one day down, 179 more to go

So they think the stuffed raccoon puppet came to life, walked from the table to the counter, and baked them cookies. Do first graders have an imagination, or what? I felt like I was in Disneyland this afternoon!

It was just before lunch when I read the book The Kissing Hand and we talked about how hard it was for some of us to leave our moms on the first day, and how hard it was for some moms to leave their kids, and how the kiss from mom on the hand goes straight to the heart, and that they can think about all that love all day long. (Sweet, sweet little story my niece Hannah told me about from her first day in kindergarten last year.)

Then I introduced our raccoon puppet, Chester (which I stole from my husband's play therapy toy collection which he isn't currently using because he deals with wack-o adults on a daily basis) and oh, what a great little raccoon he is! But who would've thought that he'd go into hiding after lunch and leave us clues all around the school that we'd have to find and figure out? We went from the library to the office to the kitchen to the PE teacher, and up to 2nd grade. Eventually he sent us back to our room where he was hiding. . . with some heart shaped cut out cookies topped with a Hershey's Kiss. (Yes, they have a cheeze-mo teacher who forgot to take a picture of said raccoon in hiding, but they had a ball on their little treasure hunt.)

I still can't get over the fact that they for real thought the raccoon had walked across the room and baked them cookies. This just takes gullible to a whole new level.