Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day in the USA was celebrated this Sunday, the second Sunday of May. However, in the UK and Ireland, it is celebrated the forth day of Lent and is called Mothering Sunday. But, it's the same as our Mother's Day. 

Technically I missed Mother's Day this year since it was March 14 in the UK and it was May 9 in the US. But, we decided to celebrate it here with coffee, a long walk, a picnic in the park, more coffee, window shopping, and Indian food for dinner. It was a really wonderful morning. We walked to Princes Street and ate on a bench near the National Gallery of Scotland.

On our way to Princes Street, we passed by Greyfriars Bobby's Bar. Just the day before I bought a book about this wee dog and Katie and Dani were both excited to see the statue of the dog. We got a picture of the girls with the statue and I think it might be the best picture we have of all three girls!

Here are some pictures from our walk: 

Here's a view of where we ate. If you look closely, toward the bottom of the picture you can see the row of benches that line the sidewalk. 

While we were eating, some sea gulls and pigeons came by for a snack. So, we fed them crumbles of gingerbread cookies. Claire thought this was good fun. But, when they flew too close to her, she would exclaim, "Oh!" and cover her head. And, during this, Katie saw a sea gull way down the hill and was concerned because he looked sad. A little while later, she perked up, because the sea gull moved some and looked happier.

After eating, Cole and Claire went to get a coffee and some candy floss (cotton candy). While they were waiting in line, Katie and Dani enjoyed running down and then back up the hills. It was really cute!

Dani was in rare form today. It seemed like every time we brought the camera out she was ready to strike a pose. Even when she was playing with Daddy and he was swinging her around, she had to make sure that she turned her head to look at the camera!

We headed to the National Gallery of Scotland, for a loo break. This is a free museum that has Scottish and international art. As we headed out, Katie asked why one of the statues has women with no clothes. I explained to her that the sculptor was trying to show how beautiful the human form is without distracting from that beauty with clothes. She said, "Oh. But, it's kind of gross for boys to see her bottom." Then, we walked by another statue, and Katie said, "See, Mommy. They are pretty and they have dresses on." I couldn't really argue with her.

The candy floss was a hit with the girls! Later that day, Katie said that she wanted to have another picnic like we had today. When I asked her why, she said, "So I can get some more cotton candy!" 

After briefly walking through the gallery, we headed to the shops on Princes Street. There's a wonderful assortment of shops where it seems like every other one is a shoe store! The girls bought some parrot necklaces, and I bought some chocolate. It was good! We waited to hear the 1 o'clock cannon fire from Mons Meg, but we were disappointed. Later, we read about it some more and realized that Mons Meg is not fired on the sabbath. So, Katie said that we have to go back again soon!

After nap time, Cole took the girls out to play with the neighbor kids. However, this didn't end well. Katie did a 360 flip off of a large mushroom stump and Dani fell on the concrete and got a HUGE red scrape on her knee. Katie was such a sweet big sister. While I was putting medicine and a bandaid on Dani's knee, Katie held her hand and told her she'd make it feel better.

We had planned to head out to Kismot to get some Indian food, but Dani wasn't up for it. So, I made some food for the girls and they watched a movie. In the mean time, Cole went to Kismot and got some food, complete with marshmallow naan! Other than the girls getting hurt, it seemed like a pretty perfect Mother's Day. I hope everyone else had a wonderful mother's day as well!