Lego Fun

Lauren received an Indiana Jones Lego set for Christmas from her grandma. After opening it she spent a solid 2 hours putting it together. She is so proud of her work and wanted to share it with everyone. Way to go Lauren!

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish all of our friends and family a Merry Christmas! Christmas morning here started around 7:00. The kids were so excited to see what Santa had left them. They soon discovered a letter hanging on the tree from Santa. Inside was a note and their first clue to find their presents. Santa had hidden four presents that they had to go on a scavenger hunt to find. It was so fun watching them run from clue to clue. Their favorite gift was the Indians Jerseys he had left for each one of us. We then opened our family gifts and the excitement continued. Cinnamon rolls, ham and egg casserole, and juice was our Christmas breakfast. We plan to spend the day playing our new games, watching our favorite movie, The Christmas Story, and will try to burn a few calories on our Wii fit. We hope everyone has a wonderful relaxing day. Happy Holidays!

Pajama Day

On Friday at school we had Polar Express Day. Everyone wear their pajamas to school and we have a relaxed fun day, although it was still a rigorous day. :) After lunch they show the movie Polar Express and serve us hot chocolate and cookies to enjoy. My assistant, Sara, had also brought in tons of food for the whole kindergarten team to enjoy. We had a buffet of meatballs, spinach dip, salsa, cookies, candy etc. set up on our back counter. I wish we could have these kind of days once a month.

The Loft is finished!

The painting of the loft is finally finished! We are so happy with how the project turned out. Lauren loves her new space and enjoys escaping to her "office" as she calls it.

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

On Dec. 12th Lauren celebrated her 8 and a half birthday! I have always made the kids a little cake on their half birthdays. Lauren loves chocolate cake, so we had chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Hard to believe she is almost 9. Happy birthday Lauren!

Our Gingerbread House

I was so excited when I bought my first gingerbread house kit the other day. Last night the kids and I finally had a chance to put it together. It is not as easy as it looks. The icing kept dripping down and the candy placement was interesting. My kids enjoyed it, but they said they would not like to do it again next year. Although our house looks nothing like it does on the box, we had a great time together.

Parade Fun

Holiday Parade

Every year we watch the Lake Wylie Elementary parade go through our neighborhood. The kids really enjoy watching this parade every year. They look forward to watching all the floats, bands, and getting the candy. I will never forget the first year David and I moved in to this house. I was talking to my mother in law on the phone one Saturday and all of a sudden I heard a marching band in the neighborhood. I told her, you are not going to believe this but I think there is a band practicing in our neighborhood. Without children to keep me informed, we had no idea that this parade existed. Now it is a tradition in our house to watch the parade. It gets us in the Christmas spirit for sure. This year, a boy from the Good Shepherd float, handed Lauren a present. Inside the present was the game Monopoly. She was so excited. What a neat treat.

The Countdown Begins

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Ohio this year. Our days were spent in Amherst, Ohio with David's parents. On the long drive there Tuesday night at 1:00am, my hubby decided to take a detour to show the sleeping kids and I Akron's new football stadium. It is still under construction, but it will be so nice when it is finished. Hopefully we will be able to catch a game there someday. The campus has changed so much since we were there. Lauren says she is going to go to school there. :) On Wednesday we ate lunch at Hot Dog Heaven. This is a unique hot dog place in Amherst. For ten years, I have been promised we would eat lunch there and finally this was the year! We enjoyed a meal of hot dogs and fries that were so good. We couldn't get over the pile of fries we received. On Thanksgiving we enjoyed a wonderful turkey dinner,( thanks Cathy) and then spent the evening with David's grandparents and family. On Friday, I convinced David to go Christmas shopping with me in the early hours of the morning. He wasn't looking forward to this outing, but I love to go every year. I just love picking out all the gifts for my family and friends. We left the house at 5:30 and didn't return until almost 2:00. We had a wonderful time shopping for our kids, ourselves, and our parents. We don't get much time together without the kids so it meant a lot to me. We decided that we should do this every year together. We met David's dad for lunch and then headed home. We then went bowling with the kids and ended our day with some wonderful margaritas at a mexican restaurant. On Saturday morning we headed down to my parent's house to visit with them. We had a wonderful visit which included a trip to the Barn for lunch. The kids just love this place. After some shopping with my mom, we started heading our way back to Charlotte. We put up our tree this afternoon. Now the countdown begins to my favorite holiday. I feel so blessed to have so many good friends, a great husband, awesome kids, and a healthy family. I just love this season of giving and showing others how much you appreciate them. Happy Holidays!

