Blood, water and cheese

Karianna told a joke in the car yesterday.

"If blood is thicker than water, what is thicker than blood?"

Answer, from Karianna:

"Fondue cheese!"

Ha ha ha!!!! We were cracking up!

Great Outfit

You'd think she was posing...

Karianna's class has a "reading club" of sorts, where each child has a goal of reading 100 books before the end of the year. Beginning back in November, Karianna started bringing home a book bag each night, usually with 1-2 books in it to read each night. Her teacher started sending home 3-4 each night in December because she was getting through them so quick. Karianna loved reading her books each night and watching me sign off her chart. She was so excited to turn it in the next day and get some new books that mght interest her more. Her favorites were always the science-y ones or Bearenstein Bear books.

At the end of January, Karianna read her 100th book, and I signed off on the 100th square. She took it to school and came home with a great certificate from the principal for reading her 100 books this year. I love Karianna's vigor to read, it is so exciting to see what she learns from books and how much she loves to get lost in her favorites over and over again. Congratulations Karianna!

Clothes

Sara loves trying to put on clothes right now. The other day she managed to get her arms in one of Jared's huge button down shirts. She has gotten good at wearing underwear as bangles on her arms. Its not unusual to find a shirt draped around her shoulders as a shawl. My favorite though was a few days ago when Sara managed to get Jared's shoes on, all by herself. Seriously.

Hair

Have you ever read "Aaron's Hair" by Robert Munsch? Love that book. As a tribute to Senor Munsch (no he's not spanish, I'm just feeling weird), I give you Sara Grace:

My favorite one, and I did nothing to antagonize this-this is how she woke up.

Happy Valentines Day! Love, The Valentine's Fairy

Did you know that there is a Valentine's Fairy who lives next door to the Tooth Fairy? Well, apparently there is, and she has visited our house 2 years in a row! Each year on valentine's day, we get a "ring ring" at the doorbell. We dash to the door, anticipating a visit from Grandma, only to find valentine's goodies left on the doorstep. We always investigate the surrounding bushes, trees, and sidewals, but alas, we can never find the mysterious entity that delivered the treats. And so, the valentine's fairy remains a mystery, though certainly real because how else could the doorbell ring all by itself, and how else could those bags appear on the doorstep? I can't think of any other way.

Yup, the Valentine's Fairy must exist. Thanks for the treats!

Gender Identity

Karianna's comment about Sara the other night: Sara is starting to look like a real girl!

And in a sense-she is right. Sara's hair is getting long enough that you can see it popping out from behind her head with a slightly flipped curl. It usually getts tangled to the point where it stays mussed in the back of her head, but if I brush it out after baths until it dries, you can actually see it in pictures. I love Sara's hair right now, I can put some of it in ponytail on the top of her head with a bow; it looks so much more grown up than the standard headband and flower. I love that look, but that little tuft of hair secured by a bow is just so mature!

Gross

I remember my brothers (sorry guys, I forgot who) when they were little piling applesauce on their pizza because they thought it tasted good. Of course, I hate applesauce, so that probably didn't help. I find it interesting that this trend of gross combinations is continuing in my home. Take gander at JD and Jordan's selected entrees:

Bread topped with applesauce and pretzals.


Bread topped with yoghurt and veggie sticks-all rolled up.


Hungry?

Mathblasters

A few weeks Karianna came home with a bright yellow t-shirt, a certificate, and a huge smile on her face: she made it into the Mathblasters club at Bush!

Karianna passed the first level of addition and subtraction facts, and she was so proud of herself. Her shirt is a tad bit too big, to the point where I don't think she will opt to wear her shirt anytime soon, but we were so proud of her for this accomplishment. Awesome job, you mathblaster you!

Heart Warming Moment

The Book

This week my class was reading a story called "Leah's Pony". Leah's family lives on a farm during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl kills of most of their crops. After borrowing money from the bank to reseed and failing to pay the bank back, Leah's family decides to have an auction to raise money. Leah is devastated when she learns her father will sell the tractor, and she decides to sell her beloved pony in hopes of buying the tractor herself at the auction so her family can keep it. At the auction, Leah bravely bids one dollar for the tractor. The rest of the people at the auction are so moved by the hope of a child that they allow her to win the tractor with a bid of 1 dollar. The neighbors treat the rest of the auction as a penny auction and give all the items back to the family. To make endings even happier, Leah is given her pony back as well with a note that says, "These hard times won't last forever".

My Class

As a unit culmination, we had an auction in our class today. To prepare, I had the kids make advertisement posters for each auction item; they had to use facts and opinions to advertise the items. Tim, a very child-like and emotional student in my class, grew very attached to a light up pen. He was the only student to select the pen for his advertisement, and he was set on winning it at our auction today. You could see the nervousness in his eyes, as he very vocally announced he only had 1 grabber, and he wasn't sure if that would be enough. His heart was set on that pen though, and his limited number of grabbers didn't matter to him. It was already as good as his.

