Skulduggery

There hasn’t been much time to stop since we got back from Sydney.

Probably just as well really.

Guests, Dinners, School trips, Various people passing through, Decisions, Meetings,

Kids’ Activities, This and That….LIFE STUFF!

My apologies for being a tad distracted of late.

~*~

Our weekend,

(the culmination of our collective family efforts this past week)

has been HUGE.

Today, my darling mother turned a venerable age.

A life worth celebrating.

And so we did…

Tonight with just the family; and

on Saturday with friends and family.

It was a “Surprise” Celebration, which involved much skulduggery and scheming.

It is a rare occasion when we actually manage to pull a fast one on my mum.

But we did - well and truly. Mmmmhmmm! And it was fun!

‘Twas so nice to be able to honour such an outstanding woman, my mum!

It also felt so good to be the on the side of the Successful Schemers! /:-)

The next morning, it was difficult to rouse oneself….

But being Mothers’ Day, my family did a great job of getting me awake –

Breakfast in bed….with the WHOLE family! Cosy !!!

Coffee a la E, bacon and eggs and garlic mushrooms a la K,

And a sleepy snuggle a’ la L.

And some beautiful cards.

Yum.

~*~

Then all too soon, it was a rush to get to church for the Mothers’ Day service.

When one is rushing for a carpark and some seats alongwith +2000 other people, it can become a matter of urgency! That urgency did seem to be more urgent than usual though.

I wondered why my youngest had his jacket zipped right up under this chin, and though I was tempted to zip it down to a more fashionable position, I resisted…and then it got a bit worrying, when my camera (which is a bit like a permanent appendage to my body) suddenly disappeared, and reappeared in my husband’s hand…and various people wished me an extra cheery “Happy Mothers’ Day” !!! Hmmmm.

Sometimes it is right to be suspicious!

~*~

All of a sudden, during the service (which had been lovely up to this point!), my husband disappeared. At this stage, I noticed with surprise, that my youngest son had suddenly materialised on stage, flanked by two lovely girls on either side of him. More hmmms!

The two gorgeous wee girls both read out some beautiful tributes they had written for their mothers. They were just lovely tributes.

And then my son stepped up.

And this is what he said (after flashing a really, really CUTE smile to the cameras!).

“I love you Mum….and could you please come up here to get this flower?” !!!!

It brought the house down.

I felt this stupid huge grin spread right across my face, and then I understood why my husband had, had a fleeting look of panic earlier in the week when I told him we were due at our niece’s dedication on Sunday; and why my son had, had his jacket all done up to hide the fact that his daddy had ironed him a nice shirt underneath his jacket; and why L had seemed so anxious to disappear into Kids’ Church that morning; and why my eldest had decided not to go to his Youth programme but had decided to stay for the service; and why my husband had specifically asked for an aisle seat and had, had an enormous Cheshire cat grin plastered all over his face!

All of a sudden…. I felt like my mum had, a day earlier!

Very special. Very honoured.

But well and truly ‘got’ !!!!

And (dare I say it!!) sometimes, just once in awhile, it is nice to be on ‘the other side’ too!