A Day on the Roof

To motivate the students at my school to practice math more the PTA and I ran a math contest earlier this month. The students were told that if the school totaled 150,000 minutes during the contest that I would spend a day on the roof. They earned 258,688 minutes and so last Wednesday I spent the day on the roof.

I went up at 7:45 in the morning and didn't come down until 3:45. I had a canopy set up to sit under and I brought my laptop. Unfortunately, my internet connection was down and I spent the whole day at the edge of the roof waving and throwing down candy. I ended up with a nasty sunburn but I had fun and I think the kids will remember it for a long time.

I only had enough candy for each kid to have 1-2 pieces and so we scheduled the classes to come out at different times throughout the day for me to throw it down to them. The problem came at lunch when I wasn't throwing down candy but all the kids wanted me to.

At one point I pretended to throw down a sucker but then I started sucking on it. They all thought it was gross when I offered it to them after sucking on it but that was nothing compared with their reaction to when I stuck a sucker up my nose and then acted like I was going to throw it down. Luckily one of the playground aides was there to take my picture.

Lunch recess was also fun because students kept throwing balls onto the roof. I would kick or throw them back down. Here is a shot of me almost making a basket from the roof:

Waste of Time

I put on a movie for the older two kids to watch after church. Devin was asleep on my lap.
Garrett says, "Mom, can I play the D.S. or the computer instead."
I say "No."
Garrett replies "But watching a movie is a waste of time!"
Like playing the D.S. or computer ISN'T a waste of time.


Garrett than says, "The D.S. is playing and the movie is just watching"
I said, "You can choose to go play something else." And he did. We read books together and now he is outside riding his scooter.

I guess he really does think watching a movie is a waste of time.

Cookie Monster

Monday, I was home with Devin. I decided that it was a good day for making cookies. I know he loves to help me in the kitchen but I don't make cookies a lot any more. We made chocolate chip cookies using the left over colored sugar from Friday.

I sit him on the counter and he starts singing "I love Sugar, I love Sugar!" It was really funny and cute.

His job is to help dump things in the bowl and eat chocolate chips.

Then when it is mixing he puts his hand on top of the mixer. Very helpful.

He then decided that he was going to help with the buttons.  This is right after we had put in all of the flour.  He pushed the button to full blast and we had flour everywhere.  

 

The cookies turned out really good. They even had specks of red and blue in them from the colored sugar.

Even with flour everywhere we had a great time making cookies that we later got to share with his friend Lydia who came over to play.

Devin makes us laugh

Yes, Devin is still obsessed with his fingers especially if he is tired or wants to cuddle with you.

Devin found the air zooka and knew what to do with it immediately: Where it as a hat.

Hiding behind the couch, popping up and yelling, "Peek a Boo."

Luigi's Birthday

Luigi's Birthday is a holiday that everyone else would call St. Patrick's Day.    Garrett decided that since everyone wears green on St. Patrick's day that it must be for Luigi's birthday.  To Celebrate Luigi's birthday he found all his stuffed animals that were green and put them on the couch.  Then with his other stuffed animals he put them in his green shirts and put them on the couch for Luigi's party.    He is so funny and yes he is obsessed with Mario and Luigi.

Mountain Man Rendezvous

In fourth grade in Utah they learn about Native Americans, Mountain Men, and pioneers of Utah. So as a fun culminating project they have a Mountain Man Rendezvous where they get to dress up as one of the three, do activities, and then get to bring things that they can trade with other students or buy with "Beaver Belts" that they have earned.

Olivia dressed up as an Indian.   That pouch she is carrying came in handy to carry all the things she bought at the "Trading Blanket."

We had test tubes that we filled with different things that she could trade or sale.

Colored Rainbow Sugar.   (1/2 cup of sugar and then add the food coloring and put in a bag and squeeze until  the color is uniformly spread.)  The boys helped to make the different patterns in the tubes.

A mixture of water, oil, and food coloring.

Colored Jelly balls.

We than created this box so it would be easy for her to carry all the tubes.

She sold everything really quick but the colored sugar was the first to go.   She had a really fun day and I think she learned a lot.  She said she wished she would have gotten enough money to buy the real rabbit pelt.  The person with the most money at the end got the Rabbit pelt. Jeremy told her she should have sold her things for more money since they were so popular.  She replied, "No, I shouldn't have bought so much other stuff and saved my money."    Good lesson right there.

Bead up the nose

Devin came to me complaining that his nose hurt. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I put a bead up my nose." Well, $25 and a trip to Instacare later and he's all better.

