2 1/2 Pounds of Luscious Goo

It starts out with a classical story.

My boy was in science class. He was asked to pass out the frogs to be dissected that day in class. He thought it would be funny to throw a frog (wrapped in plastic) at a girl. It wasn't really that funny, which he learned the hard way.

Fast forward. I got a call from the teacher who wanted to know if I had really read the note that had been sent home. Well, I did sign a paper and apparently Nathan craftily cut out my signature and pasted it to another paper. So, I didn't know the real story. Talk about looking like a fool!

Nathan was assigned to yard work duty for Saturday. For Sunday, he was assigned to make fudge and caramels for the teacher and the girl. I picked this punishment because my mom used to make me stir the strawberry jam for hours and hours and hours. It's not something I would wish on anyone. Fudge and caramel both take quite a lot of stirring!

Our first batch of fudge was overcooked. We decided to call it, "Brownie been sittin' on the counter for two days fudge."

The caramels turned out very tasty and very gooey. And the second batch of fudge, with walnuts is pretty sinful too.



Ever wondered what 2 1/2 pounds of luscious goo looks like? Here you go:

Sariah is "The Monkey of the Day"

Sariah's kindergarten teacher (same as Elijah's 1st grade teacher) celebrates each child in her class by giving them the title, "Monkey of the day" (monkey is their class mascot). Sariah has been so excited for her day to come up. She helped me choose pictures of herself from when she was a baby and from current photos too to share with her class.

I made rolls so she could share them with her class because that's one of her favorite things and since I made Elijah a t-shirt, I had to make one for Sariah. She was all smiles with excitement about that part.

She also picked out two books for me to read to her class. First, Manfish, a book about Jacques Cousteau. I was truly surprised that she chose this book because it seemed to me that it was a little above her level. She is a girl after my own heart!


Second, He Came with the Couch by David Slonim. This one got the kids laughing. It's a fun book. You can read it here. Your kids will love it. The Lookybook website (previous link) is fun because you can read books online. You can search for books by keyword, look through lists of authors and illustrators, or choose from a list of subjects to select a book to read.

School Girl

Today Sariah dictated a letter at school to her favorite lady from church (Megan Finlay, called 'Miss Finlay' in the letter). I read it quickly before we dropped it off at her house. If I remember right, she talked about how she likes going inside the Finlay's house. The next line is where I caught the excited air of Sariah's school pride, "I won't be able to come to your house anymore because I'm in school all day." So cute!!

Off They GO!

Everyone looked superb and they all were excited for the first day of school, especially the littlest one! I cannot convince her to stay home with me for another year...

Nathan had a minor surgery last week and a lot of people asked if he was nervous beforehand. I didn't really notice him being nervous, but I would reply that I think he internalizes things a lot. (His surgery went marvelously well and he's doing fine!) This morning, I realized just how much my comment was about me.

I had this yucky anxiety feeling this morning while helping the kids get ready for their first day of school. It was really no big deal. We had bought a new set of clothes and shoes for each kid last week. We bought school supplies a couple of weeks ago. They already had backpacks and lunch boxes (Thanks to L.L. Bean. Those things last forever.) I got up early and even had clean laundry for myself. There was cereal and milk in the house. By all accounts, I should have been fine, but I wasn't. Truth be told, change is hard for me. I don't cry, I just agonize inside. Hey, wait a minute, this post isn't about me!!!

Today was an open house for Kindergarten and a half day for the rest. Our tradition is to go to lunch on the first and last day of school. Chili's. This will help us ease ourselves back into school after an adventurous and appointment-free summer!

P.S. Look at Sariah's face in the b & w picture. She really is that excited about school!

P.P.S. May is 9 and still wants to wear dresses and skirts to school. I love it!

A Pink Backpack

This might not mean much to you, but to me it carries deep, deep significance.

Teacher Ts 2007-08

Nathan's teacher loves to fish!

May's teacher has done several amazing things with her kids this year!

Elijah's classroom mascot is the MONKEYS!

