Kathy Williams

Some quite frankly flop. Children are not impressed with pajamas, at least not for long. Ditto for hats and shirts. However, shirts with transfer photos of them were a mild hit with Suzannah and Jacob at Christmas.

A tradition begun with our daughters Autumn and Laurel is to find occasions to present them with the latest in soap bubble blowing fun and technology. Now I bring Jacob and Suzannah a new bubble gun, wand, scented solution or whatever. I never fail to find some new gadget. Mother's Day, they each got a powered bubble blower with a fan and a pump mechanism that is supposed to bring the bubble fluid up from the screw-on bottle and into play.

We had a few special moments with them, but they are tough on batteries. You can't pry open the machines at all, because once out of alignment, they don't work. The best bubble machine I've ever found went to Laurel upon high school graduation. It power-blew out a long stream of bubbles. It had parallel bars of metal on the side and when you popped the bubbles on the bar, it played music. Seriously, 10 songs.

But hands down the most exciting, well-worth-the money, Cool-Mama Cool-Papa gift was the new 3-D chalk set with glasses and animal stencils they could use on the blackboard their dad Jon had painted on their bedroom wall. They drew; they squealed with delight -- even before they put the glasses on. Suzannah drew a rainbow, Jacob, a house on fire. We told them the glasses would make the colors come off the wall and float.

They put the glasses on and began to tremble, "Look, the blue's coming off the wall!" "It looks like I can put my hand through the blackboard!" "Mom!"

Whew! I am a Cool Mama.

Happy birthday Tuesday to Brian Hall of Tom Bean; Mike Carrell of Pottsboro; Danny Crook, Teresa Martinez and Terry Stowers, all of Denison; Janna Faith, Mandy Shields, Sanaa Mona Rice and Tom Wilks, all of Sherman; Seth Daniel Mutz of Southmayd; Katherine Landolt of Seattle, Wash.; Shirley Mullens Cole of Longview; Cindy Ferguson of Bonham; Kyle Kirby of Frisco; Red Bateman and twins, Morgan and McKenna Everheart, all of Bells.

Happy anniversary Tuesday to Joel and Cyndi Moore of Savoy, 36 years; Bobby and Nancy Dobbs of Sherman, 25 years.