Mother's Day Continues

My "baby" girl forgot to give me the Mother's Day gift she made in school. Like many moms, these handmade gifts are my absolute favorite and I cherish every treasure my children has created for me! To back up...last year, my daughter was very reluctant to hand over the gift she'd made in school. When I had sufficiently assured her that I would love whatever she'd made, she gave me the wrapped present. As soon as I opened it, I understood the reason for her hesitancy. There, in a carefully painted terra cotta pot, was....a bunch of dirt. Evidently, Caroline's were the only seeds that failed to grow. The teacher tried to convince my stubborn offspring to swap plants for one that was showing signs of life. Caroline, apparently, refused and stood her ground. The teacher (who was a beastly woman on a good day) told my daughter that it was "stupid" to give someone a container of dirt for a gift and she should be "embarrassed" to do so. That was all my will-of-steel girl needed to dig her heels in harder and deeper. Those were the seeds she had planted for me and those were the seeds I was going to get...end of discussion! It took a few weeks, but the seeds did start to grow and, by the end of the summer, we had mutant sunflowers and marigolds the size of cauliflower heads taking over my side garden! I, of course, took several pictures, mounted them on poster board and marched them in (myself) to my daughter's classroom. I had stencilled, in huge black letters, "HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL!". I insisted that the teacher hang the poster in the front of the class and my baby was vindicated.
No such drama surrounding this year's gift. Caroline used beautiful, vibrant fabric scraps to decoupage the container of pretty yellow marigolds. She made me a precious "My Mom..." book and all is right in our world!