The Day of Mom

My girls get so excited over Mother's Day. I think my husband sort of helps whip them into a frenzy that this year started the Saturday before, but really got going at 6:00 am on the actual day, when they woke him up to make the preparations for me. Bless all their hearts. But especially his. Hubby said this Sunday it took quite a bit of effort for him to keep them from waking me up, which I finally did around 8:30. I came downstairs and was surprised to find a paper garden constructed in our living room. The kid's plastic table from outside was leaning on its side in front of the couch (with two girls crouched behind it), and paper flowers on posters adorned every tapable surface. I had left my camera at my brother's so didn't get pictures until most everything had been cleaned up. (photos have been added later) But there was a sign:



While I admired the beautiful flowers growing in our living room, the girls tittered behind the table. When Hubby said the cue words "You'll have to find the girls..." they sprung from their hiding place and threw into the air a half a dozen sheets of construction paper with the words Happy Mother's Day carefully printed on them. Two of the flowers decorating the room turned out to be real, a couple of pocket orchids, smaller versions of the big ones I'm so proud of myself if I can get to bloom multiple times before I finally kill them.

After opening more presents, a beautiful breakfast, and a drive to church, we had the Mother's Day brunch in Primary, where I finally got to see the necklace that Thing 1 and 2 had created. It was my idea to give each of the Primary kids a little piece of Shrinky Dink film to color, then I'd punch a hole in it, and shrink them and put them on a necklace for each mom. Thanks to my sister, who happened to be in town for a conference last week, and knows more about amatuer jewelry making than I do, we got all of them but mine put together Thursday and Friday. She did mine herself because Thing 1 insisted that it was a SURPRISE for me. Thing 1 had made a mistake on her first attempt, which she had made last Sunday when all the other kids did. Since I happened to be the one making them, I told her she could color another piece of Shrinky Dink film. So she got up early on Friday to make a 2nd. And 3rd, before she finally got what she wanted. She carefully concealed her final effort in an envelope and wrote "Do Not See" on it, and my sister assembled it on her way back out of town on Friday. Bless her heart, not only did she stop by and make the necklace for me last Friday, my sister also cleaned my kitchen. I completely knocked it out of the ballpark in the sister department.


The irony here is Thing 1's Shrinky Dink, once she finally got it to where she want it, wasn't quite what I had intended. I had given all the kids specific instructions:
1) Put your name on it
2) Color both sides of the Shrinky Dink film, even if that means that you're tracing your name backwards on the backside.

This is Thing 2's Shrinky dink - a pretty little sun flower. It's slightly longer than 1 inch long. The name was not photographed, but it's there.



Thing 1's first effort had been done according to my instructions because I was standing over the kids reminding them. I don't know about her 2nd, but her 3rd and final effort was not produced under my dictatorial direction and was therefore minus those two key aspects. It was colored on only one side, and it doesn't have her name on it.

One of the charming things, to me, about the way Thing 1's Shrinky Dink ended up is that it may, or may not have a spelling error on it, depending on your point of view.

My very wonderful day ended with a picnic in the park. It was really very nice. The girls are getting old enough to keep gushing about things, like how much they love and admire me, etc. etc., not just for the three minutes that their daddy reminds them to, but all day. They were very sweet and appreciative.


I just have to throw in a picture of my fabulous girls... and the dog, who has grown quite a bit.