Yesterday was an Awesome First Day of School!!

The kids started school yesterday and everyone came home happy!!

 

What more could a Mom ask for?

 

 

Ezie is now in 8th grade and Mallory is in 7th

 

 

 

Jace is in 1st grade

 

 

 

Glad you guys had a great first day!!!

Jace's First Science Fair

Jace had his first Science Fair at his school last night.  He's only in kindergarten and we are new to his school this year so we weren't quite sure what to expect, but I think we did pretty good!  Earl took the night off to help out and Ezie and Mallory came along too. 

It was a really fun family night!

One of Jace's experiments was Reactive Art.

We filled a large cookie sheet with baking soda and then had cups of

different colored vinegar so the kids could put spoonfuls of the vinegar

on the baking soda and watch it fizz.

Here's Jace explaining his experiment to someone as Ezie and Mallory are watching him.

It doesn't show up to well in my picture, but it was pretty cool with all the colors as the kids put spoonfuls of vinegar onto the baking soda.

 Jace with his certificate.

We also did the rubber egg experiment and only had 2 kids squeeze the egg

to hard and break them open.

Jace also did the homemade Quacker Caller.  On this one you just get a straw and cut a triangle on the top of the straw, flatten it out really good and blow hard. 

A duck sound should come out of the straw.

Thanks Jace for a fun night!

Family Time at Jace's School

Yesterday we went to Jace's classroom for 15 minutes of Family Time.

The kids asked questions and we showed them

pictures of our family.

Mallory and I made this mitten garland as a gift for the class.

the pictures aren't to whoopy but there are mittens,

 beads, felt circles and snowballs that spell out winter.

We also made some mini pumpkin muffins for the class,

but they had to wait until snack time to eat them :(

Mallory and Ezie were counting on having one!

Oh well, I made some for them for after school :)

Thanks Jace for bringing us to school to share things about our family!

No More Babies at Home :(

Jace has slept with me and Earl since he was born. 

The last 2 nights though he has decided to sleep in his own room. 

 It was nice to have the extra room in bed,

 but I sure did miss snuggling up next to him.

Remember Mom, he's a big boy now. 

Jace woke up and immediately got dressed. 

 He brushed his teeth and came down ready to go to school. 

We got Ezie and Mallory off and then the wait began.

An hour and 10 minutes of waiting

...........

and waiting

...........

and waiting

Finally,

it's time to go sit on the porch and wait for the bus.

 and wait

.........

and wait

.........

but with a big smile on his face.

and then my baby was gone.

Hardly even a "bye mom"

gone just like that.



Jace should be home in 30 minutes

and we're all so excited to get him off the bus

and see how his first full day of school was.

I hope it was magical

but,

I bet I have a tired little guy tonight!

I sure did miss my Jace today!

The First Day of School for My Kiddo's

Today was the kids first day of school.  Ezie is in 7th grade,

Mallory started middle school and is in 6th grade

 and my baby, Jace started Kindergarten.

The annual shoes first day of school new shoes pic.

I am very proud of my kids because they settle for very inexpensive shoes this year

and Jace was content with a pair of new to me shoes.
(Thanks Levi & Leo!)

 Since Earl had lost his job the money just wasn't there for name brand shoes

and the kids did great about not complaining.

Thanks guys!!



Daddy getting Ezie and Mallory on the bus.

and finally Daddy and Jace walking into school.

Jace only had a 30 minute orientation today

and he can't wait until tomorrow

when he has a full day and gets to eat lunch at school and ride the bus.



The kids all had a great day!

Tomorrow will be my first day without having anyone at home :(

Jace told me not to worry that our dog Charlie

would be home to take care of me and snuggle with me at nap time

oh, and he also told me that I could play his computer games.



It's the First Day of School

Ezie and Mallory started school today.

Ezie is in 6th grade and starting Middle School......

lockers, changing classes, lot's of new kids, new school......

Mallory is going into 5th grade

and this is the first year she is in a school without Ezie.

She is very excited to be back in school though!

Jace is home for another year much to his dismay.

He does although go to his pretend "Little Kid's School"

and Miss Murray from the tv show Little Bill is his teacher.

Earl's hours change back to 10-7.

It was nice getting up with him and making him breakfast this morning,

but I hate him getting home after 7:00

and then having to still go to his other job.

Oh well, that's life.

I hope they all have a really great day!

Jace and I will be anxiously waiting for them to get home

and tell us all about their new year.

