Love You Forever

This is not my official Happy Mother's Day post, but I wanted to tell you about my morning at JuJu's school. She had a Mother's Day breakfast. They each made a picture frame out of puzzle pieces and put a photo of themselves and their mom in it. It said, "I love you to pieces". Cute, huh? She and the kids made muffins yesterday and someone (juju?) brought fruit, yogurt, donuts, and juice. This morning, Cissy and I (surrogate moms for anyone whose mom couldn't make it) showed up at 8:00. The other moms were in the hallway waiting to be invited in. Juju peeked her head out the door and let us know she was already a BASKET CASE emotionally. So then, we all went in. The door had decorations hanging down with a sign to welcome the moms. She and a few kids blew bubbles as the moms walked in to music on the CD player -- "You'll Always be Beautiful in My Eyes." The moms were already starting to cry.

Cissy and I were directed to sit in for a little girl whose mom is in prison. She lives with her grandparents and 4 yr old brother (who's diabetic). The kids all served their moms breakfast. The menu was written on the blackboard. It was so cute!

After they were done serving, the kids lined up for a song -- You are My Sunshine, complete with motions & choreography --the next pic is them saying, "You'll never know DEAR, how much I love you."and their memory verse, Ps 23, also with motions. (He makes me to lie in green pastures)Lots of tears. Just to make things more poignant, then JuJu introduced the book "Love You Forever" written by Robert Munsch. (If you haven't read this, you MUST!)She struggled through telling when she first heard the book at a Mother-Daughter banquet at church. The storyteller sang the words,

I love you forever,
I like you for always,
As long as I'm living,
My baby you'll be.

So she got through the book as the kleenex box traveled around the room. It seemed that we were the only ones who had known the book before, but I could be wrong. Those moms will NEVER forget this morning, I assured JuJu. Then she thanked me for the help I've been able to giver her these last few weeks (she exaggerated and said 3 months -- wonder where she gets that from??). We also had a Mother's Day word search puzzle and a crossword puzzle to do with the kids and "our" little girl loved that.

Cissy and I stayed to help with some stuff for tonight's Young Author's Night, where everything they've written this year (or I suppose just a representative sample) will be on display. Then, there was a fire drill. Actually, it was a messed up fire alarm, not scheduled. So we went out with all the kids. They behaved SO well. It was hot outside and they had to line up on the pavement but they weren't suffering too badly. JuJu played "Follow the Leader" while still standing in line to keep her class occupied. I gave them stories about how all of OUR fire drills were cold, and we couldn't even grab our coats!!! Before too long, we went in. Then I was too cold :)