Bio Fair and Birthdays

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Tessa

Eve had her Bio Fair today. Each year the fifth graders each choose a person to study. The project goes almost all year and included writing, research, and art. Bio Fair is the culmination of this project. The kids have to dress as their person and “be” their person for the duration of the fair. Parents and families come, as do all the other students in the building. This has been going on for many years and all the students look forward to it.

Eve chose to be Emma Watson for her Bio Fair project. Because Emma Watson is alive today, her “costume” was just regular clothes, but she looked oh so grown-up!

Emma Watson has a big fan club! They had lots of questions for her.

I tried to take a selfie with her and I just looked so tired next to her! I tried three times, then gave up. My friend took this one. It’s the best we could do. :)

Me and Emma :)

This afternoon she decided to come shopping with me while Lex was in karate. She has been saying all along that the doesn’t want to bring in a birthday treat to school, but in the grocery store today she changed her mind and decided to make “bunny butts” for her treat. Thanks YouTube!

Really they are Oreos and frosting.

Mini marshmallow tails and feet, pink frosting toes.

We ran out of frosting so she decided to melt chocolate and make some of the bunnies brown. Things got a little messy!

This might be considered a “Pinterest fail” but I’m going to call it a success because she did most of it on her own and she’s thrilled! :)

I did some Googling and it seems “bunny butts” are all the rage this Easter. There are a wide variety of ways to make them, using cookies, cupcakes, cakes, etc. Who knew!?

Laundry room updates

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Tessa

Alan has been working hard to make this house a home. His project this week was the laundry room. I drew a little sketch a few weeks ago to share my ideas, and he went to work with it. He stacked the washer and dryer, bought a 3-bin laundry cart, and built a frame to make use of the extra cabinet bin drawer we had. I love it! It’s hard to take a nice photo of a laundry room! It’s awesome, but maybe not Pinterest-worthy, yet!

Laundry room updates. Stacked washer/dryer, garbage and recycling in pull-out cabinet bin drawer, laundry baskets on top, dirty laundry bin for sorting, fold down iron board on top (which will never be used!), and room to hang clothes on top. Everything I wanted in a laundry room. <3

The bins will have to be in the middle of the room for awhile so they can catch laundry from the ceiling chute. That will be a project for another week.

He has earned himself a weekend vacation to Florida. :)

Growing up

Posted on March 24, 2018 by Tessa

There are so many ways I notice the children growing up every day. Sometimes it’s subtle, other times it’s like a hammer over the head! Today Lex and I went grocery shopping together. We decided to swing by the toy store to do a little birthday shopping for Eve along the way. We got to the Powerhouse Mall, home of the only toy store in the area, walked in, and Lex started wandering ahead. As we passed the stairs I said, “Aren’t we going up to the toy store?” He said, “Oh, I forgot where the stairs were.” WHAT?! It used to be that he could find that store in his sleep. The routine was, up the stairs, watch the train for awhile (until mommy is bored to tears), then on to the toy store. Today he picked out a thoughtful gift for Eve at the store, and some Legos for himself (there’s still a kid in him!). As we walked down the hall I asked if he wanted his Lego sets now or when we get in the car. He said, “Well, we can leave them in the back until we get home. Not much I can do with them in the car anyway.” Umm…. true. And very mature. There were many, many times in the past I had to ask him to please, please not open a bag of Legos in the car, despite his insistence that he could keep them all together and build the model as we drive. Now, he realizes the silliness of that and has developed the patience to wait. On the way out, as we passed the train, I asked if he remembered how he used to love pushing the button and watching the train. He said yeah, paused for a moment, then added, “Really it’s pretty boring. I mean, it just goes around and around.” Sigh. Yes. It does, and it is, but that’s a grown-up observation. Gone is the little boy enthusiasm… until we walked outside and saw the Lindt chocolate store across the parking lot…. ;)

