February
I really enjoy helping out in the kids' classrooms!! Much of the time that means parties. For both of my younger two it happily also means about 2-3 volunteer hours a month (roughly 6 days a month) helping in other ways. I get to see how the teachers are with the kids and I love that. We absolutely adore little J's teacher. She is new to the school and I think only a couple years into teaching and the classroom is pretty full with I believe 26 students. She handles them so well and is so fun and talented/creative that we decided to do something extra special for her for Valentines. We had all the kids in the class--NOT an easy task!--tell us through email, phone calls, or even right in the classroom trying to be inconspicuous what their favorite thing about this teacher is and then we made the big Valentine behind these guys for her. She was definitely touched and I love being a part of that, particularly when I see how hard she works to help my little have good experiences at school.
Little A's teacher is great as well. She is brand new and doing a fantastic job. She challenges the kids and I like that. She is also fun and creative and keeps good control of the class as well. I'm not head room parent in this class or we would've done a class Valentine for her too. But, I did help with the Valentine party. I decided to take on the treat rotation because frankly I wanted to help make sure it wasn't just candy. So we had yummy, delicious, fairly healthy parfaits! The kids LOVED them and it couldn't have gone better. They served themselves up with strawberry and/or vanilla yogurt, strawberries, toasted oats and I sprayed a little whip cream on top. This school district allows only store-bought stuff into the classroom which means quite often doughnuts and candy. I wanted to think outside the box and package and still have a yummy treat that the kids enjoyed. I think it worked out better than planned. They all chose only what they liked and then I read a Valentine book while they ate up. Superlotafun!
SKIING!!! We were apprehensive as to how the day would go since by the time we managed to get all 3 kids to the top of the rope tow one was already in tears and we were a bit frustrated. Somehow we got through the first run down okay and went back for more.
By a few runs in the kids had really great wedges and little J gained quite a bit of confidence and really took off!
It was a perfect day, warm and sunny!! That was the main decider in which day we went on--if it was sunny or not because the kids would be miserable trying to learn while freezing and I would be miserable helping teach them if freezing!
By the time the sun went down it cooled off fast and we were about ready to go. The kids wanted a couple more runs in before calling it a day. The only problem is that this hill is quite gentle--too gentle and B just about stopped using her pizza wedge so she could go faster. I had her work on turns to give her a bit more of a challenge but things did not go that well when we skied part way to the car and it was a bit steeper than she could handle. Love her!--she had a lot of fun the rest of the day.
Little J took about 5 times up before he attempted to go up by himself. He was adorable, as always. He is more apprehensive and reserved than the girls but once he finds his confidence in something he takes off. J said that one time up (while I was taking someone potty) he lost one of his skiis on the side of the lift and he just kept going to the top without it. Goofball! I love him.
After several times going down with help little bug decided that she didn't want any more help. Miss independent! She was really cute to watch the whole afternoon.
Birthday Boy strikes a pose. When he put his old golf clubs in the brand spanking new golf bag they looked a bit old. So, new irons are now on their way. He has plans for updating all of his clubs but has decided on a 3-4 year plan for that. I may've had some influence on that decision......
He LOVES me! Birthday kisses for the birthday boy.
Nice swing!
I AM BIRTHDAY MAN....nananana na nana na!
