Giving Mother's Day Gifts

A few weeks before Mother's Day, I asked the kiddos what they wanted to get GraGra and Grammy for Mother's Day; I think we were in the car at the time. Gillian immediately, and without hesitation, said, "Balloons." Huh. Ok. Colin quickly agreed. I asked what kind of balloons, and I got "Kitty and puppy balloons." I decided to let the topic lie for a while.

A week later I asked again, and immediately got "Balloons" again. By this point, I was down with the idea. Let's face it, GraGra and Grammy don't really NEED anything, and whatever Colin and Gillian come up, their grandmothers think is genius. Balloons it is! And I decided to let the kiddos have most of the control in this project.

We tried to search down the initial "Kitty and Puppy" idea, but unless we were going to give "Happy First Birthday" balloons, that wasn't going to happen. We headed over to our local dollar store, where they sell tons of baloons, and I explained that I couldn't find kitty and puppy balloons and they should pick something else. We wandered around and looked at all the FOUR WALLS of balloons and went home to think on it. When we came back, our decisions were made. Gillian picked out a HUGE, three foot tall Cinderella balloon (shocker) and she wanted a butterfly balloon. Luckily, they had a butterfly balloon that said "Happy Mother's Day" on it. Ordered.

Colin's turn was next. When we walked in they had a big bunch of baseball themed balloons ready for someone to pick up, full of baseballs, blue stars, and red stars. Colin really liked the blue stars, so he picked one of those. Then I helped him remember that Grammy and GraGra's favorite colors were purple and green. So he picked "favorite color" balloons. Ordered.

So, on Mother's Day, Daddy picked up the (very large, it turns out) bunches of balloons and stuffed them in the back of the car. I had the kids and GraGra in the other car and was following him over to Uncle D's house. GraGra spotted her balloons and she was LAUGHING so hard. When we got to Uncle D's house and Gillian and Colin saw the bunches, they were SO excited!!! And, man, that Cinderella was B-I-G.

We ended up with GraGra's balloons at our house for a few hours after lunch while we waited for Papa Greg to get back from the Pirate game. The kiddos were SO EXCITED. I was pretty sure they would cry when the balloons left, but they took it well. Colin did ask for the balloons on Monday morning though. I told them they were at GraGra's house. He told me, "Let's go to GraGra's HOUSE!!!"


So, I'm thinking that since we're starting some formal, serious-type potty training this week, we might use the balloons as some sort of reward. G has her eye on her own Cinderella and Colin wants a Thomas balloon. We can do that!!!