The back says "Thanks from your 2007-08 Class" and I give the shirts with a set of fabric markers so that the teachers can have the kids sign the back. It was a hit last year!

Festival of Cultures

Last night was my kids’ International Festival of Cultures. The children display their singing and dancing talent for the parents. I won’t publish pictures since I don’ t have permission for the other kids in my pictures, but I just have to comment on the night.

“Every year I get a lump in my throat when the kids parade out,” said the principal as she began to announce the night’s events. You see, there are 48 countries represented, 11 states and 30 languages spoken. People ask how it can be done. By opening up their arms to each individual student AND their family this school is unique and wonderful and welcoming. I love it that my kids are a part of it.

The night begins with the kids parading out to the open-air amphitheater single file. They are encouraged to wear the costume of their native country and let me tell you, there are some dazzling costumes. The emotions are also near the surface for me each year as I see this. My heart catches in my throat several times as the parade goes on.

Then we are all given the chance to see songs and dances from around the world in many languages. This year, Sariah made a friend of a woman who didn’t mind that she goes a mile a minute and I was able to video some of the events for Joseph who couldn’t be with us.

The finale is always a song called, “Good-bye my friend.” I remember the first year Nathan was involved in this program we had just heard that his wonderful little school would be closed and it actually made me cry to think of the community he had been a part of coming to an end. We were, happily moved to this current school and love that all our children will attend here. Being that there are children from all over the world, most of my children have felt the loss of a child they have befriended who has to go back to their home country. This is dedicated to all of those friends wherever they may be…

Good-bye My Friend

Good-bye, my friend

Adios amigos,

Sayonara, adieu, so long.

As you go down the road of life,

Carry in your heart a song.

I hope you’ve enjoyed

the time we spent together.

Filled with magic and song.

All good things must end they say,

Carry in your heart a song.

Sayonara!

Carry in your heart a song.

Jump Rope Team!

Complete with their team t-shirts, the Rockets performed this morning to show off all the diligent work they've done since December. I'm not going to upload the freestyle video because it's so large, but there were some really impressive single jumpers and some duos that were spectacular. Below you'll find some video of the teams that performed. Again, so impressive. The thing that amazes me is that they all look so placid. I know I'd be huffing, puffing and tripping all over the place!

They are the only team in the city (or surrounding cities). How lucky we are to participate!

And to think May started the year as a "non-jumper!" These shows are a real hoot to attend with Sariah because rope or no rope, she stands up and jumps her heart out to the music. She's planning to join the team when she gets to third grade just four years from now!












I can't fail to mention Mrs. Lorraine Ware, Miss Carroll and Mrs. Grooms who have taken so much of their own time to coach these wonderful kids. Thank you!

Family Tree

Since Nathan's in bed, I get to post about his way cool school project.

His teacher asked them to bring in a family tree with at least three generations, births, deaths and occupations. Due to the emphasis on family history in the LDS church, we have seven generations on all the lines. We could have gone farther, but we'd need a bigger poster board!! I do have to make a note to say that I have not done any of this research myself. Aunt Vauna, my mom and several others deserve all the credit.

I think Nathan's project will shine though, and in the process I got to teach him what I knew already and we are set up to read some of the histories as a family this year and find out where we came from! We got to see Elijah Allen showing up in the seventh generation. We also got to see a son of Elisabeth Crow in the seventh generation, our Native American ancestor.

This just might spark me to get going on the research myself! What's your experience with family history?

She's an Author!

I have to tell you about May's wonderful teacher this year. Her name is Mrs. Lorraine Ware. May tells me that Mrs. Ware and Miss Carroll (her class' intern) are her very best teachers yet (and that's really saying something because I was super impressed with last years teacher and intern!)

Mrs. Ware has been on a waiting list for years for a tremendous learning opportunity. It's called "The Big Zoo Lesson," and is held at our local zoo. Basically, the kids get to spend a whole week at the zoo, studying science. I feel so fortunate that the kids get to participate.

