Ready to slow down......

This has been a hectic Month for me.  I think May is Hectic for everyone.  I was going to try and write about different things while they happened, but honestly there was no time.  With that being said, I am going to combine the past few weeks in one post, otherwise it might not happen at all. I apologize in advance for any rambling that might take place......Let's start with the week after the Kids Birthday.  The Following Monday was the beginning of Teacher Appreciation week.  I have heard different comments from different Parents about this particular week.  Some Parents don't acknowledge it, some Parents could take it or leave it and some Parents are more than Happy to show their appreciation to the Men and Women who are responsible for educating our Children.  I for one am one of those Parents who think Teacher Appreciation week is a good thing. I truly believe that Most Parents don't realize what goes on behind the scenes of being a Teacher.  I can't even begin to name everything, nor do I know everything they do but I'll just touch on a couple of things... Not only do they buy a lot of their own supplies, but I wonder how many parents know that there are Teachers that spend their own Money on  jackets or clothes or gloves for a kid in their class who they know that without their help will be cold in the Winter time.  You know when you leave work and you go to bed at night and you think about everything that has to be done the next day.  I imagine that there are Teachers that go to bed at night and lay there and think about how they are going to get through to that one kid that struggles and make them the Best that they can possibly be.  My kids have been blessed to have Great Teachers and I love showing them my Appreciation!! I feel they TRULY deserve it, so Monday Morning we were prepared with Balloons and Flowers.

Sorry for the blurry pics...some were taken from my phone and didn't come out so well.

Next up, National School Nurse appreciation Day.......I am the Home Room Mom for Colton's class so basically I'm responsible for helping plan the parties throughout the year and helping out the Teacher if she needs it.  Each class adopts a Staff Member and we are responsible for making them feel special when important times of the year roll around. Our adopted staff member was the School Nurse which I was really pleased about because she's pretty awesome.  She's loud and silly and great with the kids and personally I think she rocks!  When National School Nurse appreciation Day rolled around I went in search for that perfect card for her.  I am one of those people that stand in the card aisle forever searching for that perfect card for someone and I usually end up walking out without one and this day was no different.  I decided that I would make her a card instead.  I headed to Hobby Lobby and while I was there, I decided that I would just buy some poster board and stickers and make her a card in the shape of a Nurse hat and have all of the kids sign it.  Once  I started, I couldn't stop. I found a picture of her, blew it up and ended up with this.  (I was going for the Nurse/ Super hero look)

Colton took it to School and all of the kids signed the back and presented it to her the next day.  She LOVED it!!! She sent me a really Great Text message telling me how much she liked it, along with this picture...

She now has it hanging on the outside of her door.  I thought that was pretty nice of her.

Heading on over to Thursday...two days before Mother's Day...I was pleasantly surprised and rather shocked to have Flowers delivered to my house.  I was even more surprised when I found out they were from my Parents.  My Day was completely made!!!

Moving on to Friday and  the Mother's Day Tea.  When I got to the School the afternoon of the Mother's Day Tea, I was surprised to see Mother's standing in line at each door of their child's Second Grade classroom.  I soon noticed that there was a sign indicating that for an hour or so, this was no longer the classroom but a cafe.  One by one, each student greeted their Mother at the door and showed them to their seat. 

I was greeted by these two little faces who were really excited to be playing waiter and waitress for their Mommy.  Colton was so serious about it.  They got me seated and immediately requested that I try their cake and tea or lemonade.  I placed my order and off they went.

Of course I went right behind them to take a picture.

While I was eating, they were showing me some of the things that they had made.  I got a real kick out of some of it.  I'll give examples in a minute.  After we finished our cake and tea, they ran a slide show with several different pictures of all the Mother's and their kiddos througout the years and then they all got up and sang the Sweetest song ever that honestly I didn't even listen to because I was trying to make my mind wonder onto other things so I wouldn't be that Mother that had Mascara running down their face and making those horrible gulping crying sounds.  I recorded the whole thing and watched it again when I got home.  Of course I cried......

