EOG's, Ice Cream & Tennis Shoes

Last week was the week that the 3rd-5th graders took their end of grade testing. This is a very important test in the life of a child. It can determine weather or not you pass your grade. The week before they took the practice test and Lauren made 100. Her teacher has been at Union for 8 years and said that was the first time she had ever seen a perfect score! I told Lauren if she did well on the "real" test I would take her to her favorite ice cream place and get her a big scoope of whatever flavor she wanted. The test is now over and on a scale grade of 1-4 she made a 4 on the reading and math. The only one in her class to score a 4 on both. Needless to say I owed Lauren a scoope of icecream. Yesterday was the day we went to Bruster's Lauren got the ever so big waffle cone of ice cream and Kaylee got the small sugar cone. I decided that the girls needed tennis shoes while we were out. We went to Rack Room where it was buy one get one half price. What a great deal!! I took the girls in and decided since they have worked so hard that I would let them do something that I have never done before, pick out their own tennis shoes. Lauren looked me in the face with a big grin and said "your kidding right mom?" "there is no way you are gonna let us pick out our tennis shoes". Wow was I really that bad? I hate ugly tennis shoes. I like practical ones, that will match almost everything that they wear. I wish someone besides me and the sales lady could have seen the smiles on their faces. After about 20 minutes of searching for just the right pair of shoes, Lauren ended up with a pair of white Vann's and Kaylee ended up with a pair of black, pink, lime, green and white oxford tennis shoes. They were so excited that they wore the tennis shoes out of the store. They have never wanted to wear the ones that I picked. I learned a lesson yesterday. What is ugly in my eyes is just what someone else loves. My kids are growing and I need to learn to trust their opinions more. Lauren told me yesterday more than 4 or 5 times "thank you mom for my tennis shoes". I don't remember the last time she said thank you that many times and really meant it each time she said it. I am so blessed to be able to spend this time with my daughters. I can only hope that one day when they have children of their own, they remember the day their mom took them for ice cream and tennis shoes!