Surprises

It's that time of the year again, when Hallmark ran out of things to produce, so they made up some holidays. This week, in case you didn't know, (and our PTO knows, thank you very much,) is Teacher Appreciation Week. Throughout the week students could bring in flowers for their teachers and insert them into a beautiful PTO-purchased vase, resulting in a beautiful bouquet at the end of the week. Now, although I am the PTO Secretary, I usually forget about these type of things but this time I remembered. Last night at midnight.

I was out of nearly everything else from milk to razor blades, anyway, so off to the store I went. I found a lot of crazy hand-dyed flowers and took home the brightest little bunch. Then being the cheap person that I am, I split them in two so the boys each had their little bouquet. Hey, if my flower beds had been coming along a little quicker, I wouldn't have had to buy any at all. (Hallmark, move this holiday to the end of May, would you?) I can't help but wonder just how many teachers ended up with vases full of dandelions, myself.

Then, of course, there's Mother's Day this weekend, my favorite arts-and-crafts holiday ever! The school-orchastrated surprises are starting to roll in and Mommy gets to be special for a few minutes each day as the kids come home. Yesterday Shannon surprised me first.

I was waiting in the driveway for him to get off the bus and it was taking him forever. The bus driver rolled his eyes and said, "He's got a surprise, you're not allowed to see." I figured it must be a flower similar to the ones all the other kids on the bus were holding, but I didn't say a word. Shannon made his way down the aisle of the bus and the reason for his lack of speed became clear. He was walking backwards, dragging his jacket and backpack, while cautiously carrying the littlest vase of Shannon-raised marigolds. When he got to the bus steps he continued to walk backwards and tried to go down them, never mind the 18 inch rise. Luckily I convinced him that he could turn around and disembark from the bus safely as I would close my eyes and not peek.

He then ran to the house, making sure I wasn't looking and when I followed him through the door he jumped up, turned around and yelled, "Surprise, I made them for YOU!" He then thrust the flowers toward me and told me all about them. He even painted the vase in colors I would like, he explained. "See, BLUE, your favorite color! And a little yellow too, and now there's green." I smiled and hugged the heck out of him, what a sweet little boy! And he'll never know that I really can't stand the color blue.

Soon Corey arrived home and I went through my routine of scouring his backpack. Inside was a note attached to a cute little tissue-paper butterfly, explaining that Corey made it in therapy today. No mention of Mommy, but I claimed it for myself. I showed it to Corey and asked where it came from. He explained that he made it in school and it was his. So, being the good Mommy that I am, I quickly distracted Corey and took the butterfly away and hid it before he had a chance to ruin it while playing. He may think it's his, but as far as I'm concerned, it's mine!