A Golden Start

A week or so ago, Lucy's teacher sent home a note, saying the class was celebrating summer birthdays in May. Since Lucy's birthday is June 7, they would celebrate hers on May 7.

"What do kids bring for their birthdays?" I asked Lucy.

"Doughnuts or cupcakes usually," she answered. But, as always, my girl has a plan.

"I want to have homemade lemon bars for everyone for my birthday," she added. "Those are my favorite. And favors, too."

I can certainly get behind that, plus, since she is turning 7 this year, this is her golden birthday. It calls for a bigger deal to be made.

Have you ever read Russell Hoban's Best Friends for Frances? It's one of our favorites. In it, Frances's friend Albert goes on a Boys Only outing. He brings a paper sack with sandwiches, bananas, and cupcakes in it. When Frances and her little sister, Gloria, organize the retaliatory Girls Only outing, they walk by Albert's house, pulling their red wagon with a picnic hamper in it.

When Albert wants to know what's in the hamper, Frances says, "Nothing much. Hard-boiled eggs and whole fresh tomatoes. Carrot and celery sticks. There are some cream cheese-and-chives sandwiches, I think and cream cheese-and-jelly sandwiches, too, and salami-and-egg and pepper-and-egg sandwiches. Cole slaw and potato chips, of course. Ice-cold root beer packed in ice, and watermelon and strawberries and cream for dessert. And there are other things I forget, like black and green olives and pickles and popsicles and probably some pretzels and things like that. And there are salt and pepper shakers and napkins and a checked tablecloth, which is the way girls do it."

So, no doughnuts or cupcakes for us. Here is Lucy's tray of birthday treats for her golden birthday: lemon bars and little gold foil cups of lemon drops, decorated with fresh lemon halves and daisies...which is the way girls do it, I guess.


Amidst the pre-birthday celebration was Elaine's pre-school class's Mother Day song and dance. They sang a spring song about a buzzy bee named Oscar. The lyrics had a lot of "buzz, buzz, buzz" in them.


Then the teacher called each child's name, and he or she presented a gift to the respective moms, while shyly telling us "Happy Mother's Day."

Here is the gift, which they made in class. The flower is a rather manhandled petunia. We'll see if it actually survives. And the sign says "Garden Angel." Isn't it sweet? I live for this kind of stuff.



After my little garden angel gave me my present, I hugged her and told her how beautiful it was.

She looked up at me with those big blue eyes and dimples and whispered, "I really like that--what I made you. Can I have it back?"

Happy Mothers' Day to all!