It’s official – I’m a teacher!

Posted on by
2

Today was a beautiful example of the saying, “The days are long, but the years are short.”  It has been a long, tough at times year and suddenly it’s over.  Well, almost.  Tonight I graduated from UVEI and officially have my Elementary Teaching certification.  I’m certified to teacher K-8 in the great state of New Hampshire.  In the next week or so I’ll receive my license in the mail, then I’ll turn it around and get my VT license.  Then, maybe, I’ll get a job!

Seriously though, the year has flown by.  Fall in fifth, spring in kindergarten.  Both had their pros and cons, and both were great.  I miss my fifth grade buddies and I know I will miss the kindergarteners as well.  They gave me a sweet book today in which each kiddo had drawn a picture of me and them and written a sentence about what they like to do with me or how they will miss me.  It was very sweet and made me feel very happy and loved.  I have two more days with them and then we’re out for the summer.

This evening was the UVEI graduation ceremony.  Alan and the kids came along to continue their steady support of this effort.  They even put on nice cloths and washed their faces.  Hard work for some of them! :)  I put Alan and the kids in charge of photos and they did a great job.

wine

Everything is better with a glass of wine! :)

bff

My UVEI BFF! This is what we look like to the little ones we teach. :)

bitty

Eve and Bitty Baby, sharing a plate of veggies before the ceremony began.

ceremony

This is my faculty coach speaking and my coaching group. It was a great group and I really enjoyed working and learning with them this year.

aspirations

We put together a statement about what our aspirations for our students were, then had to read it at the graduation ceremony.

eve

This is what Eve thought of things.

family

I got my teaching certificate and a family photo. It was a good evening!

tag

Alan entertained the kids with a game of tag while I stood around in high heels and chatted with my friends. He’s a good hubby and daddy!

eve p2

Eve at her finest. :)

Back to school tomorrow for field day… most likely an indoor field day as the weather calls for rain, rain, and more rain.  Lex and Eve had their field day indoors today.

I feel like I should have some eloquent wrap-up for this post, but I don’t.  The culmination to my huge year and I’m off to drink a glass of wine and fold laundry.  Some things don’t change. :)

Only a few days left…

Posted on by
3

We are in full end-of-year mode.  Summer goody bags being prepared for classmates, full folders of work and projects coming home every day, spirit week at school, field day and parties, dragging in the morning, and today I even made the crazy decision to bake a ton of cookies to share with everyone on the last day of school.  I graduate in two days and have no more homework, so there’s plenty of time to bake!  We’ll sleep and clean another day… or month.

I’ve started looking at summer plans and it’s filling up fast.  On a related note, we seem to be running out of money just as fast!  We put a halt on spending (after one last purchase – BNL tickets for September!) and now we’ll try to settle into the summer…

Just a few more days!

Notice anything missing?

Posted on by
2

imageEve lost her first tooth today!  Top, front, left.  She had four pulled, of course, but this is the first one that fell out on it’s own.  It has been wiggly for a long time and she recently started working it hard to get it out.  Today it came out in her bagel and cream cheese.  She licked it clean with her tongue.  She’s so weird.  She’s also SUPER excited for the tooth fairy.  And she’s excited because the one next to it is is also wiggly, so she has already started on her next project. :)

On a First Name Basis

Posted on by
Reply

Eve recently discovered that teachers have first names.  We were at a birthday party a few weeks ago and I was talking to the mom.  I called her Rachel and Eve, who happened to be right near by, said “Ohhhh…. Mrs. B’s first name is Rachel?!  Now I know!”  Mrs. B is a sub at school and Eve was pretty darn proud of herself for knowing.

This afternoon I was talking to Alan about a long-term sub position I applied for at Eve’s school.  I mentioned the teacher by first name and Eve perked right up.  “Who is Nikki?” she asked.  I said, “Oh, that’s Mrs. R at school.”  Eve was super excited and decided she’d better start taking notes.

imageHilarity ensued. I told her the first names of one or two teachers, she guessed her own teacher’s first name, and then I wouldn’t tell her any more.  I told her she’d have to figure them out on her own.  She begged and pleaded and I agreed to give her one more after she ate all her dinner and drank her milk.  May as well get something out of this game, besides pure entertainment!