Mrs. Ware has also been hosting Book Bingo at the school for several years. Families donate books for this fabulous event and everyone meets together to eat pizza and play bingo. The tension mounts as numbers are called and kids who win bingo get to go out into the hall to choose a new book. Quite often we have come home from book bingo with a large stack of books since all the kids are allowed to play and people are quite generous with their donations. It's a wonderful event. The kids in Mrs. Ware's classroom, which includes May this year, are in charge of helping with the event. They hand out tickets to Bingo winners.

Her classroom puts together a newsletter twice a month with a student photographer and student articles. These newsletters tell about all of the good things that are happening at school and in the classroom. I love being able to see into the day-to-day life in their classroom, through the eyes of the students.

Mrs. Ware, along with the other third grade teacher, Ms. Byrd-Goode and Miss Carroll, is the coach for the jump rope club. You can see more about that in my previous post here. I love it that May gets to participate in this club. It's a great way to get exercise and develop agility. Thanks goes to these teachers and their dedicated work.

The most recent, cool project they've been working on is their very own books (thus, the title of this post). They have written and illustrated their very own fairy tales. They were each given a blank hardback book in which to write their work and draw their pictures. I was so pleased to see May diligently working and then sharing her project with her siblings as they all sat around to hear her reading her tale, "Mousey and the Three Rabbits."

Monkey of the Day

(Now you can see how techno handicapped I am, I don't even know how to rotate this pic!)
Elijah's classroom mascot is a monkey. His teacher came up with this cool idea to focus on one child per day where they are "Monkey of the Day." Each child made a poster of cool things about themselves including pictures and then at 3 pm on their appointed day they get to talk all about themselves. They can also bring items from home and/or their favorite treat to share. Elijah was so cute talking about himself. He would quietly read what he had written on his poster and then add on "I guess" to the end of his statements. I wasn't sure where all this "I guess" stuff was coming from until Joseph stood up to help him with something and ended his statement with "I guess." It was so funny. He got to tell everyone that he has two brothers and two sisters. He was sure to ask me to make sure that Brigham and Sariah could come and that he had pictures of Nathan who attends a different school now.

What a cool coincidence that we visited the Omaha Zoo on our way home to Michigan in September and had taken pictures in the vines!

Worthy of note is that the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha has the largest indoor rainforest in the world, the largest indoor desert in the world and also the largest exhibit of nocturnal animals. We saw some animals that we had never seen before. We didn't get to see anything else because of time constraints, but I really wanted to visit the aquarium, of course and they had lots of other cool animals to see as well. It was a really fun place to stop, so if you are ever on your way through Omaha...

I Had Already Forgotten

Elijah was in preschool during the school year of 2005-06. He was so cute. That was in infamous time of the "Huh, Mom?" I LOVED his preschool "Lad and Lassie Preschool." I also loved his teachers Mrs. Cousino and Mrs. Johnston. They welcomed each individual child lovingly and cheerfully, each and every day of preschool. Sadly, I can't send Sariah there because due to low enrollment, they had to close. They did some amazing art projects; the teachers took a lot of time with each individual child. They had a lovely Christmas program where the children served punch and cookies that they had helped prepare and also sang songs (it was nice that it was affiliated with a church because I so enjoyed standing in a circle holding hands with teachers, parents and children singing all three verses of Silent Night).


Here he is doing the Christmas program. The little girl next to him is Kira, his best preschool friend. There was a cute photo in the newspaper of the two of them hugging.

But the thing that I really got on here to write about was this. Last night I was sorting through old school work. This is something that gives me great anxiety because I have not done a good job of saving important papers and keeping track of them for my kids. We have lost a lot of things in that way. But it was so fun to see the things the kids have done over the years. The thing I had forgotten was that Elijah used to bring me an envelope with the word "MOM" on the front. It was the first word he learned to spell. He would cut snowflakes or draw me pictures. Almost every day after preschool he had one of these envelopes for me. So sweet! Sweet memories!