Back to Work

We went back to work this past week. Jeremy found it especially hard because he basically had two weeks off. One week for a conference and one week for spring break.
I thought it was a good week considering it was the week after spring break. For the most part they were excited to be back and we well behaved. Olivia and Garrett I think liked being back at the Sitter's house too.
Now that we are back to work all we think about and talk about is:

TESTING, TESTING, TESTING, and more TESTING

So this past week and this next week all we do is REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW and PRAY HOPE and PRAY some more that these kids do well on these tests that start May 8th. With No Child Left Behind these tests determine alot about your school, you as a teacher, and more. Then after the test we have to wait for the results until August. Which will not help us with instruction but we get to see what need to work on for the next year. It is a never ending process.
The sad thing is I have been teaching the core, and started reviewing. One of the things we reviewed was commas which is something we have gone over alot through out the school year. Half my class looked at me like they had never heard of a comma before. That's when I started to worry.

Easter Break so far..

We went to Vegas and did Easter things with the cousins, Came back early for Olivia's arm, we went to the Hogle Zoo on Tuesday, saw Ice Age 2 today. Tomorrow we are are going to pack a picnic and go to the Discovery park in Pleasant Grove. We have really enjoyed having this time off. We have done some fun things as a family. It just makes me look forward even more to summer vacation. Our last day of school is June 2nd. 6 more weeks of school. We can't wait!!

Yep, It's Broken

We went to an orthopedic doctor today. Shayla was nice and watched Garrett for us. Olivia wasn't so nice, she cried quite a bit when they made her take new x-rays. She definitely has a broken arm. There was a 1 cm space in her humerus right near where the radius and ulna are. They put a solid cast on her and told us to come back in 24 days. Olivia is so proud of her cast and can't wait to show everyone she knows.

Easter so far...

We had quite the Easter party today with the cousins. The kids did coloring pages, found easter eggs, decorated an Easter cake, played Hullabullo a million times, colored Easter eggs, watched Chicken Little, and we have necklaces to make later. Olivia and Garrett sure love their cousins.

Mama called the doctor, and the doctor said...

We are in Las Vegas right now. For fun we decided to play with the cousins at a nearby elementary school. Olivia and Garrett both got new bikes (pictures of them later). They had a ton of fun riding them around.
After we had been there a bit, Olivia was playing on the monkey bars (they were actually rings that hung down and you swing across). Grandma Brunner and Cynthia were helping her stay up. She slipped, fell, and landed on her arm or elbow. She kept crying. We decided to take the kids home. Olivia wouldn't stop crying. When we got home we took another look at it and noticed a lump right above her elbow. We decided to go to Quickcare (Which, by the way, should be renamed because they were anything but quick!). We sat next to a couple of scary looking people and dealt with a variety of medical staff. After 5 X-rays and two and a half hours of waiting, crying, and a bucket of Olivia's runny nose tissues we could leave. They told us that it wasn't dislocated and that it might have an "invisible" fracture. I say invisible because we couldn't see anything and the doctor there couldn't see anything, but the orthopedic surgeon who examined the X-rays said there might be something there and we needed to come back on Monday. Livvy got a nice splint and a sling. We doubt we'll go back on Monday.
We are still planning on doing all the Easter stuff, but are bummed out about next week. The highlight of our trip was supposed to be going to the beach and we won't be doing that now.

The Big Boy Bed

We had a pretty busy day yesterday. Olivia had a birthday party. We went shopping to 5 stores, saw Hoodwinked, and went to the Spaghetti Factory. It was pretty fun.
Garrett has still been sleeping in his crib all this time. He's pretty much outgrown it (his head and feet almost touch opposite ends lengthwise). And even though he's not quite able to climb out of it he can almost tip it over. We went out yesterday to buy him a new bed. We went to three different stores trying to find a frame that we like and could afford. We never did find a frame, but we picked up a mattress, mattress protector, new sheets, pillows, and a blanket.

We were worried about Garrett's first night on the bed. We imagined getting up every 2 hours to put him back in bed. When bedtime came, about 90 minutes later than his normal bedtime ;), we did our nightly routine. We had Olivia get in her bed and we took Garrett to give her kisses goodnight. We showed him how she was laying in bed and how she was going to sleep their all night. We took him back to his bed, gave him his kisses, said good night and shut the door.
He slept for almost 10 hours! We were so happy! Our kids are getting so big and so much fun. We love them alot.

Tooth #2

Well, Olivia lost another tooth. This was extra cool because she pulled it out all by herself. It was really loose, but she wouldn't let Robin or me anywhere near it. I told her that it needed to come out that night (we didn't want it to fall out in her sleep) and that she should just keep twisting it. Twenty minutes later she jumped up with the biggest surprised / proud look on her face. She was so excited to pull it out. She feels like such a big girl.

I like Dogs

I had two little visitors in my class today(Olivia and Garrett). My sitter was in the meeting in the library. She brought them to the meeting with her. They ended up in my room. I was teaching one of my favorite lessons to teach. We were doing an adjective chant. This is just taking a noun and then coming up with as many different adjectives that you can think of to descibe it.
Then you put it on the chant. Olivia was very interested in the whole thing. She just watched fascinated. I didn't think that much about it. When we got home. She basically chanted the whole thing to me again. Then she wanted to make her own. She then told me after being in my class she wanted to be a teacher. I will take that as a high compliment.

This is the one she made up. The one I did for my class is a little longer than hers but it is the same concept. She remember most of it and the way it went. She came up with her own words to descibe the dog. We think she is so smart.

DOGS
Dogs, Dogs, Dogs
mean dogs, nice dogs
striped, colorful, sleepy dogs
That is just a few
Smelly dogs eating dogs
hungry dogs too
walking dogs, licking dogs
kid, family, happy dogs.
Last of all Best of all
I like Small dogs.

The way the chant works is you clap on the noun (dogs)
and snap on the adective (words in italics)

Immigration Reform: Sounds Good to Me

If you're like me, you've probably heard in the news about the protests that have been going on concerning the immigration reform that Congress is debating. We didn't really understand what the big deal was or why people were protesting. We found this website ran by some of the protestors. If you check it out, we think you will have quite the rude awakening that we did. Make sure you read what the protestors wrote on their signs.

http://www.mexica-movement.org/granmarcha.htm

We think it's interesting that we haven't seen any of this on the news. We're not sure what the law they're protesting actually states, but if these are the people against it, we are all for the law.