charles told me there was turtle cheesecake for dessert, but thankfully no real turtles were harmed in the making of my dessert.

There was even entertainment: Jane sent me a mother's day card that plays Cyndi Lauper "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" when you open it, and Chase and Cole thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. They danced and sang along all day (I'm amazed the batteries in the card didn't run out), and I think that my two boys dancing around the living room and singing their hearts out to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun is the funniest thing I've ever seen.

You've really got to love the days when you think at the end of the day "Gosh -- these are really great kids," rather than "Gosh -- I wonder if there's a circus out there that would take these kids." Today was definitely not a circus day, although the circus might have been interested in the Cyndi Lauper bit...