Succulents, kids, and a crisis averted

Ok, here goes…my first gardening is for everyone tutorial. It’s gonna go great, or so I’m thinking in my head this morning as I am making breakfast (and by making breakfast, I mean pouring Rice Krispies in a bowl). All day long, I’m all happy while I get some paperwork done and hang with my two littles because of my ambitious afternoon idea.

So here’s my plan for when the bigs get off the bus: I’m going to greet them with an awesome mom hug, followed by a Dunkin’ Donuts treat, head to my favorite local plant nursery, and let them pick out some trendy succulents. Then we will all be laughing and singing in the car on the way home. When we get home, we will plant, paint, and create. And I’ll be the best mom ever. The end.

So here’s what really happened: Oaks pooped right before I had to get the bus, making us late. They got off the bus wondering where I was and why I was late and they were both in a huff. I brushed that off🙂. I told them my wonderful plan and one of them complained that they didn’t want to plant cacti, but pink flowers instead. I brushed that off.😕 We get to Dunkin. I get in line and order and a woman who we just did a HUGE job for is behind me and I start chatting. And all of the sudden I feel a giant splash on my legs. Lucca’s Powerade. All. Over. The.  Floor. Oh, and all over my customer’s white pants. Yes, white. She took it fine. Me…not so much. At this point, my eye is starting to twitch. I brush it off😣. Ok. Moving on. We sit down. Eat our donuts. Go to leave.  One of the girls drops their whole smoothie!! At this point, I’m ready to explode😫 but instead all that comes out is crazy laughing🤣. And everyone looks at me weird, including my kids, who are silent in fear at this point. It can only go up from here. Really, this is the bottom.

And surprisingly, it does. We actually had a great time at the nursery. Compromised on the plants. They picked out awesome pots that I totally would have picked out myself. 

It’s really an easy project to do with kids that comes out great. Succulents mix and match well, are easy to plant, and are easy to keep alive. Just remember to throw some drainage rocks on the bottom, use an alpine soil mix, and we topped ours with stone and fun painted rocks. Sophia even got creative and dry stacked hers. 

At the end of the day, I forgot about all the complaining, spilled drinks, crazy laughter, and spoiled plans. Lucca even said, “this is the bestest day mom” which made it all worth it. And now I have some pretty awesome, and trendy (I might add) succulent bowls for display.