The last week of school is always crazy, but this year it hit a new level of insane! I almost skipped recapping this, but decided to go ahead and do it anyways, so that I can always look back and remember. While this week of school is always crazy…I love it. Absolutely LOVE it. The go, go, go and so much excitement brings me a great deal of joy.
The weekend leading up to the last week of school found us in Chattanooga, TN where Theo served as a groomsman in a wedding! It was a blast to be there and Theo and I even left the kids with my parents and spent a day celebrating our upcoming 12 year anniversary! We were happy to get back home at 2:30am Sunday morning, and hit the ground running with Theo leaving for work at 6am, and getting the kids back around 8am!
Monday was the calm before the storm, where I tried to restore order to our house, catch up on laundry from the weekend, take care of the animals, go grocery shopping, pack lunches, pack Ezra up for water day, etc. It wasn’t restful or relaxing, but it was one of those days that feels so good to be home.
Tuesday was the last day of actual school, since Thursday would just be the closing ceremonies, awards and cleaning. We did this fun beach ball activity where every kid got a beach ball and we passed it around the circle, everyone signing the balls as they went around. By the end of the circle, everyone got their own beach ball back with all of their classmates signatures on it. I took last day of school pictures, we worked on a craft and I started to pack up my classroom while the kids did puzzles and did some cleaning and organizing for me. We had extra long recess and popsicles out on the playground!
Wednesday was FIELD DAY! And….my 33rd birthday! I started the day off at 5am with a 3.3 mile run with some running friends. These friends run together diligently and it was such a special treat to be able to join them! I headed home to shower and then straight to school to lead the first grade boy crew for the day!
Field day ended with PIE IN THE FACE! Theo and his fellow officer had been raising money for a couple weeks, and nobody knew until the final moment who was going to get the pie! It was SO FUN to watch Theo get pie in the face! And I’m so proud of him and Officer Rose for all the money they raised- and all the relationships they have built and all the things that they do for our school.
Thursday we were up bright and early to get to school for the last day ceremonies. Every student at our school gets a character award, and the teachers work really hard to assign characteristics to each student. It’s so special sitting in the ceremony and hearing the special things about every single student. It also makes for a long day! Once our ceremony was over, we headed back to the classroom and most of my students got picked up to go home for the summer! Some stayed and helped me clean my classroom and had recess for hours on end 🙂
On Friday, I took zero pictures but it was back to school again to deep clean my classroom, pack it all up and check out of the school for the summer! I plan to return to first grade in the fall, but as of right now we don’t know room assignments, and they frequently get changed over the summer, so I always pack up my classroom in May and start fresh in August :). Next year for the first time there will be two first grade classes, so that is a big change coming our way!
On Saturday I spent the whole day just trying to get my house and yard in order because it was BONFIRE NIGHT! We always host a bonfire and invite all the kids from my class and each of my children’s classes. It is so much fun. I LOVE IT and it’s officially our entrance into summer!
On Sunday I woke up bone-deep exhausted, but we went off to church and then spent the afternoon resting and crashing hard. It also happened to be our 12th wedding anniversary! Theo had to work that day, and since we had already gotten away the weekend before we just agreed to say “Happy Anniversary” and celebrate by living a typical, normal day together haha.
And now…let the summer begin!