Mother's Day

I had a wonderful mother's day. I feel so lucky to have my children, they're all so wonderful. Yesterday marks a major milestone, in my mind. For most parents it wouldn't be a milestone (or do I mean most children?), but with mine, it is one. Melissa, my sweet darling-daughter-who-is-really-an-angel-disguised-as-a-human-girl-and-has-been-sent-to-me-to-keep-me-sane-and-happy-and-fulfilled created for me a very special Mother's Day Treasure Hunt (actually, according to the first hint it was a Treasure Ow, but we'll get to that part later).


On Friday I picked up Nikolai from Gail's, and he handed me a beautiful potted plant. I'm not sure what the plant is, but the flowers are yellow and smell wonderful. Apparently, the children planted them themselves. Gail says that in spite of Nikolai's obvious obsession with dirt, and digging in it, he refused to put his hands in the wet potting soil to plan the flower. Gail had to dig in it for him. The result was very sweet and beautiful.
Saturday I slept all day. Not sure what was wrong with me, but obviously my body needed sleep. Saturday evening I spent trying to get a printer hooked up at Melissa's request. It was so archaic that there are no XP drivers for it. It's possible it won't even install on win2k. it does work on NT4, however. Whew. I never got it set up, and Melissa said she could just do "it" by hand.
Sunday morning I woke up around 10ish, when Melissa peeked her head in the door to ask if I wanted breakfast. I figured Matt had made some breakfast for everyone, so I said "maybe later". I couldn't fall back asleep, and about 20 minutes later Nikolai came bounding into the room. I heard Matt say something like "did you wish mama a happy mother's day?" and so he looked back at me and said "Happy mother's day" and then muttered something mostly incoherant about flowers. I got out of bed and headed out the door and Melissa said "You walked right past it!" When I looked back around I saw there was a piece of paper attached to the wall.
You can't see the words to read them, but it read as follows:
(hand drawn portrait of Johnny Depp)
"Good morning!!!!!!
Time for your skavenger OW, sorry Tiggers killing me with his claws. Ok, back to the point, Time for your skavenger hunt thing...OK. You know what...just ... fine .. I don't know what ->
(on the back) it's called but that's ok because I think you need to pee."
The OW/hunt was on. Nikolai helped me find the next clue, which was in my bathroom and I can't remember where.


Pictured here is the second clue, which reads:
"HELLO AGAIN, IT'S YOUR BEST FRIEND, THE NOTE!!
So did you have a hard time finding this hard hidden note? I knew you would. OK, now go to one of the colors on this page. Oh but which color could it be?
? TAN
? GREEN
? RED"
Green, of course (this took me a while) was the color I should choose, and it meant the Green Room. Once in the Green Room I discovered clue # 4, which simply said "Look in the mirror." This led to clue number 5, which until just now I had completely forgotten about, which led to my car outside. If memory serves me correctly it said something like "it's big, it has 4 wheels, it's outside and it's visible." This could have been a number of things outdoors, thanks to Nikolai's obsession with vehicles of all shapes and sizes. At least she narrowed it down to the 4 wheeled ones. The big prize was found in my car on the driver's side. It said on it "This is the big one!", and when unfolded completely it was a long banner that read "HAPPY MOThERS DAY!", hand drawn by Melissa herself. This was such a thoughtful gift that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Melissa followed that on by playing my shadow for the entire day, making sure to make my life easier. Cleaning here and there, watching Nikolai whenever it seemed appropriate, and always there to make sure I had a great day.
Anthony can't resist humor. I don't know if he can give a serious gift, which is just FINE with me, because I fully appreciate the humor. I've never been one for sappy cards, and only very rarely give them, and even then only when they are simple, to the point and totally appropriate. Anthony handed me a card on saturday afternoon which I noticed was sealed carefully using tape over firmly and carefully applied staples. Yes, the staples were completely through the card, from one side to the other. When I opened the card (painstakingly unbuckling all staples by hand, so as not to tear the card before I could read it), I read the front which was very touching. It read: "To my Beautiful Mom, From your Grateful Son". On the inside it read "I probably don't say it enough but I hope you know how much you mean to me and how very much you're loved. Happy Mother's Day" (getting suspicious, this is entirely too sappy for Anthony)
Below this in his handwriting it says:
"With love,
bob (crossed out)
anthony"
It was obvious to me when reading it that it was meant to appear like he had stolen some thoughtful mother's day card from another son-to-mother couple, and then put his name at the end. I thought it was great, and got a good chuckle out of it. I told him "Thanks, Bob. I mean Anthony." It was well received.

My parents came over for a Mother's Day barbecue, which was great since I couldn't afford a card or present for my mommy. She brought me a lovely pot of flowers, and I hope I can honor the gift by at least keeping them alive. My history with this is not so great, so I'm really hoping I can manage it. If only plants would CRY, they might stand a chance in my care.
Melissa and Grandpa and Nikolai had a great time with water balloons. Melissa chucked a good few on my nice freshly washed car. Carl and Melissa had a balloon hurling contest, to see who could hit the trees. Melissa and I played "toss the water balloon". Once. Guess who lost.
It was really a wonderful day. I'm so grateful, I feel like it should be thanksgiving.