The Start of Summer ~ The End of Another School Year

Oh my goodness... so much has happened since this last post and Anna coming home from China on June 1st. 

We soaked it in - our girl home - we sure did! 

But it was also a crazy full two weeks. 

Since then we have: 

• I have ended my teaching (back to the classroom 7th year) (16 total years in the classroom teaching) 
• Finishing teaching for the year is oh so much! Because you just want to 'do it right'. You've fallen in love with those kids in your class and you want to make those last 2 weeks count
• Closing up a classroom - it goes from really full to really empty and put away all in one night  
• Doing the last day of school - that is a doozy - wonderful, emotional, hard, glorious all wrapped into one. I am still not over saying goodbye and thinking about the sweetness of the last day of school 
• Unpacked with Anna almost 6 months of living in China - lots of piles - lots of laundry - lots of wonderful stories
• Scott (middle school principal) closed up his year - a wild ride for him for sure
• Abigail finished up her junior year of high school
• Anna turned 21 and we celebrated her
• And so much more in-between there 

So that's what has been going on. I am slowly going to catch up on this blog of mine. 

We are right now basking in the 'doneness' of school and the first day of summer. 

We are tired. 

And we have a to do list a mile long that we just kept adding to throughout the spring. But we will get it done eventually. We have the whole summer ahead of us! 

First of all... the amount of flowers I brought home on the last day of school was amazing! Wonderful notes, letters, gift cards galore but these flowers! Oh my goodness! 

These are all of the plants from my classroom that are home for the summer! 

What other profession in the world are you loved this much!? 

I love this photo of us -- the last day of school after finishing up a wonderful dinner and just talking talking talking on the porch. My favorite place to be with my favorite people on the planet. 

Today is the first day of summer break and we started our reading on the couch as we always do all every summer since Anna was 3. 

Yes, we are off to a wonderful start -- summer is the best!