Melinda's Quilt Give Away, Granny's Quilt and My Kids

My friend Melinda from Melinda's Fabric Fancies is giving away this awesome quilt for her 250th post. I can't believe she's giving away a quilt!! Melinda is amazing and so is her work so (even though I don't want to many people to sign up because I want to win!) go to Melinda's blog and see her work and you'll agree she is amazing. Someone is going to be a very happy and warm person this winter!



Next I have to share with you this wonderful quilt I bought from my friend Val's Granny. I met Val through a swap and I look forward to her posts on her Granny every week. Granny is 96 years old and she makes a quilt every week. They are machine quilted and get this, she only uses 3 pins at the most to hold the quilt in place while she is quilting it. That amazes me! I am a pin and stitch witchery freak when I machine quilt something. Anyway, I received the quilt from Val on Tuesday and Jace immediately claimed it. He threw the quilt off of him that he had on and said, "Oh, that's for me!". The quilt is going to stay on the couch because everyone wants to use "Granny's Quilt". Ezie wants me to buy one for him and I probably should buy one for myself since Jace has laid claim to this one!

PLEASE excuse my couch!!! The slipcovers are in the wash.

This is a big quilt too! Thanks so much Val and Granny! I will treasure this quilt forever!!


Lexie on her first day of college. Whoo-Hoo!

I'm so proud of my daughter!! She's going to a 2 year program to become a Medical Assistant.


The there's Jace. Yesterday he got his backpack ready and Ezie packed him a snack in a old lunch box and he was on his way to the bus stop to go to school. He was so serious and so cute!

He wasn't even upset when he didn't get to get on the bus......because him and his Dad raced back to the house and he came in and opened up his backpack and had his snack.

Jace loves this one show, Yo-Gabba-Gabba. I knew when it came on last year that he was going to like it and even though I am used to watching kids shows and don't mind them, this show was one I was hoping he wouldn't like......but, he loves it and I've grown used to it. Click on the link though and check this guy out that hosts the show. Anyway on Yo-Gabba-Gabba they have a kid show his special talent. The special talent can be anything....like putting a spoon on your nose. Jace has decided that stacking the containers of Play-doh is his special talent. He spends a lot of time rearranging and restacking these containers. Every time he does this we have to clap for him and tell him how great his special talent is. It is pretty special and so is Jace!

The First Day of School

Today is Ezie and Mal's first day of school. They were so excited last night that neither one got to sleep until after 11:00. They are probably going to be running on adrenalin today. I remember those first days of school and the excitement of having new school supplies and clothes......and a million butterflies in my stomache. Jace isn't to happy about being left behind. I'm not babysitting this year so it's just me and Jace.

The Shoes. We had to get a picture of the shoes. Nikes and plaid.....what more could a kid ask for?!?! Mallory LOVES plaid and was so excited when we found this pair of shoes at Wal-mart. Of course we have the barefoot look on Jace.....who is like is mom and doesn't like to wear shoes.

I hope this is going to be a good school year!

I'm Laboring Today!

I'm going to be busy sewing today. I have a swap due tomorrow and I have a lot of sewing to do before I'll be ready for it. I am trying out a new idea and so keep your fingers crossed that it turns out for me!!

Earl has to work part of the day today. The poor guy never gets a day off :( . He is going to make a picnic type dinner for us later on though. Tomorrow his hours at his main job switch back to school year hours so he'll be working 10-7 instead of 8-5. I hate him getting home so late, but it is nice that he gets to put the kids on the bus in the mornings and spend morning time with us. I guess you can't have everything.

School starts tomorrow for my kids so today we have to get the backpacks packed and clothes all ready. The kids are excited to start! Jace is going to be lonely with the kids gone and I'm not babysitting this year so it will just be me and Jace all day.

So that's whats going on here at my house today. I hope everyone has a great holiday today!

My, I Mean the Kids, School Projects

Did anyone watch the new show Surviving Suburbia with Bob Saget regarding school projects and parental involvement? The new school that the kids started does lots of projects. I like doing projects with the kids, but being new to this school I didn't know how "involved" the parents got. Mallory's Egypt night I failed at. I didn't get involved enough. Oh well, she had fun and it was enjoyable. I do need to teach my kids though NOT be like their mom and be the "Queen of the Last Minute" (thanks Mom, I love it!!!)

This is a picture of Ezie's cereal box that he has had 2 weeks to do and we just started on last night. Of course it was due today. Guess who did most of the work??? Ezie had some ideas, but I discovered as I'm trying to "help" him with his project that he really didn't comprehend a lot of the book he read. He was suppose to read Mr. Popper's Penguin's. I looked the book up on Wikipedia to get the jest of the story and found out that he didn't even have his facts straight. So guess who got frustrated and did most of the project???

