You gotta love it...

One of my most favorite times of the day while I am teaching, is story time. The children's faces are still flushed from running as much as they possibly could during recess. Their hair is damp from their own perspiration. Their eyes glimmer while they tell me all that they did. Or more often, what another child did that they didn't like.

I settle them down, send them each to the restroom before we have a calming half hour of coloring while I read. Sometimes I just have them rest their heads on their desks or have them sit on the floor while they look up at colorful pictures and laugh at my antics while I read.

It gives me a refreshing start to the afternoon. After being warn out over our morning routine, having lunch and thinking that small break during recess always seems to fly every time.

I love watching their faces as they try to put themselves in the shoes of the character I am reading about. I watch as their eyes catch mine when I laugh, myself, over Marc Brown's or another children's author's creative way of writing.

So, yesterday was no different. They all had coloring pages they needed to finish so they automatically sat down after their restroom break and got to it. I read a Thanksgiving book and then I had a request for a Dr. Seuss book.

After looking through a couple of books, I decided on one that looked fun. I sat on my stool and started....Fox, Socks, Box, Knox. Knox in box.Fox in socks. Knox on fox, in socks in box.Socks on Knox and Knox in box.Fox in socks on box on Knox. Ya, I could tell right there this was going to be fun.

Half way through the book when I thought I have never been so tongue tied, a little blond boy with eyes as big as quarters and green as emeralds showed me his prize winning smile and looked up into my eyes. "Miss_________ you always make me laugh so much. You are like a big birthday cake for the whole school!"

Let me ask you this. What is cuter than that???? I am a birthday cake! *Smile*