School's out

My family on deck of the El Galeon in St. Augustine, FL

             Welcome summer, I have missed your sunny mornings and rainy afternoons.

Usually about this time, I'm typing up lessons for next week and trying to figure out just what I missed in my own kids' backpacks. Needless to say, I think I am pretty glad it's summer. Though I will really miss this year's class and yes, I miss every class I have ever taught or assisted!

Today before I left school, we went over the Florida map with all the cities circled that I'll be visiting and all the kids were so interested in where I'll be while they are at school. Each one seems to have a connection to at least one of the cities I'll be in and that made it even cooler for them.
The best part is they all have learned 3 Florida facts:
#1 Tallahassee is the state capital and it's really not all about the Gators vs the Noles. They all love me though they know every Fri., I wore my Nole shirt whilst the rest of the bunch wore orange and blue.
#2 They know that the orange blossom is the state flower and we just love orange juice.
#3 They also know that the state bird is the mockingbird. And that that's my Mama's street back home.
As I send postcards and bring in artifacts or fun items from my trips, I hope they learn even more about the state they live in.
It's kinda crazy that tomorrow I won't have to turn off an alarm at 5:50, drag myself across the house to stir my 2 kiddos awake and then be out the door by 6:50 but I am pretty confident that my 9 year old will be up by 7. We have a full week though so don't start saying "Oh, how lucky...all summer off" because we have 2 days of rehearsals, loads of family coming to town and recitals all weekend. Then we have doctor appointments plus the boy has baseball camp. And that's just the first week and a half off...we head south after that for E to attend a summer intensive right after our huge yard sale.
You know, the yard sale all of you are going to come buy something from ;) We started another declutter tonight for the yard sale. Our major chore tonight was clothes. Putting away clean, washing the dirty and packing away those no one in the house wants anymore. Let me tell you we are really lucky to be able to have so much but man, why do we all have so much!

I am sure you all have big plans for summer as well but if you don't or haven't done this already go to St. Augustine, see the El Galeon because it's awesome and we all need to relive a little FL history every now and then.

                                        El Galeon in the Municipal Marina, St. Augustine, FL