Spending Mother's Day with the Paradiso's

When we asked Jaden what she wanted for her birthday, she said she really wanted to see her cousins. So, we drove 7 hours north to make that happen. It was a great weekend. On Friday, Jake brought Duquan and Jaden to his class with him for Show-and-Tell. Duquan ended up doing a card trick for the class and Jaden ended up talking about soccer. I wasn't there, but Kat said it was really cute. That afternoon they played some soccer and for dinner we had some great BBQ from a local restaurant and some cake from The Buttery. Their Strawberry Shortcake is so yummy. I had it for the first time at a baby shower when I was pregnant with Jaden. And here we were having it for her birthday too. We had actually gotten a half sheet with 1/2 of it saying, "Happy birthday, Jaden," and the other 1/2 saying, "Happy Mother's Day". We all dug in and ate the birthday half.

On Saturday, we dedicated it to helping the Paradiso's work on their house they just bought a couple of months ago. There was a lot of painting to do. By the end of the day, we were pointing out the constellations on Steven's face from all the paint splatters (he was mostly in charge of painting the ceilings). It was a day of hard work. Their neighbors were having a "First Communion" party for one of their kids and invited us over for some tacos and dinner. After that we went back to the house and finished off the second part of the cake. This time we didn't even use plates, just forks. And we all dug in. It was a lot of fun.

On Sunday, we went to the Felton Fire Department Mother's Day Pancake Breakfast. It was fun to see some familiar faces. Then we met up with the Paradiso's in Davenport to grab some pastries for our picnic. Went to a great little farm on Hwy 1, the Swanton Farm, and picked some strawberries. It was a lot of fun to see the kids pair up and pick berries. We also had some coffee and some strawberry apple cider. Steven loved the cider. The neat thing is that they have an "honesty till" - you put money in and take change using the honor system and no cashier. It's a neat feeling.

After berry picking, we headed over to a park in Santa Cruz that overlooks the Boardwalk. We laid out the picnic blankets and just enjoyed the kids playing as we snacked. It was a great Mother's Day. Good idea, sis!