Caught Up

I think that I am all caught up right now! I promise to make a better effort to keep caught up in the future.

Some of the things that happened that I don't have pictures of:

• I was elected Vice President - Fundraising for the PTO at Mamie Towles.
• The Girl Scout Troop went roller skating. My kids missed it because we passed around the yucky stomach virus for about two weeks in our house.
• Stampin' Up! has come out with a new catalog that starts in July - it is so very pretty!
• We painted the kids' bathroom - gave it a little spruce up.
• Tea went to Vacation Bible School for a week right after school let out - she had a lot of fun.
• Swim lessons start in two weeks!
• She will have a team of teachers for first grade - there are two teachers in her classroom, so she gets a bigger class. We are both looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading!

June

June was a big month! Tea got her ears pierced and graduated from Kindergarten!






























They also got to practice having lunch in the cafeteria, so they could be prepared for next year!

Dancing, Dancing, I Wish I Could Go Dancing

I have no idea where that came from, but my mom used to sing it to us all the time. ;)



Crackers started dance class with Tea - he used sit in the back with me and do all of the routines, so I signed him up. Bought him the cutest little black ballet shoes and away he went. There was a recital in June, but Crackers missed it as he was sick. Dad stayed home with him while mom was the stage mom again, so I don't have any video or pics of the recital. My mom did take some, but the lighting was horrible, so the best pics are of Tea in her makeup, which you have all seen before.





Sierra Nevada Ballet came into the school and worked with the kids for a couple of months on ballet as well. They did a small recital for the parents at the end of it.

Egg Drop Day

In the beginning of April, the kindergarten students were issued a challenge. They were to wrap their egg so that it would survive a fall from the roof of the school. The ideas were varied and ingenious. Some eggs had parachutes, some had miles of bubble wrap, some were in balloons. All of the ideas were great ones, but not all survived the drop.

Tea's daddy helped with hers and it did survive. It is a bit hard to see in the pictures, but the egg is in the middle of the Styrofoam jack. The jack just bounced around once it was dropped and the egg was not jostled. Good work Tea and Dad!



The principal on the roof, dropping eggs.








The Egg Jack Mark II









The egg survived - wahoo!

The Winning Bookmark

Tea participated in the bookmark contest through her kindergarten class. Here is her entry. It is very hard to see - if you would like your own copy, leave me a comment and I will get you one!






It was chosen as the district wide winner for kindergarten! Holy cow!












Here she is with the principal of the school and the president of the WEA (who happened to be a teacher at McQueen when I went there).

For her efforts, Tea earned a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble, a framed award certificate, a free kids meal at Mimi's, a free kids pizza at Round Table and 5 bucks for the school store. Plus, the whole class got cookies!




The PTO also gave Tea an award, along with the other two winners from the school. Tea received a sketch book, tempura paints, watercolors and crayons, watercolor paper and art paper.




There were three winners from Tea's school - Kindergarten, 2nd grade and 6th grade. The 6th grade winner won the entire contest, district wide, for all grades, K - 12!

February

Let's see . . .

Valentine's Day

More Cookie Sales

More work for momma.

Here are pictures.




Goodie bags for the helpers.








Voting on their favorite color of Conversation Hearts









The poll.

100th Day of School

This one deserved it's own post.

Tea's class had lots of fun celebrating the 100th Day of School (a little bit early, but partying on Friday is much better than partying on Monday!)



They made necklaces of 100 fruit loops, they made hats that had 100 stamps on them, and earlier in the week, they turned in posters with 100 items on them.






The best part - getting to pop 100 balloons in 100 seconds. The best part for the adults? Having the kids pick up 100 broken balloons in 100 seconds ;)















Here's the video . . .

January

Oh, man, have I been bad! My only excuse is that I work part time for H & R Block, and we are busy. Let us reflect on January . . .






We took the kids to see Thomas the Train at Lawlor - that was a ton of fun.

































We also took our Daisy Troop to a Cookie Rally - yes cookies sales started in January. The girls learned about safety and recycling and they got to taste test the cookies!





















We also had an investiture ceremony, where they all officially became Girl Scout Daisies. There are 11 girls in our troop, 2 first graders and 1 girl from the morning kindergarten class. The rest of the girls are in Tea's afternoon kindergarten class. They are a joy to work with and I enjoy seeing them come out of their shells!











And for good measure - my two cute kiddos!

Election Day

I am full of blogs today! I hope that everyone went out and voted, no matter who you support. It's definitely an historical election this year, no matter who wins.

Tea's class held an election yesterday (school is closed today because of the election) and Teddy Chocolate won over Graham Honey.

It was a taste test! It was super cute, the teacher had a sign on the door "Kindergarten Polling Place" with red, white and blue streamers, there were "campaign" signs inside for each of the Teddy Grahams, streamers inside, it was awesome!

After they voted, they talked about the national elections, etc. It's never too soon!

Happy Hallowe'en

So, as promised, here are the two cuties! Tea was a unicorn and Crackers was Thomas the Tank Engine. DH made Cracker's costume from boxes and painted it and we added a flashlight for the nose/headlight. You can't see Tea's tail, but it was beautiful!

Here's Tea in Kindergarten, decorating her pumpkin. I think she had tons of fun at her first Hallowe'en school party. I sure did!

Here's Crackers walking to the school party. He was the hit, but the costume didn't stay on very long.

Our two children were the only ones with homemade costumes at the class party. There are 10 girls in Tea's class and 6 of them were princesses. One witch, two cats and a unicorn. It was fun. Watch this space for pictures of the cousins on Hallowee'en. Coming soon!

First Day of Kindergarten

Here she is, glasses and backpack on and ready to go. Tea has afternoon kindergarten, which doesn't start until 12:30, but she was ready to go by about 10 this morning. I'm glad she is so excited. I told her that I was going to cry and she told me that I couldn't.

Dad had to sleep, since he has to work tonight, but Tata (my mom) went with us and snapped this pic for us. What a gang. Tea has 15 or 16 kids in her class, they weren't sitting very still, so I had a hard time counting.

Miss Davidson had this sign up by the door, welcoming us.

Here she is on her way to sit on the rug to hear the first day of school story. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. My sister had warned me about it, but I managed to hold it together. Just a little teary eyed as we walked out. Tea could not have cared less. Some kids had tears and some moms had tears. There is a little boy in Tea's class that went to preschool with her, so she automatically has one friend.

She is outgoing, so I'm sure she will be the belle of the ball by the end of the week.

20 Years . . .

I graduated from high school 20 years ago. Where has the time gone? I still feel 18. I went to the reunion with two very good friends, Stacey and Jane. Stacey still lives in town and Jane flew in from Boston.

We were all a bit hesitant, but we had a ton of fun. It was nice to see people again and catch up. I wasn't sure that I was going to enjoy myself, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Here we are at the picnic with some other friends.