The Loft

Two weeks and piles of sawdust later....my husband has finished making Lauren's loft bed. He has become a handyman around here lately. Lauren is thrilled with her new bed. Our final step is to paint it, but we will do that when we return from spending the holidays in Ohio. In the meantime, Lauren is enjoying sleeping in her new high bed. Thanks dad!

Fun in the Pool

The real reason we went to Myrtle Beach was for my sister's wedding. If you ask my children what they did last weekend, all they can recall is how much fun they had in the pool. They have always loved to swim, and last weekend, they had a ball at the hotel pool.

Reception

Reception Fun

My sister's reception room was beautiful. My mom and Dawn had filled various vases with sand, shells, and starfish. The ceilings were draped in white tulle. All I can say about the food is......YUMMY. It was the best wedding food I have ever had. Now as most of you know I do not eat much fruit or any vegetables so this menu was right up my alley. Theh buffet line began with tossed salad, rolls, fried shrimp, red skin mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, mac & cheese, green beans ( I passed on these ) grilled chicken breast with a champagne cream sauce, and then there were various pies and cheesecake! It was a wonderful carb filled meal. At the reception my sister had party blowers at your seat. We were to blow these instead of banging our glasses to get them to kiss. The kids thought this was a hoot. They enjoyed this part the best. When it came time for the bouquet, she threw a bag of lottery tickets instead of flowers. Alex was the lucky man to get the garter. Although he still can't understand why someone would wear a ponytail holder on their leg. The cake was a red velvet cake, so good. They used the letter W as a border around the cake which was so pretty. On the top was they African Love Knot. It was such a great day. I had so much fun visiting with my family and just hanging out all weekend. Congrats Dawn and Gerald, may your love for each other last forever!

Ceremony

Dawn & Gerald's Wedding

On Nov. 15 my sister married the love of her life, Gerald. It was a beautiful outside ceremony at a hotel on Myrtle Beach. The weather was rainy in the morning, but clear and sunny for the ceremony. Dawn and Gerald had great music to make the ceremony upbeat and fun. One neat thing they did to remember this day was, they put their handprints in cement that was in a heart shaped tray. Very unique idea. My sister looked so beautiful in her dress that had a watermelon color sash. Everything about her was glowing. I am so glad she found someone that will make her happy. Best wishes!

Being sick stinks

So many things have been happening lately, but I just haven't had time to blog them. My sister got married in Myrtle Beach this weekend. It was a beautiful wedding and I plan to download the pictures tomorrow. We had a wonderful weekend visiting with family and friends. However on the way home on Sunday, the achy flu feeling got a hold of me, and tonight I think it is finally on it's way to visit someone else's body. So tonight I say, good-bye to the sickness and tomorrow I will say hello again to my messy house, dirty laundry, and tons of pictures to download. Stay tuned!

Skating Fun

Today was an awesome day. Lauren had a birthday party at a skating rink for one of her softball friends. It turned out to be so much fun....for me. As Lauren hung on to the wall the entire time, I skated my heart out. It brought me back to the days when I was in junior high and I would go skating with my friends. I had such a good time skating to the music. I can still skate backwards and squat down and skate on one foot while I hold the other one straight out. Anyone remember that move? As you can tell by Lauren's picture, skating is not her thing. I can't wait to skate again, of course I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow because of sore muscles, but it was so worth it.

