school's out . . .

let the party begin!

Friday was the last day of school for students . . . minor detail that I have to go back tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday for varying lengths of time each day.

We had an assembly for the 5th graders who will be moving on to the middle school next year . . . they sang a song and my favorite line was, "You’ve watched us grow, now let us go". My heart is breaking already . . . someday I will have to let Grace go.

One of my favorite little peanuts gave me one final hug on Friday and said, "Mrs. DeHoog, that was my strongest hug ever."

I always get a little reflective when the school year ends . . . reflective about the past year and already thinking about what to do differently next year.

I SLEPT
and dreamt that life was joy.

I WOKE
and saw that life was duty.

I ACTED
and behold, duty was joy.

Rabindranath Tagore

Moving from serious to silly . . . the kids loved walking through this on Friday . . . it was PURPLE PRIDE day, so I thought it was especially fitting.

We put all the desks in one long row, covered them with butcher paper and the kids had a grand time decorating it during those last painful hours and minutes . . .
Our last bulletin board of the year . . .

And . . . my Gracie girl . . . she has now perfected the "cheese" smile . . .
This is her newest trick . . .
"How old are you Grace?" Yep . . . Grace pretty much lives in her diaper when we are at home. Wait until you see the garage sale pictures . . . I was calling it the Jones Family ghetto garage sale because Grace was running around on the front lawn in her diaper pretty much all day long. Everyone said how cute she looked when she finally had clothes on at about 3:00. Grace LOVES music . . . her and Tom were standing there and then she heard music from the TV and she started bending her knees and bopping her head. I have loved each and every baby stage so far . . . but this one year old business pretty much rocks. I am constantly in awe of the new things she does each day. She has started copying things we do . . . here she was helping me clean the floor.
The other night I was talking to Tom on his way home from work and Grace grabbed the phone from me and started gabbing. She finally realized what I was doing when I held that thing. Until then she thought it was only used for biting, slobbering in, and then tossing when she was tired of it. So if you ever wanna chat and you speak Gracianese, then give us a call.

And everything . . . everything, goes over her head and around her neck.