 

After they sang, they gave us our final gift which was a domino necklace with our initial on it.  I've worn mine several times.  Homemade gifts are the BEST!

o.k. so back to ALL of these different projects about "MOM" 

You see the two blue "Turtle" books in the front?  They were my favorite.  The first page of Bailey's said, If you weren't my Mom, my heart would break.  Hello TEARS!!!! It also said, if you were a present, I would be your bow and If you were a Chocolate Sundae, I would be your Chocolate.  How Sweet is that????  O.k. now for Colton's.....If you were a shoe, I would be your laces (all of these were accompanied by illustrations)  If you were an apple, I would be be your seed.....moving on to the "Mom" Questionaire that they filled out.  One of the questions asked how tall I was and Bailey answered 10 feet :)  If your Mom were any animal, what would she be?  A Love bird dove....and my favorite....How were Mother's made?  From Other Mothers!  Now, for Colton's.....If your Mom were any animal, what would she be?  A cow!  Thanks Bubba, I love you too!!!! Did I mention on Bailey's Recipe of a Mother, she put 1 tsp. of yelling.......Love her honesty!

When did they get so big?

Up next, Softball and Baseball come to an end.  I was asked to order the trophies and  plan the party for Bailey's softball team.  We had it at a Restaurant where we could sit outside and let the kids run around and play.  I think every other Sports team was having their party there the same night because it was packed.  Thankfully Beefy's (the Restaurant) has a large yard with lots for the kids to do. 

The Coach handed out the trophies, A poster she had made just for each of them and a package of

 M & M's that said Pink Sox on them!  How cool is that????

Greg and I also celebrated our 10th Wedding anniversary the same day of the softball party. 

I guess I shouldn't say Celebrated.  He took off of work, but never got away from it.  He was on his phone and lap top the entire day and I was running around for the party.  I can't remember the last time we celebrated our anniversary.  We haven't mastered taking time out for just us yet. 

Maybe one day we will figure it out.

Colton had his Baseball party the next day, but we didn't go because Bailey had a game out of town at the same time.  He wasn't really that concerned about it.  He had his last game the following Monday, but unfortunately didn't get his trophy.  The Coach said it was broken when he pulled it out of the box, so it's in the process of being fixed. 

Now that we were done with that, I could focus on the end of the School year stuff.  I finally sat down on Wednesday to get all of my ducks in a row on what had to be done in the next few days and luckily I called one of the other Home room Moms to make sure I had everything I needed on my list.  Had I not called her, I would have missed the awards ceremony that was happening THAT DAY!!!! NOT IN MY PLANS!!!!  I don't know how I missed that memo, but I did, so all of my plans for Wednesday changed and I got Kinley and myself ready to head up to the School.  Once I got there, I saw Bailey coming out of the Bathroom and I suddenly realized that I hadn't dressed her for an awards ceremony and she had pulled her hair down and was sporting some pony tail humps in the back of her hair.  Oh well.....

Here they are after the awards ceremony.  When they were accepting their awards on stage, Kinley stood up and yelled SISSY...BUBBA!!!!!  I WUV YOU!!!!  It was so sweet!

The Next Day was the Second Grade end of the Year Party.  Everyone did their job and it all came together nicely.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of the individual things, but we were pretty busy and I just forgot.  We had an Olympic Theme and the Four Home Room Moms each had a different Station and at the end of each station the kids got to choose a button (they were from all different countries) and a necklace/ medal.  My Station was the Sack Races. 

The Olympics Field Day started with Olympic Music playing and each Teacher coming out holding a torch with their class behind them and we cheered them on as they walked by.  Our Head Home Room Mom made these torches.  Aren't they so cute!!! 

After the games were finished, the kids got gatorade, water and a patriotic cupcake.

I caught Hannah with her mouth full of cupcake.

Now that School is over, hopefully things will slow down a little.  We've still got a lot going on, but I am going to enjoy sleeping past 6:00am.  It's time to have my kids sit down and make their Summer Wish List and see how many we can get checked off.  When I was a kid in the Summertime, we didn't have big plans.  My big plan was to get up, run two doors down to my friends house, play all day, maybe eat dinner at each others house and possibly end it with a Slumber party. We weren't always on the go, but it seems these days everyone is always on the go and we all try to see how much we can cram into one day.  The neighborhood kids don't all meet in the middle and go exploring in the woods like we use to or ride their bikes to the park.  It's too scary to even let your kids out of your sight. 

I'll end with a few misc. pics that I've taken over the past few days.....

 Bailey came in from School and sat down in the chair and Kinley crawled up in the chair with her and went to sleep.

 Colton is so good about playing with his baby Sister.  (By some of these pictures, you would think she was his baby brother)

Water Break

The Kids brought home all of their art work from the year and these two were my favorite.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm tired.   Maybe I'll forget that my house is a disaster and go to bed early.  It will still be there in the morning.