I spent Mother’s Day with two of the best moms on earth- my mom and my sister. You know how I base my whole parenting philosophy on the fact that I’m remarkably average? And I say that my belief is that every other parent is remarkably average too? Well, that’s a lie. Because my mom and my sister are just remarkable. Nothing average about them. I could learn a lot.

But before I got together with extended family, I was woken in my very own home, first by Mazzy and then by Harlow. Mazzy told me she was going to make me toast because “that’s what I know how to make” but then she ended up forgetting about the breakfast thing completely and we went straight to the presents.

Harlow painted a portrait of me and seriously, I almost fell over when I unwrapped it because I was so surprised by how good it was.

Is it just me or is her painting pretty amazing????? She even drew the necklace I wear everyday which has an H and an M on it. She said she painted the background purple because it’s my favorite color.

Mazzy surprised me as well. I’ve been wanting to take her down to take a picture with the Fearless Girl statue on Wall Street but haven’t been able to figure out a time to do it. Last week, Mike took her to get Global Entry on her passport and she noticed the statue was right nearby. Mike took a picture and they printed it out so she could put it in her Mother’s Day card.

That was two great gifts!

Mike gave me another charm to put on my Helen Ficalora necklace— a lucky horseshoe. When Mazzy saw it, she ran into her room to retrieve a golden key (taken from her Hello Kitty diary) that she wanted me to put on my necklace too. I’m betting it’s not worth as much as the other charms but I wore it anyway.

Then we headed out to get brunch with Grammy, Sammy, my sister, Uncle Mikey, Jack and Neve.

We finally remembered to take photos at the beginning of the day when the light is right instead of at the end when it’s dark out and the kids just want to go home and all the photos are awful.

Mike was in charge of taking the group shot and although the photo above was one of the first pics taken, there was no way for me to know we had already gotten the shot since I was in the photo… so I kept making my poor husband snap more and more pics until everyone nearly had a break down.

It wouldn’t be Mother’s Day without one of the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” outtakes too.

I have no photos of brunch but as evidence that brunch was a big success, please see all the white dots on Mazzy’s pants. Those are confectionary sugar from her huge stack of pancakes.

After brunch, we headed to Union Square Park for some playground time.

Then Grammy and Sammy went home to pack for an upcoming trip, my sister and her family headed to Westchester to visit her in-laws and my family was on it’s own.

“What do you want to do?” Mike asked.

I wanted to head to Battery Park. There’s a beautiful park along the Hudson River that I used to jog through all the time when I lived in the West Village, before I had kids.

“Is there a playground there???” The girls asked. That is seriously all they care about.

Luckily for them, there wasn’t just a playground. There was a whole bunch of fun toys strewn about the lawn.

We walked along the river until we got to Brookfield Place, an indoor mall with a food court and an ice cream shop that was perfectly timed for when the seemingly blue skies turned into rain. At the time, I thought it was a huge coincidence that we had timed it so well, but looking back, I bet that was Mike’s plan all along.

After the girls had finished their ice cream, the rain magically stopped and we headed back outside. Harlow did what she does best— posed for some pictures.

I call these “Helmet Chic.”

We continued walking until we reached One World Trade Center and the September 11th Memorial, which always brings me peace in just how perfectly it commemorates our city’s greatest tragedy.

Photos do not do the Memorial justice.

Then we headed to the Oculus (which looks like a mall from the future) to have dinner, making it indoors just before the rain started once again.

Harlow— do you think you can strike another pose?

THANKS!

We rode the escalators to Eataly, where we were seated next to floor to ceiling windows. We sipped wine and watched the rain come down outside, while I marveled at just how perfectly my Mother’s Day had gone.

Everyone behaved, the weather was awesome (and when it wasn’t, we were always one step ahead), I got some great gifts and there was enough happiness to go around for everyone.

Even the pizza was happy. The girls got to chose their pizza shape— bunny, heart or fish. Mazzy wanted a bunny shaped pizza but Harlow argued for heart.

“We need to get a heart because it’s Mother’s Day!!!”

She’s gonna make a good lawyer one day.

When we got home, I got to lie down on the couch while Mike put the girls ready for bed. Mazzy showered herself (truly the greatest big kid milestone) and lost her front tooth! 

Obviously, I texted the tooth fairy immediately so she would not forget to show up like last time.

For the first time since I had kids, I have to say, there was nothing average about my day. For all the moms upset that their babies are growing up, don’t worry. Babies and toddlers are adorable but having bigger kids means there is truly some awesome stuff ahead.

Hope everyone had a Happy Mother’s Day!