November family photo... 1 of 7,000

Too tired to blog more.  But, here is one family photo from November already...  I have many more to share later on...  Good Night!

other first grade papers

Since the kids are almost 7!  I thought I'd share some more of what 7 year olds in first grade do during the day.

I love his leaves!  And his straight to the point literary style.

Sorry, Canadians.  The geese only flee New York when migrating.

Favorite foods.  C'mon - who doesn't love white, cold, sweet stuff???

Yes, my daughter has such high tastes.  Slice up some hot dogs. Break spaghetti in half.  Stick 6-7 pieces of spaghetti through the hot dog discs and boil for 8 minutes.  Viola! Gretchen's favorite food!

How well do you know your spiders? Yup, those are indeed black widows.  I believe they have some blue flies for a snack.

Big difference when they do not supply guidelines for his handwriting, eh?  Try to remember, this boy goes to OT for small motor issues such as handwriting.  So, for him, he must work harder than the other kids to achieve this.  I love that Ms. T-J always writes a positive comment on his paper.  I know that she knows how much work he puts in.

box tops for education

You've seen these little emblems on products.  Do you clip them?  Even if you don't have kids, you really should take just a few seconds of time to clip and collect them.  Bring them to your local elementary school and donate them... or mail them to us.  We'll gladly bring them to school.  (The classes have a friendly competition for which class can collect the most).  They give schools 10 cents a piece for these little babies.  Our school collected thousands of (free) dollars last year thanks to parents diligent clipping.

karma

I am the kids' room mother along with one other mom.  She has boy/girl twins, too.  We divided up some of the responsibilities for correspondence early in the year.  I took the Fall Festival and she took the Volunteer Classroom positions.  No problem, right?  No problem, if our other class parents would step up.  I do not mean to really talk ill of them, but very few parents helped contribute to our festival fund raiser.  Each class fills a basket to be raffled off.  My CFCNY people know all about putting together awesome baskets.  Well, you guys would be proud of the PTA's fundraiser.  These baskets are filled with amazing things like video game consoles and games, local museum memberships, meals and other freebies, camping gear, local college sporting team packages with tickets, grills, food, and other tailgating gear (we are in Tar Heel Country as well as Pirate Country for those who follow college sports.), there was a fire pit with tons of s'mores makings, one basket was totally chocolate - tons of chocolate items, a fall decorating one, bicycles and one class does a Money Tree.  I mean hundreds of dollars as a prize.  Last year was $500!  This year was only $200 on that tree, so maybe they had trouble getting families to help this year as well.  Our class theme was Arts & Crafts.  The teacher donated a lot of stuff for us and we ended up putting together a pretty cool basket of art supplies and kits.  (I have to roll my eyes at 2 workers at the local craft store... when I asked for those looms and loops to weave pot holders, neither one knew what I was talking about.. and they were older than me, they should have known.  Both said they didn't have them.  So, I went to Hobby Lobby instead and found them... only to later be back at the first store and found a huge display of them!  Oh well.  I spent my money across town.)

Here's our basket...

We also had to run a game booth all night.  I sent out several emails and even one paper mailing asking for 2 parents to volunteer for each 30 minute time slot so that we could share the booth and give everyone a chance to have fun at the carnival with their kids, too.  Not one single parent offered to help me.  A few emailed and said they couldn't help because they would be at the festival with their kids.  Thankfully, the lady coordinating the games secured me a college frat member and he took over the Twister game for the evening which gave me some time to have fun with Frick & Frack.

We couldn't stay to the end to hear the raffle basket winners because the kids had a baseball game from 8:00 to 10:00 that night.  Earlier that day, Lew read to the class, then we both stayed for lunch with the kids. Then, I just hung out at school because it wasn't worth going home before I needed to be back to set up for the festival.  Lew & Carl were supposed to go camping with the Boy Scouts, but because of the festival and baseball, they couldn't go on Friday evening.  Lots of other kids were involved in the fall festival.  Anther school had theirs that evening, too.  Then, Saturday morning - after being up until 10:30 playing baseball, we hit a couple garage sales in our neighborhood.  It was the big neighborhood sale and one of my friends told me she had some camping gear.  Well, we got 2 sleeping bags, a tent, binoculars, a new baseball glove for Gretchen, 2 lawn chairs, a toy, a hat, a few other camping containers... all for a total of $10!!!.   Following that, the kids had their final bowling league day.  It was bowling and an awards ceremony.  They each received a trophy and a certificate.  That ended at noon - and then Carl & Lew took off for camp... about 2 hours away.  They arrived in time for an afternoon scavenger hunt, cook out and some of the campfire.  Then, rather than stay over, they drove home!  2 nights of being up until 10:30.  (While the boys were gone, Gretchen and I picked up some dessert for Sunday's meal out and enjoyed ourselves for dinner at IHOP.)    Then, Sunday morning, at 11:00, they had baseball practice!!!  That evening, we went to Lindy's for supper, too!  Somehow we survived that weekend!

