A special Mother's Day

It is great to have Mum here finally.  She has been empowering me to face the labour room and I'm not feeling as nervous/scared as I was.  I feel...ready.  Almost.  I was especially excited to celebrate mother's day with her - it's a day I haven't cared too much for in the past because mum and dad both have birthdays within a week of mother's day so it's always felt a bit stressful to distinguish between the three celebrations.  This year felt different, probably because I'm about to become a mother and if pregnancy is anything to go by, motherhood is a big job.  We also enjoy any opportunity to celebrate with family members now that we live abroad.

In honour of my first mother's day (as a nearly-mum) Jbird made us a delicious breakfast first thing that morning.  He does a great French toast, using the Tartine baked method.  Mum and I were given a huge box of Godiva chocolates, I have been very restrained around so far and haven't eaten too many of them yet.  

For lunch, I'd planned a high tea for Mum.  I had wanted to take her to a hotel for high tea but I decided we could do just as good a job and enjoy doing it together here in my own kitchen.  I'm sure it was also much cheaper.  I did some of the preparation during the week which made our afternoon much easier.  This included Tartine's lemon cream, their chocolate souffle cake (which I made as cupcakes and froze), a loaf of bread, and some yummy strawberry lemonade syrup which I also froze, adding strawberry slices, soda water, ice, and mint leaves to serve it.  On the day, Mum and I prepared bread toppings - cucumber with salt and pepper on some, and boiled egg combined with fresh garden herbs, salt, and pepper on the others.  We baked fresh lemonade/soda scones which were served with blueberry jam, lemon cream, whipped cream, and strawberries.  Lastly we assembled a platter of salami, blue cheese, and sliced pear.  Someone had placed a beautiful long stemmed rose at our door while we were out at church that morning which we used alongside a few candles and a scarf as the table décor.  It was a delicious affair.  The only thing missing was the presence of Jbird's mum.