Kings and queens, and birthday wishes too

"Today I feel perfect!"

"Happy Birthday. Hug!"

"How are you going to drink that coffee?"

"Are you 68? Um... 23?"

"Is it fun being a teacher? I think it's fun."


Today was full of funny quotes from my students.  My amazing room dads and awesome friends surprised me for an early birthday celebration at school!

 I walked in this morning to such festivity:

Ari, thanks for the decorative cup o' joe and birthday song!

My room dads secretly asked all my students to bring flowers for a class bouquet. In all my years of teaching, I have never gotten so many flowers (although teacher appreciation week comes close). It was really cute seeing my class holding all the flowers in line.

Balloons, everywhere...

My thoughtful friend Caitlin + crew got me the Dorothy TOMS I blogged about a few weeks ago!

I have happy feet!

...and flowers everywhere.

I took most of the flowers and made this lovely bouquet:

And my room dad even baked this HUGE cake for me and to share with all the teachers.

It was delicious and had turquoise lettering too. :)

                                                                  Before . . .    and after.

In addition to the flowers, my kids made me cards and drawings. One student wrote me a letter which was too cute!

To be honest, I had been dreading turning the big 3-0. I remember at 16 thinking, 'Man, will I ever be that old?' And in 3 days, I will be. People around me kept telling me 30 will be fantastic but all I could think of was wrinkles and aching bones. But today I realized how blessed I am to be who I am, where I am, and how I've gotten to this point. What I thought was going to be a curse, is actually a blessing.
Thirty is going to be fantastic!