The Last Week

Well, the last week of school is finally here. In some ways, I felt like this year flew by and in other ways, I thought this day would never come.

I'm going to be 100% authentic right now and just tell you that this year has been a struggle, guys. I feel like I've alluded to it on my blog, but I've never just come right out and said that my kiddos this year were kind of difficult. We had a lot of issues, both behaviorally and academically. And, while I adore them and love them, I don't mind telling you that I am more excited  about summer break right now than I ever have been before. Usually, I'm an emotional wreck the last week of school because I hate to part with those sweet little guys. But, this year, I'm mostly just sooooo excited for the break! 

In three days, this will be me: 

Bahahaha!

Okay, so a quick rewind of the last few weeks. We took the second graders to LBL about two weeks ago! 

And, to reiterate what a year I just had, after we went last year, with our current students, we all swore we wouldn't go back. Ever again. And we LOVE us some Land Between the Lakes, y'all. That's just how wild and crazy those kiddos were. But, this year, total opposite. The kids were a complete delight. I'm sooooo excited for next year! 

We had a third grade music concert one night last week. It's so fun to see my little friends all dressed up and looking so cute! 

We also ha our big school play, Peter Pan! It was a ton of work, but ended up being sooo cute!

Two of my former kids played Peter Pan and Captain Hook!

And, this weekend, my friend Kristin came to Nashville to visit. It was so good to see her! 

At school today, my kiddos made posters and then got to sign them for all their friends!

This poster pretty much made my day. 

And so did all these hilarious quotes! Ha! 

Especially this one. ^ Too funny!!

And, well, my little niece is still the cutest baby ever. To me, anyway. And, I'm certainly not biased at all! 

She's my favorite. 

And this poor little neglected thing is, too. 

Relief!

That's what I'm feeling right now. 

A whole lot of relief.

This week was pretty much full of stress, anxiety and nerves. That's because we took the TCAP tests. The tests we've been preparing for all year. 

While I pretty much despise the very idea of this god-awful test, I have to make those kiddos think it's the most fun and exciting thing we've ever done. Yeah, that's a little hard. 

^That's the idea, right? Well, I won't go so far as to say they told me they LOVED it, but several of them did tell me it was the best week ever, so I guess that's good. I'm glad someone was having fun... ha! 

I feel that this picture perfectly sums up my week:

A cherry limeade from a sweet co-worker, chocolate, test booklets and a stress ball. A stress ball that was intended for a kid. Which, kind of breaks my heart in half that we have to give kids stress balls in third grade. But, she preferred the basketball stress ball... so that left this one for me! Perfect. 

I tried reallyreallyreally hard not to look at their answers. Because, I mean, you can't say anything. You want to stand behind them and say "Noooo!!!! Don't you remember? We practiced that 2,365 times! Yesterday alone! Aghhhh!!!!!!"

But, you can't. You can't say a word. So, like I said, I try not to look. But, it's really hard. Because it's human nature to want to see how they're doing. I have no idea how they did. I saw a LOT of right answers, and I saw a BUNCH of wrong answers. Hopefully, we'll come out of it all with more of the right answers than the wrong answers.

But, either way, I'm proud of those kids. So incredibly proud. Because, right or wrong, they tried their very, very best. All of them. I know that for a fact. And, really, that's all I ask of them. So, I'm good. Whatever the outcome. 

To celebrate the end of testing, I got them cupcakes Thursday night. Then, I had my own little celebration and ate two (!!!) of them before bed. Listen, people. I told you I was stressed! Luckily, no one noticed the missing cupcakes (#nailedit) and all were happy the next day. 

Since we used balloons to countdown to TCAP, I decided to use balloons for our "closing ceremony" celebration. I had this brilliant idea. Truly, it was one of my best. I thought it would be so fun to give them balloons to represent TCAP and then let them go outside and we would be "letting go" of all our worries and stress about the test. Like I said, brilliant. Right? 