This is the front of the cereal box. Ezie helped pick out the images, colored them and then I did the assembling.

The kids had to put a game on the back of the box and I found a dot-to-dot, a maize and then we made a crossword puzzle up with questions from the book. The crossword puzzle was fun to make up. You put in a word you want to be on the puzzle and give the hint and after you've entered as many words as you want the computer makes up the puzzle for you. The sides of the box have a short report and the other side has for the "ingredients" a list of the characters in the book and a sentence describing them. I love the idea that his teacher, Miss Tiley, came up with! It was a fun project, but we should have started sooner! I'll never learn!!

Miss Mallory's class studied Egypt for a couple of months. Mallory started school in the middle of the unit so she didn't get to do everything. The kids had reports, maps, buildings, science projects, drawings, paper mache projects, mummified stuffed animals, costumes, food and music for all of the parents the other night. It was really neat!

Here is my little Egyptian girl

This is the Nile River. The teachers put this paper up on the ceiling throughout 2 entire hallways. It was really a neat idea!

This is the mud house that Mallory and I made. Poor people lived in these in ancient Egyptian times. Another last minute project that we had tons of time to work on.

Here is Mallory again with some of the displays.

So as you can kind of see I've been super busy this week being a 3rd and 4th grade student.......I mean Mom. It was a lot of fun learning with the kids and helping them with their projects. Next week Mallory has to demonstrate the use of a simple machine. She is going to make instant pudding for her class with a hand beater. Not to much work for me on this one. Whew!! I have my own project due tomorrow. I'm hosting a baby shower and I am not even close to being ready.......so I'd better get off of here and get my self in gear!

Have a great day!

A Beautiful Day and a Carnival

Yesterday Earl and I took the kids to their school carnival. It was fun and so nice to get out of the house for a little bit!! I got to meet Mallory's teacher and the Principal. The school is smaller than the last one they went to. Everyone seemed really nice though and the kids already had friends calling out their names and wanting them to go hang out with them.

Jace enjoyed the cotton candy!

Ezie enjoyed the food and Mallory was so happy that Lexie came.

Earl is a big kid at heart and loves carnival type things!

He loves to buy hot dogs and popcorn and spoil the kids whenever they have an event like this. It was fun! Afterwards, Lexie and Jake took Mallory and Jace out for the day. Ezie had a friend over to spend the night and I worked on things for my Etsy shop and then crocheted.

All in all it was a wonderful day!

Ezie Starts School and My American Idol Thoughts

Ezie started back to regular school today. He is so different than Mallory. Mallory was super excited and a little scared while Ezie was super scared, but excited too. The kids only had a 1/2 day today and Ezie can't wait to go back tomorrow for a full day. He made new friends and loves his new teacher and the school. He is really happy that he decided to go back to public schools. Yay! I'm so proud of both of them and Jace survived a morning without his best buddy Ezie around.

I have thought since American Idol started this season that Adam Lambert probably has one of the best voices out of the contestants. I am really not into Adam's hair at all. I don't mind the fingernail polish, but some of his clothes and his hair style are just not my cup of tea....... but to each his own. Last week his version of Rings of Fire was......well.....different....to say the least. I kinda liked it though, but I was surprised that he made it through and Alexis didn't with the version he sang. Then last night's performance was entirely different!!!! Not only did all of the judges love Adam's performance (even Simon), but can you image having Smokey Robinson give you a standing ovation?!?!? Wow, Adam must have been in heaven with that one! What an honor!! Great job Adam and the hair brushed the opposite direction is kind of a nice look!

Hiding Behind Your Little Sister

Mallory had a fantastic day at school yesterday and couldn't wait to go back today. She already made some new friends and talked all night long about how neat the teachers, kids and the school were. Ezie said maybe he would start back in September and the more Mallory talked the more you could see him getting excited. He wanted to know if people made fun of her or made her feel uncomfortable for being "the new kid". She said, "No, everyone was nice". So Ezie decided, now that Mallory has gone and survived, he wants to go back to school ASAP. He probably won't be able to start until Monday because the registrar is out today and Friday there is no school because of teachers meetings. He can't wait to meet some new kids. Jace will be lost with the kids gone all day and I will miss them a lot too, but I'm proud of their decision and the reasons they decided to go back.