Mini golf

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Tessa

Our Mini Golf event was a stellar success today! We had 240 people come play 18 holes of “home made” mini golf in the library and around the school. Each class made a hole, with a book for the theme. I cleared out the library (mostly) on Thursday and Friday, with the help of some eager students. Then the teachers and students set up their holes Friday afternoon. I was there with other PTO members until late Friday night getting the PTO hole set up and all the finishing touches. It was awesome, but all made of cardboard and paper and donated stuff, so I was leary of how long it last. Four hours and 240 people later it was still in decent conditions, with all 18 holes still functioning. We heard a ton of great feed back. Several teachers came with their families. Lots of DBS families came, of course, but also some people from the greater community who had seen it advertised on Facebook or in the newspaper. (Oh, we should have had a reporter come! Note to self for next year.) I had set up a bunch of volunteer spots, but we had very few people sign up to help, so I was nervous about that too. However, it went off well without a hitch! I was also nervous about golf clubs flying and balls everywhere, but families did a great job keeping track of their kids and (as far as I know) there were no injuries. PTO stayed to clean up, with the help of a few amazing parents and a bunch of AWESOME kids, and we got all cleaned up and out the door by 3pm. Well, mostly cleaned up. The janitor agreed to vacuum the library on Monday morning, so I’ll have my first class move all the tables and chairs back into place. :) Right now the floor is covered in dirt, glitter, leprechaun sparkles, confetti, and more!

Random people on the Mo Willems hole (Elephant & Piggie, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, etc.)

Alan playing on the 15 par Charlie and the Chocolate Factory hole. This is the one that Eve helped design.

The PTO hole, based on The Pout Pout Fish (For you safety minded folks, this was actually taken Friday night. There was no extension cord there when people were playing today.)

It’s Me! And my friend Jaime who is also the PTO president. (I’d totally love to take the credit for this, but actually it was my predecessor, now 3rd grade classroom teacher who made it. Everyone had fun taking pictures!)

Eve was with me for the whole time, helping to set up, run the event, and clean up at the end. Alan and Lex came to play golf midway through the morning, after their usual karate/breakfast routine. When we finally got home we all crashed in front of our screens for awhile. At family meeting we decided it was a great night for take out and a movie. :)

Tomorrow’s agenda: sleep late, read the paper, do my homework, lesson plan for the short week ahead.

Concerts, karate, and mini golf (oh my!)

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Tessa

We are once again in a busy upswing around here. Lex had is “Concert Grande” yesterday. It was only postponed due to snow once, unlike the 6th grade concert that was postponed so many times they ended up just not doing it. We’ve had a lot of snow lately! Concert Grande is 7th-12th all together. It was fun. Lex once again dressed nicely and I, like a dope, took a few pictures in SnapChat but not the camera app and, like even more of a dope, didn’t save them to post here. Oh well. Imagine Lex at the holiday concert, only slightly taller. :)

Today he had a belt test and got his solid purple belt! He’s a powerhouse!

Lex is doing stage crew for the middle school play too and that will pick up in April.

Eve has several roles in the DBS play and rehearsals are in full swing. She is busy rehearsing during recess and many days after school. The play is April 12th! I’m looking forward to it!

I am elbow deep in an PTO mini golf fundraising event we are orchestrating. Each class has built a mini golf hole with a book theme. Tomorrow they will all be setting them up (in the library, which I have been prepping and clearing all week!) and Saturday families will come play 18 holes of mini golf! I’m sure it will be a blast, but right now it’s a ton of work! Being a teacher and VP of the PTO puts me right smack in the middle of all of it. Also, ’cause it’s in my space. I had eager 4th graders today clear out all the tables and chairs from the library, so now it’s a huge open space. They wanted to move bookshelves too, but I had to put a stop to that! Right now it’s 9pm and I’m brain dead from PTO work, so I thought a blog post was in order. :) If you’re local, come by and check it out. It will be awesome! The kids are SOOO excited! If you’re not local, check out pictures on Facebook. :) We might even LiveStream for awhile.

