Mother's Day Surprise

Mother's Day is always a happy day in our household, for Quinn and I are both blessed with two amazing mothers! But this Mother's Day was even more special because there was a new member of the family to be excited about, but I'll introduce you in just a little bit. For before I do that I want to tell you all about the fun we had on Mother's Day.
Abigail (yes, Abigail! She is home again!) set the table with Melissa's most favorite dishes while I arranged flowers for the center of the table. The weekend before Mother's Day, Abigail had returned home from school full of stories to tell us about all her adventures in Montana and Israel, where her class had taken a trip. Mom and dad came home several days later, returning from a trip to Iowa to see dad's family (and pick up a new member of the family...but again, more on that later!).

We were all so excited to be together again, it was such a celebration to have everyone sitting around the table - our family all together!

Dad had made shish kabobs out on the grill, and we enjoyed chocolate cake and my favorite lavender shortbread for dessert.

 (Laura photo-bombs my picture of the flowers.)

After all the fun of catching up over lunch, we gathered around and gave mom gifts and cards to show how much we love her - I think she felt quite special! Then later, Quinn and Laura brought out Settlers of Catan, and we played against each other to see who could get up to ten points first!

It was a very close game, jumping from Quinn and Laura in the lead, to everyone being sure that I would win, with Abigail swooping in and winning right before anyone had a chance to guess what she was up to. A very sneaky move on her part - we were all shocked! - but we congratulated her anyways as we all helped ourselves to another slice of cake.
As we fell into the sleepy-tiredness that comes after such a yummy meal, we laughed and talked and cuddled the puppies. Oh, what? Yes, I did say that correctly. Yes, I said puppies, for Mom and Dad had brought home a new member of the family, a little Bernese Mountain Dog named Lupin.

 
Yes, Greta and Lupin got lots of love as we all sat around the table, but what they really wanted to do was go out and have some fun - so out we went to watch them roll around in the wet grass, their favorite sport.

Greta and Lupin were not too sure of each other upon their first meeting. Greta especially acted quite like a chicken and ran behind anything and anyone close by to rid herself of the thing that kept barking at her insisting she play. Lupin wanted so much to have a playmate, but Greta (for the first ten minutes of their meeting) refused to acknowledge her, or would run and hide.

It wasn't until Greta realized that Lupin loved to run just as much as she herself did that she broke down and decided to become friends. Lupin does like running, but Greta runs in circles around her, which is absolutely hilarious to watch! The two of them are simply inseparable now, trouncing around and wrestling as long as we let them. Greta will have to enjoy it while she can, because soon Lupin will far outsize her!

Greta's favorite wrestling move is to get on top of Lupin and hold her down, I believe so she can rest for a minute before the next onslaught of Lupin's attacks. Lupin does not enjoy this at all and lets Greta know by rolling around and yelping to try to let her up, causing all of us watching to laugh until our sides hurt!

Silly puppies, such silly puppies! 

The Spring rains have come to Juneau and the new grass growing in the yard is constantly wet with rain drops, making for some very sodden puppies after a play-date.

We are enjoying Lupin's company so much, it's been fun having another puppy around the Barn. She and Greta have become such fast friends, it will be fun to see Lupin grow and become taller and taller as they continue to race and wrestle around the yard.