She finished her milk and dinner just as Lex was coming into the room with a question.  Eve said, “Ok, what is Mr. D’s first name?” I told her it began with an R, then turned my attention momentarily to Lex’s question.  Eve thought for a minute then guessed, “Ragaloni?”  I nearly fell out of the chair laughing!  She was on my lap and we were both hysterical.  Ragaloni?!  What kind of a guess is that?  The girl kills me sometimes!  She also couldn’t remember Nikki’s name when it came time for writing and kept calling her “Nickel-y”.

She is now on a quest to discover first names at school.  She says she’s going to bring her note with her to school to write down more names.  I suspect she’ll lose the note before Monday.

I was also remember a similar situation when Lex was in kindergarten.  Similar, but more Lex-like and a lot less Eve-like.  I mentioned a teacher by first name and he said, “Oh, is that Mrs.?” (I forget which teacher it was.)  I said it was and asked how he knew.  He replied, “They all wear name tags, Mom.”  Duh!  In kindergarten he had already read everyone’s name tags and was well aware of first and last names.  Of course!

Eve on the other hand, well, she keeps me laughing!

Rainbows

Posted on by
1

We had the weirdest little rain this afternoon. I was in the kitchen making dinner and I noticed it was raining gently. Part of the sky was blue and sunny, but part obviously had a rain cloud. I called to the kids in the living room because I thought there might be a rainbow, but the insisted it was not raining. Turns out it was raining in the backyard but not in the front yard! We ran back and forth between the windows for a few minutes until it started raining in the front as well. Less than five minutes later it stopped and we saw an amazing rainbow! It was a triple rainbow, all stacked on top of each other. ROYGBIVROYGBIVROYGBIV! If that makes any sense at all!! :)

IMG_1636

IMG_1637

Of course we went for a walk!
IMG_1638

IMG_1639

IMG_1641

We followed it to the end, or at least to the end of our street where it disappeared behind a house. I love out it faded out so clearly.

IMG_1642

By the time we got back to our house I noticed a weird cloud or something seemed to be cutting right through the rainbow. It almost looks like it’s being erased with a big, square eraser. Lex pointed at the rainbow and said, “That there is some serious science!”

IMG_1643

Seriously awesome!

A beautiful day

Posted on by
Reply

Today was a great day. We got so much done. Cleaning , organizing, shopping, and more. Eve rode her bike for hours, then invited our neighbor over and they ride scooters for hours.  We had lunch at Panera and went summer clothes shopping.  Poor Lex has been wearing holey clothes for months.  I discovered he is now in a whole new part of the store, in the area where odd numbers don’t exist. He’s now now wearing size 10 jeans!  Geesh!  They both got some new shorts and tees.  Then we stopped at the ice cream stand for a treat.

image

image

image

Home again for more cleaning, thank you note writing, and video game playing.  Good times.  I was beginning to remember life before homework.  Nice evening, stories, and cuddles. 

Then I came downstairs, checked my email, and discovered that I have a 30 minute presentation to do on Tuesday.  Sigh.  Back to the homework. 

An epic, EPIC birthday bash!

Posted on by
1

For starters — Happy Birthday Lex!! Nine years old and awesome!!

I’ve been feeling a little low about Lex’s birthday this week. It snuck right up on me and certainty didn’t get the front-of-mind attention it has in the past. Driving home from school Thursday afternoon, I started thinking about getting a head start on his cake for today, but then suddenly remembered that he needed cupcakes for school Friday! I hadn’t even talked to the teacher about it, but I sent her a quick email and started pulling out ingredients. Unfortunately we discovered, in the nick of time, that we had no good cupcake papers. Soo… Lex suggested peanut butter chip brownies, a recipe I had made awhile ago and everyone like. To fancy them up a bit I added chocolate chips as well, and marshmallows on top. They smelled delicious and looked great out of the oven. Unfortunately, when I tried to cut them at 9pm they were a gooey mess! Completely uncutable! I was going to make another batch of regular brownies, but we didn’t have enough ingredients. I was crying, seriously, over my complete lack of birthday preparedness. Alan put the brownies in the freezer and put me to bed.

