April has brought with it some fun, and some not so fun adventures.  One of the big things it brought with it was state testing, STAAR testing here in Texas.  Testing days are long and exhausting for the students, and they are long, exhausting and mind-numbingly boring for teachers.  There are so many very strict rules for teachers, and because of it, it something I definitely dread.  We do try to make it more pleasant for the kids – putting up posters, building and pumping them up for it.  I especially love all the posters that Brianna, one of the teachers on my 4th grade team, made.

And because testing was happening right around Easter, she made some of the cutest themed posters, and a parent came and decorated all of our doors with bunnies.  Adorable, and the kids loved it.

Since Kevin knows how much I hate and dread testing days, he surprised me with these gorgeous roses on the morning of the first test.  I took them with me to school and kept them on my desk to give me a wonderful reminder of how he is cheering me on.  You see, he also knows how much I want me students to grow and succeed, and so I am not only worried for how to survive the logistics of the day, but how much I care about my students doing their best.

Because of STAAR testing, we have to cover up anything academic in our classrooms, which means that my room looks sad and depressing.  So lame, but it is what it is.  And so, on Tuesday morning, the desks were moved, I had gandy and gum prepped to give the kids to help them make it through the hours of testing, and we did it.  (Luckily for me, since I am no longer 5th grade, I don’t have to give the science test, and the math test is the last week in April, so I have a little break.)

Luckily, we did have fun things thrown into the testing mayhem.  Like fun activities in library, which were awesome.

And since we had finished the Reading STAAR, it meant that we got to have a few days of fun activities before we move on to our end of the year research projects.  I brought out a reader’s theater play, which the kids LOVE doing.  It is seriously their favorite thing to get to act these out.  

At home, my roses are doing spectacularly!  And my iris are blooming.  Walking around in my yard gives me such joy and satisfaction, especially when I think about how I have worked so hard to create it all.

We had a three day weekend because of Good Friday, and so I took advantage of the day off of school to deep clean Arthur’s bedroom.  I had both Arthur and Derek helping me, as we took everything out of the room, except for the large furniture, and emptied the entire closet.  Then we scrubbed down the walls, shelves, floor, and furniture, followed by washing all the bedding and the rug.

And then the real work began – organizing and purging all the things we took out of the room.  We had three piles – a give-away pile, trash, and put back in the room pile.  It took forever, and not just because Arthur kept trying to pull things out of the trash bag.  It ended up that we still had quite a bit left to organize on Saturday as well, but most of the mess was gone by Friday evening.

After a few more hours of work on Saturday morning, the room was put back together.  We hung up a few new pictures, rearranged some of the old ones, and got everything to a point where with a little bit of effort, he can keep his room cleanish.  Ha ha!  

Friday night, Kevin and I went with some of our dear friend here on a group date to Pop Stroke, this awesome upgraded minigolf course.  They have a restaurant there too, so we met up and ate dinner first, and then hit the course.  (We went with Debbie and Tyler, Jana and Dave, and Sharon and Shane.).  Kevin and I ended up tying for first place, and so we did a playoff hole, where we proceeded to tie twice more, before I finally decided to give it up, so we could go – ha ha!  Then we went to the Rice’s house and played games and had ice cream, which was the perfect way to finish off a fun night.

While Kevin and I were off with our friends, Derek took Arthur to see a special even showing of a movie with a Japanese character that Lily had told them about.  And I found it super fun, that once again, while the boys were in Texas watching a movie, Lily was watching the same movie in Idaho.  This time though, she was with her friend, Jacob, and not alone.  Very fun, and they all had a blast – even though they had to read subtitles, since the movie was in Japanese.

All in all, it turned out to be a good, albeit sometimes exhausting, week.