The sights and sounds of Mother’s Day

It’s not that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy a weekend of peaceful solitude should Jeff and Colt ever decide to take off on a boys’ weekend and leave me to fend for my sleep-deprived, pedicure-starved self for a few days, but my picture perfect Mother’s Day weekend includes an overdose of those two. Call me crazy.

And – gravy! My parents were here!

Well, first I met them in Cabot last Thursday to help present Mr. Glenn Hill with the 2013 1LT Tom Martin Memorial Scholarship. We got to chat a bit beforehand and he is such a cool guy — big congrats to him as he graduates CHS and enrolls at Texas A&M this fall!

But then we all headed back to Northwest Arkansas for the weekend.  And a Mother’s Day full of fun and nonsense.

We met up with Becky and Jeff and exchanged a few Mother’s Day tokens — right there in the parking lot of my parents’ hotel. That’s just the kind of on-the-go people we are!

After a morning at the park and the Mother’s Day gift and flower exchange, we headed to Crystal Bridges and the Norman Rockwell special exhibit. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I’ve lived in NWA the entire year and a half (and then some!) Crystal Bridges has been open — and I had never been. Oh man. It is an incredible place. Right here in Northwest Arkansas.

And Norman Rockwell. What a powerful storyteller he was. It’s hard not to smile at his artwork, but to hear the audio — narrated by his son — as we made our way through the exhibit — his paintings really came to life. While enjoying one piece in particular — a scene of a man being welcomed home by family at Christmastime — the narration struck me. The narrator described Rockwell as a master of looking at the everyday moments in life – and making them heroic. I just loved that.

Not surprisingly, Colt was not as captivated with Norman Rockwell (and the lack of running, jumping, and general monkey business encouraged within the exhibit) as the rest of us so we eventually made it to this cleverly located kiddo section in the middle of the museum. He created some art of his own while we waited for the rest of our crew to finish their tour.

And because the area was overrun with not only Mother’s Day weekend but also graduation weekend for the University of Arkansas — we grabbed pizza for dinner rather than fight the crowds for a reservation at someplace fancy. Happy Mother’s Day, indeed.