Family Birthday

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Friday was my Aunt Cece's birthday. She turned 65. We hosted a family pizza night at our house to celebrate. My cousin and her kids came from New Mexico, my aunt and uncle and their 2 great grandchildren, and dad and Carla all joined us for the celebration. We had a great time.

Jump Rope for Heart -Rachel

Rachel did her Jump Rope for Heart last Friday. I ended up substituting Friday also. I am glad that I was still able to watch her jump. She did a great job and had tons of fun. 3rd graders jump way longer than Kindergarteners. They jumped for an hour and rotated jumpers in groups of 5 or 6.

Jump Rope For Heart- Hayden

Hayden has been preparing for Jump Rope for Heart now for weeks. They get the kids all excited about the big event. Local businesses even donate money to be used toward door prizes for the kids that raise money. Hayden was so excited. He kept telling me that he could only jump backwards. I wasn't sure he could jump at all, honestly. I went to watch him today. He was so funny. He could only jump backwards. He didn't just swing it and then step over; he jumped faster backwards than some kids did frontwards. It was so fun to watch him. I had to post this video. Rachel will have her big day on Friday. I'll update with her pictures then.

Waiting for his turn

Look at the excitement...

the concentration!

Hayden lost his first tooth!

It has been loose for months it seems, but yesterday, he wiggled it all day at school. After school, it was still hanging in there, so he asked if he could have an apple. One bite was all it took. He wiggled a little more and then wanted me to pull it. He was so excited! He has been making funny noises with his new gap and driving his sisters crazy.

Hayden International Airport

Hayden was so excited when Rachel made her Valentine box. He asked if he could make an airport. I told him that if his class made their own boxes at home, that we could try to make an airport. Well, all it takes is a goldfish box, so foam core board and a little imagination! Here is Hayden International Airport. He is so excited to take this to school. I hope his airplanes don't get pulled off. We hot glued them down, but you never know.

UIL Choir Competition

Kate went to UIL Choir Competition last weekend. She performed a solo and got a 1. That is the best you can get. She did a great job and got a medal! She is so excited and we are so proud of her.

Easter?

Sarah thought it would be fun to have an Easter egg hunt this morning. It is supposed to be 74 degrees today. It is probably nicer today than it will be on Easter. So, why not have an Easter egg hunt? Rachel and Hayden and our neighbor Abby thought it was so fun. They are on their 3rd hunt now. The eggs, well, they're empty; except for the two big eggs and they have candy. As Sarah was hiding the eggs, the neighborhood boys came over and asked what she was doing. She told them she was having an Easter egg hunt. They immediately started picking up the eggs around them and were shaking them to see if they had candy. Luckily, there was no candy in their eggs and Sarah told them she was just kidding and that there was no candy. They left. They did not think that hunting empty eggs was near as fun as a 'real' Easter egg hunt. I love that my kids play outside and use their imagination and have fun together.

Rachel's Farm

Rachel's class gets to make their own Valentine's box. They are having a contest and it can be a family project. You know that is right up my alley. We talked about some different things she could do and thought about the school locker in the 'Family Fun' magazine. She wanted to try to make a dog, but I wasn't sure we could pull that off. We decided to do a barn. Rachel was so excited to choose the paper and stickers and put it all together. We worked on it for a few hours and got it finished Sunday night. She was so excited about this barn. The best part for her is she can bring it home and play with it when she's done.

Saturday on the square

I love Rachel's funny 'cowgirl' hat.

Sarah's fancy hat.

another try

They had so much fun!

The courthouse is undergoing renovations. I thought it would be fun to scrapbook later.

Saturday, I took Sarah and Rachel to lunch. (Kate was at a UIL competition.) After lunch, we stopped by at this little shop called Vintage Funk. They had some really great old hats, so we decided to try them on. Sarah thought they were so cool. I tried to get a picture of all three of us, but apparently, I need longer arms. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share. I'll tell you more about UIL later.

By the way, John and I are on facebook. If you are on, look us up. It has been fun to reconnect with friends we'd lost touch with. I still like doing the blog to tell about what we are doing, so I won't stop that. Just thought I'd let you know that we are on facebook.

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!

Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

The Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

Hayden wants "this" one.

Rachel combs the wool.

Sarah weaves a rug.

Hayden goes for a ride.

We are enjoying our second week out of school for Christmas break, so today, after breakfast, I told the kids they were going to have a surprise. I took them to the museum. They love going to the museum, whether it's the Smithsonian or the PPHM. They were very excited. They learned a lot about the Texas Panhandle and enjoyed looking at all the exhibits. We all especially enjoyed the Santa Fe Collection. They have a huge collection of tapestries on display. They even had tables set up with instructions for kids on weaving. Sarah wanted to stay there and weave a rug until she found out you couldn't take it with you.

We watched videos on how to skin a buffalo, how to plant cotton and the oil boom. It was very interesting. Especially the buffalo video. Sarah was the only one that could stomach it. Then, she came and told me how the pulled the stomach out and washed it in the river... Yuck!

We had a fun time and will go back again soon.

Celebrating Christmas

Merry Christmas from Lubbock, Texas

It has been wonderful to be so close to family. Our kids have asked, "how many Christmases are we going to have?". We had my dad come visit and then my entire side of the family came to our house last Sunday. Tuesday, we left for Lubbock and are spending Christmas with John's family. I will share more pictures later, but just wanted to give you an idea of what we do in Texas to celebrate Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve service and then had a very busy Christmas morning with 8 kids, 8 adults and 3 dogs. We had a fabulous traditional ham dinner and for dessert, the family went to shoot guns. Well, that's what we do here. We shoot things. I did learn to shoot a gun when I was about 10. I didn't go on this adventure, but probably will next time. So, that's how we celebrated Christmas here in Lubbock, Texas!