Today we held our 8th annual Teacher Appreciation Dinner in our back yard.  We really love this event and so do all the teachers we invite.  This year we had 20+ people attend, so we had to hold it outside.  Because this is Sarah’s last year doing this, we decided to let her not only invite a couple from this year, but also invite those throughout all the years that impacted her the most.  With Brittany’s, Kirstyn’s, and Zach’s teachers, we had quite the party!

We started off with burgers and dogs on the grill and with the chips, salads, fruit, veggies, and the cupcakes Brittany made, we were all pretty full.  Each of the kids wrote appreciation letters or poems to their teachers and we did a “program” where they read the letters, the girls sang, Sarah played her flute, and the teachers really appreciated that.  Teachers don’t get enough appreciation from parents for the huge amount of time they invest in our kids and we need to honor them more.  🙂

Ben found himself a new best friend as well.  Sarah’s English teacher this year came (Mr. Solgos) and Ben had him up in the top of the play yard…

For the entire evening, Ben was totally hooked to his hip.  It was really cute although it was probably a little much for Mr. Solgos, although he didn’t show it a bit.  🙂

At the end, we took pictures of the group and some of the kids with their individual teachers.  A real treat was that Sarah’s kindergarten teacher (Mrs. D.) was able to come.  We have admired her for years, and we weren’t doing these events when Sarah was in kindergarten.  She was very impressed and also overwhelmed with emotion that we would still think of her and involve her in our special night.

She said with tears in her eyes that she wishes that more families were like ours (not wanting to brag) and that if all families had the spiritual values we had, that the world would be a much better place.  That makes these kind of events totally worth it.  We owe a lot to those who take care of our kids during the day, and this is the least we could do.

Thank you teachers!!!