a very colonial birthday

So, it's now June 17th, which means I am now 24 and a second year teacher.
My last days of school included many nice times. I watched Pan's Labrynth and Stomp the Yard with my kids. I got hugs. I got a t-shirt. I got awards. I gave awards and cards (one girl cried). And we ate a lot of food. Oh! And I found out I will have my own classroom, Tyesha (a long-term sub I just looove, she's just amazing and hilarious) will be joining our department as a teacher next year, Amy (other Michigan teacher) will have a desk near me, as will Ahmasi. Good changes, even though we saw many teachers leave and Chandra and Jerilyn will be downstairs with the 9th graders.
I took class pictures of every class but 3rd bell because a lot of kids couldn't make it, were making up other stuff, whatever, and I ended up with only five kids staying. I had pictures of most of them already, anyway, so... whatev.
I'll post the class pictures here, my flickr will have all the other pictures I took of kids and their funny faces, dances and handshakes.

1st bell: Paul, Chris, James, Bryan, Colin. Cleo. Renika, Nycolle and Ronisha. We were missing about 5 kids, a few of which never showed up because of family or medical issues.

2nd bell: Justin and his beloved donut, Tremaine, Melvin, Sandra, Franklin, Aric, Annette, Ariana. (Front) Sequena, Bonnie, Josh, Tony, Cody. I loved this class, I love this picture.

5th bell (most of it, anyway): Danielle, Zakiyyah, Vanessa, Nekita, Matthew, Dustin, Chen, Robert. (Front) Damian, Brittany, Samantha, Chris, Taphanies and Ryan. Loooove them!

8th bell: Vicky, Dorian, Kristian, Bre, J'mari, Deena, Julia, Shane, Rodney, Eric. Lauren, Patrick, Shawn and Ashley (cutest couple ever.), Crystal, Cherae. James, Le'Stace, Carl and some kid from Bugge's class that snuck himself in there. This was my crazy, but hilarious class. Many times we all laughed until we cried. James and Patrick had an amazing handshake they showed me that day, I took a picture of part of it. I should have taped it, it was amazing. haha.

So, my birthday. Thank you to everyone that sent me a birthday wish, I really appreciated it. Meg and I went to New Town, shopped, bought stuff, had lunch, went to get manicures and pedicures and then we all went into downtown Williamsburg, got a gift to send to Amanda to help her heal, and went to dinner at the Green Leafe Cafe. Very delicious!
I played around with the photo merge program that came with my camera. Here is a visual representation of what I bought for myself, what was bought for me, and our nailzzzz. It was not a wild & crazy birthday, but it was relaxing and wonderful.


Our parents should be somewhere near Charleson, WV now, on their way here. Tomorrow by noon, they should probably be here, along with our cousin, Liz. We're looking forward to hanging out with them in the CW, shopping in and going to Va Beach and Norfolk, seeing Pet Sounds and maybe convincing them (or part of them) to go to Busch Gardens. Woo, visitors!