At the end of a very busy Saturday, Edward quietly called John into his room with a, "Psst! Dad...come in here...secret Mother's Day talk." (I was not privy until much later.) He had concocted the following plan and wanted John's support: "Dad, after Mom falls asleep tonight, you come and wake me up. Then we'll go downstairs and decorate for Mother's Day. Then if there's still any time left before morning we'll go back to bed for a while." John persuaded him that they could sleep all night and accomplish the task before I got up on Mother's Day. So at 6:05 a.m. Sunday, there was Edward at his bedside whispering, "Psst...Dad! Wake up!"

Daniel's secret involved a library book and a sous chef. Every Friday his class visits the school library and each kid can check out one book for the week. Daniel checked out this "Gifts in a Jar for Kids" book because he wanted to make one of the recipes for me. He wouldn't let me open his backpack after school and waited for John to come home to have a secret conference about this plan. They accomplished the baking while I got a Mother's Day pedicure on Sunday. Tasty! Daniel later told me, "Well, I've really been wanting this book on wolves at the library but then I saw this book and I thought, 'Which do I like more, Mom or wolves' and I decided, Mom!" I rate above wolves, so I've got that going for me!

 Mother's Day weekend is the traditional time for planting the vegetable garden, but we're still expecting some chilly nights this week so we stuck with just broccoli and carrots for now. Probably a little late for those, but we'll hope for the best.