Picture My Daughters

Once again, the school year comes to a close. All of our little Branch's college students have headed home, and I have been called (again) as a Primary worker, to fill in until August when they come back. I am teaching the combined CTR 6/Sunbeam class. To be honest, they would rather have Heather, the college Freshman who taught their class from September until last week. But they are patient and accepting, and are willing to tolerate un-cool me for a month or so.


So, I was in on the fun for Mothers Day when the Sharing Time activity was the obligatory gift for Mommy. Over the years, the Mothers Day gifts from Primary have all been sweet, and most of them are long gone. I still have hanging from my bedroom mirror the paper-and-drinking-straw necklace Hyrum gave me last year. I took particular care to save it because 1) it was Hyrum's last year of Primary and 2) he made it into a gift certificate, writing something on every paper flower, like "I will make breakfast" and "free babysitting for date night". So you know, Hyrum was thrilled-out-of-his-mind-thrilled that he had finally and thoroughly aged out of Primary, and didn't have to go up and sing with the kiddoes during Sacrament meeting. Also, he took no small pains to rub it in for the girls.


This year, the Primary presidency hit a home run, as far as I am concerned. We have a new secretary, Laureen. And she is a veritable haven of creativity and enthusiasm. She is also an amazing photographer. She has a real eye. I know I am an amateur, but looking at the work of people like Laureen makes me feel my amateurishness very deeply. Anyway, at the beginning of the year, Laureen took gorgeous photos of all our Primary children, had them developed, and then posted them all around one of the bulletin boards in the Primary room, letting the kids each decorate their photo in a way that showed they were a disciple of Christ. It is a very eye-catching display of the children of our Branch, and it is a neat reminder to the kids.


Then! For the Mother's Day, Laureen developed each one in a smaller black-and-white, and gave them to the kids to decorate and give to their mommies. Les, that scrapping, artsy ball of amazingness, brought a whole passel of paper and cutouts and random pretties for the children to use to gussy up their gifts.


And even though I was in there, and helping with the choosing and the gluing, it was so fun for me to get home and line them all up together to look at. Aren't they gorgeous? The only downside I see is that there is no photo of Hyrum (too old) or George (too young). It makes me smile that all of my girls chose a blue(ish) background, because they know blue is my favorite color. And the plethora of butterflies and woodland creatures is so my daughters. What a lovely gift. You know how I adore/obsess/crave photos of my children. Definitely finding a place of honor for these ones.

Thank you, Primary ladies!