Abby wanted to be arial and her she is at the school parade.
Alyssa was a mummy (sorry about these being sideways, blogger glitch they need to fix)
Oct 31, 2012
Halloween
Abby wanted to be arial and her she is at the school parade.
Alyssa was a mummy (sorry about these being sideways, blogger glitch they need to fix)
Oct 13, 2012
Macey has a birthday party!
Yesterday Macey had a 3 year old birthday party with many of her cousins and friends. I usually don't do a party for a 3 year old, but Hailey and Alyssa each wanted to do it for her.
Hailey helped do the game pin the broom (she made an special broom for each child) on the witch and made some yummy spiders to eat. Alyssa did a musical chair game, called the dancing ghosts. Abby helped me make the 'witches brew sticks' or almond bark coated pretzel rods and 'ghosts' or coated nutter butter cookies with little chocolate eyes. The children all seemed to love it. Macey's favorite was the mummy's we ate, or hot dogs with a 'mummy' coating.
Everyone seemed to know Macey and every gift but one included crayons, coloring books, notepads, drawing pads and/or activity books. The neighborhood moms and her Aunts all see her around with some sort of drawing supplies always at hand.
Wednesday is her actual birthday and we will celebrate it as a family then. Can't believe how much she is changing everyday.
Today I am a little sad in some ways. My girls always want us to invite Grandpa and Grandma over for dinner and always want to know why they never come, so I try again. Yet Sunday is the day that works best for us and every Sunday they have college student grandchildren over for dinner. Grandma said one day she won't have them here anymore. Yes I know that but that one day will not come until Macey is a senior in college. That will put them about 92-95 years old. Nice. Johns siblings have their children spaced even enough that there will never be a break unless some choose not to attend BYU. That is one reason I wish we lived in Colorado, once in a while we could have dinner with family members, siblings or parents. That won't happen though. We do go over there about once every month or two. Yet then it's so crowded my children all end up on another table in another room. Then theres to many crying children and those bonds made over dinner never happen.
Here is her new art table!
And such cute new clothes (from meme)
And her favorite art supplies for her new art table/station!
Hailey helped do the game pin the broom (she made an special broom for each child) on the witch and made some yummy spiders to eat. Alyssa did a musical chair game, called the dancing ghosts. Abby helped me make the 'witches brew sticks' or almond bark coated pretzel rods and 'ghosts' or coated nutter butter cookies with little chocolate eyes. The children all seemed to love it. Macey's favorite was the mummy's we ate, or hot dogs with a 'mummy' coating.
Everyone seemed to know Macey and every gift but one included crayons, coloring books, notepads, drawing pads and/or activity books. The neighborhood moms and her Aunts all see her around with some sort of drawing supplies always at hand.
Wednesday is her actual birthday and we will celebrate it as a family then. Can't believe how much she is changing everyday.
Today I am a little sad in some ways. My girls always want us to invite Grandpa and Grandma over for dinner and always want to know why they never come, so I try again. Yet Sunday is the day that works best for us and every Sunday they have college student grandchildren over for dinner. Grandma said one day she won't have them here anymore. Yes I know that but that one day will not come until Macey is a senior in college. That will put them about 92-95 years old. Nice. Johns siblings have their children spaced even enough that there will never be a break unless some choose not to attend BYU. That is one reason I wish we lived in Colorado, once in a while we could have dinner with family members, siblings or parents. That won't happen though. We do go over there about once every month or two. Yet then it's so crowded my children all end up on another table in another room. Then theres to many crying children and those bonds made over dinner never happen.
Here is her new art table!
And such cute new clothes (from meme)
And her favorite art supplies for her new art table/station!
Oct 11, 2012
Day out on the town
Today is the beginning of fall break! We are trying to plan a few fun adventures, since we were unable to fulfill our girls greatest desire of going to Disneyland for the weekend. Months ago we purchased a season pass to the Utah Hogle Zoo with plans to travel there often, and we have. This is the about the 5th or 6th time we have went there in the last 6 months. It is always one of our favorite places to go!
This time the highlight of the day was the tigers!
Frequently when we go there the tigers are all sleeping, though last time this tiger (the one in a lone cage) was crying the entire time we were there. It was pretty weird! This time he was up roaming around. The other cage has 3 tigers and they were the life today. One of them jumped in the water and played with a big blue ball for us, while the other two roamed. Yet, in a few minutes two were asleep and the playful tiger was out doing his roaming.
The point is at a zoo, one minute there is lots of see and in another they are just sleeping animals. It's just luck if you get to see anything exciting!
Unless... its the Polar Bears! The new Rocky Shores area of the zoo is awesome with their black bears, polar bears, seals and otters. The Polar Bear (behind my girls) is always active and fun to watch swimming!
