It's Never Too Late...

to say, "Thank You." Today was our belated Veteran's Day program at school. I am not completely sure why it was done today instead of Friday, but it was so, and it was very touching. I love hearing children tell Veterans thank you. It is so important to teach our students about respect of person, property, and country. The kinders are always in such awe when the soldiers come in. What a blessing it is to have such great role models for them to look up to, and for these soldiers to take time out of their lives to attend an elementary school program in the middle of the morning. We have several students in our school that have parents in the military, many of whom spent extensive time away from their babies so that they might serve and protect our country. Check out one of my favorite days from last year here, and a heroic homecoming here.

A Heroic Homecoming

Today was Homecoming at our high school. Our district always does a parade, pep rally, and then the big game. Today's parade was extra special. A soldier returned home from Iraq. To her children. Her arrival was a complete surprise to everyone. She rode on the fire truck and could barely keep from barreling off of the top to get to her babies when she saw them. To sweeten the day, it was her little boy's birthday!

 

During all the commotion, here are some shots of the kinders and what they saw:

 Waiting...IT'S COMING!!! THE PARADE IS COMING!!!

Welcome Home Daddy!

The daddy of one of my kiddos was on deployment for the last year. He came home last week, but because it was the week of our statewide standardized testing, the family decided to leave the kids at school and let him surprise them after the test was over for the day. I knew ahead of time that he would be coming as soon as he could get there, so I did my best to make her wonder when she was getting picked up to go see him. I could let you imagine the look on her face when she saw him through the window of the door, but I will let you just see...

Absolute joy! She couldn't talk, other than to say "My Daddy, my Daddy!"  The other kids wanted to know about him and where he had been, and they thought it was amazing that he had been away since she was 4 and now she is 5! She cried and giggled and it was almost like she couldn't decide which she should do so both came out, and honestly, it was all I could do not to cry too!