celebrating mother's day...kindergarten style

Thursday last week was Mother’s Day here in the UAE, and weeks before, I had applied for a leave for that day because, well, I just wanted to. Good thing I did because a few days before, it was mentioned in Caila’s school diary that the kids’ mothers were invited to a Mother’s Day celebration to be held on the 21st of March. So, tamang-tama talaga yung pag-apply ko ng leave.

I arrived at Caila’s classroom that morning just a few minutes before the program started. All of the kids were standing in line outside the room, while all the mothers were asked to sit down on the small chairs. It was a bit cramped, but we all managed to be comfortable. Then the kids walked in and I saw my daughter following the little girl in front of her looking around for me. As soon as she saw me, she smiled. We were then asked to stand up and join them in the Mother’s Day prayer followed by their exercise: dancing to the tune of Justin Bieber’s song “Baby.” Most of the moms were game and joined, while some were too shy and just took pictures or videos of the children.

After that, the kids were called in front and were each given cute things to do or say to their moms: tell your mother “You are very beautiful” or “You are the best mother in the world,” give mommy a tight hug and kiss, give mommy a foot massage (complete with lotion!), tickle your mother and make her laugh, etc. Caila’s task was to give me a hand massage (which she actually does at home), but that day, she was too shy from all the attention and ended up crying. I had to go in front to calm her down and give her the massage myself =)

There were kids whose moms weren’t able to attend, so they did their tasks to some of the other mothers who were there instead. There was one who was really excited to do what the teacher told him, but upon looking around the room and finding that his mom wasn’t there, he burst out crying. Nakakaawa talaga. Several of us were willing to be his substitute mother for that activity, but he preferred to just sit alone. Oh well.

Once all the kids had their turn, we proceeded to the next activity: making lollipop flowers. All the kids were excited in helping their mothers...especially since it involved lollipops! My daughter, however, didn’t want to make them. She was afraid to lose the lollipop that was given to her and wouldn’t let it go, even though I explained to her that we were just going to make it pretty and she could eat the lollipop later. Ayaw pa rin. Later though, when she saw the pretty lollipop flowers that her classmates were holding, she finally gave it to me so that I could make one.

The next activity was the distribution and reading of the cards that the kids had colored. The cards were given to each of the kids, they would give those to their moms, and the moms would each read aloud the message that was written inside. Again, Caila clammed up and she didn’t want to get my card. Haaaay!!!

Finally, just before the celebration ended, we were given magnets with post-its that had our pictures stuck on them. Pretty cute...kasi cute kaming mag-ina sa picture eh =)

my Mother's Day gifts from Caila

the message inside the card...awww!

It was a great idea for the school to organize an activity like this for the kids and their mothers. I’m sure it’s the teachers who were the ones who wrote the messages in each of the cards and made all the magnets, but still, it was very nice to give us mothers a celebration like that. And knowing me, you can bet naluha ako during some moments that morning.