so much nature. . .so little time

Took 18 kiddos on a field trip today to Tryon Creek State Park in Lake Oswego. The cool thing was that we've been pen pals with the 2nd grade class at Eastside Christian, where I taught the last 3 years. So it was more of a field trip for my friend, Davina, and I to get together and chat than for the kids to actually meet their pen pals. But, meet their pen pals, they did.

On the way there, one of my girls dramatically said, "Mrs. Bergland, I'm so excited to meet my pen pal. I'm going to remember this day forever. . .the day I finally met my pen pal." And I said, "Know what else you're going to remember? You're going to remember Mrs. Bergland. . .the very cool teacher who took you to meet your pen pal!"

Four groups of little kids off to explore the wilderness of Oregon. We saw lots of snails, banana slugs, trillium, a dead rat, lots of moss, mushrooms, and decaying trees, and beautiful green everywhere. It was really refreshing to be there today.

We are down to 14 1/2 days of school left and I'm very much looking forward to a break. It's been a wild and crazy year with this class. And did I mention that I found out why the former teacher left? It was because, not only did she want to go to graduate school, she also saw the group who was moving up and decided to let someone else tackle them. Lucky me!!!