Blue Jeans Week 16

Trying to catch up, but sort of feelin' like I'm drownin', and I seriously think April/May is as crazy as December! 

Sunday:  We had Miss O's family party today, and we have the tradition that the kids get to decorate their own cakes with their dad.  I make the cake and the frosting, but they get to decorate it with him.  They love this tradition.  This year Miss O wanted her round cake to be a bowling ball, and then she put some bowling pins on it--cool stuff!

Monday:  Miss O received the Presidential Academic Award tonight at the school board meeting.  Way to go Miss O and her awesome friends!

Tuesday:  Today I got to attend my Dad's retirement reception at the college.  That is my dad in the white shirt and my mom to his right.  It was fun to hear the different stories people told from the many years he has been there.

Wednesday:  As part of the young author's celebration I always help with the book selling.  It is a fun job because I get to work with the cutest lady--she is Mr J's kindergarten teacher and we both love her!

Thursday:  I don't have a picture to download here because I am using the picture from the front page of our local newspaper.  Miss O made the front page because her Arbor Day Tree picture got honorable mention in the district competition.  The funny thing was the paper got her name wrong and called her by her older sister's name--twice!  Miss O was not too happy to be called Miss A, but 2 days later they ran an apology, and Miss O felt better :)  But we were proud of her awesome picture !

Friday:  Today was Miss O's field trip to the state capitol, and Ben went along as one of the parent helpers.  They had a fun day seeing the state history museum and touring the capitol.

Saturday:  Today is Miss E's birthday (yes Miss O's and Miss E's birthdays are only 1 week apart) and she turned 9!  She is also showing off her cake that she decorated with Dad.  She decided she liked her sister's idea of the bowling ball cake, so she did the same thing :)  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?  She also had a friend party, and we also were taking the friends bowling, but for some reason (and I did call and check before hand) the bowling alley was closed when we arrived--ugh!  I had 5 9-year-old girls to entertain for 2 hours, and my plans fell through!  So we did some quick improvising and went to the church to play dodge ball, then back to our house for pizza, presents and jumping on the trampoline.  Luckily Miss E didn't seem to disappointed, and the girls had fun, but I was so ready for bed when all the girls were gone!  Note to self:  no more bowling parties!!

Hope you all had good weeks!  School is quickly coming to a close here--8 days left!  Oh, my!

 

Blue Jeans Week 14

Hope you all have had a good Easter weekend.  Here is what we have been up to. . .

Sunday:  Miss A took this picture.  It is definitely dandelion season here--achoo! 

Monday:  We played Bocce for family night.  That is a fun yard game if you haven't played it before. We would recommend it.  Any age can play, and that makes it even better.  Miss O tries to give Mr J some tips.

Tuesday:  Soccer--I am so glad we only have one more week left of soccer!  So glad it is a short season.  Mr J was killing some time between his games while we watched his sister play today.  Post-it notes and a pen are essential to have in my purse at all times--they are great entertainers! 

Wednesday:  In art at the kids' school for earth week the kids did "recycled" projects.  These "flowers" are what Miss O did with her partner and are called the "Plants of Doom" made with pop can tabs, feathers, scrap paper, paper straws, a can, wire hangers, and a CD.  Awesome.  Love Earth Day projects.

Thursday:  Kindergarten Field Trip day!  See previous post for more details and pictures.  We went to a farmstead about 2 hours from our town.  Had so much fun with Mr. J and his class!

Friday:  When we moved to the country about 6 years ago we started having an annual Easter Egg hung and potluck because we had the space, and I'd always wanted to do it.  This year was our 6th annual.  We eat in our summer house, then either moms or dads hide the eggs while the kids play "Bunny, Bunny, Hop" (our Easter version of "Duck,Duck, Goose") and then they are off to egg hunt, and Ben usually runs over a few unfound eggs with the mower the week after :)  It was beautiful weather this year and so fun!

Saturday:  Easter egg dyeing day.  We are so not fans of hard boiled eggs, only Ben likes them, and we usually just end up throwing away the eggs because we dye so many that Ben can't eat them all, so this year Ben suggested we just dye them without hard boiling them.  Mr J and Miss E were not sure if Dad was correct about this theory that non-hard boiled eggs would work, but it did.  So, now our morning scrambled eggs have very colorful shells :)

Hope you all have a good week.  We have had so much rain.  I am glad we got our garden in so our plants should be sprouting soon!  Love spring!

 

Kindergarten Field Trip

Last week I had the awesome opportunity to go on Mr. J's kindergarten field trip to a farmstead about 2 hours from our house.  It was a super fun day.

Sitting with Mr. J on the bus.  Kids still think riding the bus is cool at this age.

In the a.m. I had the cutest group of 4 kiddos who ran from one thing to another.  They had the neatest kids' garden with ABC stepping stones that they loved to jump on in order and then backwards.

They loved this water pump.

The old school house was neat.  I loved the mini desks they had as well as the full-sized ones.

They had this fun tractor run.  Here comes the John Deer!  Around and around they went.  Made me tired.  I watched from a swing nearby.  Those kids wore me out!

We had lunch and then the kids got to choose an activity to do--fishing, riding a pony, hayride, feed a baby goat,etc.  Mr. J wanted to go fishing, and so I got to take 13 5-year-old boys fishing, and I had to put real worms on their hooks!  I definitely deserve parent of the year for that feat, let me tell you :)  It was pole fishing, and it was so fun!  But I was amazed no one got a hook in their eye or clothes snagged the way those boys were flinging around those poles!  Oh my!  I ducked a lot.  Mr. J actually caught 2 fish.  Above is fish number 2.  They just threw the fish back in, but I did not take the fish off the hooks.  I had one really brave 5-year-old that was a pro at doing that.  If anyone caught a fish I just called the little man over to take care of it because that just wasn't my thing--worms were my limit.

They had the cutest baby goats. 

And this was right before we left and everyone collapsed on the bus and fell asleep during the 2 hour ride home.  It was a busy day on the farm!

Miss O's Space Adventure

I had the opportunity to go on a field trip with Miss O's 5th grade class recently.  We went to an educational service center that offers many different activities for kids.  Our group was using their NASA set up.  They have a Mission Control in one building, then outside of that they have a mini space ship to send the astronauts (kids) to the International Space Station.  The kids at both Mission Control  and the Space Station have lap tops, head phones, mics, and web cams so they can see, hear, and talk to their counterparts on the space station.  Pretty amazing stuff.  I think we went to the zoo for my 5th grade field trip. . .

Miss O working hard at Mission Control.  She was to conduct experiments on solar energy.  She worked at Mission Control in the morning.

We enjoyed lunch outside for a break from all our hard space/astronaut work.  Then after lunch it was time for Miss O to blast off with her group to the International Space Station.

On the Shuttle before they shut the door for blast off.  Doesn't she look excited????  Another helper and I stood by when they "took off" and they kids were just screaming.  It was so funny!

She made it!  Getting off the shuttle onto the International Space Station where she was stationed as Commander for the afternoon.

Part of the commander and pilot's jobs were to go out into "space" and explore and measure different parts of the space station.   Miss O is the shorter commander on the right.  She said she was super hot in that suit.  It was a really fun day.  I was very glad I was able to go, and Miss O had a great time.