Love Bag

So, in keeping with the whole "I am not Catholic" theme, this whole idea of Avery's first penance was news to me. But, it happened.  On February 13th (Friday the 13th nonetheless), Avery had her first penance.  When I asked her what she was going to tell the priest, she informed me that she was told that she didn't have to tell anyone but the priest, so she was keeping it private.  Alrighty then...

She then informed me that there were a few things that she didn't feel comfortable telling the priest.  So, of course, I tell her that if she isn't comfortable, she doesn't need to tell him.  To which she replies, "Well, Mrs. H. said that god knows everything, so he will know if I lie to the priest."  I'll be honest - I had somewhat of a hard time with this one.  I mean, seriously?  What could a 7 year-old possibly have done that is bad enough to be confessed?  That said, I attempted to be good and told her to just tell God privately if she didn't want to tell the priest.  I thought that was a good solution (and also happened to be one suggested by a co-worker, but whatever).

So, anyway...they have their first penance and then go about their day.  Then, at around 1 PM, all of the parents assembled in the auditorium and waited for both classes to come in so that we could surprise them with the love bag ceremony.

What is a love bag you ask?  Well, it starts off as a regular brown grocery bag that is given to all parents of 2nd graders in September (i.e., I've had 5 months to make this thing).  And, all parents are told that they are supposed to decorate the outside of the bag and then put things that show your child that you love them inside of the bag. However, these things are not supposed to be materialistic (i.e., no iPads, iPods, etc.).  They are supposed to be things that you make, hand down, etc.  Easy enough, right?  Except that the decorating of the love bag has now taken on a whole new meaning and has gotten quite intense.  They specifically say to keep it simple - not to go overboard.  But, hello????  When I KNOW that there will be parents who do go overboard, how am I supposed to keep it simple??!!!!  Oh hey, Avery - that's your love bag - the one that is just a brown paper sack with your name on it.  Yeah...no.  So...I went into craft mode.

I entered Michaels having literally no idea what I was going to do with the bag to make it look cool.  I went the fabric route, but then realized I can't sew.  So, I decided to go the poster board/stickers/stencils/pictures route.  $70 worth of supplies later, I was out.

Then came the tough part -decorating this thing when Avery wasn't around because, of course, this was all a surprise.  In an effort to do so, Josh took the kids on a Saturday morning and the plan was for me to go to his office to work on this thing.  So, I get ready to go and go to get the $70 worth of supplies - CAN'T.  FIND.  THE.  $70.  WORTH.  OF.  SUPPLIES!!!!!!!!!!!  You have no idea the sense of anger I felt.  So...off to Michaels again.  $70 (or, really- $140) later, I was out.  Except, now?  The kids were due home any second, so nothing got done.

Luckily, I did have a couple of weeks before the bag was due and I did get it done.  And, I think that it actually turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself!

And, what went into the love bag, you ask?  She got some pretty cool stuff.  I wrote a poem for her (not sure if you can read it?)...

I also made her a photo book of her first year of life (I had to stop there, as it was 70 pages already).

Grammy and Grampy wrote adjectives about her using the letters of her name and then framed it.

Auntie Kristen and Uncle Ra-Ra gave her a coupon book good for things like a trip to the ice cream store, the movies, the mall, etc.

Aunt Lexi and Uncle Will wrote her hykus and the girls drew her pictures. 

Alex and Josh wrote her a letter.

And, Opa and Grandma made her this insanely creative thing...it came in a box and started with a cutout of both of their hand prints and then, as she pulled that out, all of these hearts were connected with a string and each heart had a reason why they loved Avery on it.  It was pretty cool.

Overall, although I was a little skeptical at first, the entire ceremony was very nice.  All of the bags were lined up very nicely on the stage and the principal presented each child with their bag.  Prior to that, they all sang the songs that they had sung in the penance ceremony that morning.  It was really cute.  They had a great time opening it and were very surprised - so much so that I believe my child just may have yelled "What the HECK is going on??????" in front of all of the parents as she walked in....and, this my friends is just one of the many reasons we love Avery.