Last Year's Mission

My mother's birthday is the very beginning of June.  And like most people my age, I struggle with the "What do I get her?" issue.  She has reached the point in her life where if she wants or needs something, she buys it.  Makes it a little difficult on my end.

Last year was no different.  The Heathens and I were having no luck.  So, we decided to be ORIGINAL, and buy her bedding plants.  At least that's how it started, before the Heathens imaginations joined in.

As we were heading to WalMart to purchase the flowers, one of the Heathens decided we should plant them for her without her knowing, thus adding to the surprise.  (Okay - no problem.)

BUT!  She would see us out the window before we could finish and it would ruin the surprise.  We needed camo to help us hide!  (Absolutely!  This could get interesting.)

At this point, we were at WalMart and picked out the flat of flowers.  We also picked out two little rabbit statues to place in the garden.  I tend to be an impulse shopper and my Heathens have inherited that from me.

We checked the toy section - no camo costumes.  And the ones in the outdoor section where too expensive.  We headed for the makeup, where I grabbed cheap eye shadow in brown, green, and black.

After paying at WalMart, we headed for Toys R Us.  We found four camo costumes in the dress-up section.  The costumes had vests, hats, plastic knives, binoculars, compasses, etc.  They were very cool.  After paying, we headed out to the parking lot to put on our gear.

After suiting up (myself included!), we headed for Grammy B's house.  On the drive over, the Heathens decided that they needed code names.  At this point, I don't remember what they were.  The only one I recall is that Heathen #3 was Rudolf.

We parked at the very end of the driveway in the trees and applied our "camo paint."  Then the mission began.  The older two Heathens spent the next twenty minutes sneaking around my mother's house and peaking in her windows while the youngest Heathen and I planted her flowers.

When finished, we knocked on her front door and brought her out to see our work.  My dad said they had seen the boys running around in the yard and had wondered what we were doing. 

The night wasn't over yet!  We decided to get ice cream just down the road from my parents' house.  The boys went in their camo and face paint.  And so did I.  Needless to say, we drew a few odd looks.  But the boys had a great time.

My mother took some pictures that evening, and I just managed to lay my hands on them.  Here is the team from the mission: