Wednesday afternoon.

These look much more like it, right?

As we got ready to leave school, I told the kids about my sunflower dilemma. They have been along with me in the last few days as I’ve driven around searching for a sunflower, so I was surprised when one said, “How about the school garden?” And the other said, “Yeah! There are sunflowers there!”

And neither thought to suggest the school garden this week as I’ve gone on and on about the need to take a detour here or there in hopes of finding a sunflower? Seemed a bit strange! But then again, it shows me how much attention they’re really (not) paying to what I say.

So we turned the car back around, drove up to the garden side, and they both hopped out to search for sunflowers while I looked for someone to park. In the end, they came back with a handful of sorrel to munch, but there were no sunflowers.

As we left, again, I was describing sunflowers and telling them that along the street we were on, I know that someone has had sunflowers blooming in the past, but that it must just not be the right time of year. All of a sudden, they both started saying they saw sunflowers, that I’d just driven past them… Really? So I backed down the very narrow street until I was parallel to a large bush of something that was definitely not a sunflower and in no way matched the description I’d been giving them.

We headed off again, and I decided to do one last circle by a flower shop I’d passed yesterday but skipped in favor of the farther away and larger one that I thought would offer more impressive flowers.

We slowed down as we drove by, and, bingo… a bucket of sunflowers out front. I parked down the street, and they both jumped out to walk back to the flower shop with me. I snapped some photos of the very classic sunflowers with their large brown centers, and we got ready to walk back to the car.

I didn’t buy a bundle of sunflowers. Instead, I bought a single “Milky Way Bombe” dessert (their choice) for them to split from the bakery that caught their eye next door to the flower shop.

They’ll enjoy that more. And I did get at least a basic sunflower photo. (At least I think I’m on track this time!)