Well, we'll see how this all turns out. The student teacher for Mort's classroom will soon be leaving. As such, his permanent teacher has arranged a surprise party for her. His teacher has stressed over and over that this is a secret and please remind your children to keep this a secret, etc etc.

Mort doesn't really do secrets. If you tell him something is a secret, it's a surefire way to make him blurt it out. So I've been dropping off supplies and gifts without his knowledge.

However, he did discover my volunteer time this week would be different due to the party. "But why?" he kept pressing. So I told him.

Immediately he worried, "But what if Ms.--- asks where you are?" In hindsight, I should have just instructed him to say he didn't know. It's believable and not a total lie. Instead I said, "Uh, just say I'm sick." Which is a lie and I instantly felt bad for instructing him to lie.

No worries though because Mort wanted to expand on that lie like nobodies' business. "I'll tell her you've been having headaches off and on and your stomach hurts!" he exclaimed.

"I doubt she'll even ask, sweetie, but if she does you can just say I'm sick."

"I'll tell her you just really wanted to sleep in today!"

"Honey, you can just say I'm sick, but really, I don't think you'll have to say anything."

I have a feeling that when I show-up, there will be surprises all around. His teacher will be surprised when I come in at all because he will have told her that I was sick and/or sleeping it off and his student teacher will know all about her surprise party because Mort will have told her he can't wait for her surprise party the minute he walked into the classroom.