Amazing Children!

We have some pretty amazing children! I have blogged about some of their amazing skills and talents in recent months, so this should come as no surprise! However, yesterday I realized anew how amazing they truly are!

They spent the last several weeks plotting out how they were going to "pull off" their Christmas gift to Michael and me. And after some significant research and planning, they did it!

After hearing that Michael's parents were coming to visit us for the weekend, they were able to solidify their plans. A couple of weeks ago, they gave us the first part of our gift: a letter letting us know that we would have several hours to ourselves on Dec. 20th after putting the baby down for a nap. We would be able to shop together with no children. They also included a gift card to one of our favorite restaurants - Outback, to have dinner before returning home.

We were touched by their generosity in giving us some time together to talk after a long semester, shop for ourselves (their gifts were all purchased long ago!) and eat a peaceful meal out.

Little did we know that was only the beginning of their pre-Christmas gift to us yesterday! While we were gone for a total of 6 hours, Michael's parents "secretly" stayed in town to help the kids paint one of the walls in our living room! We had been wanting to do this for some time now, but just never got around to it. The kids had selected and purchased the paint a few weeks ago. Michael's father, Dennis, brought along his painting supplies (he also painted the boys' room and Lauren's room when we moved here).

The minute we left, they all quickly changed, moved and covered the furniture, taped the walls and placed two coats of beautiful green paint on the wall. Lauren documented the afternoon with lots of pictures of the "before," "during" and "after." Dennis and Sandy left a couple of hours before we got home. The kids completely moved back all the furniture and even lit candles and used potpourri spray to mask the smell of the almost dry paint.

And when we arrived home, they videoed our reaction...complete surprise and excitement. How did they do it so quickly?! How were they able to select such a perfect color! How did they all keep their plans hidden from us for so long?

The room looks amazing now. In fact, so amazing, that Michael decided to bring in the carpet cleaners today to complete the new look! Our children blessed us in so many ways yesterday: several hours to ourselves, a great dinner and all the time, money and planning that went into completing this project so quickly! It looks like our years of "Dollar Store" gifts are way behind us! How did they grow up so quickly?!