A Happy Day, Indeed

Had a good Mother's Day last year, had a good one again this year.

We started our day this year by running a 5K with a friend. The weather was perfect—sunny and warm but not hot. The course was great, too—a bit hilly, but with a good downhill to the finish. Who am I kidding, though? Any course would have been a challenge for me since I could count on one hand the number of times I've been out running in the past nine months.

The race is a fundraiser for cancer research. At registration, I filled out a paper flower indicating that I was running in honor of John. That was tough. I filled in my name, and Maddie and Riley's name, then filled in "John Kim/Daddy" for the "In honor of" slot. Hello, crying. Wow.

On a lighter note, I felt seriously famous as I was headed down the home stretch when we passed someone and she called out, "I think I read your blog!"

I called back, "Snickollet? I was just on CNN.com?" (How tacky of me, right?)

"Yes!" she called back. "But I read you before that!"

"Thank you! And you know I'm totally blogging this," I replied as I hauled ass to the finish, motivated by the thought of the goodies that awaited me including beer! Barbecue! Donuts! You'd think I'd run a marathon, not a measly 3.2 miles.

So thanks, Megan, for inflating my already plenty-large ego today.

Back to those snacks. The twins were as into them as I was.

They both had some Greek yogurt.


Maddie actually ate nearly three containers of it.


Riley also enjoyed some donut.


And many huge bites of banana.



Food coma ensued, so we headed home for a two-hour nap. A nap for the twins, that is. I took care of some stuff around the house so that I would have the evening free. One of the things I did during naptime was unload the jog stroller from the car. I have a seriously old jog stroller. I got it for free from another twin mom who had used it as her primary stroller for three years. Every time I take it somewhere, I think, "One day, this thing is just going to crumble into a pile of dust in front of my very eyes." Today was pretty much that day. I pulled it out and the front wheel snapped clean off. Time for a new jogger. If you have recommendations for a double jogger, please leave a comment. I don't need anything fancy—it's not like I'm out running miles and miles every day.

Anyway, after nap, we hit Mayfair at Harvard Square. (Maddie is evidently already embarrassed to be seen with me.)


Our one-track minds were still on snacking, so we bought the biggest bag of Kettle Korn available. It was EIGHT DOLLARS. Yes, I spent eight dollars on a bag of popcorn. Granted, it was as big as one of the twins, but still. Eight dollars? Seriously?

We strolled around, watched a guy make balloon animals, tried to make dent in the popcorn, and headed home after about an hour. We had to get home for dinner, you know. 'Cause we hadn't eaten ALL DAY.

Dinner, baths, bed, and here I am. It was a great day. Great weather, great friends, great kids. Hope you all enjoyed your Mother's Day as much as we did.

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What good is a made-up Hallmark holiday in honor of mothers if not to brag shamelessly about how funny one's kids are?

From Riley at bedtime:

"Ri-Man, who loves you?
"Moo love you. Ba love you. HalmiHatchi love you."
"Who loves you most?"
"Harry Potter."
"Really? What about Mama and Daddy?"
"Harry Potter."
"Um, OK."

From Maddie in the backseat:
"Mama, both hands drive, please."
(Mads, I have to shift sometimes!)

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Final note for the day: I remain woefully behind on e-mail. Bear with me.