Disappointment

I would love to show you pictures of my beautiful tulips, daffodils, and forget me knots that opened yesterday. I had planned to spend part of the day today admiring their beauty, and probably snapping a few photos. However, some neighbor kids came up in my yard last night and picked every one of my newly opened flowers. One even picked a bunch of flowers off my hanging basket on my front porch. I know her mom was watching her because I saw something run across in front of the window, and as I looked out the side window, I saw the mom watching. By the time I looked out front, there wasn't anyone in sight. I thought maybe she was going to come over and ask a question or something but got side tracked by one of the neighbor kids. I came upstairs to put on a sweatshirt to go outside, and glanced out the window. I saw a bunch of kids in the bed of the pickup. As I walked downstairs, it dawned on me that each of those kids had handfuls of flower heads. I went out to my front yard, and sure enough, every flower had been taken. I felt sick. I know they are just flowers and in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter, but I lost seventy-five percent of my bulbs over the winter so the few that actually made it, I was thrilled to see. I noticed they had opened when I got home from work last night, and was looking forward to enjoying them today. Unfortunately, no one is going to be enjoying them. My hubby talked to the kids about how you don't just go into someone's yard and pick their flowers. He also talked to the set of parents where the mom watched what happened. One of the parents of the other kids marched the kids over and apologized, made them apologize, and offered to help the situation out by buying me more plants. I said that was not necessary, but told the kids I would really appreciate if they just didn't come in my yard and strip the flowers from the beds. I was guaranteed by the parent it would not happen again. I appreciate that this parent talked to the kids about respecting others property, and I appreciate the fact that they offered to buy more plants. I still miss my flowers, though, especially the tulips because I look forward to them all winter! So today, as there is glorious sunshine, I will go out and plant some annuals that I purchased yesterday and try to bring more color to the yard. I will also try to bury the disappointment I have over the loss of my flowers.