Mother's Day in our house is a day when the whole family does what I want to do--with no complaints. So, after going to church where Lachen and Aksel sang with the children's choir, we drove 90 miles northwest to Northampton, a small city that is nestled among 5 colleges: Smith, U-Mass Amherst, Williams, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire. We ate lunch at a great noodle shop where I had curry, Shawn had sweet-and-sour something, and the boys reveled in dumplings and edamame. We wandered on college campuses, bookstores, and finished the day with a walk through the Dr. Suess Sculpture Garden in nearby Springfield, MA. We cut the day a bit short because Shawn eardrum ruptured. We were in the Berkshire Mountains, after all, and the higher elevation (along with a hefty sneeze) were more than his ear infection could withstand. He's better now, but the pain was, well, painful.
