Friday, 5/9/14

I know that I wrote on Wednesday about our amazing IPTO and the luncheon they'd provided on that day, but I feel I need to write another humble and sincere thank you to the members of our Parent/Teacher organization. As Benson's  "T"  in the IPTO, I know first hand, and behind-the-scenes how blessed we are to have such dedicated parents supporting our efforts for our kids, but this week, they hooked us up! We felt love everywhere we turned, from the luncheon, to a magnificent breakfast, to chocolates in our mailboxes and capping the week off with an array of desserts and sweets in our lounge today that would put the finest bakeries to shame! Our jeans' waistlines may be a big tighter this week, but our hearts are FULLER than we could have ever imagined. Next week we can get back to our salads and workouts, but this week we felt love and appreciation and nothing but gratitude to the families in our community. We are abundantly blessed, which is something we are acutely aware of every single day, but this week the IPTO outdid themselves and, as you can tell from my rambling sentences, there are no words to properly say thank you-----but THANK YOU!

Add to that the love that I've been showered with by my precious students and their fabulous parents, and I am a spoiled, but insanely happy chick this week!!!!

And then there was love demonstrated in a different way in my world today: my class released our butterflies into their forever home, Earth. The kids who wanted to were able to hold a butterfly and feel it flutter in their hands as they carried them from our classroom to our school garden, at which point they were released. It was one of those bittersweet life moments when something we've seen grow from when they first arrived as teeny tiny caterpillars had to be released to go and life their lives. I know the kids didn't like to let them go, but they did a good job of letting their little friends go. As I'm writing this I'm finding it all too similar to the emotions I've been feeling as the month of May flies by me and the days I have left with my little ones are rapidly disappearing. They came to me as teeny tiny little caterpillars and they are now the most amazingly beautiful butterflies I could ever imagine. I hate the thought of having to let them go and fly on their own, but I know it is what is best for them. I guess this is what they'd call "Life imitating art" in the school world. <3

I  was able to capture some precious moments as they did: