Surprise Baby Shower!

So I had a fabulous experience yesterday. On Thursdays I teach my ballroom team after school. We go from 3:00 to 4:30 every week, and then on the 23rd of January they will perform at the talent show. Anyway, yesterday as 7th period was about to get out, I heard the main office calling downa slew of kids--and realized that every one of them was on my team. Hmmm. I called the main office and asked about it, and they were like, "What? No we didn't." And I was confused. Then I go to get my cd case to head down to practice, and it's gone. Must have left it with the cd player. So I go to the auditorium to get the CD player, which I would then wheel to the lunchroom where we practice, just like every week. No cd player. What's going on? At this point you'd think I'd catch on. Well, I thought something MIGHT be up, but I couldn't figure out what the occassion would be. It's not my birthday, we aren't performing for months, and maybe I was just being self-agrandizing. So I headed to the lunchroom, where one of my students stopped me to say she had to leave ballroom early. (She was really just trying to stall me apparently.) I headed in, and saw no one in the lunchroom. What? Then they all jumped out from behind the wall and threw balloons at me!

I was so surprised! They had a cake, tons of balloons, a cute gift and had even pitched in money for me to buy Afton something. And they made me this really cute poster.
I don't post pictures of my students on my blog, of course, but I figure these are small enough you can't really see their faces. The day before they all gathered and took pictures of themselves in funny poses, then they all wrote notes on the poster for me, telling me how much they appreciated my efforts and how much I had taught them and changed their lives.

When you are a teacher, you don't get many paydays like THAT.

Of course I was all crying, which was exactly what they wanted. They launched into the details of how they had planned it, sneaking in a cake early in the morning and getting the lunch ladies to keep it in the fridge, blowing up the balloons frantically before I arrived and sending Angel out to stall me--it was so cute. The whole thing was instigated by Nicki, a student I had on team last year who comes back with Nick, another kid from team last year, who help me choreograph. They are so awesome and helpful! And Nicki's friend Rachelle was awesome too. It's so amazing to see these kids being so unselfish, thinking of others, and taking the time to do something like that. It was the first time any of them had planned a party, and they did such a good job. I am truly blessed!