I have an obsession with my kids' little hands. Jared, wise as he is, is aware of this obsession. So he helped the kids make cards with their hand prints on the fronts.
After the hand prints were dry, he let them decorate the cards with markers and paper cut from paper punches. Nolan wrote inside his card by himself:
The inside says, "I love you mom. I love that you are my mom. I love you because you love me. I love you because you play with me."
And he continued on the back:
It says, "I love how you make goulash. I love how you look in church clothes." Nolan
Priceless.
For the younger two kids' cards, Jared asked them what they love about me and he wrote it inside their cards:
Griffin: I love when you hug me. I love your voice.
Nora: I love when you paint my toes. I love your kisses.
Nolan also gave me a gift he made at school. First, there was a laminated poem with his hand print:
Nolan's teacher had also made a laminated and bound "cook book" called My Mom's Favorite Recipes. Each child wrote a recipe all by themselves, which ended up being quite hilarious to see what ingredients they recalled and what temperature they thought the oven should be on. Nolan's was Sugar Cookies:
His recipe reads:
You need eggs, sugar, and flour.
Mix it together. Eat some of the cookie dough and then bake the rest of it. The oven needs to be at 5 degrees and they cook for 3 minutes.
Oh, these kids make me smile.
Jared also got me a gift certificate to get this fancy shmancy face cream I've been wanting to try. {Miracle Worker by Philosophy...this face needs a miracle!} And he had my watch fixed so I can actually wear it. Very thoughtful, in my opinion.
The morning was filled with the usual church craziness, followed by the usual lunch craziness and then naps. After nap time, what I really wanted was some quality family time. Since I got to boss decide what to do, I chose to give Nolan his birthday present--a new bike--a week before his birthday so we could all go up to his school blacktop and let the kids ride "bikes and trikes" (since Nora still rides a tricycle).
It was awesome. Jared had a classic parenting experience: he worked with Nolan on riding a bike without training wheels. The new bike is a little big for Nolan, so he got a little frustrated. Plus my poor children don't get to ride bikes at home much because we live on a hill, and I'm terrified that they're going to go flying down the hill into traffic. Griffin was happy as could be riding Nolan's old bike (now Griffin's). Nora mostly ran around the blacktop, legs flailing about in her signature two-year-old running style.
When we were done with bikes and trikes, we stopped at the playground. There were three boys already playing there, but one quickly jumped on his bike and rode away. The other two boys informed us that he had peed all inside the tube portion of the playground equipment. He sure had. Ew. I called and left a message for the school secretary, hoping she would have someone clean it this morning before students had a chance to play in it.
I did receive an unexpected Mother's Day gift. At our church we have a program called Secret Sisters. You fill out a card with your name, address, birthday, anniversary, and a few of your favorite things. Then you receive someone else's card, and you are her Secret Sister for the year. You send her occasional encouraging cards and gifts.
Well, this year my Secret Sister is super duper awesome. She even sent me a card for St. Patrick's Day. She left a large gift bag for me at church yesterday. It had a nice big picture frame that holds 4 photos, a gift card to Hobby Lobby (my home away from home), and a super sweet Mother's Day card. I was blown away!
This morning as I was putting away my Mother's Day spoils, I emptied the bag from my Secret Sister and discovered 2 more gifts! She had also given me a box of Junior Mints (one of my favorite candies) and a box of fancy note cards (one of my addictions...weird, I know, but I can't help it). You'll never guess which Bible verse the cards have on them...
Philippians 4:4
So, either my Secret Sister reads my blog or God really does use every possible chance to remind me of Philippians 4.
The best quote of the whole day comes to us courtesy of Nolan:
"Mom, if you were a booger, I'd pick you first."
Jessica
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