Rigorous Work

Lately life at work has become very stressful. Administration is constantly telling us to make sure our lessons are filled with "rigor." At our last meeting the message was to make our rigor "risky." Sara and I spend our entire day justifying everything that we do is risky and rigorous. For example, counting pasta could be risky rigor because they might drop one on the floor, it breaks, and now their final count would be different. As you can imagine, we are laughing the entire day as we do this. Since work has become so stressful this past week, we decided to make our rigorous joke public by making shirts. On Friday we wore shirts that said "Respect the Rigor" and on the back it said, "Make Mine Risky." Turns out everyone loved them, and many teachers wanted one. Having someone I can laugh with all day long just makes my job even better. Thank you Sara for all you do!

A Season Comes to an End

Just wanted to give you an update on our softball and baseball seasons. It was a fun and tiring season. It seemed that this season my kids schedules were always the opposite so I ended up being at the fields almost everyday of the week. Plus a few nights having to travel to Lauren's games, which made us not get home until 8:30 on a school night. Lauren's team ended the season with a fight to the finish. It was a very exciting game to watch. Throughout the season I saw Lauren hit many triples, doubles, one homerun and even a few double plays. Alex's team did an awesome job, I think his team only lost 3 games. He has really improved as a player this season. I am so proud of him. Now begins our next sporting activity which is basektball. Let us all hope and pray with me, that their practices will be on the same night!

Halloween

This year we waited until the last minute to carve our pumpkins...Halloween evening. It turned out to be a great family night. We started carving our pumpkins as soon as we got home from school. Just a side note, Alex designed his pumpkin and I had to cut it out where he made the marks. I did not put the mouth on crooked on purpose. :) David did Lauren's pumpkin which was a bat, clearly the winner. Next, we all sat down and ate some hamburgers while we watched a few Goosebump shows. That really got the kids in the mood for trick or treat. The kids decided to be boxers this year. They will be playing with these outfits all year. Then David took the kids off around the neighborhood with Darrelle, Stephen, and Sydney. They soon found out that for some reason, not too many people this year had their light on. I stayed at our house to pass out candy but I bet I only had 20 some kids. I thought we would be bomb-barded with kids since it was on a Friday night, but I guess everyone was having parties or they went out of town for the 4 day weekend. After trick or treat, we headed over to Darrelle's for some drinks and munchies. It was a great night!

Buster and Alex

Two weeks ago, Alex got selected to bring home his class stuffed dog named Buster. We started out entertaining him by feeding him some Hungry Howie's pizza. Then on Saturday we took him to Alex's baseball game where he sat with me and cheered Alex on. I have a bear in my classroom that the children take home. This is my first experience doing this with my own child's class. I think it is so neat to see what others have written in the notebook about their experience.

It's a Miracle!!

Oct. 24

Today something amazing happened....I bought my daughter a shirt from the GIRLS section!!! We were at the mall this evening looking for boy swishy pants and something to wear to my sister's upcoming wedding. After 3 stores, she saw a pretty brown shirt and SMILED! I couldn't believe it. There is usually some sort of stomping the feet, saying the word no a million times, or crying in the girls section but today she actually liked the shirt. Now I know this is not a big deal to many of you, but I am over joyed. Stayed tuned for pictures of the shirt in the weeks to come!

Hot Glue Rules

Oct. 17

Words cannot express how much I love my hot glue gun. I hang up almost everything in my classroom with it and the stuff never falls off the walls. Today, my trusty hot glue gun saved my daughter from having an anxiety attack at school. At 8:15 this morning, Lauren informed me that she has a rip in her pants. Keep in mind we had already been in school for 30 minutes!! Unfortunately, the rip was in the "crotch area." Freaking out, and wishing she had told me this sooner, I went searching the hallways for someone with a mini sewing kit in their purse. (Now, I am terrble at sewing, I just knew my awesome assistant might help me when she arrived in a few minutes.) Then it was off to the nurse's office to find a pair of extra pants. I did find one pair in her size, but they were boys. Although, as you all know, she didn't mind that, but they were too big. It was then that I remembered my trusty glue gun. Amazingly, her pants stayed together all day and no one knew the better. Maybe someday I will learn how to sew, but in the meantime, hot glue is the way to go!

