STAFFORD COUNTY — Katie Mount is a fourth-grade student at Park Ridge Elementary School in Stafford County.
When she’s not at school her mom, Kelly, says she likes to make slime. She watches YouTube videos to learn what colors to make and to get the right consistency of the group. She also likes to eat at Chick-fil-A.
At age nine, life can be full of surprises. But on Monday, the surprise was all for Katie.
Principals teachers and about 125 fourth grade students gathered in the school’s auditorium about ten thirty. Katie was surprised when her name was pulled from a hat. She was the winner of two cups of frozen yogurt from an area Sweet Frog store.
But the real surprise was standing right behind her. That’s when her father 47-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Brent Mount, fresh off a six-month deployment to Afghanistan, returned home and surprised Katie.
She jumped into his arms.
Katie told reporters that she was “happy” to see her father and that it was the biggest surprise she had ever received.
“I’ve seen her on Skype and Facetime and she looked like she’s gotten older, and I’m like ‘what happened to my little girl? She’s gotten bigger since I’ve been gone,” said Mount, Katie’s father. “She’s a lot taller than she was before I left.”
Katie lives with her mom in Stafford and has attended Park Ridge Elementary School for about three years.
“You never know what’s going through her head. She doesn’t express herself a lot about what she’s feeling, and maybe that’s becuase of her age, but we were really hoping that she was going to OK with this, to be excited he’s home,” said Kelly Mount, Katie’s mother.
In addition to the frozen yogurt from Sweet Frog, Mission Barbecue, located very near the school, also said it would donate food to the family.
Mount said he’s looking forward to getting some real American food with his daughter Katie. After that, they plan to spend time together. He’s fresh back so they don’t know exactly what they’ll do yet but they are happy to be reunited.
