Random Kids, Treasure Hunts and Love
Our beloved friend Mary, with the assistance of her husband Daniel (and no doubt his support in moments of frantic preparation), gave the boys the best present imaginable yesterday. Actually it was a wonderful present for us as well.
She planned out a treasure hunt for them, complete with extravagant Lego treasure, at the end. We had told the boys that they had an adventure scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Owen immediately perked up and started asking who and what and here.....Leo just groaned and said, "ohhhh NOW what?" I told him it involved Mary so he said, "oh, o.k." in a more cheerful voice.
As noon approached they kept peering out the door to see if she was coming but when she actually arrived they tried to act all cool and calm and casual. She gave them their first clue, said there was a strict two hour time limit and that the clock was already ticking. She brilliantly worked it out so that neither one could hijack things and they had to work together. Owen had the coded message while Leo had the code. They carefully matched up numbers and letters and got the message "Dr. Howard Elementary School playground planter" Owen looked up excitedly and said, "I KNOW where that is!" So off they went. At the planter they found they had to put a puzzle together----Owen could only use the pieces marked O and Leo the pieces marked L. Eventually the picture pointed the way to Davidson Park where they would find an informant. Informant Daniel then quizzed them on trivia questions....as Mary said, it was almost as though the quiz had been written JUST for them. Pulling certain letters out of the answers they found the next clue and off to Eisner Park they went. There they had another clue which then sent them elsewhere in the park and once they found the two gold stars they had to go to the Huber's candy window. There they turned in their stars received bags of candy.....and the last clue sending them to Mary's car where there were two big old Lego sets waiting for them.
The boys came home beaming with Lego sets under their arms. Owen of course dug into the candy while Leo immediately took over the dining room table to begin putting his set together. I can't even begin to tell you how happy they were. Later that afternoon as I walked through the dining room Leo announced, "this is a GREAT day." I paused and said, "I know honey. Mary is pretty wonderful, she must care about you a lot." And he looked up at me and quietly said, "yeah" and smiled.
I can't tell you how much that quiet 'yeah' and smile meant to me. For Leo to just confidently accept that someone loves him just touched my heart so. I know the boys feel loved by us. Of that I don't really have doubts. But you know...they've lost some of their biggest fans in the last few years between my mother and father and sister....and Ernie's parents before that. And yesterday evening all I could think was how much the treasure hunt was something that Judi would have done. Ernie and I adore those boys, as does my sister Debbie and Ernie's brothers are incredibly wonderful to us all. But that treasure hunt? Not something any of us would have done. It made my boys feel special and it made me feel like Judi's spirit was still in the boys' lives.....and for that I can't possibly thank Mary enough.
We went to breakfast today and over pancakes they told us every detail of the hunt yet again. And then Owen mused, "here we are, just two random kids....and she did that all for us....wow." They talked at length about how kind she is and what they were thinking of doing to thank her. I just sat there happily watching them feel happy and loved.
What an incredible gift it is to make someone feel loved.
Thank you with all my heart Mary.