Fun at Cracker Barrel

Sept. 30

Today the kids had a big treat....they got to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel with Grandma, Grandpa and their good friend Braiden. The kids had a great time playing checkers and the table games. We even got Braiden to try a bite of our pancakes. After breakfast the kids got to burn off some energy at the park.
We had a great time this weekend spending time with grandma and grandpa, and Aunt Dawn. We started off the weekend with tacos and margaritas and a few games of chess. The rest of the weekend was full with baseball games, shopping, and more games of chess. We wish they lived closer so we could spend more time with them. See you again soon!

Murillo Imagination

I have been telling people for years my children have a crazy sense of imagination. It seems that whenever they watch a movie or a tv show, they have to then be that show. Last Sunday, we watched one of my favorite movies..The Goonies. A few hours later when I went upstairs, I found this wishing fountain in the hallway. They apparently loved the scene when the kids were in the wishing well, they created their own. I have since moved the well into the bathroom in case of a spill. So, if you need a wish to come true, you know where to find a well.

Happy Birthday to Me!

September 21

I just want to thank everyone who made my birthday weekend so special. I have such great friends and family. I feel so blessed. Thanks to my "peeps" who danced the night away with me! My children have also made me a cake which we will enjoy today. They know how much their mom has to have birthday cake on her birthday. Love you guys!

School Project

Sept. 14

There's nothing like a school project to bring a family together, well at least the mom and the child who has the project. Yesterday Alex and I completed his first school project which consisted of him interviewing me. He had to find out what first grade was like for me. Helping him with this project brought back so many memories for me. I dug out a few pictures which one was of me when I used to be a baton twirler. What an outfit, but oh how I loved those boots, they would click as I walked. As you can hear by the song, I fondly remember the afternoons of watching Schoolhouse Rock and The Electric Company. The best part about this project, was reconnecting with an old school friend. I explored my old elementary school website and discovered my kindergaten teacher is still teaching! Also, one of her co-workers, is one of my old friend's mom! I emailed her the other day and told her we are now both kindergarten teachers. I am going to keep in touch with her this year and hope that our classes become penpals. I can't wait to discover what the next school project will bring.

Happy Anniversary!

Sept. 13

Just wanted everyone to know that on Saturday, my parents will be married 39 years! I am so happy for them. We can't wait to take them out to celebrate in a few weeks. Cheers!

Addicted to Frisbee

My children are obsessed lately with playing frisbee. They keep saying they have a "new talent." I am just glad it keeps them active. Now, if only they could find the talent of picking up after themselves without being told....life would be grand.

We Need Gas

We are under a state of emergency in our house today....we have no gas! Unfortunately, we may not have gas until Tuesday! Now as most of you know, I am sort of a girly girl. I must take a hot shower, curl my hair, and wear make-up everyday. This puts a wrench into my routine. I just gave my children a very cold stand up bath, and it was not pretty. 7,000 homes in our area will be without gas for several days. We are trying to make the best of it though and be positive. At least we still have electricity and water. Thank goodness you don't need gas to have a nice "cold beverage."

First Day of School

We had our first day of school today. It is hard to believe we have a third grader and a first grader already. Lauren's teacher is named Mrs. Weed. She is very nice and is expecting her first child in January. Lauren was all smiles when she walked into my classroom after school. Alex also had a great day. His teacher is named Mrs. Wallace. I heard he had no problem telling the class about his life and what he likes, go figure. :) I also had a good group of kids on this first day of staggered entry. I can't wait to see who will end of in my class.