Kissing, Hitting and Shoving

Yesterday as I picked up the kids, Garrett is telling me a story about him going to the principal's office and it had something to do with pushing a kid who pushed him first and then somehow he hit another kid.  I was not connecting the dots at what actually happened so I went in and talked to his teacher.

Here is what actually happened:

The kids were lining up to come in from recess.  The teacher was a few minutes late picking up the kids. So Garrett was bored.  He decided to start walking up and down the line kissing the other kids in line.  Yes, Kissing!  Which isn't like Garrett at all since he doesn't like to be touched.  So as he went to kiss a kid, the kid shoved him.  So yes the kid shoved him first but for good reason, and Garrett shoved him back.  Then threw himself on the ground and started crying.  A kid with a ball dropped the ball near Garrett.  Garrett was so angry he got up and punched the kid.  Then when the teacher on duty tried to talk to him about what happened he was very disrespectful to the teacher and would walk away from her, refuse to talk to her and was screaming.

He got sent to the Principal's office.  The principal wasn't there so he just talked to someone else in the office but didn't want to talk to them.  They told him they were going to call his Dad and Garrett flipped out and started crying uncontrollably saying he would lose Mario for a week.  So they decided that they would let him tell us what happened and I would have to send a note back.

He didn't get grounded for a week since it was his first offense but he did get grounded for 3 days from all MARIO: DS, Computer, Wii, Mario movies until Sunday.  He felt really bad and he is taking his punishment well without complaining too much.

Beyonders

Yesterday, Jennifer, Olivia and I went to a book launching party for Brandon Mull's new book the "Beyonders,"  Brandon Mull has also written "Fablehaven" and "Candy Shop Wars" Since Livvy wants to be an author we thought it would be fun to take her to see a real author who has published books.   While we were there she asked, "How do you make your book famous?"   My reply was "Write a really good first book and then people will want to read other books by you because they know you are a good author." 

We got there around 6:15 and waited in line to get into the auditorium.   While we were waiting in line different people would come and try to sell things.  We bought Girls Scout Cookies and enjoyed our cookies in line and waiting for the show to start.    They had a comedy troop perform, and they had special appearances by other Utah Authors like Shannon Hale, who wrote "Princess Academy" and "Goose Girl."   Jessica Day George who wrote "Dragon Slippers"and "Midnight Ball" and James Dashner who wrote the "13th Reality".  I really like Shannon Hale and Jessica Day George.  I haven't read anything by James Dashner.   At the end of each comedy sketch or guest author they would turn the lights out and everyone had glow sticks and they could shout and cheer and wave their glow sticks.   The little girl sitting behind us would yell really loud right in our ears.    We did end up buying a copy of the new book.  It is signed copy.  We got a book that was already signed so we wouldn't have to wait in line again.   I had never been to a launch party. It was a lot of fun and the skits were funny. It was great  just to be there with Olivia and Jennifer.    Then afterward we went to McDonald's for smoothies.  It was a nice girls night out, with my sister and daughter.

Small lesson in Electricity

We were cleaning the house yesterday. There was a metal hanger on the floor. I asked Olivia to pick it up and put it away. Well, she wasn't in a hurry to to go put it away so she hung it on the night light that was plugged in. But it was not plugged in all the way and she put the metal hanger on the metal prongs of the night light.

You can guess what happened. There was a popping noise and a small flame. Luckily she was not hurt.

Electricity lesson: Don't put metal on or near the outlets. Thought we had taught this lesson before but I guess she forgot.

Here is her drawing of what happened.  I like the picture of the hanger on the night light.

Last Basketball Game

Basketball Season is over. Garrett had his last game on Saturday. He did really well of guarding his guy and playing defense. All of the boys got this medal. He is really proud of it. We are proud of him for trying to learn something new, going to practices and games and enjoying it. I asked him if he was wanted to play again next year he replied, "Maybe, I will think about"
I said, "Did you have fun this year?"
He replied,"Yes, mostly, except when the ball hits me in the head."

Donut Date

Garrett had a reading and donut date at school today.  I was lucky enough to be able to go.  I didn't have my first class until 10:15 and the Donut date started at 9:30.   So I got permission to be a little late for work.   I showed up at 9:25.  Garrett was able to take a pillowpet to school today and bring his favorite book.

I asked him this morning if he was excited about his donut date.  He just shrugged.  So when I got there he was all smiles.  We sat next to each other, read books, and ate donuts.  As we were reading, he leaned over and put his head on my shoulder.  It was very sweet.  So even though he won't admit it I think he liked having me there and I LOVED being there.   I was only able to stay 20 out of the 30 minutes so I could get to work before my first class showed up but I will treasure the moment that we had today.