It was really cute. And the kids were "with me." All about it. But, know what I forgot? Balloons only fly away with helium. (I blame the stress of the test on this unfortunate oversight and I'm incredibly thankful that neither balloons or helium appeared anywhere on said test. As far as I know. I told you, I tried not to look.) So, all the kids let go of their balloons and they just crashed to the ground. Whomp, whomp. 

Luckily, I'm a teacher and I think quickly on my feet. So, before they even realized anything was wrong, I yelled "You have to chase them down and stomp them like you stomped the test!" And they all started running around and stomping the balloons and no one was the wiser. Except you, dear friend. Shhhh. Don't tell the 8-year-olds, okay? 

And, if you ever get to thinking that 8-year-olds are big kids, well, you're wrong. They're still little. After our balloon debacle, they BEGGED me to play on the little playground. Our school has two playgrounds and we always play on the big one because it's more convenient to our classroom. Well, since they had just endured a four day test and I had no intention of going back inside to teach, I said sure. But, instead of heading to the little playground, they all ran to a teeny tiny slide. You know, the kind of slide that you might find in a church nursery. In the infant room. That kind. And, when I say run, I pretty much mean "broke into a sprint, complete with screams and squeals and maybe some pushing, but I can't be sure." Then, they proceeded to slide down it one by one. Y'all, I don't even know where this slide came from. Someone probably just dumped it on school property because that happened to be closer than the landfill downtown. I mean, just look at this thing...

Innocence. That's what that is. 

Also, this...

A kid in my class this week asked me how I knew that Finley was a girl. I had NO response. Ha! I wasn't sure what to say. So, I finally asked him how he knew that he was a boy. Which, in hindsight, was really stupid and risky and I don't know what I was thinking. He thought for a few seconds and then said "Well, because the doctor told my mom I was a boy!" So, I said a silent prayer of thankfulness and then said "The vet told me Finley was a girl." Crises over, people. Crises over.

So, when I got home Friday, I grabbed 3 aspirin and Finley and headed to my parents for the weekend. We had some family come in town to meet Ryan Grace. The house has been crowded, loud and crazy with 8 adults, four kids and two dogs running around. Jealous, aren't you? 

Baby K was infatuated with Ryan Grace. Or the bouncy seat. One or the other. Hard to say. 

Ryan Grace was pretty infatuated with the seat herself! 

Cuteness. 

Baby yawns. So funny!

This morning, we went shopping. Abby was ready to go, y'all! And, she picked out her FABULOUS Uncle Si shirt. Ha! 

Baby K hung out up here...

while Charles was yelling " Wooooook, Windsssayyy!!!! We awe hiding in ouwwww secwet spooooot! Take ouwwww pictuwe!!!" How do you say no to that? 

Then we came home and spent the afternoon on the porch where Charles got all up-close and personal with my leg. Ha! But, really, I didn't mind. He's pretty cute ;) 

It was a good weekend. I hope yours was, too! Now that testing is over, maybe I'll have more time to blog. I hope so! I'm going to try really hard to her back in the groove. 

Hold me to it, okay?

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

I say almost because... well... you know I can't keep it completely wordless. But this will be a quick update and soooo random. Just be warned. 

We painted pottery for Claire's Bacelorette party during Spring Break.

Rehearsal dinner pics...

And, one with the bride. Of course!

My new den! Complete with new couch, rug and ottoman. I love it!! 

The other side of the room...

I also hung a collection of vintage silver platters in my front room. I love them, too!

Finley spent some time with my mom...

And with my aunt...

And some cute little kiddos.

I made my niece a bow holder bc that girl has some bows! Never mind that she is a week old...

Finley found some new and interesting places to hang out...

I spring-ified my house with a new wreath and some plants.

And, we started our TCAP countdown.

And, we've gone over about 1,453,768 test questions...

(Notice a trend?)

And in the meantime of allllll that, this little angel has been at the forefront of my mind.

It's pretty hard to think about anything else beause I get picture texts of her allllll the time. And, I am NOT complaining! Ha!