Some of my students came up to me while they were making their posters and told me they had an idea. They told me they wanted to make sure Tim got that pen even though he only had one grabber. They said it could be just like Leah in the story-when Tim bid his one grabber, everyone else should sit silently, not bidding, rather letting him win his prize because his need was so great. I was moved, and watched as these students quietly informed the rest of the class about the plan, keeping it a secret from Tim, who sat unknowingly, admiring that pen that he hoped would be his.

The Auction

As the auction proceeded today, I excitedly moved on to the pen. I was dying to see how the kids' plan would go! As I held up the pen, I noticed Tim on the edge of his seat, gritting his teeth and clutching his 1 grabber as tightly as possible. As soon as I announced bidding open for 1 grabber, Tim's hand shot up in the air, and the rest of the class sat resolutely in their seats, huge smiles on their faces as they refused to bid just so Tim could win his prize.

A huge smile was about to erupt on my face when 3 students also raised their hands to bid one grabber. I faltered, the rest of the class audibly gasped, and Tim's eyes began to water. I hesitantly opened the bidding to 2 grabbers, and inwardly groaned as 2 students kept their hands up to bid-and Tim's hand, grasping that measly grabber, slowly sank back to his desk. He began to cry, and the rest of the class tried to nudge those 2 bidders to put their hands down. Apparently, they didn't get the message the day before, because they had no idea what the "plan" was.

At this point, I rationally thought to myself, "its just a classroom auction for grabbers and dollar store prizes-this isn't a big deal". But looking at Tim's face made me realize-for him it is. Just as I was trying to figure out if I should step in at all, my 3rd graders proved to me that is hope left in the world.

Without heckling the 2 bidders, and without saying a word, 3 students stood up and handed Tim some of their grabbers. Within moments, 8 other kids had handed him grabbers, with comments of "Take them Tim-you can do it! You can win it!" I watched in amazement, as grabbers are precious commodities in my classroom and are not usually given away so freely. I watched as Tim's face went from despair to awe. Tim is not the most popular child in the class and struggles to make friends. In this moment though-it didn't matter. My kids knew how much he wanted that pen and they were going to make sure he got it.

Heart Warming Moment

Once everyone calmed down, I opened the bidding back up at 2 grabbers. Tim's handful of grabbers shot into the air as well as the hands of the 2 other students who had bid before. The bidding got up to 20 grabbers before the other 2 bidders caught on and stoped bidding, even though they both had well more than 20 grabbers. Tim's hand was the only one up in the air.

Genuinely moved, I announced in a quiet voice, "And the winning bid of 20 grabbers goes to Tim." The class went wild, cheers for Tim filled the air, and in that moment, no one in the world was flying higher than Tim. He held that pen for the rest of the day and even had enough donated grabbers left to buy something from the grab bag at the end of the afternoon. He left that day with a group of buddies around him, asking to see how his new pen worked and complimenting him on winning such a great prize.

One of my students told me in passing that she had given Tim all 19 of her grabbers. I told her how nice that was of her and asked her why she did it. She said, "I just thought Tim needed them more than me-I didn't really need any of those things any way. Tim really needed that pen and I wanted to help him. I'll get more grabbers next week."

Good news world: you have hope because I have students who are capable of seeing a need and filling it. They are not perfect, but there is hope. And for that, I am grateful.

Underwear and Waffles

Sara just stuffed a pair of Karianna's underwear (clean) into an empty Eggo waffles box that she must have pulled out of a garbage bag. She smiled real big once she got it in, stood up, and hugged that Eggo box to her body. She started walking away with her prized possession when the underwear fell out of the box, which was held upside down. Oops. Five steps later, Sara noticed her box was lighter and flipped it upside down to check out the underwear-which was no longer there. She glanced at the ground around her, and upon not immediately seeing it, threw the box in frustration, and shook her arms at it, as if she was scolding the box for letting the underwear escape. Then she walked away.

What a great story.

What did you learn?

Last week in 3rd grade, we read Lon Po Po, which is the chinese version of Little Red Riding Hood. As part of our study on folktales, the kids had to ID various elements of folktales including what lesson the character/s learned. In response to the lesson in Lon Po Po, most kids said, "Don't open the door for strangers." A few said, "Don't believe anything strangers tell you." Only one kid shared the following lesson, which I suppose is more important than any other you could glean from a Little Red Riding Hood story:

"Don't eat little girls."

Glad we've covered that. I guess we are ready for AIMS now.

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Today Jordan turns 3 years old-or "pee" years old as he says. Can you tell he is still working on the "th" sound? :) I'll post more about Jordan's birthday festivities after he cousins party next week, but I wanted to post some of my thoughts about Jordan now as I am contemplating the last 3 years with Jordan as a part of our family.

