Merry Christmas!

Career Day 2012

One of the perks of being a Kindergarten teacher is being able to attend lots of events with Audrey that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. This year at Career Day, she got to rotate classrooms to see three different guest speakers.

Spangle the Clown brought clown noses and straws for everyone.

 Then, we got to see Jake Dill, a farmer at Rutledge-Wilson Farm. He is the brother-in-law of one of my sweetest friends, Shelly. He came with a rabbit for the kids to pet, along with coloring books and chicken headbands.

Audrey liked petting the rabbit because it was so soft! 

She loved the chicken headband!

Connie Frost is a caterer and owner of Three Fat Ladies Tea Room. She brought all the kids a mini cupcake to eat after her demonstration.

Audrey said her favorite guest speaker was the clown because clowns are funny!

Happy 13th Birthday, Cole!

It’s hard to believe that Cole is a teenager! He’s grown up so much in this past year. He is super tall, has a deep voice and has found a new niche in junior high with Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). It’s so wonderful to see him mature into such a sweet young man.

We celebrated this year with a family bonfire at home after school.

We bought Cole a laptop this year for his birthday. We don’t normally spend that much money for birthday gifts, but I bought it on Black Friday and he truly has needed one of his own for awhile. We thought it was going to be a surprise, but Audrey had told him that he was getting a ‘dy’ as a present. Somehow he figured out that it was a laptop. The reason she called it a dy is because on my laptop, when it’s closed, you see the letters hp upside down and it looks like dy (see the second picture below). Although I wasn’t too happy with her for giving him clues, we thought it was pretty funny that she thought his laptop was a dy.

So proud, as always!

Cole was recognized tonight at the school's monthly Board meeting for achieving an advanced score in Math on the state MAP test. Congratulations, Cole!  We are so proud of you!

After a long blogging break, I'm finally back!

I am so excited that it's summer vacation! It was definitely an interesting school year, but I was ready for summer and getting back to spending time with my own family.

We've been trying to do a few fun things each week that get us out of the house, but I have to admit that all four of us would rather stay home than go anywhere most of the time. It's just kind of nice being able to enjoy each others company and get a few things done around home that we put off during the school year.

On Thursday, I had the chance eat dinner at Fedora's Social House with my friends Wynne, Christy, Kristi, Amber and Lisa. (We were missing two from our group, but hope they will be able to come next time.) We have all taught together at some point and all but one of the teachers have taught Kindergarten with me. I love this group of women and the positive energy that bring to my life. There isn't a time that we get together that I not only feel like we've picked up where we've left off, but also left feeling like a better person. They make me happy because they are so fun to be around and they are all Godly women. I am blessed to have them as friends.

 Lisa, Wynne, Christy

 Amber, Me, Kristi

Getting ready to enjoy some delicious fondue! 

I have a teacher blog that I worked on a lot during the summer, but I hope to start keeping up with this one better--at least over the summer. I have completely quit scrapbooking and I need to keep a journal of things before I forget everything. I feel bad that I didn't blog at all last school year. I may have to post some things out of order just to help me remember. 

Here's to a great summer!

Autism Walk

Friday and Saturday was our school’s first Step Up for Autism Fun Run/Walk. On Friday, we had a 1 mile family walk for parents to walk around the track with their children. Saturday, there was a 5K Fun Run/Walk. Saturday started out with lots of rain and lightning, but cleared up before the 5K started. We were so thankful. I think our turnout would have been even bigger had it not started out raining.

I loved being on a committee where we had such a variety of strengths that everything came together because of all the talents the group possessed. Especially those who were able to get businesses to sponsor the cost of all the t-shirts. The event raised over $7,000 that will go toward the purchase of new sensory equipment and items for our students with autism. They will also use some of the money to create a lending library for parents.

Cole kept shying away from the camera, but here he is with his friend and our Superintendent.

Lisa, a fellow Kdg. teacher, me and Betsy our Secretary.

Our wonderful committee after a hot day Friday outside.

Even our mascot isn’t immune to a leg cramp. :

Cole had the important job of holding the finish line sign on Saturday.

I cannot wait for this event next year!

