leprechauns at BJ's school

Thought you guys should know that the leprechauns are already out and taunting the kiddoes at BJ's school. They did this last year too and the kids are all excited about these pesky leprechauns that are so sneaky and fast.

Particularly at night and at naptime, these little sneaky creatures come into the classrooms and the hallways and leave little hints that they were there, such as four leaf clovers in the kids cubbies, they mistakenly drop their gold coins (chocolate of course) en route or leave a few in the cubbies. They like to taunt the children by leaving cotton in someone's shoes (at nap time). We know their path b/c they always leave sparkly dust (glitter) behind them. Last year they loved to hide things in the sand box outside, but this year there is still snow covering the ground.

Today the kids all wore green to school and they are going on a big scavenger hunt.

So this morning as our two boys were eating breakfast, I shared a little story with them from my childhood. Mary Bess, you might remember this?

When I was a little girl, probably six or seven years old, I had just woken up, still in my pajamas, and came downstairs. I was sitting on the carpet in the dining room looking into the kitchen (must have been spring break) and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Aunt Mary Bess came up and pinched me, so hard that it made me cry! At this point, CJ and BJ were speechless, mouths open in shock, and not eating their cereal!!! Surely not Aunt Mary Bess!!!

So I then explained the idea that if you're not wearing green on 3/17 someone might pinch you. I reassured them that I got over it, and then pointed out to Mary Bess that the pjs I was wearing, with the pink flowers on them, in fact DID have green on them, the leaves on the stems!

Then we talked about how to do a "love" pinch, not a "pinch your sister so she cries" pinch.

I'm over it now Mary Bess:) But I haven't forgotten it!

still snowing in March

one little clip from basketball

If you look closely you can see Rick and both boys on the court. This was the warm-up time before the game. Working on other footage...

bedtime writing

Thought those who have shared these little nighttime reading lights would enjoy seeing them in action. CJ recently has moved from his bed to the actual hardwood floor in his room at bedtime now...making the wood his desk top to write/draw on. I walked in on this and couldn't help but laugh.

Also took a picture of Benny with is new cereal box lego race car that he's sleeping with. It's actually a pretty cool car! He's listening to Junie B. Jones on this particular evening.

Valentines surprises

We wanted to thank everyone for the sweet Valentine goodies you sent to the boys this year! They have so much fun going to the mailbox around holidays b/c you have all spoiled us with letters, cards, and other surprises.

I had to take a picture of this most recent envelope we received. You can see BJ just ripped open the package, did a hoot-n-holler for a new $1 (you see one for CJ too) and got immediately to work on his new Lightning McQueen activity book. How funny is he?! He has carried that activity book now with him in the car, to a restraunt, and everywhere in the house. The boys are both now $11 richer after this holiday...of course BJ asked me several times this weekend to take him to the toy store and CJ has his safely tucked away!!! ha ha!

We do love our boys:)

Tent

The boys love love love to build tents with Rick on the weekends and these past two weekends the tent has been the biggest yet. We love our basement! The boys will sleep in the tent with Rick and they love to have a movie night so they can get in their sleeping bags and watch movies from inside the tent. BJ fell asleep inside the tent this past weekend while watching a movie, so I grabbed the camera before I had to move him. Who doesn't remember building tents with sheets and blankets?

phone call from teacher

I received one of those phone calls on Wednesday that every parent adores. CJ's teacher called me to tell me two things that he had said/shared that day at school that she thought was just phenominal. One of which was this fantastic story above. She gave each student a piece of bubble gum to chew and the writing prompt was to imagine that they got sucked in to the bubble. So each student wrote a story about the experience of being in the bubble. In my five years of teaching third grade myself, I immediatly noticed that CJ did not do the typical "first, then, next, then, then, then, finally" sequence. I read this story with much more fluidity, as there is action and authentic development of story, not forced. My absolute favorite part, that my heart just melted over, was the ending. How many children's stories to you read that end out of now where and you see the words written "THE END" to signify that the story is over. His ending is so clever, and shows that he's aware of the various endings that he's heard all these years through the millions of stories that we've all read to him! I am personally quite fascinated with story endings in picture books and read alouds, and just so tickled to see CJ writing with such thought. He couldn't wait to read it to me when he got home from school. BTW, he is trying to blow a bubble in the picture:)

Oh we were proud parents!!!