Une Envie de Sel

 My mother's day actually started out with an hour and a half's worth of work in the studio before the Q woke up, and then bacon and handmade bread for breakfast, thanks to my husband.

Sadly, I have no photos of that stage of the day.

 Once we were all up, fed, and fueled, we headed out on our bikes to Q's favorite playground, which she calls the "No-No Hoo-Hoo Weee". That's Q-speak for the playground at her favorite local school, the school she hopes to one day attend. It's called Edison, and it's marked by this very cool welded-metal sculpture of Thomas Edison. 

Q used to be terrified of this sculpture, hence the "No-No Hoo-Hoo" moniker. 

She always favored the playground, but she used to make her daddy tell the statue that he was not to haunt the QiuQiu.

"Statue, you no-no-no my Qiu Qiu!" Daddy would say, pounding his chest to prove his prowess as a Q's protector. 

 These days both Edison and his monument are friends to our Q.

 It's a wonderful school, and a wonderful park, complete with a local communal garden space that is the best-tended in the neighborhood.

 We love to ride our bikes here, and play and lounge.

 Mother's day this year in Denver dawned unseasonably hot and summer-like, so we soon decided to make our way to North Denver's Arvada in search of a water park in which to cool our heels.

 In the car, Q entertained herself with a fan.

 Much to our collective dismay, the Arvada water park was late in opening this year, and we were forced to entertain ourselves with silly hats in the nearby Army/Navy surplus store.

 After which we stopped in to Old Town Arvada's German bakery for cookies.

My Mother's Day dinner was a fresh Salade Niçoise with seared tuna, anchovies, and nonpareil capers, thanks to my husband.

All in all, a perfect day...plus, I had the first actual nap I've had in recent memory during Q's naptime.

HEAVEN.

Now I feel very guilty. 

Back to the grindstone tomorrow morning, I swear!