Ending the year with a bang...

We've had a busy last few weeks at the Ponderosa! Here we are celebrating Miss P's Open House/Classroom Celebration.

Exactly a week later, we had International Night. Our school is unique in that we have every ethnicity you can think of. This year I have a Turkish student, and a student from Haiti, to name a few.
Above and below you see P and her 'besties.' China, India and France are represented - not sure why her Scottish friend didn't make it in the picture! Now, some of these girls don't just have ancestors from these countries (like P's great, great, great grandparents are from Ireland). I'm talking, these families just moved here within the last few years from India, Scotland, and France. The kids speak the languages and have the accents. Cool!
Today we had our End of Year BBQ Party. It used to be the last week of school (next week), but as that time is already so crazy (and the other grade levels are vying for the days), we started having it early. It was a hit! I enjoyed my dual role of mom and teacher. I actually met a mom from another class who had no idea who I was (shock, can you believe it? I had to explain my actual celebrity status.) For a moment, I was 'just a mom.' : )
Paige with her cute friends again. The little boy on the end in Elmo is a younger sibling.

Speaking of 'just a mom,' I had the realization recently that I will never get the chance to be that 'do it all mom,' - at least while I'm in this job! I was recently thanking one of my parents profusely for working hard on our classroom auction basket. She modestly shrugged and said, 'That's what we do.' I told this story to E, and he kind of didn't get it. 'Who's 'we'?' 'The stay-at-home, do-it-all mom of course!' I had planned to only work part-time this year, but things turned out differently. For awhile I held on to hopes that I could organize my time and take days off to try and play both parts. I have finally come to terms with the fact that I can be helpful, but I'm not going to be able to do any of the big stuff in P's classroom. I was so thankful to the room parent in her class this year, who kept me in the loop, and helped me to feel part of things. I'm actually happy with my full-time status now.
OK, back to the slide show.
You can barely see it, but around the playground there were many groups of children who collected sticks, rocks, and weeds and built homes for imaginary animals and all kinds of other things. P and company are quite proud of this 'creation.' Love the imagination!