Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there!

I really enjoyed my first Mother’s Day last year, but this year was even better. Maybe it’s just that with all the other insanity going on in my life these days I appreciate the complete awesome that is my family much, much more. Team Reeve is pretty great, and I love our life together more and more each day. Man, that was such a greeting card sentiment, but it’s actually true. I couldn’t stop smiling all day, I was just loving the celebration of this whole motherhood business so much.

I got my Spongebob Squarepants Mother’s Day card and gift certificates for Barnes & Noble and the Fat Quarter Shop first thing this morning. Best gifts, simple and no fuss! The Spanish F1 Grand Prix was this morning, so clearly that is becoming a bit of a Mother’s Day tradition. We got up to watch it live at 7:30am, and Hannah and I hung out on the couch while Adam made waffles. Perfection.

After a very chill morning we stopped in at my brother’s new house for a quick visit with my mom, sister-in-law, and nephew CJ. They just moved in YESTERDAY, and now they’re 20 minutes away instead of an hour. So the babies played with their Nana while we got the tour of their beautiful new house. Then, we headed to the Upper West Side in Manhattan for some fun times.

I can’t really deal with the whole holiday restaurant experience. Valentine’s Day dinners, Mother’s Day brunches, I just…nothing feels less celebratory to me than being herded through a packed restaurant on a prix fixe menu. So my idea of a perfect Mother’s Day lunch was…the Recession Special at Gray’s Papaya.

Adam hates when I put photos of him on here, but he was a huge part of why today was killer. So I’m breaking the rule today. This October will mark a decade since he moved here from the UK, and somehow in nearly 10 years I had never gotten him to a Gray’s Papaya. We don’t even know how that happened, but today I was inspired to fix that. Inspiration was rewarded with a happily napping baby and an empty counter. And hot dogs.

We walked over to Central Park with the rest of the city to take in the gorgeous weather. It was packed, and allergy season was so heightened we felt like we were snorting pollen. But, still gorgeous.

Dancers, stairs. The crowds on the stairs reminded me of the Spanish Steps in Rome.

It was actually Japan Day in the park. There was a very cool concert of traditional drummers and modern dancers and music. Hannah LOVED this, even though this was as close to the stage as we could get. There were origami stations, a HUGE line to have kabuki makeup applied, all kinds of cool stuff.

And then…we stopped to get ice cream. And Hannah had her first taste of summer.

She loved it.

A lot.

Adam drove home, and the baby and I passed out in the living room until bedtime. Hannah woke up, had dinner and a bath, and went straight back to sleep. Lots of fresh air and happy excitement today. I’m still smiling.

The last stop on our week-long, whirlwind spring break road trip through New England was Vermont. We were only there for 1 night, and we stopped in Montpelier before heading up to Stowe to see how the other half lives.

We basically stopped in Montpelier for maple syrup and fabric. I’d read about Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in our guidebook, and I really wanted to get my hands on some syrup to bring home. Sugaring season kicks off in March, so we were just in time. Morse Farm is one of the oldest there is, going back 200 years.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from the sugaring experience, but Morse Farm was basically a very muddy parking lot with a few small buildings and a store. Seriously, do not wear your good shoes if ever you find yourself there. You could stand at the edge of the farm and see all the trees tapped together, leading down from the forest and into the processing building. But there were no tours or real explanations of what was going on. It was almost a little voyeuristic; the family just going about their farm lives while tourists stared at them and shopped in the (surprisingly awesome) store.

But maybe since we were there on a Thursday we didn’t get the full tour experience. There was an ancient TV and VCR set up in a corner of the store with a couple of folding chairs, and you could help yourself to watching a video of the long-deceased patriarch in his heyday. That was kind of worth the trip just for the anecdotes because that man, who passed away in 1999, was not PC. Much discussion of Arabs and the Japanese, but he was so darn homespun and delightful that you almost didn’t know where to look or whether to laugh. We definitely felt like city folk.

However strange the farm itself was, I’m in love with the store. We left with syrup. Oh, boy, we left with syrup.

This was the first time Adam and I got to sample different grades of maple syrup, and it was definitely interesting to see what we each preferred. How could you not love a store with friendly honor system signs like this?

We also bought some of that maple cream on the left, btw. Heaven in a jar.

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I’m taking forever to get these road trip photos up, but life keeps getting in the way.

After we left Boston and Plymouth, we headed to Portland, ME. I loved Portland. Really we spent most of our time in Maine eating, and that’s a pretty perfect vacation as far as we’re concerned. We’d heard about the food scene up there for ages but finally got to experience some of it.

