Golden

The 4th Graders from Pleasant Suburban Elementary have found a golden ticket! Well, a whole host of golden tickets. To go along with Roald Dahls' Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator reading (and an obvious movie tie-in as the school year winds down...), the teachers granted all of their students a "golden ticket" much as the group of lucky winners in the story's contest received. Like Charlie and company's golden tickets, the ones received will also grant admittance for to visit a purveyor of all things sweet.
Of course, this particular field trip will also tie in nicely to this year's study of Texas History as the location of the family-owned Mary of Puddin Hill was granted to the original Mary's family after theTexas Revolutionary War. Can I just say again that I LOVE these teachers?! Doubly so as the iconic sweet shop will close its doors in a few days for good making these students amongst the last customers to visit, and, of course, anything that brings literature and history to life is a winner in my book... as are the chocolate covered oreos.

Robes



Little Bit and Middle Child 2007

My mother-in-law saved the Mister's and his sister's robes, honor cords, and the caps worn for their high school graduations in the 90's. In 2007, my father-in-law earned his Master's degree after retiring from his lifelong career as an engineer. We loaded up the offspring and drove across Texas to attend Papa's graduation. The girls were impressed with Papa's robes, so Gram broke out their Daddy and Aunt's high school graduation gear for a little dress-up fun.
Little Bit dancing around her solemnly posed sister was pretty standard as our youngest gladly filled the clown role in her pre-K days. She planted the secondary cap upside down on Katie's head and proceeded to twirl and prance around and around her big sister. That big sister is currently looking for a dress to wear to cross a stage indicating the passage from middle school into her own high school days. It will likely be all too soon that the offspring will be receiving their own robes and posing for just these sorts of pictures again. I wonder if Little Bit will grace those future photos with her Happy Dance?

Plate

Busy seems to be the order of the day. Everyday. A blue plate special of heaping helpings of assorted appointments, meetings, commitments, and tasks. This is the norm for our household in the Spring, but this year the potential for lighter fare come June has been exchanged for a buffet including a year-round Cross Country schedule, a skater preparing for her first competition (despite the occasional tell-tale "Do-I-have-to..." laments of Spring Fever), the Mister's increasing craziness with work and a church plant launching in three months, the Boy's ongoing saga... and I am heading to Honduras in two weeks. I think it's time to get a bigger plate...