School's out for-ever!

Ok - well...not forever...but at least for summer! The picture on the left is a huge canvas that all the children at our school made together during our art's experience day...the theme was "Peace begins with you". I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the colors are all of the children's hand prints! It turned out beautifully! Oh, and on the right is my crazy class - minus a couple...on to second grade they go and down to Kindergarten I will go. This week has been busy closing this past year and planning with a new team for next year. I think summer is a thing of the past because I will be working a lot to get ready for the upcoming school year over the next few months.

baseball players and storytellers

It seems this is the week for field trips with first grade. Yesterday we went to see a baseball game (our minor league team - The Lookouts). The children loved it! As we were singing "Take me out to the ballgame" - after the part - "buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks..." one of our little friends yelled, "and NACHOS!" Hilarious!
Then today we went to this AWESOME storytelling festival at Coolidge Park called Tale Spin (click on the Chattanooga link under Fav Web Sites to see more). The children were on the edge of their seats the whole time. This was most definitely one of the year's highlights for me. The storytellers were so captivating! I came home and asked Mal if we could go tomorrow night for our date night. Summer is almost here! Nightfall is about to start, Riverbend is right around the corner, and the Chattanooga Market is open again! I just love living in Chattanooga!

Weekends

Weekends around here are so busy...we pack in as much as possible and then some. I have had several church activities lately. Last weekend we had the privilege of having the Lookabills in town visiting. They gave a wonderful presentation during Sunday School last week as a fund raising tool for their missions trip to Japan. Did you know they grow square watermelons over there? It's true! They grow them in crates. We had fun catching up with them and having their baby meet our baby!

Then...this past weekend we had the annual Women's Banquet at church. This year the "young people" were asked to organize and execute the banquet. So we spent Thurs. night, Fri. night, and ALL day Sat. working to get ready for the main event! It was fun working with friends and bonding over this new experience. I must say it was quite a success! I think we did such a fine job we have been commissioned to do it again next year. As Joc said, "I don't think I have ever cooked so much rice at one time before in my life!"

The hard working team!