The end of a decade!!!!

I can't believe this school year is over! Furthermore, I can't believe that after 10 years, I'm leaving teaching to try something new! I had to post about my last few days at PFE.

What first grade school year can officially come to an end without some sort of production? We put on our Little Red Riding Hood Reader's Theater for the parents a few weeks ago. These 4 were my actors for Little Red. We switched at scenes so more kids could have parts.

I didn't put all the pictures on here, but this one cracks me up. These two were the "grannies" in the play.

Here's the class in front of the background the day before we did our play. It turned out really cute.

The other day I pulled up to the school and saw this terrible sight! Our school was majorly tagged by someone. This is after it had been power washed too. They've covered it up now, but how sad is that?

On the last day of school (yesterday) we had a yearbook signing outside under the pavilion. The kids were crazy, but they looked cute in the bucket hats we gave them.

Here's my awesome team!

. . . and my crazy class.

I had to jump in the picture with them one last time.

After the kids had gone home, they called the staff into the library and it was a surprise party for me that my team had thrown. How sweet! They made it Hawaii themed because they knew I loved Hawaii and that I'm going at the end of the summer.

Here are 3 of the culprits.

Here we are again. These ladies are so sweet and I have loved getting to know all the great people at PFE. I'm sure I'll really miss everyone, but am looking forward to this new chapter in my life!

Watches!

For my birthday, my awesome Relief Society President and friend, Kenna, made me an awesome watch that I LOVE. She offered to teach our presidency how to make them and I was all for it. My co-worker, Janelle, had complimented me on my watch and wanted to learn how to make them as well, so I invited her to be part of the fun!

Kenna had like 6 big containers full of beads and all sorts of goodies so we set to work last Thursday night. The one on the left was made by Stacee. She wasn't quite done when I took this picture. Janelle made the next one over. I made the 3rd one and the last is the one that Kenna made me. They have lobster claws to attach them to the watch faces, so I just change my bands back and forth now. I LOVE IT!

Here's the crew right before Janelle had to leave: Kenna, Stacee, Janelle, and Cheryl! I had to go out that weekend and start my own bead collection! :)

Random

I've had a few random things lately that I haven't posted about yet so I thought I'd combine them into one small post.

This first one is definitely not a small event, just a small person. My cousin Dannen and his wife Claudia just had their third baby - another little girl named Brooke. I went to see her last Sunday and she is SOOO cute! She's so tiny and it really made me realize just how much Evie has grown.

Here's my Aunt Maylene holding a sleepy little Brooke! :) So sweet!

One of my students came into school this last week dressed like this. Here's how our little conversation went:

J: Am I wearing a huge shirt?

Me: Yes.

I don't know why, but his rhetorical question struck me really funny.

This last one is something I never thought I'd do, but alas, today it happened to me. I was invited to a BBQ after church today. I took a nap before it then got up and went to my closet to put on some comfy shoes. I went to the BBQ and hung out for at least 1 1/2 hours before I happened to notice that I was wearing mismatched shoes! AAAAHHHH!

100 Songs in 100 Days

My friend Katherine introduced me to her friend Nancy who's taken on a different, but really cool challenge. She's writing 100 songs in 100 days!

This is her first one. She explains a little about it in this first one. I knew Nancy's sister Carrie from some of my first years in Houston. Great girls - both of them!

Her second song really cracked me up.

Like she stated in that first video, she was looking for others to sing. I happen to know these two ladies and thought they did a great job!

I also really liked this guy's singing. He's in a band himself!

Cute with her nieces!

These aren't my favorite vocals, but I know this guy! He's from where my parents used to live in San Angelo. Small world! Anyway, I just pulled a few songs off of her blog. Check it out HERE! She doesn't have videos on all of her songs, but what a great challenge!

Susannah and Evie

Disclaimer: Anyone who has recently read my sister's blog will find this post very redundant, but I couldn't resist posting about Susannah and Evie's visit to see me!

They flew in on a Friday night and we spent most of Saturday entertaining visitors to see the cute girls. Holt and Candice were the first to come.

Seana also came.

We had sort of a party that night and had a great turn out. We didn't get everyone that came, but this is the tail end of the party.

Sunday Evie looked so cute and was so smiley that I couldn't resist taking a few pictures.

I love that girl!

After church we had a family dinner. There were a lot of us, so we got pretty creative with seating. Dannen and Claudia's girls sat at this little coffee table of Jen's.

We brought the kitchen table in tot he dinning room. It was a full house.

The girls loved Evie. It was really cute to see them. I'm sure it helped that their mom was about to have another little girl. Baby Brooke was born the next day!

Monday morning we went to visit a retired co-worker, Lila. Evie LOVED her. It was so cute.

We love Lila too!

Later that day we went to a photo shoot that one of Susannah's previous student's parents did for her. Evie was not very chipper. She was so tired, but this woman got some FANTASTIC shots of Evie!

So cute.

She was scowling most of the time. It was hilarious.

Blowing bubbles.

Smiling for Mommy!

It took a LONG time to get a decent picture of her on her tummy. She was not a happy camper and kept putting her face down on the blanket.

We tried a walk on Tuesday, but the wind wasn't so fun for little Evie.

She was in a better mood later on as we went to see the Chappells.

They were so sweet and got us dinner. We had a great time visiting with them!

That last night Susannah realized that we didn't really have any pictures of Evie and me so she snapped this one.

They flew out on Wednesday after a visit to school. My students loved it. I can't blame them!

Some School Stuff

I've had several cool school related things lately that I thought I'd share all in one post.

We had a first grade mom donate a bunch of larva. We passed them out and watched the metamorphosis. The kids loved it. We kept the butterflies for a little while and then let them go. It's something we enjoy every year.

During our South America unit, I had the kids do a mini research project on a rainforest animal. They had to present something simple about the animal they studied. One of my students went REALLY above and beyond.

Her mom sent in a BUNCH of fruit and some nuts. She had studied about gorillas.

She even sent in lettuce leaves for the kids to use as plates. I thought it was so cute and so clever. The kids loved it.

I had this little guy show me his "plate."

They came back for seconds and thirds.

It was teacher appreciation week this week. I had a mom send in this whole "cookie" for me. The day before she sent me a whole cake. Holy cow!

Last night I went to AMS for an orchestra concert. One of my old students invited me to it. I saw two other old students in the group. They were really good!

I can't believe how grown up they are! I can't believe how fast time goes by.

I was only going to film a little bit, but I couldn't stop. I loved it! The sound in this video doesn't do them justice. I think it was 95 string players and it sounded really good in real life.

On the far right of the video are 30 something string players from Atascocita HS. It was awesome!

My Birthday

I had a great birthday back on the 25th of April.

When I got to school I had a few surprises waiting for me. One was this little get-up. Tricia got me the hat and I wore it all day except for out at recess and dismissal duties. It was too windy. The button was from our school's student council. I was so happy to see Dylan Frye back in class on my birthday. It was a good day for him.

I actually had a really productive day. I vacuumed that morning, had a good day at school, mowed my lawn, showered, and made it to dinner with some great friends!

We came back to my house for some dessert and I was surprised with Katherine's flamingos.

Her mom and sister put 30 pink flamingos in her yard on her 30th birthday and she's had fun with them ever since. I was glad to be part of the fun!

Both of my roommates made a birthday treat. Jen made me the usual and delicious chocolate chip cheesecake. Kristin made me these chocolate peanut butter bars that were also very delicious.

It was in the fridge like this on my birthday eve and I was very curious. I'm proud to say that I didn't peek!