First of all, I'm checking in for last week.  It was a good week.  I took my 8th graders to DC for two days and one night and it was a blast.  They were so well-behaved and we had so much fun with them.  My bus was Bus#7 and the two other chaperones and I had games planned for the bus and we brought movies and had a fabulous time.  We played Teacher Trivia and had a Bus #7 Idol contest and enjoyed relaxing with the kids without worrying about grades or anything like that.  All 250 kids were so well behaved the whole time.  In Arlington Cemetery for the changing of the guard, you could have heard a pin drop and they were excellent.  Other schools were there and they were NOT excellent.  We made sure we told them how proud we were every opportunity we got.  In the museums, I would call the groups of kids that I was chaperoning and tell them a mission to find something and take a picture of it with their cell phones.  For example, I said, "Find the number 19."  So, they searched the Air and Space museum until one of the groups took a picture of the number 19 on the side of one of the airplanes hanging from the museum.  They LOVED that kind of stuff.

Back home since Friday night, and had a great weekend.  Julia had swimming lessons and we took the kids to the park and went to the local carnival last night.  The kids rode rides, played games, ate cotton candy and enjoyed themselves.  We also had a great time just being as a family. 

Today is Mother's Day.  I taught a class in church (not my favorite Mother's Day activity, but it's money and between this class and the last class I taught, it's $300 more to put in our fix the bathroom fund!  Then, Julia and I did the food shopping and we finally found her a Webkinz at the game store next to the ShopRite.  She was thrilled.  I had her pick one out for each of her brothers as well.  I have to tell you, she never nagged or whined or anything about getting one.  She mentioned it one or two times a few months ago, and then never complained when one didn't appear.  So, now she has one and she is having a blast with it.  Right now, it is sleeping under a washcloth under her round, pink pillow.  She's too cute.  While the boys slept, I took a long walk through the neighborhood with my iPod.  It felt great!  My legs are a little achy, but I think that they were resting after all the DC walking and then I muscled them back up again.  I'm definitely back in the walking game.  I feel so good afterwards! 

We met my parents for dinner.  We got my Mom 3 little grandchildren charms for her necklace and 2 gift certificates for one of her favorite restaurants.  My parents bought me an enormous thing of Tide with Bleach.  I'm too cheap to buy it for myself, but I love it.

Now we're winding down and getting ready for bed.  I'm exhausted and tomorrow is back to the grind.  I'm sure we have a great week ahead of us here, as well.