Mother's Day 2010

I remember being young and giving gifts to my mom on Mother's Day. My family grew up without a lot of money, and homemade gifts were the only thing we could ever afford. It didn't matter if it was a letter, a card, or flowers picked from her own garden, my mom would always say homemade gifts were the best.

This year, I totally agree with her. Not that I haven't appreciated what my kids have given me in years past, but this year was especially nice. Maybe it had something to do with my wrong-side-of-the-bed attitude I had when I woke up Saturday morning (Ben and the kids decided to celebrate Mother's Day a little bit early).

Melanie and I had a mother-daughter date for activity days on Saturday morning. I left the house not wanting to go, and being grumpy in general. Upon our return, I opened the door to find my living room floor all cleaned up and straightened, and the sweet, sweet smell of chocolate chip cookies sneaking out from the kitchen. That was my gift from Ben. Seriously, I think he puts an addictive chemical in his chocolate chip cookies. I even had one with breakfast this morning--it's Mother's Day! (Notice the glazed, slightly crazed look in my eyes? That's the cookies doing!)


After drooling for a minute over the cookies, Riley told me I had to find his gift. So he played "You're getting warmer/colder" with me until I found his gift, which I found terribly funny. He wrote me a letter that said, "To: Mom. From: Riley," and then Ben scribed a story dictated by Riley. It reads: "One day Riley was sitting on the couch. Precious came by. Precious got on Riley's lap. Then Precious got on the side of the couch. Then she got on Riley's lap again. Then she was tired and laid by Riley and then she purred. Then she really wanted to rub her face on Riley and then she did it. The End." Ben said he had to take out a few "ands." Personally, I would have done the same thing...and added in some commas, but I won't go there right now. I told Riley I loved his gift, and he jumped into my arms, wrapped his arms tightly around my neck and said, "I'm so glad you said that!" That boy has people-speaking, I swear!

Soon I heard Carter yelling at me to find his gift. He's yelling at me while his eyes were glued to the GameBoy screen, but at least he could still talk. I found his in his backpack, and it was a collection of really cute pictures his teacher had taken of him during the year. I wish I was more skilled in fiddling with my scanner, because I would have scanned some in and posted them. And granted, his teacher did most of the work, but it reminded me of things I would bring home for my mom from school. And he's so cute in the pictures!



Melanie was the last to give me her gift. Her teacher made some cute flowers out of gift tissue, and had the kids write something on the card. Melanie, being the thoughtful and creative kid she is, wrote me a haiku! It's really sweet: "We're chocolate fans!/We love English and writing/We love each other." How cute, huh? I love that Melanie and I enjoy reading, and enjoy the same books. Just the other day I stole five off of her shelf to add to my summer reading list!

(Carter and Riley both stood on a kitchen chair for their pictures, but Melanie was not. Let's not comment on the closeness in height between Melanie and me, okay? Thanks, I appreciate it.)