Happy Birthday to MEEEE! :-)

Okay, I know this should have gone under "Look At Me" on AQ, but since I'm still all puffed up with pride, I thought I'd blog it!

The Highlander and I agreed to not do birthday gifts this year, since my birthday always falls after our summer financial drought (September) and his is always after our Christmas drought (January). So, I went to school on the 27th not really expecting anything.

When I got in, 5 of my kids from LAST year came in with a box of cupcakes they had made AND frosted all by themselves! They sang to me, then had a few younger brothers and sisters holding up a banner they made with all their signatures on it. As I was gushing over how cool it was, one of them went "Ooo, let's get the whole 5th grade to sign it!" So, they held on to that, but made me open my present, which was a little ceramic fairy music box. I noticed she had a spot on her head and asked about it and the ringleader of this little band said, "Yeah, she had a crown that broke off and the knob to the music part is broken. We were kinda hoping you wouldn't notice that because we know you like fairy stuff from your earrings and your trailname (yes, I had made young boxers out of last year's class, too!) :-)

I promptly got teary eyed and said I didn't notice a thing!

I found out later from one of their moms that they had just REMEMBERED my birthday on their own and had been planning what to do about it every since school started this year! For kids who'll just be turning 11 this year, I was REALLY flattered that they remembered after a whole year. We did NOTHING special for my birhtday when they were in my class, so how they knew, I'll never know!

The rest of the day was great, too. The Highlander yelled out of the car that it was my birthday to my principal, who bellowed "Well, the WHOLE SCHOOL'S gonna know NOW!" and proceeded to shout it into every classroom as he walked in and THEN sang to me on the morning announcements and told all the kids to do the same if they saw me. So, I got musical interludes and hurriedly sketched homemade cards all day. My favorite was from one of this year's students, who made me fake money in $1,000,000 denominations. Another girl had colored a cute little purse for me, so I now have it up on my desk as my "retirement fund"! :-)

Yay kids...and Highlanders! ;-)

The (still feeling the love nearly a week later) Sprite and the (still giving her love year 'round) Highlander