Last Day

So yesterday was the last day of school and as usual, I have mixed feelings about the school year coming to an end. I shed a few tears as I said goodbye to my students...many of them won't be coming back. A new elemetary school down the road will be opening its doors next fall and the student body will be divided. Some are moving away, and of course the sixth graders are moving up to junior high. Many of the kids went out of their way to find me, give me hugs and tell me what a good music teacher I am. They gave me thank you notes and gifts, asked me to sign their shirts and yearbooks, told me they'll miss me and how much they loved my class...very validating! Kids are so open and loving, it's one of the things I love most about teaching elementary school.

When all the students were gone it was then time for the annual faculty year end wrap-up party and luncheon. More tears fell as we said goodbye to coworkers and friends who are leaving our school for various reasons. A large number of teachers are going to the new school or retiring. It's hard to say goodbye. I will relish each day of summer vacation and the time I have to spend with my family, but already I'm excited for another school year to begin next August.

Countdown to Summer...

Oh, I am so ready for summer! Only one week left of school, and then my whole family will be free! We are all thrilled to get to take a break from alarm clocks, routines, classrooms, students, coworkers, grades, lesson plans, homework, teachers, principals, and everything school related. Of course in a few months we'll be excited to get back to all that wonderful stuff, but it is exhilerating to get a reprieve. I think I get just as excited for summer vacation as my kids and students.

One of my favorite things about summer is spending time in my yard and garden. In the last couple of weeks we've spent every spare moment either at the local nursery/garden supply store or in the yard. We were out all day today (Saturday) too. I've bought and assembled multiple flower pots and hanging baskets and put in a ridiculous number of bushes and flowers.

Here is what our garden consists of so far...
* 1/2 row of watermelon
* 1/2 row of cantelope
* 1 row of peas
* 3 pepper plants
* 2 rows of strawberries
* 7 tomato plants
* 2 rows of cucumbers
* 1 row of pumpkins
* 15 raspberry.plants plants ...............................................................................

Scattered around the yard we have a cherry tree, plum tree, 2 apple trees and an arbor covered in grape vines. It's also been great to prune trees and shrubbery...when we moved into this house six years ago it had no landscaping to speak of, and now FINALLY it is filling up. Things are growing, getting taller, wider, shadier, and beginning to look like the yard we've been dreaming of. dr

eamedf. ..........................................................

Four more days of school...bring on SUMMER!

Date Night

For the past several years at the end of the basketball season, Coach Smith and I have made a tradition of getting away together for an overnight date. It is our way of reconnecting after too much time apart over the previous few months while he's been gone and/or preoccupied. Usually we try to go within a week or two after the final game of the season, but this year we've had a hard time finding the time--every weekend there's been something. I'd pretty much given up on fitting it in this spring and had all but forgotten about it until last weekend when Kent told me to get ready. He'd planned a date, booked a room, and made arrangements with the kids. Wow!

We stayed at Little America Hotel in Salt Lake, but first we went out to a steak dinner at Ruby River, then to an outdoor arts festival in the city.

Here's our view of the city from our 15th floor hotel room.

Thanks Babe, for an awesome date with you. It was so much fun just to have uninterruped time together. It meant the world to me.

Best Mother's Day Present Ever

Happy 10th birthday to my little sweetheart Stefanie...Her birthday happened to fall right on Mother's Day this year...she is and always will be the best Mother's Day present I ever received.

We celebrated by decorating the house and inviting five friends over for a party on Saturday, the day before her actual birthday.

We took them to "Jump On It", a huge trampoline arena with 10,000 feet of wall-to-wall trampolines. It is quite entertaining to see the crazy tricks and stunts the kids come up with. Stefanie actually landed her first back flip at her party, she was so excited.

Happy birthday my sweet baby, I love you so much!

Barbecue Invitation

This is our deck before... ...and this is our deck today.

And now that we have a decent deck, I'd like to personally invite each and every one of you to my house for a barbecue! Let me know when you can come.

Proms

Rachel's last two Saturdays have been dedicated to prom...yes, she went to two of them! A few days after the "yellow balloon" invitation I got a call from Nathan, a young man from a neighboring high school, who called because he wanted access to Rachel's room when she wasn't home. He came later that week while she was at lacrosse practice and created an Easter egg hunt in her room with clues inside each of the hidden plastic eggs--so cute!

Her dress is gorgeous, but took HOURS to alter. She needed about four inches hemmed, and there were NINE layers of fabric and netting. I think it took me about an hour per layer. What you don't see under all that fluff is her tennis shoes...she said she wanted to be comfortable. 

Her best friend Kaitlyn came both Saturdays to style her hair and did a beautiful job, what a great friend!

Ah, the memories...she had a wonderful time at both proms. And I had a wonderful time helping her to get ready for it.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

A few weeks ago while Kent and I were shopping, I was excited to see a display of kites on sale. It had been awhile since we'd gone kite flying so I grabbed one and couldn't wait to come home and play with Stefanie.

Then we had to wait for an appropriately windy day. It came a few days later so we assembled the kite and tried our best to send it up. A couple of the neighbor kids heard us laughing and screaming and came out to help.

We had a few failed attempts--first it got tangled in a tree, then stuck on our roof, then took a dive into the neighbor's back yard. The tree ripped a hole in it which we taped up, then the string broke so we did our best to tie it back together. But we perservered until finally...success!! Yay, we did it!

To quote Mary Poppins...

"Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height.
Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring...
Up to the atmosphere, up where the air is clear.
Oh, let's go fly a kite!"