I am nearing the end of two busy weeks of appreciating others and being appreciated.
Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week at Eric's and my schools and at Carter's preschool, and this current week is Teacher Appreciation Week at Ashlynn's school (and I am her class's room mom, so I'm in charge of honoring her teacher).
Last Monday, Carter drew pictures for his two teachers. (Of course, Ashlynn didn't want to miss out on the drawing opportunity.)
One of Carter's drawings (before he colored it):
Last Tuesday, Ashlynn started taking her CSTs. As a second grader, it was her first time taking state tests and she had an awesome attitude about testing. She was actually quite excited and kept a great attitude about the tests all week.
On Thursday evening we had a thunderstorm pass through our area. After dinner we sat on our front porch and watched the show. We counted to figure out how far the lightning was from our house and watched the rain. Ashlynn decided to keep track of the lightening distances.
On Friday, my class greeted me in the morning with lots of beautiful flowers. Here's one of the arrangements I made with the flowers (I can add flower arranger to one of the many things teachers do... yep, that's how I spent my treasured PE planning time).
When I got home, I decorated the house with the beautiful flowers. Here are a few:
Ironically, Eric had been at Trader Joe's that afternoon and had thoughtfully purchased a lovely bunch of flowers for me. He didn't realize that I was coming home with a ton of flowers. Still, Eric's bunch was arranged and placed front and center on our dining room table.
On Saturday, the kids started Mother's Day a bit early by putting away the clean dishes from the dish washer. (And nothing was broken!) Nice!
Sunday was Mother's Day, and I was enthusiastically showered with gifts made at school by both my kids. They could hardly wait to bring out those secrets they've been keeping for the past week.
Ashlynn gave me a flower pen and a coupon book (one coupon saying she will help empty the dishwasher more often, which explains the willingness to do the job the day before). Carter gave me a mouse pad that has his picture and a vase he decorated with crepe paper and filled with 4 flowers he made.
After church we stopped at a shop in Sierra Madre and then had lunch at Casa del Rey.
On our way into the restaurant we noticed that a little bird was hanging out on my car's wind shield wiper. Part way through our meal we noticed he was still there, and then that a momma bird seemed to be coming down to feed it (this momma connection was important because at that point, Ashlynn was trying to convince us that we should take the bird home and make it our pet so we were able to point out how the baby should stay near its mom). We started thinking that the baby bird must have fallen out of its nest onto our car. We contemplated what we were going to do with the baby, since we needed to remove it from our car and since it needed a safe place where its momma could reach it.
Eric got a little container from the restaurant and attempted to scoop it up so we could move it to a raised planter, but just as he did, it fluttered awkwardly away (still on the windshield area). After another attempt, it did a kind of pathetic flight down the way to a planter where it missed the tree branches and ended up on the ground among some plants. We had to hope that its mom would find its new spot and that we were simply witnessing a baby bird's first attempts at flying. Poor, sweet thing.
In the afternoon, Ashlynn and I headed over to her school to put up the Teacher Appreciation Week poster on her class door. I was especially glad that they had changed to posters this year because it was nearly 100 degrees and I remembered how much time last year's display that covered the whole door had taken. We got the poster up in a matter of minutes and got back to our air conditioned house quickly.
When we got home, I wrapped the gift that was to be for Monday, a fingerprint tree. Apparently, fingerprint trees are the new cool thing to do at weddings, to replace a guest book. I thought it would make a cute teacher memory gift too.
In the evening, my parents came over to celebrate Mother's Day. Eric made a fantastic dinner of scallops in a brandy cream sauce (he put the cream sauce on chicken for the kids and himself, although Ashlynn liked the scallops a bit too).
After dinner the kids insisted that we come to a bubble show, which meant that we watched them blow bubbles on the back patio.
After dessert (chocolate lava cakes), we opened a couple more presents. Carter had picked out these pink hand-shaped grabbers for my mom and was delighted when she tried to grab his nose with them.
Check out Carter. Isn't that how everyone watches others open gifts?
And my turn, one more time.
Monday began Teacher Appreciation Week at Aslynn's school. Every week starts off with Morning Announcements on the blacktop. When we arrived that morning, we discovered that Ashlynn's buddy, Lydia, was dressed almost exactly like Ashlynn, even down to the blue ponytail holders. I know they didn't plan it, so it was pretty funny. Ironically, they announced that Friday will be "Twin Day" at the school.
Here they are with a few other friends:
When school began, we presented Mrs. Dunbar with the day's gift, the framed thumbprint tree. I think she really liked it and the kids seemed proud.
It was nearly 100 degrees that day, and my friend Gretchen had taken a day off work, so we took the kids to Yogurtland after school for a cool treat and time to hang out and chat.
Ashlynn reached 200 points on Accelerated Reader on Monday, so she was greeted at home with a sign that made her giddy. We celebrated with dinner at Chili's.
Also on Monday, my parents flew to Germany for a tour and river cruise that will take them through Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary. While they are away, their dog Beau (Pippa's brother) will be staying with us. Ashlynn is very concerned about Beau feeling homesick and missing Nana and Papa, so she's giving him lots of love. Here she is with Beau on Tuesday morning:
On Tuesday for Teacher Appreciation Week, Ashlynn's class brought in flowers for their teacher. Another mom, Lisa, and I made some pretty arrangements with the various flowers and then placed them around the classroom.
On Wednesday for Teacher Appreciation Week, we brought some yummy morning treats for Ashlynn's teacher. My friend, Jen, baked scones, another friend, Meril, picked up a nice Starbucks coffee mug, and we brewed and brought the coffee.
The next two days are going to be super busy for me with Open House and the Lincoln 500 festivities, so I am going to preview the final two days of Teacher Appreciation Week.
On Thursday, the students have been asked to bring in new or gently used books for Mrs. Dunbar's classroom library.
On Friday, Mrs. Dunbar will be presented with a book of appreciation with a page from all 29 students (I did the pages in class with kids, because last year we sent the pages home and maybe half were returned).
Ashlynn's page:
So, I'm off to get things ready for the Lincoln part of my week. Oh, and did I mention that Friday night is Camp Mayflower at Ashlynn's school? Gonna be a long, but fun two days!
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