Sunday, May 25, 2014

Turning 24

This year for my birthday, my students planned quite the extravaganza! Being 9 years old made it hard for many of them to keep their plans secret… they always started a conversation with me with, “we’re planning a surprise for your birthday!” And by the time the conversation came was over, I knew all about the ‘surprises’ without any prompting from my end. Regardless, the excitement they had planning a birthday party for me was enough joy to watch and we had a fabulous day celebrating!

My birthday happened to fall on the Monday of Spring Break this year so I celebrated with my students the Friday before. I was already planning to watch a movie during three of their class periods to avoid starting new material right before break, but that also created the perfect opportunity to party. I also supervise the 12th grade students teaching English at the public school on Friday mornings so my own students had another perfect opportunity to decorate the classroom and set up the party before I got to school. By the time I made it to school that morning, I could see them all running down the hill to greet me at the gate with big hugs and to escort me up to my own, private birthday party!

They decorated the classroom with balloons (conveniently used in Art class the day before) and by writing love notes all over the whiteboard.

They set up a table in the middle of the room with 20 places set (plates, cups, napkins… the whole 9 yards) and a delicious cake! They had collected money from everyone to buy this beautiful cake. My favorite part is that they all quickly agreed I was the best choice for cutting and serving the cake, and pouring the soda in cups for everyone too.

We ate most of the cake but some if it ended up on our faces.

We rounded out the celebrations by watching “Frozen” and hitting a piƱata. All of the kids had so much fun, and the best part for me was witnessing their pride in successfully pulling off this birthday celebration! They may be little, but they organized a fantastic party (and they knew it too). I could not have asked for a better birthday with my sweet students!