1. I call Jordan "Happiness". That has always been what he is. I think of all our babies, he has been the most consistently happy child. All of our kids are wonderful, Jordan is just....happiness! Jared calls Jordan "friend" all the time-they are such buds and it is wonderful.
2. Jordan soaks things up. He watches his siblings doing things and he is only about a foot behind them. Jordan and JD and best friends; they stay up late at least 3 nights a week talking to eachother, snugling in bed together, or playing avengers/superhero squad together. Jordan has yet to convince Karianna that it is okay to let him hang out in her room, but that's a work in progress. :)
3. Jordan is working on learning all his letter sounds right now. He can count to 20, though he frequently forgets 14-16. THey just get left out...they aren't that important, right? :) He loves to color with JD and we are thinking of having him do preschool next year just because he would love it!
4. Jordan is the oldest in nursery. By a lot. Today, when I picked him up, half the kids were asleep, and Jordan was sitting at the table chatting with the teacher. I wish he had older kids to socialize with, but I am hoping this will be a chance to be a leader throughout the years. Jordan loves to bring home papers from nursery. :) He is always so proud of himself when he gets to hang it up on his wall in his bedroom.
5. Jordan loves sitting next to Sara in the car. He holds her hand, gives her toys, sings to her, and mades funny faces if she is fussy.
6. Joran loves to vaccuum. I got a handheld vac for Christmas, and he loves to go get it and vaccuum up random messes. When he's done, he'll go plug into the charger in my room-its awesome! I hate to vaccuum and he's such a pro!

My mom asked me the other day what time Jordan was born at, and I really couldn't remember in that moment! I had to really sit back to think about his birth story to remember the thoughts and feelings I had as Jordan joined our family. Jordan was born in Paradise Valley, at an older hospital. I was induced with him, so everything was scheduled out and relaxed as we checked into the hospital. Although I had an epidural, I remember feeling very distinctly when Jordan crowned; I had to tell Jordan to get a nurse because he was coming. It was a great epidural-enough so I could enjoy the birth, but not too much so I lost all feeling. I remember Jordan being taken from me pretty quickly to do all the newborn things-he was taken out of the room for the bath. I wasn't happy about that at all, hence why we did not opt to return to that hospital. I remember dressing Jordan up in a billion different outfits (yes, that's okay with a boy too!) and taking tons of photos of him in between naps. I remember one moment after Jared went home to be with the other kids when I started flipping out a bit-I all of the sudden become overwhelmed with the thought of having 3 kids. Jordan had gone to the nursery so I could sleep for a bit, but I called the nursery and had them bring him back. He calmed me down so quick, I was so grateful for his little nose and his puckered mouth, his little hand gripping my finger. I remember Jordan didn't want to nurse for a while-I had to "tease" him with formula in order to get him to nurse. It worked thankfully, and it came in handy when he had surgery 4 weeks later and had to take a bottle of breastmilk every 3 hours. I remember that Jared brought all the kids to the hospital when it was time to take Jordan home and they sure loved him right off the bat. As did I.

Jordan, you are such a blessing-I love your big blue eyes, your quick smile, your sweet spirit, and your energetic personality. I love that when you fall, you pick yourself right back up. I love that you love to talk about Jesus during sacrament meeting. I love that when you see your siblings doing homework, you immediately ask to join in. I love that your wave looks like a shadow puppet (a bird). I just love everything about you! Happy birthday happiness!

A First Grade Compliment?

Karianna sits nexts to a young man by the name of Sutton. She made a comment last week to Sutton about how it seemed like all the boys were in love with her. Sutton replied, "That's because you're hot." Karianna said he also mentioned she had pretty eyes, but I barely heard that part because I was in shock over the first part! I wanted to bust up laughing, but I also wanted to be shocked! Karianna told me it was okay though-she said she knows boys aren't supposed to think she's hot until she's 16. At least she's on the right track...I don't know about this Sutton though....

Lonlieness

Karianna has been going through a rough stint lately that we will entitle "Grumpy". It seems like she has been generally unsatisfied with everything and quick to snap at anybody. After one very deep conversation, she told me that she was lonely. It broke my heart a bit and at that instant, I realized I need to protect my time with her. I think what she was really saying was "I miss you." As such, I am working on limiting my afterschool work until the kids go to bed and really focusing on them while I can...this means not trying to do computer work while in the same room-really interacting.

Tonite Karianna and I made 4 sand art creations and she loved them! Her favorite is the necklace, which she is going to wear to school tomorrow (she already planned out what she is going to say when Sierra tries to trade for it....). I loved her descriptions of each one: "This one looks like a rainbow in the middle of a sunset! This one looks like a colorful, sparkly candy cane! This one looks like a melted box of crayons!" It was a fun activity to work together on. The boys were a bit too young to man the sand, so they did some scratch art. JD loved the stencils; Jordan didn't really have the patience for the small spaces so he opted to freestyle it. After our art activities, Karianna and I read some books and she wrote a summary on one of them. JD and Jordan practiced wring letters and JD did a lot of spelling with elkonin boxes. The entire time Sara was engaged in: destroying the contents of my purse for the thousandth time; pulling toilet paper off a roll; rocking babies to sleep, or putting extremely random combinations of toys in a bag and toting it around like her most prized possession. I'm going to have to figure out how to add her to my entertainment rounds a bit more.

All in all, a good afternoon to end a good day.

Generous, Average, Offenses

Karianna just told me, "A princess is more generous than a average Amerian girl....she never does offenses or anything." Then she explained what she meant perfectly. I laughed my head off! I just filled out a questionaire about her for a school program we are looking at and one of the questions required me to rate her vocabulary. I wasn't certain with my selection, but now I am!