Gratitude Party SURPRISE!

SURPRISE!  My mom is ending her 28 year stent as PRE-K guru at HCES.  That's right after 30+ years of teaching my awesome mom is moving on....she has so many different emotions and feelings but how could you not after such a long stay, such long hours, and so many kids calling you Mrs. Thornton!  Her friends and co-teachers wanted to honor her in the best way possible and so we all got together and threw her a big SURPRISE GRATITUDE PARTY!  All her besties were there and they honored her with flowers, cards, presents, food, stories, pictures, and skits!  Some of the women there were at HCES in the beginning....certainly oldies but goodies!  She has wonderful memories with all of these awesome women!  They all said to me during the planning that my mom IS THE BEST at what she does and I do believe it!

Her most recent pre-k team!

Skit time!

These crazy ladies made up a whole song with hilarious Pre-K moments with my mom!

Mom's dearest friend

Our school nurse and mom's wonderful friend back when I WENT to HCES!

The oldies but goodies!  Mom's original HCES team!

Another group of special ladies....they made great team mates!

Mrs. F and my mom singing a song that they STILL remember from when they did PRE-K together.....like in the late 80's and early 90's...wow they have good memories!

It was quite the feat to get this all accomplished without my mom knowing especially since it was at her house!  My dad secretly cleaned for days and when she went to work the last day, he came home and moved and cleaned and organized!  Not sure my mom will ever find everything that he "cleaned up!"  I had to keep her busy for 2 1/2 hours after school so she wouldn't go home...luckily, we had not celebrated Mother's Day yet because we had been out of town so I used that as an excuse....Emily and I took her to get ice cream and then to the Christian Book store....she loves books so it wasn't hard to waste time in a book store!  We had been at her house THREE times that day already and when we drove up to her house (she thought we were picking up the rest of the family to go eat dinner)...mom walked to the mailbox to get the mail and sweet Emily says, "Nee Naw, I already got your mail today!"  That was her only slip the whole day but Nee Naw still didn't put two and two together until she walked in and her entire house was full....30 + people full....all to celebrate her!