Utah Desert

Olivia had to do a science project about Utah Deserts. She had to write a report telling where the the deserts in Utah are located,describe desert animals and plants and their adaptations for living in a desert. Then she had to make a Diorama showing the landscape and include the plants and animals. She did a pretty good job.

Jennifer helped her make the arches out of clay.

So Weird

Today Devin and I were home and we were in kitchen when we saw something really odd. We noticed that probably 1000 small black birds flew into our yard and landed in our yard and they were eating something. I went to get the camera but wasn't fast enough. Then all at once they all flew off together and landed in my neighbor's yard. When they flew off the sky looked black. I was trying to get another picture but Devin stated yelling, "Birds, Birds" and they took off again.
It was really odd seeing that many birds in my yard. It made me wonder where was my dog and why wasn't he reacting to the birds. No barking, no chasing, nothing.

I have no idea what kind of bird they were but it was definitely weird and interesting at the same time.

Colorado Trip

We took Friday off work and headed for Grand Junction Colorado to visit Kristi and her family.  Kristi invited us to come to her house to support Andrew in his decision to be baptized.  It was great to get out of town.  It was only a four hour drive.  We stayed in a hotel with a pool.

Our kids enjoyed playing with cousins, going swimming, hiking on the rocks near Kristi's house,  playing in the jump house, helping with the chickens.  It was a nice visit.  We are so proud of Andrew and we are grateful we got to be apart of this special experience.

Sorry no pictures.  I didn't take out my camera while we were there.  I wish I would have gotten some pictures of my kids with their cousins.  I guess we will have to make another trip sometime. : )

Cute Story
On the way home, Devin asked, "Are we there yet?"
Jeremy replied, "No."
Devin answered, "Please."

Another Funny Story:
When we got to Colorado we discovered that the hotel didn't have a pool.  Since we promised the kids that we could go swimming when we got there we decided to find another hotel.  So we started calling other places.  One of the other places that we called, Jeremy was on the phone with the receptionist.  Jeremy asked, "What is your hourly rate?" (hee, hee) The receptionist didn't quite know what to say. 

Patriotic Wall

We've had a patriotic and character development focus at my school this year. For the past few months we've been trying to put together a patriotic timeline display. My idea was to create a timeline of important people and events from our country's history. There are several schools around that have similar patriotic displays but I wanted our students to have more ownership of the wall. The frame was crafted by a previous student for his eagle project. We paid for everything else with the profits from our cookie dough fundraiser. Each class was given a picture for a week and was assigned the task of researching the picture and writing a caption.

The title of the display is. At the end is a huge mirror with the words, "What will YOUR legacy be?" Across from the mirror is a big American flag. When you stop and look in the mirror the flag becomes the backdrop to the reflection.

We finished the wall this afternoon. What do you think?

Scooters and Rollerblades

The kids are really excited to have the weather warm up a little bit.  For Christmas, Olivia go rollerblades and Garrett got a scooter.  Since the sidewalks were clear they took the opportunity to go outside for a few minutes.  I love this picture with the sunset in the background.   Also it is pretty cute that Olivia is helping Devin on the scooter while she is on her rollerblades.   She is getting pretty good at using her rollerblades.

Garrett is wearing a Dr. Seuss Hat from school.

We are excited for spring to come when we can spend more than just a few minutes outside before it gets too cold.  As you can see there is still some snow on the ground.    I actually heard and saw some birds yesterday.  It makes me hopeful that spring is going to be here soon and this horrible cold weather will gone.

3 Little Pig Story

Here is Olivia's story that she wrote.  The librarian at her school encourages the kids to write their own stories and give her a "published" copy and she will put them on a shelf in the library for other kids to read.  This is one of the stories that she has given her library.   She really loves to write stories and she loves to draw pictures for her stories.  She has notebooks that she fills with her stories.

Devin loves to look for the ducks in the story and "Quack"
Both Devin and Garrett love to say the phrase "Duh, Okay" They think it is very funny. So Olivia at least has 4 very interested readers.

I took her book and used I-Movie on my computer to create a short movie of her work.  I have never really used this program before. 

Robots

During quiet time over the weekend, Garrett comes upstairs looking for tape. I didn't have any idea what they were up too. I thought that maybe they were wrapping birthday presents.

But they came up stairs later to show us their cool robots that they made with boxes and light bulbs. Their creativity astounds me sometimes. They are so clever and smart.