Anyway.... back up to the part where I said we couldn't stay to hear the raffle winners.....  when we got home, I had a message on my answering machine that I had won the girls' bike and helmet!!!  Awesome!!!!  So, I figure that was a little karma after all the stress and effort I put into the event.  (Carl informed Gretchen that she was not tall enough for this bike and he could ride it until she was tall enough.  He forgets that would mean he must learn to ride without training wheels.  He won't have any part of that.)

So, remind me next year not to sign up for room mother.  Oh - by the way, the other mom has gotten not one single volunteer for her classroom volunteers either.  Not all teachers allow parents to have these volunteer roles in their classrooms.  I wish some parents would take advantage of the opportunity.  I can continue to volunteer with the room and PTA,but I don't think I want the stress and disappointment of being room mother again.  Oh cripes, you know by next August I will forget all about this and sign up again.

the kids voted at school

On November 1st, the kids voted at school.  I do not know the results of their election, but I know my two voted properly.

Here are the papers they did that day at school.  As you can see, Gretchen will be having Carl for her VP.  Carl is choosing his buddy Jack.  Although, it does look like Gretchen was in the running - she just seems to be the one who got erased!

If you cannot read them:
Gretchen will live in the White House with her 2 daughters Emily and Sunshine.  They will have a cat for a pet.  She will help people  "by macking shur people are safe."

Carl is going to live in the White House with Jack.  He will have a puppy as a pet.  (I love his dog drawing - look closely to see the cute face).  He will help people "be safe in their cities."

banners at the arboretum

A while ago, the kids participated in an art class at the children's museum that was run by an artist affiliated with our arboretum.  The purpose of the class was for the children to decorate cloth banners with painted nature items that were picked from the arboretum.  She was fairly specific in how she wanted them created, which doesn't always sit well with me, but this was her gig... and her banners... so, I helped Carl create what she wanted.  Of course, by doing that, it meant Gretchen was on her own to work.  Yes, the women all agreed the silhouette on "Carl's" banner was the best outlined one, but honestly, it should have been since a 40something year old crafty lady made it.  You really can't compare that to the one the 6 and 7 year olds made.  And, let's face it... the ones the other kids made were more beautiful!  What saddened me most about "Carl's" was that he just wanted to paint the yellow house.  The arboretum has a wooden yellow playhouse in the Children's Garden.  It is and always has been Carl's favorite place.  But, the woman running the show did not want anything that was not natural to be painted. So, no amount of convincing was going to get her to allow Carl to create an abstract Yellow House on his banner.  whatever.

Then, we went to the arboretum the day the banners were to be displayed.  The local parenting magazine said "free".  Yeah, they were wrong.  It was supposed to be $5 a person to get in as this was a fundraiser.  Well, I did not have my purse, nor did I want to spend $15 to walk over to a crowded place that we can go to when it is empty and free any day of the week. (other than the 1 fundraising day)  But, I did manage to sweet talk her into letting us in to see the kids' artwork.

 Carl's banner.  They didn't even want the kids to write their names on them.  Someone handed me the sharpie marker and said to put his name on there.  I handed the pen to Carl and she was clammering, "Make sure it isn't too big....."  well.... gee, I think he did fine signing his work, don't you?  Normally, the children's museum is very age appropriate and they encourage the children's creativity.  Just that this one project was run by someone else.

 Gretchen's banner... I love how the colors blended on her wet cloth.  She really sprayed it a lot more than they wanted her to.  Oh well.

It was hard convincing Carl we couldn't stay, but I promised to go back later in the week.  A couple days later, we headed over right from school.  They had a snack, did their homework and played for a couple hours.  While they played, I was going to sit in an Adirondack chair and be crafty.  Well, there was a torti cat running around.  I have never seen a cat there before.  Anyway, I sat down and this cat made a beeline for me.  She jumped up on my lap, turned around and settled down for a nap.  She kneaded my arm and fell asleep... for 90 minutes!  The kids were playing happily, so I didn't move her.  I had a cup of tea with me, so I was happy.  She was happy.  Gretchen & Carl were happy.  Happy day at the arboretum.  sigh

photo Friday... flashback costume edition

2006 - they were 11 months old.  Carl could stand a little bit.  Neither was walking.

 2007 - almost 2.  Nice and warm out for Trick or Treating to 1 house!

 2008 - Grammie made them scrubs.  They did a little Trick or Treating on the street.  It was a little cooler this year.

 2009 - Party Animals... again.   I remember Carl coming home sweating.  I'm not even sure if they wore the pants to these costumes for the actual trick or treating.  Another hot Halloween.

2010 - Woody & Jessie from Toy Story movies.  We brought their costumes to Disney and the characters loved them!  (so did some other moms who asked where I got such a good Jessie costume!)

 2011 - characters from Disney's cartoon, Phineas & Ferb.  Here is Carl as Agent P, the secret agent that Perry the pet Platypus turns into to fight his evil nemesis, Dr Doofenschmirtz.  Lew dressed as him!  They trick or treated in the neighborhood as well as wore their costumes to the children's museum's party event.

Gretchen is Vanessa Doofenschmirtz, the teen-aged daughter of Dr Doof and the girl that Ferb has a crush on.  Boy, did he love her in Disney!  We brought these costumes along for pictures there, too.