The Parent Tea Party

Last Friday was the annual Parent Tea Party for BOY's Pre-K class. All the children had been excited about it for days. The week of the tea party they were hard at work making gifts for the parents and baking goodies. Finally the day arrived. E and I got there 10 minutes early and waited with other parents while the children who wanted to changed into their tea party clothes. BOY had picked out his favorite shirt to wear for the big day. And then the doors opened to the large hall and each child's parent made their way to the door where upon arrival their child would rush forward, present them with a wrist corsage and boutonniere made out of paper flowers and escort them to their chairs in the circle. As E and I made our way to the doorway, the head teacher called BOY's name, and called BOY's name, and..........as I peeked around the corner I could see that he was chatting up a set of parents next to him as he waited for us. Finally he heard the teacher call his name and he looked up and screamed, MOMMY! DADDY! and made a mad dash for us. After throwing his arms around us and presenting us with our flowers, he took us to our seats. And so it went until all the parents were seated with their children.

First the teacher thanked all of us for coming and then read a delightful story "to calm the children down a bit" called I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! It was clear that the children had read this together many, many times before as they chanted along with the story and shouted with laughter at the end when the little girl decides to paint her BUTT!

Then all the kids went running back to their parents to ready themselves for their songs. Each child stood in front of their parents and all together sang a song to them accompanied by signing gestures. It was adorable. Then BOY sang a song to E and then one to me. It was incredibly sweet, especially when he kept looking at the little boy next to him and you could tell that he was making sure he was doing the right gestures.

After the songs, each child led their parents to their seats at the table for the tea party. BOY had made a place mat for me, for E and for himself. And we each had a wrapped gift at our place. BOY wanted us to unwrap the gifts immediately, but I had to check to see what the other parents were doing and they weren't opening them yet. I guess grown-ups have to check to make sure they're also doing the right gestures.

Then the teacher walked from table to table letting the children know that it was time to serve their parents. It was hard for BOY to wait. He wanted to go NOW. At first I thought he just wanted to go fill up a plate for himself, which would have been perfectly understandable considering the goodies. But, BOY went over to the buffet table, got a plate and brought me back a blueberry muffin, a chocolate chip cookie, a brownie and a chocolate dipped strawberry. How did he know? He knows. Then he did the same thing for E, although Daddy got double portions which didn't seem quite fair. Then he went and got us drinks. He served me lemonade, because I was that "lucky." E got iced tea. And finally he went and got a plate for himself. A teacher helped him by carrying his cup of lucky lemonade so that he could focus on carrying just his plate.

After eating our delicious delicacies that the children had baked themselves, we opened our gifts. BOY had decorated a small flower pot for me and E received this cool cube with 3 pictures of BOY on it in varying poses and facial expressions. It was adorable.

Then we got up to walk around, chat with other parents, and look at the drawings on the walls that the children had done. The theme was: What does Mommy do all day? & What does Daddy do all day? BOY's answers were pretty accurate. Daddy builds houses and Mommy works on the computer. The most popular answer for what the mommy does all day was working on the computer. But, the best ones were "My mommy counts the money, My daddy makes all the money, My daddy sleeps all day, and My Mommy washes dishes all day." Probably lucky that the Mommy who counts the money and the Daddy who makes all the money were not in the same couple. Or maybe worse if the Daddy who sleeps all day is with the Mommy who counts the money.

As we walked out together I thought back over the last few months, the struggles that BOY had in February and how he has grown. I am so glad that we decided to see things through. We are blessed in this school and BOY is happy.

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