The next morning I pulled the brownies out of the freezer and was able to cut them, but they were still pretty messy. I still hadn’t heard back from his teacher on sending treats in either. I gave Lex the option of messy brownies on Friday or really awesome cupcakes on Tuesday. He chose the brownies so we packaged them up in individual bags with cute labels and lots of napkins, and sent them to school. Hoping for the best and completely forgetting to take any pictures. Sigh. When he got to me Friday afternoon the first thing he said was, “The brownies were AWESOME!” Whew!

Saturday we spent making and decorating cake, filling goody bags, praying for sunshine, and prepping for a party. Oh yeah, and Eve learned to ride her bike again. Yay!

This morning came, bright and early, and my baby turned NINE! Nine whole years old and handsome as always. He had a few little presents waiting for him on the table.

morning presents

Morning presents for my nine year old!

lex p2

Nine years old!

I got him an awesome Lego movie t-shirt that has Emmitt on it and says “The Special Has Arrived.” I thought he would love it, but instead he laughed briefly and then discarded it. He refused to wear it today. You never can tell with that boy!

magnet toys

He loved these magnet toys!

lex p2

Loved them so much he wanted a picture with them. :)

The forecast all week called for varying amounts of rain, but this morning it said clear skies and sunshine all day. Whoo hoo! We did our morning thing, then packed up a party and headed to the skate park for Lex’s birthday party.

skate park

This place is awesome. They have a skate park (seen here), a playground, and a big pavilion for parties.

half pipe

A brave friend on the half pipe.

cool lex

The birthday boy is one cool dude!

alan

Alan joined in the fun.

boys

Brave boys on bikes

girls

We had a few girls there too. This one forgot her bike, but luckily I packed an extra bike and two scooters. Everyone had a blast!

lex

Lex on his new bike.

party

Hey party people!

cake

Cake time!

cake closeup

The cake was an evolving process. It started with a couple of round cakes and we went from there. Lex had input, I had input, the lack of supplies had input, and we ended up here. It is supposed to look like bike wheels. What do you think?

candles

Making wishes and blow out candles.

cake for all

Cake for everyone.

friends

I like this group of kids. I miss being in their school every day and seeing them all.

presents

Lex got some awesome presents!

Despite my last minute planning the party got rave reviews. One kid said it was the best he’s been to in a long long time, and another kiddo said it was an epic, EPIC party. Can’t beat that. Most important though is that Lex had a blast! Everything went well.

After the party we packed up and headed home. Everyone crashed for a bit. My parents were here and Mandy and Rachel as well. We ordered pizza for dinner, per Lex’s request (though he doesn’t eat the pizza, just the cheesy garlic bread), and enjoyed dinner in the front yard on a beautiful evening.

Happy birthday to my nine year old. My baby who is no longer a baby but a big, strong, handsome, growing boy. I love you with all my heart!

She rides again!

Posted on by
Reply

With the confidence provided by knee pads, elbow pads, and protective gloves, Eve worked up the courage to ride her bike again! You may remember that she rode like the wind back when she was five, but for some reason she decided not to ride at all last summer, much to our dismay. All last summer she refused to ride her bike. I think she must have taken a tumble, but nothing too bad. Lex took a pretty bad one early last summer that may have scared her off. I don’t know. She rode her scooter all summer, but wouldn’t touch the bike. This spring she was hesitant but agreed to try again with knee and elbow pads. It took awhile, but we finally bought them and she was thrilled. Today she went out riding and it came right back to her… like riding a bike! After awhile she decided the pads were uncomfortable and she decided to brave it without them. She did fine, of course!

well protected

Happy girl with well protected knees and elbows. :)

riding

She rides again!

riding

Riding with Daddy

She still has a bit of work to do on stopping. Hopefully she figures that out quickly before tumbling and losing all confidence again!