My daughter is a grave robber!!

I was driving my daughter to school today and passed thru the cemetary at the school/church on my way to carpool. I recalled a really funny story that happened when my daughter was in the first grade. I told her about my memorable experience and we both almost fell out of the car laughing! So, I thought that you all as mothers, might also get a chuckle out of the story. Please try to put yourself in my place for the real effect!

When T was in first grade, her class used to get flower arrangements out of a pile of thrown away flowers from the cemetary. Unknown to me, so that is why this is so hilarous! One February afternoon, two days after my birthday, T got in the car smiling from ear to ear..I quickly noticed her good mood and asked her about her day. She said that she had a great day and that she had a "big' surprise for me when we got home. She informed me that she had it in her bookbag. Well, like every other mother, I was expecting a drawing, or something of that sort. So, we drive home and she is beaming the whole ride home. I begin to think that I am the luckiest mother in the world to have such a loving child....

Fast forward 20 minutes, we arrive home and she quickly takes her bookbag and tells me to come inside and close my eyes. I do as she instructs and hold out my hands to gather the 'big" surprise..I feel something plastic and wet and then I begin to realize that the "musk" smell is evident in whatever the surprise is, so I open my eyes and see a bunch of flowers, plastic arranged in a nice big red bow. Not to sound to harsh, I tell her that the flowers are so pretty, and ask her where in the world did she manage to get her hands on such lovely flowers...Grinning from ear to ear, she proceeds to tell me that she got the flowers from alot of graves!! Not wanting to sound ungrateful, I say thank you and try to dig deeper for more information on how she pulled this over on her teachers to get the flowers in her bookbag, etc. she just simply said that the flowers were so nice and that she just had to get me some. In my mind, I pictured a little girl taking flowers from the graves, etc. and hiding them in her bag. As innocent as it may sound, I did not want my daughter to think that this was ok..to rob flowers from a grave is so disrespectful! Well, I put the flowers in a large vase and displayed them in the dining room, musk smell and all, and vowed to get to the bottom of the flowers the next day.

After I dropped her off at school the next day, I parked and entered the school to investigate how this came to be...I went to the office and told the lady there that I needed to speak to T's teacher. Mrs. H arrived looking surprised that I was there and having no idea of what was going to transpire. I told her she might want to sit down that my daughter had done something that we needed to discuss. I proceeded to tell her the story, even offered to replace the flowers on the graves if that is what it took to correct the problem..she could hardly contain her laughter and told me that indeed, my daughter had taken flowers from a grave, however,the flowers were going to be trashed, so it was ok'd by her. She said that my child wanted so badly for me to have the flowers, especially the purple ones, since purple is my favorite color! I was so relieved to find that my daughter was not a grave robber after all, but a sweet and thoughtful little girl who was only trying to make her mom's day by bringing her some flowers. I still have the flowers in a plastic bag, of course..they are not much to look at these days, but I could not bare to part with them because the memories are just too good for me to dispose of them! Maybe oneday, she will have her own child to tell the story too...I still tease her every now and then when we go to the cemetary to visit my dad..I tell her to not to forget to take the flowers for her mom, especially if they are purple!!! It always cracks her up!!