She has been so wonderful and Dean has learned so much from her. I was her "room mom" for the year, and every single parent adored her as much as Dean and I have so we decided to surprise her on the last day of school. I sent a note to all the parents asking them to gift to her "class library" their child's favorite book. Inside the front cover was a photo of the child and a worksheet where each child answered, "what is your favorite thing about kindergarten?" and "what is your favorite thing about Mrs. Labay?". I chose this gift so that she could think of these little cuties as she opens these books to chare in years and classes to come. Then all the parents that could attend showed up at lunch to surprise her along with the kiddos. I was helped with the plan by another wonderful teacher who went and got Mrs. Labay (who was not on lunch duty this day) and told her she was needed in the lunchroom for an issue. As Mrs. Labay rounded the corner, she saw her whole class lined up, flowers and books in hand, chanting her name and clapping. She was briefly choked up, but she held it together pretty well. We brought her lunch to eat so we could all continue to visit with her and the parents got together and surprised her with a $150 VISA gift card and some other things.
It was an amazing day and Mrs. Labay was well worth all the fuss. We're at a new school now and Dean and I both miss seeing her sweet face. :)
