It began with tea and ended with tears - but happy ones! - as John W. Decas Elementary second graders celebrated moms during the sixth annual Mother's Day Tea on Wednesday, May 5.

Teachers and hosts Patti Nelson and Patrick Roche offered iced tea, punch, cookies, and brownies during the tea party portion of the evening. Moms relaxed while students did the serving.

But after the tea party, "the kids run the show," Nelson said. "There won't be a dry eye in the house."

She was right.

One by one the second graders, some of the girls in spring dresses and the boys in shirts and ties, stepped up to a podium to read heartfelt letters to their moms.

"You don't need make-up to be the prettiest girl in the world," said 8-year-old Emmaline Alden of her mother, Dawn.

The event was also attended by Nelson's and Roche's mothers, who visit every year. The first year, Nelson and Roche also read letters to their mothers, but they said they can't do it anymore without getting choked up.

"That was the only year we were able to get through it," Nelson said.

Now the letters hang on the walls near the classrooms, which are decorated accordingly for the event.

In his letter to his mother, Colleen, 8-year-old Grady Reardon said something that every mom wants to hear: "You are the right person to be a mother."