Saying goodbye

Even though this school year felt long at times and wasn't always the easiest, the end of the year was very emotional as I had to say goodbye to my Red Oak family and my second "home" for the past 19+ years.  I student taught Feb.-March 2003 in 1st grade at Red Oak, and was fortunate to land my first teaching job that fall in 2nd grade, right next door to my cooperating teacher.  Through the years, I only moved classrooms one time--when we looped 2nd/3rd grade and I moved upstairs with the 3rd grade team.  I stayed put when we looped 3rd/4th grade a few times and eventually just stayed in 3rd grade.  My team has gone from a team of 8 teachers (!) to a team of 3, and they are fortunately going to be able to have a team of 4 and smaller class sizes next year.  I packed up and moved things to our garage/basement little by little over the last two weeks of school--I think it ended up being 11 total carloads.  😬 It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone, and the finality of turning in my computer/keys and shutting my classroom door for the last time was very emotional.  Even though it was hard, I think it's time for a new adventure, and I am excited to be in the same building as Norah next year (as well as just a block away from Abby at the high school).  I think it's what I'm supposed to be doing, even though it's scary thinking about the unknown.  The people and experiences I've had at Red Oak will always stay with me.  ❤️

The final car load

Jen and Sara had a going away open house for me on one of our last mornings--we didn't even plan to dress alike!

Dave was already up north fishing on my last day of school, so my sister was taking care of the girls.  She made us a reservation at the pizza farm for dinner to celebrate the end of the school year.  We also enjoyed ice cream at The Blast!

Fresh haircuts

The girls NEVER want to get their hair cut, so when they both agreed to have it cut by our worship leader/youth pastor's wife, Erin, I booked an appointment for them right away.  They were most excited to have her style/curl their hair.  The cuts turned out so cute!

Last day of school

The girls wrapped up their school year with lots of fun activities--I can't believe that Abby is finished with middle school and moving on to high school!  Norah has only one more year left in elementary school--time is going too fast!

Norah has loved going to Becky's in the mornings before school!

Abby had the best advisor this year--we had to drop off Ms. Sinke's gift at her house since part of it was her favorite adult beverage--much deserved after a tough year 😁

Last day of school--Abby was headed on a field trip to Valleyfair

Abby's field trip extended into the evening, so Norah chose where she wanted to go for supper on her last day of school--she chose Taco Bell, but didn't want to eat inside.  We ate in the car and had ice cream for dessert from The Blast 🙂

Abby's last band concert

Abby had her last-ever band concert this spring--she started playing clarinet in 5th grade, then played for 3/4 of 6th grade, when schools shut down in March of 2020 and went to distance learning.  For 7th grade, they were back in hybrid/distance learning/full in-person, but with masking and uncertainty about covid, band looked a lot different--the entire band learned percussion when they were in person and just played their regular instruments on Google Meet lessons.  So really, 5th and 8th grades were the only "normal" years of band for Abby and she felt ready to be done after this year.  I have such fun memories of high school marching band, pep band, and jazz band, but hopefully Abby will find some other activities in high school that connect her with good friends!  My parents were able to come up for the concert, and we all thought the band sounded great!

Twins game!

My brother was in town at the beginning of May, so my family got tickets to the Mother's Day Twins game.  We were sad that Dave's family couldn't join us as planned, because of Dave's dad's health at the time.  The game was lots of fun, and we had great seats.  I even ran into a friend and her family in the gift shop, and we met up on the field at the end of the game to run the bases together with our kids.  It was fun to see the Twins win two days in a row (we had gone the day before with a church group)!

Hibachi

We had so much fun celebrating birthdays at Shogun with our good friends, Todd and Kaysie and their kids.  So many laughs, and such delicious food!  Even though we were stuffed afterwards, the kids seemed to think we needed some ice cream for dessert at Baskin Robbins.  🤔

Daughters of the King

Our church hosted a women's gathering this spring called "Daughters of the King".  There was fellowship, worship, a speaker, a craft, and delicious dessert.  I'm so thankful for the amazing friends that the girls and I have made at our church.  💜