Decadence

Last week I hosted my fourth and final Teacher Appreciation Week. Yes, that's right, I said FINAL.  I actually really love putting on Teacher Appreciation Week, though I still can't quite figure out how that became my job four years ago.  I love feeding and pampering and treating the wonderful teachers at our school.  And as much as I love it, I am also exhausted by it.  It's so much work and effort, even for just one expression of appreciation each day.  I've been very happy to have found a willing mom to take my place next year.

One of the ways I treated the teachers this year was this great day where I arranged for 10 minute massages for the teachers on one side of the faculty room and on the other, a chocolate fountain surrounded by platters of fruit and cake and pretzels to dip.  The teachers seemed to love it and hovered there for quite a while both before and after their massages.  I didn't want to run short, so I made sure I had plenty of chocolate. As per usual, I slightly overdid it.  I'm a chronic overdo-er.  Except on the days when I'm a total and complete underdo-er.  It's extremely rare for me to be a just-righter.

The kids got a glimpse of the chocolate fountain which I had borrowed from a friend.  They watched as I put the pieces together and got it ready to take to school.  They begged for a chance to use it themselves.  At the end of the school day I discovered that cleaning a chocolate fountain should have been assigned as one of the tasks of Hercules.  It was not easy.  And I thought that perhaps the kids would be satisfied by dipping fruit into a bowl of melted chocolate instead of me having to reset the whole fountain business.  Oh dear...haven't I been a parent for quite some time now?  Shouldn't I have known better?  I should have.  The kids let me know that I had PROMISED the use of the fountain and that NO INDEED would dipping in a bowl of chocolate be in any way the same.  Oh brother, I was going to have to clean it up again.  (I would like to insert here the fact that my children let me know these things very politely with good manners and decorum.) (Mostly.)

Troy and I decided that if we were going to have a chocolate fountain we might as well really enjoy it and spread the love, so we called some friends whom we knew might be game for a spontaneous, school-night, later-than-it-should-have-been invitation to come gorge themselves on chocolate.  With a little fruit on the side.

The resulting party was just....so chocolatey.  It's fun making a kid's fondest dreams come true.  Here, come drink from this flowing fount of candy.