Crafting some furniture for inside her castle.

Windows with a view.

Just a shell of a castle.

Sarah's personal painter.

Dropping off her completed project at school

Sarah has been learning about Medieval Times at school. She had to do a project and chose to do a castle. This was a huge project. We decided to make it out of cardboard. We had plenty of that and it was FREE! We were trying to keep it low cost. Sarah had some great ideas for making her castle. She had a lot of fun making all the furnishings. She made a bed, windows, stove, dining table, chairs and even some food. This project became a family affair. Kate made a fountain for the courtyard, John did the painting, Hayden donated his men and I helped do a lot of cutting and taping. Sarah turned her project in today after school and she has to do her presentation tomorrow. I'll let you know how she does, but I wanted to get these pictures up while I had a chance.

Hayden's Homework

Hayden is bringing home books from school to read. We are supposed to have him read them over and over until he is comfortable and help him sound out all the words that he does not know. Last night, he read it for the first time. He didn't need any help and was so excited! He has read other books, but this was his first homework.

Pet Rocks

The craft room was in the middle of organizing my scrapbooking stuff, so they had to work in the dining room. Craftiness is not limited to the craft room at our house.

If I were President...by Rachel Fruge'

"I will help the poor and go to New York. I will give presents to people and free cats and dogs. I will stop drugs and bad food. I will make another sonic in Canyon and make it a walk in one. I will make a petting zoo and 50 schools will get the petting zoo to come to their school."

So, what would you do if you were President?

Substitute Initiation?

So, most of you know that I have been substituting. Well, Monday, I subbed in 4th grade and Tuesday, I was called for a Kindergarten class. Tuesday, it was really windy, so the kids could not go out for recess. I got a call from another Kindergarten teacher asking if we wanted to get all the kids together to watch a movie. Then, she asked if I would mind watching them all myself. What? The entire Kindergarten would not fit in my room. No, she meant just two other classes. "I think that should be fine", I said. Was I crazy? I snapped this picture to give you an idea of what 60 something Kindergartners look like watching "Tarzan". They were great. I really didn't have any problems. One girl in the front row had never seen the movie and I had fun watching her reaction.

I have been enjoying the flexibility of substituting and the extra money. It is funny to see how different these kids are than my own children. I had a girl on Tuesday go to the locker to get her jacket and as she walked back in to the class, she yelled, "MOVE" to another girl in her way. I made her go back outside and try it again. This time, nicely. She told me she didn't know how. I suggested that she say excuse me, or even will you please let me in. She stood there with her eyes to the ground in the grumpiest voice ever and said, "excuse me Abby, will you please move?". I told her that I didn't like to be yelled at and I didn't think that Abby did either. It makes me wonder what type of parents some of these kids have.

I have taught K-4th and have not ventured to the Jr. High. It keeps me on my toes. I don't know how some moms work full time. I come home and feel like I can't get everything done, so I play catch up on my free days. At least I have free days.

Weekend Warriors?

This weekend was a long one for John. He had a four day weekend to celebrate the New Year. Thursday, John and my dad put in a new garage door opener. We had one that was installed when the house was built and it was not safe. It did not have the sensors on it and we have burned two belts on it from getting things stuck under the door. It was time for a change. What we thought would be a couple of hours turned into an all day project. Thankfully, the weather was nice and they were able to get it done. We are learning that most things take longer and cost more than you think when it comes to home ownership. Anyway, getting the new garage door opener installed inspired me to clean out the garage so we could get our cars inside before it snows. Well, we don't know that it's going to snow, but it could. We did it! In just a few short hours yesterday, we moved our Christmas stuff to our attic and cleaned out the garage. We were able to get both cars into the garage. Did it snow? No, but yesterday it was almost 70 and today, the high was 34. We stayed inside where it was warm today and made chocolate covered pretzels. Hayden was my sprinkler. We all enjoyed a nice treat!