Today was the first day of school for my 2 middle children. My husband was occupied with caring for the baby and taking our oldest son to his first homeschool activity. So I was on pre-k and K opening day duty. At their school, the first day involves a theme and several “play centers” for the children to enjoy. Most children have at least one parent or grandparent with them for the big day. Since Mark was otherwise occupied, I took both children to their first day, and I popped back and forth between their two school rooms so I was theoretically with both of them.

The theme in both classrooms was “A Visit to the Farm.” (The irony of this theme is that at least 50% of these children actually live on farms and the other 48% have family within 5 miles of their homes who have farms.) Back on topic . . . One of the activity centers for both classes involved the children making their own little grass pastures. Each child was given a square tray in which to put their pasture. They poured dirt in the tray, added some seed, covered the seed with more dirt, added water, a plastic farm animal, and popsicle stick halves for the fence. This was a fun and popular activity for the kids.

At the end of class, the children were to carefully carry their pastures out to their cars to go home. When I went to pick up Nevin, I found he had put his pasture in his backpack. Hmmmmm . . . fortunately, his teacher quickly told me they had secured their pastures in plastic bags. Phew! One catastrophe averted. So off we went to the car, with me carrying my camera (of course) and Evangeline’s backpack so her hands were free to carry her pasture. We got to the car, got in and headed off to the post office to check the mail.

After the post office errand was completed, we headed home. When we pulled up in front of the house, I said, “Evangeline, where’s your pasture?”

She said, it’s up there with you Mommy.”

“No,” I said, “It isn’t. Oh. I know where it is.”

“Where, Mommy, where?” she asked excitedly.”

“It’s on the ground in front of your school.”

You guessed it. I placed in on top of the car so I could get everyone safely buckled in, and I drove off, allowing the newly planted pasture to fly from my car.

Evangeline said, “You did that on purpose!” (She was reprimanded for this little attitude issue.)

I assured her that it was a mistake and grownups make mistakes sometimes. She has forgiven me, but I am planning to ask her teacher for another tray and seeds so we can recreate her pasture.