Dads' Doughnut Day

Yesterday was Dads' Doughnut Day at C's school.

A few weeks back, each 1st Grader invited his/her dad to school for the morning and then worked to earn $3.00 to "treat" Dad to a doughnut and coffee.  Their teachers helped them write essays about Dad that they shared with the class and the dads. 

Here's C's...it might be my favorite of all his creations :)

The trip that he's referring to is one that we took over FOUR YEARS AGO! 

Not long after G was born J and I decided we wanted to do a little something special for C.  J took the day off and we went to a really neat county park about an hour from the house.  

It was a fun day! :)

Leaves Through The Years

One of the reasons we bought this house is because the yard is FULL of mature trees like this one...

Sooo it stands to reason that we spend a fair amount of time every year tending to leaves...lots and LOTS of leaves :)  Thankfully, it isn't all toil and drudgery.  C and G make it fun for all four of us :)

As I was looking at these pictures that J took on Saturday, I was reminded of  other pictures we'd over the years of this same Leaf-Raking Event :)

Some years were decidedly less joy filled (C at 10 months old)...

His grumpy disposition toward leaves didn't stick though (C at 20 months old)

Some were REALLY sweet :) (C at 32 months and G at 7 months)

Unfortunately, we don't have pictures to represent every year...it was still a fun little trip down memory lane none-the-less :)  These old pictures make me a little sentimental.  But then I remember one VERY important detail and am brought right back to an appreciation for today...the older they get the more they can actually HELP us with all these BLASTED leaves :)

Confession or Damage Control Strategy???

Funny conversation from supper last night:

Me:  [to J] End of Quarter Parent/Teacher Conferences for C's class are this week.  Mine is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

C:  What are conferences?

J: [joking] That's when Mommy talks to your teacher and finds out how much trouble you've been getting into at school.

G: [quickly responds/interrupts] C doesn't EVA ("ever" in G speak...the girl has a KILLER accent :) get into trouble at school!

C:  WEEEEEELLLL G, I wouldn't exactly say THAT....

[J and I exchange glances across the table and try not to laugh]

Since last night, I keep coming back to two rather amusing thoughts...

#1 - I'm not sure if I should be proud for his honesty OR worried that he's preemptively setting the bar low in preparation for my conference...guess I'll find out Wednesday :)

#2 - When a Teacher's Pet and a Classroom Trouble Maker fall in love, get married, and have a baby I suppose it should not be a surprise that said baby would be a semi-troublemaker with a sensitive conscious...poor kid! :)

Halloween 2012

Introducing C as Snake Eyes from GI Joe and G as a Cowgirl.

G has been asking to be a Cowgirl ever since C was a Cowboy last year.  C's selection of Snake Eyes is a result of J, C, and G watching old GI Joe episodes on Netfl*x.  I think J was pleased to have an "old-school" character represented :)

They were both super excited about their costumes!  Between G wanting to "lasso" C and C jumping around like a Ninja, taking pictures was a bit of a challenge :)

Project Let There Be Light: Complete

FINALLY!  After almost a year from the day I first took down the mantel and started painting  I have a mantel again!  YEAH!

This is what it looked like before we began:

Last November:

Here's what we have today:

AHHHH!  Sooo much brighter! J made the mantel using our old mantel shelf as a base.  To that he added chunkier corbels (the bracket-looking things that the shelf sits on) and molding around the edges.

I'm still working on the mantel decorations...I'm not too good with that sort of thing so it takes me awhile :)  I will admit that I'm WAY too excited about those two silver Pier One candle stick pillars...found them yesterday at Go*dwill for $3.99 ea! 

G Speak

Apparently hospitals are more accurately termed "Doctor Cities" cause there are lots of doctors there.

Kinda hard to argue with that logic :)

C's Bird Report: The Toucan

C's first report of the year was due today...Bird Day (in honor of the end of the bird unit that they've been in :)

His assignment:  Research the toucan, write a report (a combination of fill in the blank and free writing/essay), and make a visual aid.  He presented his report in front of his class today.  Honestly, I didn't really enjoy research projects in school.  I love to read.  I don't mind writing, but I have never been good (or enjoyed) the "visual aid" part...shocker, I know :)  As long as I'm being honest, I may as well go ahead and admit that I wasn't overwhelmed with excitement when the Bird Report assignment sheet came home.  That, however, was NOT the case with C.  He really couldn't wait to get started!  We started with a trip to the library.  We gathered up a bunch of books about the toucan and started reading.   Speaking of reading...this kid can READ!  I helped with the World Book Encyclopedia and a few of the harder books, but he did quite a bit of reading on his own....GO C!

As we were checking out (the ones that  were check out-able), he said "Mommy, I LOVE researching things!"  What can I say, he is his father's son!

Later that week, he started in on his poster board.  Had it been me, I would have been cutting and pasting pictures of toucans like a mad-fool!  Not C, he wanted to draw and paint his own using a picture from the encyclopedia as his example. 

I was so, so proud of him!  He gave it a lot of thought and spent a lot of time on this.  

And I think his hard work really paid off! Unfortunately, I somehow failed to take a picture of the final product. UGH!  Hopefully, his teacher will send it back home.

To commemorate Bird Day, the kids were asked to bring in bird costumes and they "flew" all around the school (to include visits to the Head of School, Main Office, and Kindergarten classes).  Exciting stuff!

The converted party hat into a beak was ALL his idea...I was pretty impressed :)

On an unrelated note:  The power of advertising is pretty amazing.  Despite the fact that I haven't had a bowl of Fruit Loops in at least 15 years, I hear the word "toucan" and I think Toucan Sam. :)