Our first night in Portland, Monday night, we made a pilgrimage to Duckfat, a place we’d heard of any time the Portland food scene was mentioned. It was behind our hotel, so as pilgrimages go it was pretty lightweight, but I could have eaten every single meal here. The duckfat fries are everything you’d think they would be, with amazing dipping sauces to choose. And there’s just something about a perfect bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a chilly night that nothing else on earth can rival. They do it right here. Ugh, it’s pouring here in NJ today…now I want that meal again.

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Last Sunday Hannah and I headed up to NYC for a day out with Laura Ann. We met at her place in Astoria so I could see some redecorating she’d done (which looked fantastic, by the way). When I ran back out to the car for something, Laura Ann and Hannah posed.

So sweet! We walked over to Broadway to have lunch at The Queens Kickshaw. I loved this place, we parked the baby in her stroller by the door and sat at a big square communal table sharing cider and eating grilled cheese and tomato soup. It was the end of Cider Week, which is like Laura Ann’s high holy days.

We shared this giant bottle of Crispin cider, which was amazingly good. Laura Ann has me hooked now.

The grilled cheese and soup were perfect for the day.

After a nice long lunch catching up we packed into the car and drove to Chelsea to walk the Highline at sunset.

Laura Ann had been several times, this was my first. And I can’t stop thinking about it, I’m already planning my next trip and any reason to be there again at sunset. It was funny, I was thinking how much it reminded me of The Curious Garden, and then we passed a table for the Friends of the Highline that had the book on display. Great minds.

I especially love the seats where you can sit and look out over 10th Avenue.

Puffy vests, a city walk, cider, and grilled cheese with soup? I can’t think of a more perfect fall day.  I needed that city recharge.

Other posts on this trip: Manchester and Blackburn, Derbyshire.

While we were staying with Cora and Ian we took a day on our own to head into Sheffield. It was a pretty late day, this family doesn’t get rolling until well after lunch. But we were meeting Adam’s friends Conrad, Richard, and Amanda for dinner. Cora had a (poetry I think?) class that night, so the three of us struck out on our own for the day and went in to meander around a little.

It was a short meander because I quickly became obsessed with John Lewis, and we didn’t realize everything would close at 5:30. But how could I be dragged away when there was this? Or this, something I’ve always fantasized about having after growing up with my mom’s dark stained version on a stand? Or these things here?:

I mean, did you know that they just have Orla Kiely pens and goodies in England? Lying around, not part of a special edition at Target or pilgrimage to the NYC store? Okay, that notebook was some other brand, but I was going with an obvious theme there. AND I had to get those Liberty of London-inspired Keds, even though I did discover after purchasing that they make the same print here at home. But that print only makes sense when you’ve bought it in the UK, I’ve told myself. In John Lewis, 5 minutes before closing. Yes, that’s right.

What about the Olympic stuff? That’s what led me to this store in the first place. I’d wanted to bring back goodies from the London 2012 games for my niece and nephews, and when I researched I found that this chain was carrying a huge selection of the merchandise. I did buy the kids some souvenirs, but I couldn’t resist some stuff for us, too. I don’t know when or how I will be knitting miniature gymnasts and shot putters, but I could not in good conscience leave the store without that book.

We stopped for tea and cake at this cafe Adam’s parents recommended. It was next to John Lewis.

This was the first time I realized how family friendly everyone is despite the accessibility issues of having a family. We’d changed Hannah in John Lewis, which had an entire suite complete with a breastfeeding area for moms. I went in to change the baby at this cafe and was immediately, kindly, directed to their “baby change”, a room separate from the bathroom in most places. Here at home people are friendly, but no one really sees you with a baby and thinks to direct you to the right stall or room or spot without you asking first. So you do spend a minute getting your bearings, and I realized it’s a simple and much appreciated gesture when someone sees you holding an infant with a diaper bag strapped across your chest and saves you the extra steps it takes to figure out where you’re going. I love that, and it goes a long way towards the fact that strollers can be tough a lot of the time. Everyone uses them, obviously, but the accessibility requirements here in the States that also benefit young parents don’t exist in England (lots of old buildings with too much history for elevators). But we managed just fine, and so did Hannah.

I do really like this city. I like walking around it in drizzly weather. And it was very cool rooting for Jessica Ennis during the Olympics, she’s amazing.

And obviously I failed to take one single photo of our dinner with friends. Or remember the name of the restaurant. But we were having too good a time for that nonsense, so I’m just going with it. More on the trip tomorrow!