Mothers' Day Weekend

I had a very nice Mothers' Day weekend. I hope you all did as well.
Saturday found our family as busy as ever, maybe even more so. Andrew was due to arrive at his first-ever Lego Mindstorms competition at 7:30 AM. I don't think this is an official club yet, but they are planning to create one locally, so this was something of a practice round.
They all built and programmed their bots and brought them to a local school to compete.

My son does not always wear a redneck hat. Their team's acronym is B.R.R., so they are Team Brrrr. They were all supposed to dress like lumberjacks (get it? Team Brrr? Timberrrr?). Obviously, the flannel shirts got ditched within an hour or two of the Florida sun rising. So, he's left with just a redneck fishing hat, borrowed from my brother.

They won a teamwork award, so they didn't go home empty-handed, which is good. Most of the teams had older kids on them and had more experience (Drew's club is only three months old or so), so I think they did really well, all things considered. Their bot didn't complete all the challenges that were available because they just hadn't had the length of time to prepare that some clubs had, but the things it did, it did well. And from what I understand, that's commendable.
I snuck this photo on Sunday morning of my champ, seriously reading the funnies, holding our birds. Sorry it's dark, but when you're sneaking around with a camera, there isn't much you can do. He's growing up so much.


It's been very hot and very dry lately. We are all waiting impatiently for the rainy season to begin. Especially the bees. They need to drink somethin', y'know? My neighbors bees have begun to get very excited about watering-time in our garden. We go out twice a day, morning and evening, to make sure nobody's too thirsty and the bees all buzz about excitedly. They burrow into the black soil and, abdomens throbbing, suck down as much water as they can. They are so focused that we are usually able to observe them up close.
Here's one on Andrew's milk weed:

They tend to congregate at the holes in the bottom of our upside-down vegetable pots. There were at least eight bees under this very same pot this morning!

And some of them take the lazy way, just landing on top of whatever is open and wet.

Know why I love these bees so much?

Fresh honey. How can you not adore a little somebody that makes you fresh honey?
That's what I gave my mom and grandma and sister-in-law for Mothers' Day - honey from my neighbor's bees with a little tag that says "Happy Mothers' Day, Honey!" Simple, but very sweet.
I spent my Sunday doing absolutely nothing. It was very difficult. I mean, I know I needed it and everything, but it's hard for me to just...do nothing. My needs were taken care of, though, by my wonderful hubby and two amazing kids. My card at breakfast promised me the following niceties:
From Emma, a back rub and shoulder massage
From Andrew, "unlimited free drinks all day"
and those things made me cry a little bit.
Oh, and? Emma and I picked blueberries on Saturday because I made blueberry ginger pie for our Mothers' Day lunch. Oh yes. I did.
I sat around all day on Sunday, getting my shoulders rubbed, having my ice water re-filled and eating blueberry ginger pie. This motherhood thing is really working out for me!