Mother's Day Surprise

I guess I can publish this now, seeing as it's been a week since Mother's Day. Eric and I have come accross a problem most people have: what to get our mothers for Mother's Day. Do you get the box of chocolates and ruin her diet, do you get the flowers that wilt in week, or maybe a card made by the impersonal greeting card company? I like gifts to have meaning behind them, so I agonize every year. Most years it is a book, or flowers, which our gracious mothers have seemed to like, but this year I wanted to be different. Maybe I succedded a little too well.
We recently had a ceramics store open in town (I hope it lasts the recession) and the kids have loved painting things. We decided to let the kids pick out, and paint items all by themselves. They picked out a mug with a heart for Grandma Sharon to drink her hot chocolate in, and a bud vase for Grandma Joan to put her pretty roses in. Ethan undertook the mug, and Ella painted the vase. It was so hard to let them just go, to not help Ethan keep the heart in the line of the heart, or to tell Ella where to place the polka dots, but it was worth it. The kids were proud, I benefited from just letting them do their own things, and the Grandmas liked their presents.