A musical weekend

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Tessa

We had a fun-filled musical weekend. Friday and Saturday, anyway. Sunday was spent paying the price. :O

Lex got a special delivery on Friday afternoon. It took him all afternoon to set it up and only near the very end did he discover the instructions. He didn’t need them anyway!

Drummer boy!

He spent a good deal of Saturday hanging out with a new friend, playing Magic the Gathering, jumping on their trampoline, and playing the drums.

Meanwhile, Eve and a few friends got silly.

Saturday night we went out to dinner at Three Tomatoes and then saw Footloose at Northern Stage. It was a North Country Community Teen (NCCT) production, directed by a DBS 4th grade teacher. It was a great show and the kids were surprised by how many songs they recognized. We sat right in the front row, with an amazing view of the stage AND the orchestra!

Drums, front and center.

It was nearly 11pm by the time we got home and well after by the time everyone made it to bed. Needless to say Sunday was a tired day. I had a PTO planning meeting, lots of home work (which I finished), and lesson planning (which I started), and grocery shopping (which will have to wait). Eve had a Girl Scout event that she didn’t want to attend, resulting in an emotionally exhausting day dealing with her and ended with her quitting Girl Scouts. That will have to be another post though!

Off to fold the laundry mountain now!

Glad the rest of the set came quickly!

Parsee Cake (this one’s for you, Grampy Don!)

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Tessa

Eve has been in a treat making mood lately. She baked and decorated sugar cookies a few times, and yesterday she made some Jell-O. Seeing the Jell-O reminded Alan of a cake his dad created and his mom used to make for him every year for his birthday. She taught me and I took over the tradition for many years until he decided he wanted Birthday Cookies instead. Well, today, on our last day of February vacation, this happened.

She got pretty loopy at the end! I can’t imagine why?! :) She made the cake almost all on her own, with just my guidance and minor help. It came out great! I love how proud she looks. <3

Pets

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Tessa

We are pet sitting an adorable 9wk old kitten this weekend! She belongs to a neighbor and classmate of Eve’s. They just got her and didn’t know what to do for their previously scheduled vacation. Eve to the rescue! We go over twice a day to play with her and, you know, feed her. We may or may not have taken many (many) pictures of her!!

Eve and Luna

She loves her toys. Kitten are so very playful.

All the kitten love inspired Eve to take some pictures of our pets too. Right now when I look at my camera roll I have nearly 200 pictures of these three animals. LOL!

Jazzy loves sleeping in the coat cubbies.

Arlo says “put away the dang camera and take me for a walk!”

Oh, there she is again!

We’re only a little crazy around here!

A little bit of sunshine on a cold and dreary day

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Tessa

We were out running errands all morning, now home for a “no plans” afternoon. The temperature is dropping and the sleet started just after we got home. With a hot mug of tea in hand I found myself on Facebook, getting caught up in the “dangerous world / school shootings / let’s arm teachers” debate and feeling sicker and sicker. Then I came upon a cute baby picture with a post about cloth diapers by an old friend of mine who is on baby number five and still thinking about cloth diapers. We had a few exchanges and I decided to let myself get lost in my own blog for awhile. Partially to find a picture of my kids in cloth diapers, but mostly just to enjoy the babies they once were. It did wonders for my heart. In case you need an emotional boost, here a few pictures for you to enjoy.

Baby Eve in her cloth diapers.

Silly girls.

Breakfast with Doggie.

This boy.

Cuties in cloth diapers.

While I was writing this post I got a call from my momma who shared her own sunshine news. I feel a thousand times lighter now and ready to keep going. First things first, log out of Facebook!

I hope you are feeling the warmth and sunshine, if not from outside then at least from friends and loved ones inside your heart. <3

Eve quote

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Tessa

“When I grow up I want a team if Huskies,” she says to me. I smile and nod. She continues, “Yeah, so I can sit on the sled with all my cats and they can pull us around.” Ummm…. yeah, that makes total sense. 🙄

Husky conversation prompted by this adorable video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BfgaC0QA8co/