School Scrapbook

Today, I earned major cool mom points.

Why?

Because I gave my daughter a binder filled with page protector sheets. I slid in one of her many preschool works of art.


She gasped. "It's a preschool scrapbook!!"

Yes. That is exactly what it is.


"Can we keep this scrapbook forever and never ever throw it away?!"

"Mom, it's not full yet."

"I can't wait to make more stuff with Miss Amy!"

She loves it so much that we are going to need another one for all the artwork she creates at home.

Here is a picture of her scrapbook at the end of the school year, just bursting with memories:


This is similar to what I do with my students as a school memory book as well. We include photos, artwork, dictations, songs, and poems from throughout the year and send them home the last week of school.

Our Swamp

CoUsIn WeEk

We were lucky enough to have our 11 and 13 year old cousins come visit and even stay at our house for part of their trip.

Admittedly, I was a little nervous about keeping them entertained. Once you are older then 8 you are outside my specialty area.

Turns out they enjoy art and messiness.

Phew! That I can do!

We picked up some plastic dinosaur bone toys as prizes from our trip to Boomtown. I thought these would be perfect for the sandbox. Everyone agreed.

So out we went.

Spray bottles led to water bottles which led to huge lemonade jugs which led to our very own swamp.


Daddy did not approve of our creation.

I pointed out that I did refrain from bringing out the hose. That should count for something.

WATER PLAY link up at NurtureStore

A Boy and His Wagon

Little Monsters

May 2010

We put to use CB's monsters that on a stormy day she had designed to be used in the future for hopscotch.


The only problem was the little buggers kept trundling off course from the breeze.

We solved that with a little ingenuity, rocks, and tape.


Before we could fully enjoy our own cleverness, however, we were distracted by a different sort of monster.




A: I don't know what he's doing.
M: He's climbing.
A: He's silly! He says, "Is this a jungle gym?"

C: Where is he going?

A: Now he can be snug as a bug! (gives him a leaf for a blanket) If he gets hungry, he can eat his blanket.

C: He's walkin!

A: He doesn't want to go out. Come on little guy. I think he's enjoying his new home. (explaining to the roly poly why he must be returned to the wild) I wish you could stay, but you can't stay alive.

C: Does he want a carrot?

That Street

May 2010

The children and I enjoy the little jaunt down to the mailbox on fine weather days. (We have not had too many of those lately.)

After retrieving the mail, I turned to head home, but BBD said with great excitement, "I wanna go that street!"

So we took off for a good ole walk around the block. It is a pretty big block, but no big deal. We have gone for this very same stroll countless times before.

But this time was different. I realized, too late, that we had never gone for this walk with the children actually walking. As in not being passengers in a stroller or wagon.

Clearly, they are not ready for such a trek.

Now, technically we live in a desert, but the weather was delightfully gentle. However, watching our excursion, it may have appeared that we were stumbling our way through the blistering Sahara.

CB picked me some, er, flowers near the beginning of our walk. Later, it felt like much later, she says, "These flowers are getting thirsty". To which her brother replies, "I'm getting thirsty too." And then began the listing of what we would do when we got home. You may have been led to believe that we had been separated from our home by natural disaster or incarceration. There would be eating, drinking, and general merry making with the reunion of much missed friends and tv shows.

They each tripped over their poor, overworked feet no less than 4 times--each. I felt this may appear to reflect poorly on my mothering skills- clearly these children have been drugged or are never let out of the house. It's not like I could pick them both up and carry them. The Wii fit tells me I am "still in pretty good shape" (thanks for throwing in the still, Wii, thanks a bunch), but lets face it, I would snap like a twig. And then where would we be? Overheated in a heap, half a block (aka a world away) from home.

The sighting of the house brought rejoicing. From all of us.

Lesson learned:

Forts are FUN

Thief

April 2010

CB had her first dance recital today. And she was "in a dancing mood".

After 4 dance classes, the girl knows right where she should be:

stealing the show

The show was really a sort of community performance rather than a full blown recital. The stage was a corner of the gym at a local elementary school during their Annual Arts Expo and Gala.

Before we had even left the house, CB informed me, "I am going to do a special dance on my own just for you." Now because I would not put it past her to completely dance to her very own personal drummer, I said, "I like your special dances, but today you need to dance like Miss Mary has shown you. Just dance like the big girls do."

Just in case you are wondering: what really sets apart CB's special dances from the more traditional ballet is the amount of butt shaking.

Older girls from a more advanced dance class are dancing with the little girls so that they have people to follow. They are the butterflies.

There are other more advanced girls that are doing the main dance up on the stage.

There were a few minor glitches to the performance set up:

1. The classes had never danced a rehearsal together before the performance.
2. There were A LOT of little butterflies and not so many big butterflies.
3. The two groups of dancers were intended to be more physically separated with the cats on stage and the butterflies on the floor.

These things led the little butterflies to become very confused about what they were supposed to be doing.

CB is a problem solver. With no big butterflies near by, she followed the big girls that were. The cats.

Enter CB. Center stage.

Not sure what to do? The show must go on! Heck, knock it up a notch!

Actually, I was impressed by how well she imitated the more complicated dance. Especially in those butterfly wings.

The girl sure can entertain.

She got to take a special bow with her teacher.

"Miss Mary said I did a good job!"

We tried to get video. It did not turn out well. We couldn't get a good vantage point and people kept bumping into Daddy. Seriously? Don't these people realize we are with the star?!

It was a rough time for BBD. He had a cold and the crankiness that comes with it. He wanted his Mommy. And worst of all, he wanted a costume. "Dad, I want to be a FAIRY!"

All better!

A flower for the star.

As we were leaving an old man chuckled and patted CB on the head as she passed,

"And there is the little show stealer."

P.S.
This post is dedicated to our Pop. Who helped instill a love of music and dance in this special little girl. We love you! We miss you! And we know how badly you wanted to be there with us.

Window Boxes

March 2010

Well hello, First Day of Spring! We have been waiting for you.

We still have some waiting ahead of us because today we planted flower seeds in our very own window boxes.


The seeds were great for "shaking, shaking, shaking"!

"This is going to be a funny picture..."

We picked out an assortment of seeds. It was fun checking out how different they were.

The kids liked the Sweet Peas because they rolled everywhere.

The Bachelor's Button seeds were my favorite just because they were so weird.

Instead of just dumping the potting soil in, I had the kids help scoop it in.

Sometimes, moms can be so annoying...

"This is more work than I thought it would be! How much work is this?"

After about five scoops, BBD told me "done!" and "I'm sitting in the chair".

Don't worry. He came back around.

He especially enjoyed breaking up the clumps. "Yay! Sque-e-e-eze!"

CB did very well at following the directions about how to poke holes for the seeds and then to cover them up.

BBD had his own planting method-
the dump
and stir.

They both really enjoyed drowning, I mean watering their seeds.



So much that we gave the tree in the front yard a very big drink as well.


CB asked, "How long does it take to them to grow?" and I told her it would take quite a few weeks and that we would need to water them everyday. "Yeah, it's a big responsibility of Springtime."

CB professed, "I love planting. I want to do it my whole life. It was magnificent!"

While supervising the completed window boxes, BBD shares, "I want to see it! Come on, grow! It'll happen! They're slow ones!"

With the crying that BBD did when I told him we were done, you would have thought we were leaving the train museum.

Where was Daddy during all this planting?


He was busy with a project of his own.