Chicks! Butterflies! Flowers for Mary!

What a day…so many exciting things happening in Will’s 1B classroom today…

About a month ago, they started the unit on life cycles. Both first grade classes created a habitat for Monarch butterflies and put the chick incubator in the classroom. Now, I can’t tell you much about the winged species, but my Aggie degree does count for something on the chick end. Ew, that didn’t come out right. Anyhoo, we’ve been counting the days until “Hatch Day,” which would be today, of course. Five cute little chicks made their debut, with another seven to go. Will gives us the hatch report every afternoon. We’ve been on Hatch Watch 2008 for 21 days. Exciting stuff, I tell ya.

AND, the biggest event to hit first grade was the May Crowning this morning. They rehearsed for weeks. Each one had a part in this mornings Mass (Will did a fantabulous job on the prayers of the faithful).

As the kids were singing Ave Maria, I got a little nostalgic…and a lot proud of young Master Will. We send him to Catholic school for many reasons, but the biggest being that he gets to learn about, practice and share his faith with his classmates and teachers. It’s pretty awesome to look up and see the school principal distributing communion and his teacher blessing her students.

I realized I should take a moment and give my non-Catholic blog readers a quick run-down of what a May Crowning is. The month of May is reserved for a pretty special mom, Mary. And, on May 1st each year, we symbolically “crown” her as Queen of Heaven and Earth. At Will’s school, they reserve this dubious honor for the first graders, as they prepare to enter their sacramental year and celebrate two sacraments, First Communion and Reconciliation. As a convert, I’ll admit this was one of my less favorite beliefs. This whole Mary thing. After I became a mom, particularly when Will was hospitalized with a horrible case of croup in 2003, we kinda had our moment. I was freaking out and really searching for a mom that understood. Enter Mary. A priest came by the hospital to pray with us and it was quite powerful. I found myself in awe of a woman (a girl, really) who rode on a donkey 9 months prego – ouch, ouch and ouch – to give birth in a 5-star setting to the King of Kings. After losing him at the temple, then asking him to perform his first miracle at Cana and worrying about him day and night…she stands by while the world crucifies him. Surely if she can do that, I can handle a 3-day hospital stay.

So, long story short, it’s fitting that in the month of May, when we honor our own moms, that we pay homage to Jesus’. Whew – this was not supposed to be this long! Hey, have a great Thursday and tune in tomorrow evening when I post pictures from a very special mom/son date!!!