On another note, my 19 month old grandson, Anthony got really sick the other night with croup. None of my kids every got croup and I can't believe how quick Anthony got sick and how sick he is. He has been running a 103 degree temp for the last 36 hours and he sounds terrible. They took him to the ER the first night and they rushed him back and gave him a shot of steroid's to help with his breathing. They ended up having to stay in the ER for 6 more hours to make sure he was breathing okay. He still doesn't feel good though. Poor baby!! Does anyone know anything about croup? How long does it last? Is it contagious? I can't believe none of my kids every had, but I'm glad they didn't!

Have a beautiful spring day!!
Sherry

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mallory decided to go back to school and today is her first day. Her first day is on St. Patrick's Day and the name of the school is Green Meadow. It doesn't take much to humor me!! Anyway, she is so excited to go back to school and make some new friends. She likes homeschooling, but she missed being around other kids. Her new class is studying Egypt and I guess they are making the Nile River and other Egyptian landmarks. They are also going to make costumes and have the parents in for an Egyptian day with everything Egyptian; clothes, food, scenery, etc....... Mallory is really excited and couldn't wait to get started. So Good Luck to my Mallory and a Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone else!!

A quick note to Bonnie Hunt. I watched the show this morning and waited by the phone but you forgot to call me and tell me I won the trip to Ireland from your contest last week. Boo-hoo!! I told everyone you were going to call me too! Darn! So, PLEASE don't forget to call me to tell me I won the Mother's Day trip. I could really use the vacation! Thanks!

"Only the Good Friday"

Today for the sharing of goodness I would like to mention a teacher, Gregg Weinlein, who is one of my daughter, Lexie's, teachers. Mr. Weinlein is the director of, and teaches English in Columbia's Alternative Program (CAP) at Columbia High School in East Greenbush. Mr. Weinlein was awarded our local News Channel 13's (WNYT) "Top Teacher" this week.

The CAP program is designed to help "at risk" students to stay in school and get their High School diploma. Lexie was placed in the CAP program in her second year of the 9th grade and she has made some amazing changes! When you are in the CAP program you basically have the same teachers and classmates all through high school. I feel there is consistency, a level of trust, and a comfort zone in doing this. The students and teachers all know each other and know what to expect out of each other. Lexi says some of the other teachers in the school look down on the "CAP Kids" thinking they are trying to get away with stuff and get special treatment. It is not special treatment that these kids are getting, but they are getting their education in the way that they are able to learn. Unfortunately, not all teachers are like Mr. Weinlein and realize that not all kids learn in the same way, that there are alternative methods to teaching and to learning.

Mr. Weinlein has gone beyond being a teacher though to Lexie, as well as her boyfriend Jake. Jake graduated almost 2 years ago from the same CAP program. Mr. Weinlein has brought Lexi clothes for her son Anthony and even attended his birthday party last year. His kids know who Lexie and Jake are too. He has become a friend as well as a teacher to both of them. They both him and his opinions. I really thank Mr. Weinlein for working with not only Lexie, but all of his students who otherwise would have fallen through the cracks and probably dropped out.

Have You Filled Your Bucket Today?

Ezie and Mallory came home the other day with a note from their school regarding a book about bucket filling. I put the note to the side to read later and this morning I finally got around to reading it. I am always so impressed with the Elementary School in our town because they started teaching the kids about respect, honor, pride, manners and other character building things in Pre-K and continue to teach these values through the 5th grade.


In our town I honestly think that if these values were not taught by the Elementary School a huge percent of the kids would never be exposed to them. These values are things that we have instilled in our kids since they were just little toddlers. I am huge on please and thank you's, respecting others feeling and things, treating others as you would like for them to treat you, and so on. Unfortunately, most of the people in this town cuss and fight with other people in front of their kids. Show disrespect to other people, the police and to their own kids. The only reason we live in this town is because it has very cheap housing, but we definitely have been paying the price. Hopefully we will be moving in the next few months. I will miss the kids school though. The Principal and staff are such wonderful examples to our kids and I really admire them for the work they do.

Anyway, back to the subject. The note is about a new program called, Bucket Filling, that the school has started. The program is based on the book Have You Filled Your Bucket Today, by Carol McCloud.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

"All day long, everyone in the whole wide world walks around carrying an invisible bucket. You can't see it but its there. You have a bucket. Your Mom and dad each have a bucket. Your sister and brother have a bucket. Your grandparents, friends, and neighbors all have a bucket. Everyone carries an invisible bucket. Your bucket has one purpose only. It's purpose is to hold your good thoughts and good feeling about yourself. You feel very happy and good when your bucket is full and you feel very sad and lonely when you bucket is empty. You fill a bucket when you show love to someone, when you say or do something kind, or even when you give someone a smile. But, you can also dip into a bucket and take out some good feelings. You dip into a bucket when you make fun of someone , when you say or do mean things. or even when you ignore someone. That's being a bucket dipper."