Here in the water by Macey, Alyssa, Hailey and Abby you can see three of the seals swimming in the water.
This baby giraffe is 2 1/2 weeks old and while he wasn't very 'fun' to watch he was fun because of how small and soft he looked.
This is Acara the Orangatan. She was waving at us and Alyssa took this picture of her.
After we left the zoo we went to Gardner village to see the witches at their annual witch fest. They have the cutest witches and I really wish I could post their pictures, but it keeps turning my pictures sideways on me so I can't upload any of them. All together it was a very fun full day.
Oct 5, 2012
Cornbelly's
Cornbelly's is a fun, end of the harvest, place to take your children for playing on the farm! They got to play on tractor's, toys, run through a corn maze, pick out pumpkins, and get spooked.
Hailey brought her friend Vivian with us and together they shared so many smiles.
Corn sack races down the slides!
Macey and Alyssa playing in a shed full of dried corn! The did bury her like it was sand but I made them stop for fear something might get in her nose or ears.
These are the cow (barrels) that we road in as the tractor pulled us all through the farm lands.
The large corn maze we ran through!
We also cooked smores over a campfire and got marshmallows all over our faces :)
The haunter monster that Abby loved and Macey screamed the entire way through. It wasn't really haunted, just dark and I used my cell phone as a flashlight for her.
Oct 1, 2012
5th grade math
In today's world education is like being on a teeter totter. They want less teachers so bigger classes and want the kids to know so much more. Yes my children are smart an they do just fine with the core standards set up for each of the classes but.
My kids go to Edgemont elementary and while it's a very old school it's still a really good family school. They try hard though I don't agree at all with a few things they have done in the past.
Hailey is in 5th grade this year, and you know me being a math teacher, I volunteered to help with their accelerated math program for her class. There used to be a teacher that was paid to teach the class, but that was one thing the budget cut and so it dissolved. 6th grade still has it, so how are the students suppose to be ready for it in 6th grade. Accelerated math in 6th grade is pre-algebra yet in 5th and 6th grade they learn so many things that they really should not skip. So what could I do to help?
I decided with the 5th grade teachers to take the top 18 students in their classes and teach them 5th grade math just using a lot more logic and having them do more story problems, developing their true understanding of the basic math facts. We would move faster than the other classes and so in the end we would cover a small portion of 6th grade math also, preparing them for their pre-algebra class next year.
What I didn't expect was Macey, people always canceling on our kid swap and parents who had said they would watch her because I'm teaching their children flaking out completely. It has ended up I do two kid swaps a week and Johns mother watches her two days. This week due to some unseen events I am suppose to take her to school with me 3 days. Let me just say Macey is 2 but will be 3 soon. She has more energy than anyone I have ever met and completely ruins any lesson I am trying to teach by stealing the attention of everyone in the classroom. They all love sweet little Macey!
What am I to do, well right now the only option if this continues is to stop volunteering at the end of the semester. I've spent lots of time and money on this class but I cannot continue to do this all year if I continually have to deal with this. So I guess 2 1/2 more months and then they will all go back to their teachers 2 chapters ahead.
My kids go to Edgemont elementary and while it's a very old school it's still a really good family school. They try hard though I don't agree at all with a few things they have done in the past.
Hailey is in 5th grade this year, and you know me being a math teacher, I volunteered to help with their accelerated math program for her class. There used to be a teacher that was paid to teach the class, but that was one thing the budget cut and so it dissolved. 6th grade still has it, so how are the students suppose to be ready for it in 6th grade. Accelerated math in 6th grade is pre-algebra yet in 5th and 6th grade they learn so many things that they really should not skip. So what could I do to help?
I decided with the 5th grade teachers to take the top 18 students in their classes and teach them 5th grade math just using a lot more logic and having them do more story problems, developing their true understanding of the basic math facts. We would move faster than the other classes and so in the end we would cover a small portion of 6th grade math also, preparing them for their pre-algebra class next year.
What I didn't expect was Macey, people always canceling on our kid swap and parents who had said they would watch her because I'm teaching their children flaking out completely. It has ended up I do two kid swaps a week and Johns mother watches her two days. This week due to some unseen events I am suppose to take her to school with me 3 days. Let me just say Macey is 2 but will be 3 soon. She has more energy than anyone I have ever met and completely ruins any lesson I am trying to teach by stealing the attention of everyone in the classroom. They all love sweet little Macey!
What am I to do, well right now the only option if this continues is to stop volunteering at the end of the semester. I've spent lots of time and money on this class but I cannot continue to do this all year if I continually have to deal with this. So I guess 2 1/2 more months and then they will all go back to their teachers 2 chapters ahead.
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