The Mother of Creative Inspiration

I hope all of you mothers and friends-of-mothers enjoyed your weekend.  In our neck of the woods, we celebrated the only way we know how:  with creative and slightly unorthodox homemade tributes to mom, conceived and executed by the Hungry Preacher's Kids themselves, Monkey 1 and Monkey 2.

I'll provide photographic evidence in a moment.  First I'll offer a quick recap of the weekends events.

-What's a Mother's Day celebration without attending the grand opening celebration of the Missouri's first Lego store?  This year we finally celebrated Mother's Day the way it was intended to be celebrated, with Beth cutting out of work a bit early on Friday and the whole gang driving over to West County Mall.  The girls got to build bricks that were assembled by a Master Builder to construct a giant 8-foot tall Lego Incredible Hulk.

-Saturday morning, I stealthily drove down to Busch Stadium, negotiated a fair price for a single Cardinal ticket from a local ticket dealer, then entered the stadium and claimed a pink Mike Matheny jersey to give to wife.  She has been mourning since she missed out on getting the replica throwback jersey a couple of weeks ago.  El pink-o would not have been her first choice for jerseys, but I think it helped ease her pain a little bit.

-Saturday evening, me and the Monkeys treated Beth to "breakfast at dinnertime," since Sunday morning Beth and I both would be serving at church, making a Sunday celebration impractical.  We feasted on omelets, hash browns, bacon, sausage, and donuts.  We gave mommy her jersey, as well as a necklace that she had wanted, each of which brought her great gladness.

-Sunday, the girls presented mommy with their own creations.  Monkey 2's creations were more traditional than Monkey 1's.  First, she wrote an acrostic poem for her mommy:

I think the only word that I came up with was for the "U," though I did help with the spelling on a few of the words.  Monkey 2 also created some jewelry of her own to present to her mother:

 

For these, I assisted with tying, and I served as a consultant on color selection and jewelry-type-designation (i.e., ring, bracelet, or hair band).

Monkey 1's creations were less on-the-beaten-path.  To honor her mother, she created Lego vignettes, wrote encouraging notes in the form of speech bubbles which she placed beside the characters in each scene.  She used a thin red pen to write her notes, so you probably won't be able to read them, but I'll transcribe below each picture.  So when mommy opened the guest room door, this was the first thing she saw:

"Surprise!  Happy Mothers Day!!!  -Marie"

As she opened the door wider, she saw this sprawling scene:

Here are the close ups:

From top to bottom:
"Like my new pool?  I built it just for you!  -Isabella"
"I love you more than I love my favorite ice cream flavor: Orange!  -Andrea"
"You are more important than swimming to me.  -Olivia"
"I have a Mother's Day horse named Candy."  -Sophie"

From left to right:
"This water is cool!  But not as cool as you are!  (get it?)  -Stephanie"
"You are more important to me than sleeping in every day!  -Andrea"

"Have you come for Olivia's Mother's Day diamond?  -Mia"

From top to bottom:
"I'm proud of making this room beautiful for you!  -Mia"
"I'll entertain you with a Mother's Day song!  -Stephanie"

For me, it is exhilarating to watch two of my three favorite people in the world be genuinely moved to encourage my other favorite person in the world in creative and meaningful ways.  That Legos were involved is gravy.  I'm already looking forward to next Mother's Day.

-THP