Chair stealing and fish healing

After school today, I had to run to Walgreen’s to pick up a steroid pack for my first poison ivy rash of 2011. Not fun! I have it on my eyes, cheeks, neck, lips, ears, arms and tummy. I feel like an itchapotamus! However, our fence row is looking better and I’m so thankful that my eyes didn’t swell shut this time. I’m suppose to do something with Kim from Helping Me Up tomorrow, but I’m not sure she will want to be seen with me.

I’m so thankful that there is medicine that gives me quick relief in the early stages of itchiness. I have no self-control when it comes to itchiness. I barely got out of the Walgreens parking lot before I was popping

When Cole and I got home, we ate dinner quickly and took Audrey outside to play. She wanted to wear her pajama pants and ladybug boots.  She immediately headed straight for the mud puddles.

We took a walk to the pond and found an almost dead grass carp. We just had the pond stocked last summer, so it was nice to see such a long fish, just not in this condition.  John tried throwing it into deeper water, but it kept coming back to this spot. It made Cole sad that it was likely going to die, so he found a stick and tried to get it to swim back to the deeper water, but it wouldn’t.

On the way back to the house, Cole broke out the metal detector. He loves trying to find things around the fields. He’s found several neat, rusty, old farm machinery pieces, but no big treasure yet. 

Cole finally let me take a few pictures of him. When he got tired of it, he got silly.

After bubble blowing, Audrey chased Cole down to tell him a secret.

I love this picture!

It ended in her running off to her chair in fear. I’m not sure I want to know what she told him. However, when she got to her chair, this is what she found.

She wasn’t thrilled because every time she got out of her chair tonight, our dog, Copper, would jump in it and steal it away from her. At one point, Audrey was leaning forward in her chair and the dog jumped up between her back and the chair and sat there while Audrey held the cat. There is barely enough room for Audrey in the chair, so seeing all three of them in the chair was hilarious.

I am so loving this weather! I hope it sticks around for awhile before it starts getting hot. We left the windows open in the bedroom all night last night and it was so comfy to wake up to this morning.

Spring Break Recap

Our Spring Break has been filled with so much fun I don’t want it to end! I have truly enjoyed this time with my family. It allowed me to do lots of fun things with the kiddos, actually talk with my hubby for more than two minutes, and the time to get a few things done around the house.  I also got to spend time with my grandmas, my parents and my mother-in-law and a good day of scrapbooking with friends. You can’t ask for much more!

On Wednesday, I went with my family and my mother-in-law to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. We had a great time! We bought several packs of vegetable seeds, some onion starts and some dianthus and morning glory flower seeds. We enjoyed walking around the little town and seeing the animals and vintage and antique items. Then, we made a little trip to Springfield. John went to a flea market. The rest of us went to DAV and then we headed to Hobby Lobby and Braum’s.

(Several times on this trip I noticed John and Cole standing the same way or looking very much like each other. I think the first two pictures show this very well.)

On Thursday, Cole, Audrey and I went to my friend Kim’s house to scrapbook. Shelly and her kiddos came, too. The kids had a great time playing inside and out and eating Kim’s brownies and the big girls were able to scrapbook a few pages. Cole & Audrey played hard! 

When we got home from Kim’s, we worked out in the field and driveway. Cole was cutting down cedar trees and Audrey and I were cleaning up the fence line in the driveway and at the road. It’s amazing how overgrown things can get.

On Friday, we took it easy. It was super windy outside, so we didn’t work as long as I’d expected us to.  John drove his pick-up down to the road so we could throw lots of limbs in it to be burned.  He and Cole did all the hard work while I broke the rake and only did about an 1/8 of what I needed to do. We still have a lot of work to do in this area.

Saturday was my Dad’s birthday. We spent the morning at home cleaning up the house and then headed to town to pick up my grandma. We went to three drive-thrus to get everything that everyone wanted for supper and then we headed to my parents house to celebrate. Cole & Audrey absolutely love showing off for my parents and they also like to get rowdy. They were having a great time! Dad decided he wanted a cake, so Mom and I headed to the store to pick up a German chocolate cake. After we ate and visited a bit more, we headed home.

Sunday has definitely been our day of rest so far. I’m still battling a cold that makes me cough every time I lie down. Needless to say, I haven’t gotten much sleep the last week. Plus, with the time change, I seem to be getting up even earlier.

It’s going to be hard to get up tomorrow and get back into our routine. However, each school day gets us one day closer to summertime and I can’t wait to have some more time off with my family!