I haven't read the book, but I am once again impressed by Mrs. Shields and the teaching staff for initiating another program to help build character in the children of our town. Thank you Mrs. Shields!!! You are a wonderful principal and person!!
We are going to get some buckets for our family and write down things about each other and ouselves to encourage bucket filling. Be sure and check out the Bucket Filling site and the program.

Giveaway, Game and On The Home Front

Make sure and check out Dawn, Heather, Kathy, Gretchen and Mallory's blog. They joined in yesterday and they have some "small talk" on their blogs too. Thanks for joining and mingling everybody!

I decided to keep the giveaway for this week a surprise.

I'll send a wrapped gift to the winner so they will be surprised when they receive it

and then I'll post what the giveaway was afterwards!

Is the suspense building?? I hope so!!

I thought for today's game we would play

Truth or Dare

I'll start :
I think the best and funniest thing I ever did on a dare, I think it was a dare---it is the truth though, anyway, when I was about 13 and my parents were going out of town (I hope my mom isn't reading my blog today!!) I stayed at one of their friends homes P & J. P & J had a daughter the same age as I was named JK. We always had a great time when I would stay over.

Okay let me set the scenery up here. Next door to JK’s house was a house where several nuns lived. Across the street was the Catholic Church and School that JK attended. A couple houses down on the other side of JK’s house was a very busy main street with another church.

So one night when we were bored, this was in about 1974, one of us got the idea (I’m sure it wasn’t me!) to go streaking. So one night we took all of our clothes off and put our shirts over our heads and ran down the busy street and around the corner back to JK’s house. This got our adrenaline going and it was so fun to us 13 year old!

Is anybody singing the Streak Song by Ray Stevens yet??

Oh, yes, they call him the Streak

Look at that, look at that

Fastest thing on two feet

Look at that, look at that

He's just as proud as he can be

Of his anatomy

He goin' give us a peek

Oh, yes, they call him the Streak

Look at that, look at that

He likes to show off his physique

Look at that, look at that

If there's an audience to be found

He'll be streakin' around

Invitin' public critique

The next night we decided to do it again, but with a twist. We got naked again, put our shirts on our heads and went up to the nuns door and rang the doorbell. Wouldn’t you know it, as our luck would have it, a police man drove by. Omg! We started running as fast as we could. We’re running as fast as we can through peoples front yards naked and with shirts covering our faces. All the sudden some dumb person has a hedge in the middle of our path. JK new it was there, but not me. I jumped but to late, I fell on the pavement. I got up and ran as fast as I could. We hid somewhere, I don’t remember where, and then snuck back to where our clothes were. We got dressed and went back into JK’s house giggling and so proud of ourselves for not getting caught.

The next morning P & J asked if we were out knocking on doors and running late last night. The nuns called them and said about 10 -15 minutes after someone knocked on their door and ran they saw P & J’s back door open up and 2 girls walk into the house. Well, of course we DIDN’T do it!! How stupid would we be to do that to the house right next door! We were just sitting on the back porch talking!! I don’t know if they believed us or not. I don’t even know if the nuns realized we were naked because we both had such good bikini tans that it kinda looked like we had swimsuits on.

When my parents came back we were upstairs listening to the adults talk and they decided they were pretty sure that JK and I would never do anything like that! I’m not sure if they were just trying to convince themselves or if they really believed we didn’t.

What is your funniest dare story??
Can you share it on your blog with us??

On the Home Front

Mallory and Jace made Pumpkin Muffins yesterday.

Mallory had to go to football practice so Jace and I filled the muffin cups and baked them.

Jace is playing peek-a-boo with the whisk. He's just to darn cute!!

The finished product. Yummy!!

Lexie started school yesterday. She's a senior this year!! Way to go Lexie!!!!

Today was the Kids First Day of School, Oh Yeah!!

Ezie and Mallory getting ready to go to school

and Jace just happy to be outside!

We have to walk up that hill across the street and then up one more hill to get to the bus stop.

Good excercise for Mom!!

The kids are getting on the bus. Usually Earl brings the kids to school and they ride the bus home but he had a meeting early this morning. He loves taking the kids and walking them into their classrooms everyday. He's such a great dad!

Mallory is in her TomBoy stage and had to wear a boy outfit to school for the first day. She likes sharing clothes with her brother. I still don't think that it's fair that out of 8 kids I only have 2 girls and one of them totally dresses like a tomboy. No, I really don't care. She loves to be all girly sometimes too!