Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's 61st birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom! She's in London today, one of her favorite places in the world.

Last year at this time my mom had just finished her 3rd of 6 chemo treatments and was not, as they say, in a happy place. But she made it through her treatment and another year of school. Hooray for mom!

My mom has always been a highly involved (sometimes, like when I was a teenager, maybe too involved), nurturing mom. I always think of her when I read Rosemary Wells' Hazel's Amazing Mother. Like Hazel's mom, my mother is obsessed with snacks, loves picnics, hates bullies, and is the strong type.

Speaking of moms, snacks, and great picture books, one of my favorites has a rather strange message. Mary Ann Hoberman's The Seven Silly Eaters must be one of the best rhyming books of the past few years. It is funny, a hoot to read aloud, and Marla Frazee's illustrations are beautiful, charming, and grounded in reality. I love this book and my kids ask for it over and over again. The mom makes each of her seven children their favorite food from scratch on a daily basis. On her birthday, the kids try to make these foods themselves as a present to her and their efforts get all mixed up into a "pink and perfect cake" that the family then eats every day from that day forth! Every day! I know it's fiction, but as a foodie I find the idea of eating cake for every meal hard to swallow. It's still a great book, though.