Mother's Day

You may be surprised to learn that Mother's Day has come and gone here in England.  When the notice came home for the Mother's Day reception in March, I thought I was really loosing it.  Here "Mothering Day" falls on the 4th Sunday of Lent and was historically a day that people visited their "Mother churches" and a date that servants were given off to return to their families and attend church.

King's College Chapel

To commemorate the day, we decided to see something new and headed off to Cambridge.  It was fantastic!  Actually, it is a lucky thing that my first visit came after the move or Sam would have a bigger commute. 

Great St. Mary's Church

There was a market in the center of the city, and we found a stall that sold baguettes.  While I was buying the baguette Sam headed to the pasty shop to get us a snack.  When I returned the pasty was gone so I headed back for more.  I returned again with piping hot pasties only to find the children feeding the "better than what we have been getting in Essex" baguette to the pigeons.  Before we knew it people were watching and in the blink of an eye, a tourist gabbed the boys (see arrow), threw her arms around them and documented the "British boys" feeding the pigeons. 

A bit stunned, we decided to move along and see some of the sights.  That was when tragedy struck Laney's face.  Actually, it was a cobblestone that stuck her face.  It was cold and she decided to put her hands in her pockets.  Worried that she was going to miss out on a bite of this piping hot pastry filed with cheesy vegetable goodness, she lunged and tripped over my foot.  I'm sure you can fill in the blanks on this one. 

Yet again, we were attracting attention to ourselves so it was time to move along.

We strolled the streets for a while, looking into courtyards as we passed.  We went in the first that welcomed visitors and stumbled upon a chapel with a "princess" (in Laney's eyes) practicing a classical piece on the grand piano.  As if the little church was not amazing enough with its stained glass windows, the sound that came through the piano and filled the church was truly amazing.

We had a nice meal at a pub and I was treated to a beautiful view of the river and boats.

Of course no trip to Cambridge would be complete without a trip punting down the River Cam.  Okay, so my trip could have been complete, but the boys were dying to go on a boat.  So we struck a deal and agreed on the one way trip which proved to be perfect for AJ. 

Owen, Laney and Spencer in front of the Mathematical Bridge

I must say it was beautiful with the bridges and seeing all of those beautiful buildings from that perspective. The added bonus was watching the other tourists try to punt themselves back up the river on the blustery day, now that really worth the ticket.

And to finish off the day - a silver man.  Yeah, not so sure about this one either. 

I had a wonderful Mothering Day. I hope you do too.