NYBG Mother’s Day Garden Party
By Miamichelle Abad
The New York Botanical Garden hosted a Mother’s Day Weekend Garden Party with activities for family and friends. Families flocked to Daffodil Hill for the games and performances. The lawn at the Hill was covered with blankets of families during the summer-like heat.
A young boy and girl pondered their next moves on a life-sized chess board, while an onlooker watched in anticipation. Across from the chess game, Ben Mirin mixed unique beats under the birds and the beats table, using the sounds of nature. In the center of the lawn, Kristin Andreassen led families in an old-time square dance, encouraging them to do-si-do and give their partners a high 10 with both hands.
Both parents and kids played bean bag toss, ladder toss and hula hooped. Food trucks –- like Gorilla Cheese NYC and DUB Pies — lined up towards the edge of the lawn, feeding hungry mothers and fathers.
The Bubble Show, performed by Silly Sally, captured everyone’s attention. “I am now a licensed professional bubble hair-cutter,” Sally said, before she called three volunteers up to the stage. The crowd laughed when Sally used her bubble gun to give three children a bubble hairdo.
At the card-making table, Fiordaliza De Luca, 59, guided her granddaughter in stamping flower designs on paper and reminisced about what her mother used to tell her. “My mother said to believe in yourself and never give up,” De Luca said. “She also said that life is about giving and receiving.” De Luca says she wants to pass on the same message that her mother told her when she was younger.
“It’s busy and it seems like everyone’s enjoying themselves,” said Sabirah Abdus-Sabur, 27. Asked for one piece of advice that her mother gave her, she replied, “Think twice.”