My Adventures and Places Life Takes Me: Mother's Day

Sunday, May 8

Mother's Day

A couple weeks ago I asked the mother's what kind of food they wanted for Mother's Day, and they said lasagna. I told them I could make some lasagna. Trish went further and suggested that we have angel food cake, strawberries, whipped cream and ice cream for dessert. I told her I could do that too.

I got everything organized and sent everyone and email on when it was, who was coming and let them all know I was making and providing all the food. They had to bring a couple bucks for the party fund jar. The Friday after work I went shopping for all the lasagna ingredients, the garlic bread, the stuff for salad, some strawberries, ice cream, whipped cream and a box of angel food cake. I have never made angel food cake before, so we were going to see what we were in for and how it would turn out. I am not a huge fan of angel food cake, quick side story: I actually got scolded by Lauren's mom when we were kids for not wanting any of Lauren's angel food birthday cake. I am just not into the texture or the taste. I discovered that I didn't have a Bundt cake pan so I had to find one of those at the Goodwill. I got lucky at the first Goodwill I went to.

On Saturday night, after helping Mom and Dad with some stuff in Rainier, I went home and spent a couple hours putting together the lasagnas. Ben was on a 24-hour shift, so I had a bunch of time to get some stuff done. I knew I wasn't going to have time the next day, so I made it easier on myself. All I had to do was put them in the oven before everyone showed up. I felt like I accomplished a lot going to bed that evening. Oh, and I also did some laundry while getting the food ready.

I got up on Sunday just after Ben got home from shift. He decided to play his game for a while before I got up and started finishing up everything before 2 p.m. I ate a light breakfast and told Ben to wrap up his game so he could help me do some cleaning and get the tables and chairs ready. I mentioned I have never made angel food cake before, so I got it out of its box and followed the instructions. I made sure I sprayed down the Bundt pan every generously and put it in the oven. I really hope it turned out well.

Ben brought chairs in and wiped down the tables. Since the weather was cold this year, we had to have the party inside. We put the table covers on and decorated a little bit. I got out the plates and silverware and put them on the dining room table. The cake turned out fine and put it in Grammie's round glass cake container with a lid. We cut up the strawberries and just before 1 p.m. I threw the lasagnas in the oven so they could cook. Ben got the bread out and put them on a sheet pan. The bread would have to wait until the lasagnas got done. We got the stuff out for salad and assembled all of that, put some shredded cheese in a bowl, got the croutons out and various salad dressings.

Everyone showed up around 2. Ed, Amy and Trish got there a little bit earlier since they were coming from further away. Trish helped me put stuff on the table. The lasagnas came out perfectly and I let them sit for a few minutes because they were hot! I cut them as the bread was getting done in the oven. I had Ben cut those. We put the rest of the food onto the table and yelled, IT'S DONE! We let the Mom's go first.

We ate, hung out, chatted and carried on. Of course, we laughed. Some people went back for seconds but I only had room for firsts. We cleared off the plates and got out the presents. Last summer I bought two carts with wheels from a haircut and lash place in Tacoma. You could just about use them for anything. I would probably use mine for my scrapbooking supplies. You can buy them at Michaels or JoAnne's for about $40 brand new. I got two of them for $35. They sat in my garage for almost a year. I had planned on giving them to them at Christmas time but totally forgot about it.

I cut up the angel food cake, put them on small plates with some strawberries, a squirt of whipped cream and a scoop of ice cream and handed them out. They ate most of the cake and ice cream. It was a hit! Everyone helped clean up a bit, people got their stuff ready and went home since most of us had to get ready for the upcoming work week. Mom and Dad stayed behind for a bit to help Doug organize so he could pay his bills. We had to get him caught up with his stuff before he went on vacation in the next few days. Everyone went home afterwards.

We cleaned up some more, put the tables and chairs away and vacuumed again. Ben did the dishes and then we relaxed for a bit. I decided with the daylight we had left to vacuum out the Escape since it was a dry day. I wanted to get at least one thing accomplished before the new week started. We got cleaned up and got ready for bed.