Last Week of School

I write this long after, but I cannot believe the school year we have had!  I grew so much as a teacher, and it was so wonderfully unique to be able to see Gianna everyday.  Next year is going to be even better in that arena, with both girls at the new school!  And though this new school I'm going to is ah-ma-zing, I will miss Spears!  Here are some highlights of the last week:

I had 2 mystery readers- Gianna and Elia! they were the stars of my classroom.
My students wanted their autograph and everything.

Huddles will be missed!  In April, G got to dance on the stage.

Gianna's best buddy, Brandon.  I have never met a more sweet, enthusiastic kindergartner!
They shared a lunch table all year, so I got to know him pretty well.

My end of year gift.  All of my kiddos contributed summer stuff, and put it in this awesome beach bag- gift cards, coozies, beach balls, floaties and goggles for the girls, crafts, towels, flip flops, and more gift cards.  I was SO spoiled.

We did a measurement Olympics, and my class represented Ireland.

If you want to see more, you can see my class blog, Passing the Torch, which is located on the sidebar of this blog.
I am so blessed!

Birthday Surprise, and Fossil Rim

Over Memorial weekend, the Marschners came to visit!  Shannon basically woke me up at 2:30 in the morning and totally surprised me out of sleep.  Their flight was supposed to get in much earlier but bad weather had them circling and their rental car situation went from bad to worse(no car seat for Brendan even though they had reserved one!!).  So Chris snuck out of the house with a car seat around 1:30 and got them back here to wake me up.  I think Tom, with Chris' help, had been planning this since March!  I honestly thought I was dreaming when she came in and sat on my bed.
There really is nothing better than spending time with my twinnie, but its even more special when we get to be together on our birthday!  We sort of just hung out and did fun kid stuff, like the splash park and walks around the neighborhood, but the highlight was Fossil Rim.  I have been wanting to go there since I heard about it a few years back, and it was pretty fun!  Feeding animals from your car?  Elia was in paradise.
With our awesome new minivan, we were able to scrunch all 4 adults and 3 babies in one car!

Love

Loving the new sunroof

Prob my fave pic of the day!

Little loves!

New Furniture!!!

We have been sitting on college furniture pretty much our whole married life.  So it was about time to buy us some good stuff!  Our couch and new buffet happened to come on my birthday weekend, so it was a pretty sweet bday gift.

Before

After

Don't have a before, but you get the idea!!

Gianna's Birthday

Lucky for G, her birthday landed on a built in bad weather day, so the 3 of us had the day off!  We did birthday pancakes, and then I took the girls to the splash park.  It was our first water adventure of the season, so they were delighted!  We ended the day with a trip to Zinga with Daddy and Uncle Patrick.

Day before her birthday at school- she brought in leftover MLP cookies!

Happy Birthday pancakes!

Splash Park!

Love this action shot!

Zinga Froyo

Elia's Birthday

Chris and I both took the day off, and Grandma and Grandpa, and Patrick were still in town. To celebrate her birthday we all went to the Rough Riders game.  It was pretty darn hot, but we had a great day together!

Not many people can say they have a twin AND a mini-me.

Really excited about a present!

Our tradition of birthday pancakes morphed into birthday frozen waffles!

 

Grandpa discovered a momma duck with 11 ducklings.

My beautiful 4 year old!

We probably played longer at the playground than we actually sat and watched the game!

Her birthday crown from school.

Patrick's Graduation

The very reason grandma and grandpa were in town was to see Patrick graduate.  

Birthday Party

This was the pic on the invite.

The birthday party was a little early, but it worked out since Grandma and Grandpa were in town!  Aunt Jenny, who just started a cookie and cupcake business with grandma, sent the most adorable My Little Pony cookies.

While in town, grandma made yummy raspberry and vanilla cupcakes.  Elia helped.

This is the first year we did not have a party at home.  After calling bounce house places etc, I found this awesome indoor play ground in Carrollton that is open to the public on weekends, and you can reserve tables for parties for FREE!  It was a huge success, and we ended up spending about the same amount as we have in the past, because really all we had to pay for was the food.  No pinata this time around.  We saw some old friends and G invited all of her new friends too.

MLP shirt!

rock climbing.  this place had it all!

I was running around like crazy so I didn't take many pictures.  

Mothers Day

My lovely principal let me leave for a while so I could go to Elia's mother's day tea.  It was adorable.  They sang songs and we did a craft, and then there were snacks.  During all the songs with the hand motions, Elia would do the motions and sing, but her face was turned toward me the whole time.  So funny!

Love my girl.

For the actual mother's day, I got to sleep in, and had bed in breakfast.  I also told the girls I didnt want ANY presents, all I wanted was no fighting.  They did pretty good that day!

Very proud of their work!

Carrollton Fun Run

Instead of doing the 5k, we decided to do the fun run instead.  The path was on the trails near our house, so they were very familiar.  G kept up with me and we did a 12 minute mile, while Elia and Chris did a 16 minute mile!  Elia held Chris' hand the whole time.  Gianna and I met them at the finish line.  Afterwards, we reversed all that calorie burning and went to McDs.  A great Saturday morning, and we plan to do it next year!

Cheesing for the camera before

G was intent on starting first!

The big finish!

April Fun

I'm so glad April is over.  It was the busiest month of my life!  I prepared my students to take the STAAR test and I accepted a new position at a private school.  More on that later though.  Sarah and I did the Color Run!  When I came home the girls could not get over how crazy I looked.


Squeaky Clean before



Colorful After



A rare night out sans kids- Edgefest!

My mom came to visit during STAAR week.

My tall girls helping dad update the playground.