Brownie bear

Brownie Bear came home with John from Miss Everett's kindergarten class to spend the weekend at our house recently. John's behavior surrounding the bear's arrival is a funny story in itself so I'll start with that.

I picked up the kids at school on Friday afternoon and we made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home. While we were there John pulled me aside and whispered, "mom, when we get home I have something to tell you about and I need to do it in private. I do not want Amelia to hear." So of course, being the bad, pessimistic mom that I am, I immediately thought that John must have gotten in trouble at school that day. I thought that he wanted to talk about it in private so that he could show me the note from his teacher without Amelia seeing so that she wouldn't comment on his poor behavior. So for the next hour before we got home I was grumpy and assuming the worst.

So imagine my surprise when John pulled Brownie and the bear's journal out of his bag, smiled real big, and said "Mom, I get to take Brownie home this weekend. It's kind-of like being the special student. You get to take home Brownie for being good in class."


Of course I was thrilled, and then immediately disappointed with myself for having doubted John in the first place. Underneath all that sassiness really is a good kid after all.

The descriptive note about Brownie Bear from the journal is transcribed below the photo.

Brownie and Miss Everett

I have known Brownie since he was a bear cub. He loves to learn and make new friends. I decided to bring him to school. He is very excited about visiting everyone's home and meeting your families.

Brownie can be very curious and mischievous! You may wake up and find him somewhere that he shouldn't be. For example, he might be in the garage trying to ride your bike or maybe he made a tent out of your sheets while you were sleeping!

Brownie likes to go to the Highland Park Scots football games, play soccer and baseball, ride horses and tractors and go fishing. Brownie loves to go to dinner, to the park, or out of town with you.

That's the end. So the idea of Brownie Bear is that he does fun things with the host family all weekend, and then the student compiles a few photos and a desciption of the weekend for the journal. That way Miss Everett can see what Brownie did. But more importantly, the kids who take Brownie home in the future will get to read the fun journal documenting all of Brownie's adventures with his classmates.

In the space below I'll pretend like this is the journal entry that John prepared for Brownie.

Brownie Bear and John - 11/2/2011

Brownie Bear likes to go to the park to feed the ducks.

Brownie Bear really liked laying on the blanket in the warm sunshine.Brownie Bear posing for a photo with John.

Brownie wanted to go swimming. SILLY BEAR! The pool is closed!
Instead of swimming, Brownie decided it would be OK to have a treat at Yumilicious.Brownie Bear decided to take a nap with the cat.

Brownie Bear wanted to go trick-or-treating with us on Halloween night, but we wouldn't let him. Brownie helped us pass out candy instead.

It was fun having Brownie Bear at our house for Halloween!

That's the end of the story, but one more funny thing. Brownie didn't wear a shirt much of the weekend, just like John doesn't wear a shirt often when we are home. Anyway, we had taken the Halloween photo and I had just put my camera away, when Amelia exclaimed in horror, "Mom, you have to take that picture again! Brownie didn't have a shirt on and that is not appropriate for putting in the journal!". Ha ha, so we took the photo again, this time with Brownie appropriately clothed.