time with Grandma

The Monday after Mother's Day is always Grandparents Day at our school (the school Dylan attends, not Logan's school).  My Mom always attends and loves the program the kids put on. They spend time in the classroom, eat lunch together and have a photographer on hand to snap poses of the kids with their grandparents.  Its such a fun, special day for everyone!

The Animal Fair (clap clap)

The entire third grade team has been working on the annual spring third grade program, the lovely and entertaining Animal Fair. The kids memorized an incredible amount of oh-so-cute songs and I wish I had videoed them all since they're were so catchy (especially a rendition of Ice Ice Baby about the Artic)!  Grandma Lynn came out to enjoy the program with us, and we're happy to report there was no puke-a-rama, unlike the unforgettable Patriotic program in first grade.

Each third grade class has been studying specific eco-systems and Dylan's class focused on the ocean.  His particular animal was the Parrot Fish, and he completely a multi-media presentation about it.  Some of the kids also incorporated QR Codes into their presentation, so parents could scan with smartphones and instantly see their childs' presentation on You Tube.  Pretty cool, when you consider all of my school reports were comprised of what I could find in World Book encyclopedias and microfiche.

Dylan's class wore blue shirts, of course.  Sadly, the video upload of Dylan's class song/dance routine is giving me problems, the file might  just be too large.  I'll keep trying, but here are the photos and his multi-media presentation at least.

Here is Dylan's multi-media presentation on the Parrot Fish

Third grade has been Dylan's best school year yet, for lots of reasons.  Great teacher, really structured classroom, and the kids in his class are very kind to each other.  He brings home top scores on almost of of his work, and he just looks forward to school every single day.  Its been so great to watch him really enjoy himself more than ever, and just thrive at school.  I can hardly believe he only has two more years until 6th grade middle school.  Where does the time go?

cousin lunch

I know, I'm totally slacking on the blogging lately.  Due to my new addiction to Pinterest, all my time online seems to be perusing home decorating ideas, dreaming of swimming pool designs, trying to find the perfect recipe, and drooling over things I can't afford.

So anyway, let me attempt to catch up, at least in photos. 

Monday was of course Presidents Day, no school for the kids.  We spent the day at Grandma Lynn's, meeting up with Jessica and cousins Josh and Maya for pizza, Just Dance 3, and s'mores.  Fun stuff!

movie day!

Schools were closed for MLK Day today.  We met Grandma Lynn for lunch, and went to the movies to see this, finally.  A fun way to spend the hours on a cold, dreary winter day.  Now our bellies are full of popcorn and candy.  Thanks for playing with us Grandma!

cookie day

Yesterday, the official first day of the kids Winter Break, we spent the entire day dirtying up Grandma's kitchen baking  a whole lotta cookies.  A whole lotta cookies, and a whole lotta mess.  Aunt Jessica, Maya and Josh came over, we rolled up our sleeves and got busy. 

We made chocolate chip, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate Rolo pretzels, and old fashioned cut out sugar cookies.  I haven't made those in years and the flavor brings back so many good Christmas memories. The kids have fun mixing up lots of colored icing, and probably got as many sprinkles on the floor as they did the cookies.

2 birthdays

We had a little celebration yesterday at my Mom's for her and my bro's birthdays.  A little guac, a little grilling action, and a yummy cake (will share recipe soon).  Its so fun watching our four kids play together, as they grow and their imaginations run wild.  

This is what my husband has a few beers and there are some random action figures within his reach.

Happy Birthday Wishes, Grandma Lynn and Uncle Chris!   We love you!

all aboard the crazy train

This week has been just a wee bit nutty ..... For one, I'm on the committee planning the Winter Wonderland at Dylan's school this coming Saturday and lately its been all meetings, errands and more errands revolving around event preparation. Saturday I will be up before dawn, helping to manage a pancake breakfast and four hours of holiday games and kid shopping at the school. This is the type of stuff I live for (sick in the head, I know) and once we're in the event seeing the kids having a blast, all this work will have been worth it.


Yesterday presented an unusual dilemma for us. Andrew had an all day meeting at the Pentagon, and I was asked to attend a meeting for my part time marketing job. My job is always very flexible and almost always from home. However, this meeting was a once of year type of situation and I really wanted to go. The meeting was two hours away and thus our dilemma for childcare. We've been very fortunate that we both have some flexiblity on this whole working from home thing and we can usually work it out between us when stuff like this comes up. But this time, Andrew was going to be an hour away in one direction, and I was going to be two hours away in the opposite direction, so it was time to call in Grandma Lynn for extra reinforcements. Logan needed dropped and picked up at preschool, Dylan needed to be fetched from the bus stop, guided through homework, dinner made... it was a full day with Grandma!


And when I wearily arrived home at 7:30 pm, I found this awesome gingerbread house awaiting (right before I fell over exhausted). Crafting with Grandma is a great way to spend the day, great job guys!