Big Ben's Big Day Part I

Big Ben turned 6 on Friday! He anticipated it for a very long time. He even asked me early in the week questions like, "How many minutes are in 1 day?" I knew exactly where his math-geared brain was going.

When he got to school on Friday, his teacher had a big sign on his locker. (You remember that getting a locker was his big thrill for moving up to first grade!) I'll just stop here and say that his teacher is amazing. She is calm, in charge, creative. Wow. I taught 1st grade for 9 weeks in Singapore, all the while throwing up in my first trimester of pregnancy with my first baby, and realizing the school was going under financially. CC, newly appointed to being the director and appointed to somehow save this situation, quickly pulled me out and made me his non-paid secretary, then combined 1st and 2nd grade and gave it to the 2nd grade teacher. The school pulled through and is now up to 400 kids plus. Praise God! But all that to say...there was NO complaining on my part to let 1st grade go. It is, in my opinion, the hardest grade to teach. And she does it with flying colors. (His smile here is just...well, a first grader who is not quite sure what to do with all the attention.)

She had a mini-lesson that morning on how to behave at a birthday celebration, complete with the rule that no one ate the cookie before the birthday boy took a bite. Such self-control.

I offered to make chocolate chip, peanut butter, or lemon cookies. He voted for lemon. Feeling like a Pinterest-fail mom, I decided to at least add something to my plain sugar-lemon icing cookies. So I put 2 candy corn pieces like eyes, then a little chocolate chip mouth. I told Big Ben they were ninjas. He was strangely silent after I said it.

He had a few extra, so he offered one to "MoonLight" my sweet friend at the front desk. She knows Big Ben well enough to assure him that he would only get a hug, not a kiss from her. See the cookie? Doesn't it look like a ninja to you?

It was simple and special. Our young teacher's aide volunteer grabbed my camera and took this picture of us, which was so sweet to me. Mom's usually behind the scenes.

And Big Ben did not even get his discipline clip moved that day (which I am sure was due in part to his teacher's mercy.) After the weekend was over, he came to me, in all seriousness, and said, "Mom, can I tell you something?" I said, "Sure." He said, "I didn't want to hurt your feelings, but they didn't really look like ninjas. But they were good." I laughed until I cried! Long Live the Non-Pinterest Moms!