Can birthdays get any better?

I work with THE BEST people and my students are FANTASTIC.

I was late to work because not only could I not figure out how to do my hair (I wanted it to look good today!), but my 2nd period had earned donuts, and I had to go buy them. Let's just say I barely made it to work by the 5-minute bell. (As in FIVE MINUTES BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS.) Oops.

What surprise was waiting? One of my dear friends (who is a para for the Special Ed department at the school) and her friend (who also works for the district) decorated my classroom last night. I opened my door to a birthday wonder-land! There were fun little birthday signs and on my desk was a pink sash with the words "Birthday Princess" printed on them along with a matching pink button. Of course I immediately put them on!

Leslie, my facilitator, had given me a pink crown to wear last year and I kept it and wore it today! (Leslie asked me where my crown was though, and then I took it out of my purse and put it on.)

Leslie prompted my 1st period to sing to me. My 2nd period sang happy birthday to me right before we had donuts.

3rd period spontaneously started singing to me when one lone student began singing "Happy Birthday" solo-style. I probably sang the loudest though.

At the beginning of each period, I told my students that as a birthday present to them, I would allow them ten minutes of free time at the end of the class if they were ON-TASK for the rest of the class period. It worked! During free time 4th period, we had a Temple Run contest to see who could last the longest. We had about four kids on ipads and a couple on their personal ipods. It was so fun. I won the first round. (I don't think that's something to be proud of though...)

Leslie bought me lunch from Zupa's and I opened presents. (Like I said, I work with THE BEST people.) Lisa and Char bought me a cool game that I might be able to use in my classroom. Leslie bestowed a pair of her earrings to me. (I say "bestow" because she owned them and gave them to me because I have a necklace that matches them perfectly.) Then she bought me a book called The Art of Clean Up: Life made neat and tidy. The book is both a joke and awesome. It's awesome because the pictures area really fun, but it's a joke because I'm the "neat, organized" one who is slightly OCD about my classroom being organized and clean. (I freak out at my students if they make a mess and don't clean it up.)

Various co-workers stopped by during lunch time and said hi and wished me happy birthday. :) Of course I loved all the attention.

6th period I received some flowers! My dad sent me flowers, which is just the sweetest thing. I remember when he sent me flowers at work last year. I LOVE IT.

7th period two students were late to my class. What did they come in late with? A huge poster. And they were singing happy birthday. It was awesome. They read me these little poems they wrote on the poster. It was so sweet. The past couple of days they have been coming into my classroom during their math class and asking for markers. Apparently they were working on this poster! Isn't that so sweet? They were so proud of their poster! (And they should be - it was awesome!)



All-in-all it was a pretty great day. I'm completely exhausted though. Some students asked me if they could stay after school and I said, "No! I'm going home and relaxing tonight!" Of course all I'm doing is prying my eyes ope and trying not to fall asleep before I got to dinner with my brother and sister!

Best. Birthday. Ever.

-Ms. Damron-