{birthday gifts} 23/31 #sol16

The March Slice of Life Story Challenge

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I saw them hide the gold, sparkly bag last week. Then this morning I heard the whispers.

The girls were getting ready and dressed for the day as I was finishing up in the bathroom.

I peeked around the corner to see what they were up to. I could see them whispering to each other and deciding their next step while watching me. Moments later ...

"Mommy? We want to give you something. For your birthday," M. said.

"Oh, really? Are you sure you don't want to wait until my birthday?" I responded.

M. looked at P. 

P. looked at M.

Without a word, they agreed that now was the right time for this gift.

P. pulled the gold, sparkly bag from behind her back.

"Happy birthday, Mommy," P. shared.

"Oh, wow. Thank you! This is beautiful," I said in amazement.

I held the beautiful gold bag in my hands feeling like the most special Mom in the world. I didn't care what was inside. I just loved that they thought of me and wanted to surprise me, even if a week early. I'm proud that at almost six years of age, they are thinking of others!

"Open it, Mommy!" M. shouted impatiently.

"Okay. Okay."  I sat down on the carpet beside them.  I loosened the string on the bag, and slowly opened it.  M. jumped in and took out a package of beautiful sparkly earrings and P. took out the amazing gold and pearl necklace.  I spotted two single dollar bills at the bottom of the bag near a seashell.

"Mommy.  I picked this out for you.  It's earrings!  Look at all the colors!" M. exclaimed.

"And Mommy, I picked out this necklace for you.  You can wear it two different ways.  See? And look, I like it because the ball looks like a disco ball," P. informed me.  

"And Mommy, look at this beautiful shell.  We saved it from Nana's just for you.  There wasn't another one like it."

"And Mommy.  Grandpa gave us each a dollar last night.  We decided to give them both to you."

My eyes teared up.  I was in awe at the thoughtfulness of this little, yet so big, gift.  The beautiful sparkly earrings were really just stickers.  The gold necklace will stand out in my collection of silver. But I love it all.

"Oh my.  Everything is just beautiful!  But how? ... Where? ... When did you get all this?" 

"We've been saving our PAWS tickets at school. We tried to go to the school store, but we couldn't because kids were testing in the library.  So, Mrs. L. let us shop in her toy box." M. explained.

And so, for my {ugh} almost 40th birthday, I was given the most beautiful gifts from the hearts of my most beautiful daughters.

I wore that beautiful gold and pearl necklace with pride.  And the girls wore the small sparkly stickers as earrings.  But most importantly, we all wore our beautiful, happy smiles.