I Hate Being A Penguin

My (thoughtful, kind and caring) friend Deb is a teacher at our local Catholic grade school where she teaches a combined classroom of first and second graders... and in her class are my friend Susie's son, Jonathan (2nd grade), and my friend Meg's son, Ben (1st grade).

I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall in that room everyday. :)

 (Batman aka Jonathan, and Dracula aka Ben) 

It's been such a fun year for me, because Deb's class has made me their project of sorts. Around Thanksgiving time each year, the kids in Deb's class make cards for the elderly/homebound members of the parish associated with the school. Even though I'm not a member of that parish or on the list (or elderly thankyouverymuch), Deb told the kids that she had a friend that couldn't leave the house and thought it would be nice to make me cards, too.

She said Jonboy and Benny Boy (yep, that's what I call them) were eager to tell the class that they were my friends, too, and when she made a comment about how much I would love the cards when I was lonely Jonboy quickly quipped:

"Oh, she's never lonely. She has Riley!"

He may have heard me tell him that a few times. Good to know he's really listening. :)

So at Thanksgiving this year I received two big cards, decorated by Jonboy:

and Benny Boy:

that contained cards from the entire class:

(photo-taking was momentarily interrupted by a jealous dog who needed some attention and a toy thrown for him):

ANYWAY... I absolutely loved my cards and the sweet sentiments they all wrote to me. Some were signed "your pal" and many wrote about their favorite Thanksgiving food or where they were going for the holiday. Seriously, I loved each and every one of them more than you can know. And at the same time discovered that I'm not too bad at deciphering phonetic spelling!

So I was thrilled when Christmas rolled around and I received a new batch of cards that were even more decorated and elaborate than before:

Deb has played a cd of my songs in her classroom from time to time, so I had letters about the music and even a few that said they hoped the cold weather wasn't too hard on me. I'll admit, my eyes might have leaked a little over that one. Such little people, and yet they have such very big hearts.

And, oh my cow... did I laugh, too. Because sometimes, a kid just needs to tell it like it is... like the following card that I can't get enough of. The outside is a drawing of a penguin that says:

 "I hate being a penguin!"

And on the inside is a drawing of an elf that says:

"I love being an elf!"

Yep, this one hit the nail on the head, because they are pretty much the sweetest little elves I've ever met.