3rd Grade Market Day

At the end of May, the third grade team sent home a letter outlining a three week project that their classes were working on.  Parents were asked to help and support their child with their project.

This was the one event during my own fourth grade experience, that my class only viewed, but we did not participate, so I was excited on behalf of Alice. = )

She chose to make some decorative planters out of recycled polystyrene containers.  I helped with the stencil for the paper, and helped make up the booth, but she did almost everything else herself!

Each pot was $3, and came with dirt.  If you added seeds it was $5.  She almost sold out!  The classes took turns, so while they shopped their booth was closed.  Also, to help with sales, the 2nd graders were given funds to come shop the market.

Parents were able to purchase currency at a rate of $1 to 10 bearcat bucks.  I gave each of the twins a dollar to spend, and they had a good time.

As for my second grader, they were the final visiting group to come in, and she won the raffle for the chocolate cake.  It was good, and gone in 3 days. ; )

later days

Field Day!

Despite the chilly days we've had (even into June) Field day was appropriately warm for such an event!

The twins and I bounced around between Alice and Emily and William to cheer them on. 

I was so impressed by the teachers too.  They are always so cheerful, but on this particular day they each took a turn in the dunking booth.  While it was pretty warm, we're talking 85F max, so that water had to be cold.

My big kids had a great time, and came home tuckered out!

After a trip to the car for water and a blanket, and wandering from event to event, the twins were begging to go.  So, we only stayed for the first hour, hopefully next year I can be out there for the duration.

later days

Alice's Michigan History Field Trip

This past week, the third graders took a field trip each day of the week to go to downtown Lansing for a week of interactive history!  One of the perks of living so close to the state capital.

I was lucky enough to be able to join her on Tuesday, and my mom, despite her recent travels, joined her on Friday.

These pictures are all from my time with her.

This museum is huge!  It is just like the movies when they visit and see all of the exhibits with a mixture of recreations & original artifacts!

For most of the day, we stayed together as a group, and I was just a member of the audience during the presentations.  I even had the opportunity to ask questions!

Admittedly, this was one of the more sad moments I've experienced since we've been here.  Alice learning another states' history over Texas' just feels incredibly sad.  I know it's the reality of living away from home, but it brought me almost to tears (a few times.)

The largest elevator I've ever ridden in: (the entire class fit!)

When it was time to break into groups, our team chose to hang out in the mining gallery.

We met back up with the group to eat lunch, then separated out again to read and journal.  From there it was almost time to go, and I headed out to take William to another doctor's appointment.

It was a fun day spent with my favorite third grader!

later days

P.S.  A picture of Alice making Avia's lunch for the day she came with her class.

The first few weeks of the school year

Drop off on day one looked something like this:

It was early, and I like walking the first few days (so that I can scout out traffic patterns/potential issues) my children are not fans. = /  Also, grace wanted to play on the school playground (which she is staring at) and I told her we could not. = (

We did cross to the park playground across the way, and they got to play.

While I did an errand avia took them to A&W for hot chocolate and pie.

We waited on the backside of the school for the big kids to get out.  For some reason, any thing large enough for them to perch on now indicates a picture. = )

Pretending to be "in jail" at the thrift shop.

Emily's amazing first grade teacher encouraged the kids to read over the summer by offering up an ice cream treat at the end of summer!  She is the best teacher!  We absolutely love Ms. Jones and will miss her all year.  Luckily for us, I have 2 more rounds (William/Grace & Juliet) slated for her. = )

Grace was "fixing her car:"

Grace loves to help wash the dishes.  Juliet will sometimes join her too.  I wouldn't recommend trusting their work without a cursory check, but they sure are cute doing it!

The problem with having readers in the house is that I'm reminded of the fact that I did not have a spare filter in the basement and had to wait for the new filter to arrive while enduring a constant chorus of "we need to replace the water filter in X days!"  Note: it has since arrived and all is well with our water dispenser again.

The river is so pretty, but the twins didn't want to get to close to the railing because that is where the spiders weave their webs.

Made it to school in time for a picture!

I saw this posted outside of Emily's class when I popped in one day:

One day, we didn't check the weather, so we didn't know that we needed to take Billy and ended up walking in the rain.  It wasn't raining terribly hard en route, but on the way back the twins and I were soaked.   We had three different people stop and offer to help us (either with rides or umbrellas.)

While it wasn't too bad, the kids were more than willing to get up early to take Billy so that we could have the car.  Alice left a note for Billy, thinking that we would drop them off first, then him, but that's not the best order.

My car (as of 9-9-18) is still in the shop.  I have officially been without my car for an entire month and it's been awful. = (  Last week we finally took our mechanic up on his courtesy car, so at least Billy has a way to and from work without someone going without a car. = )

The original problem was only part of the issue, he's replaced a timing belt and is now working on the wiring since the car is still misfiring in idle, but no alarm codes are triggering.

For labor day the kids had a 4 day holiday.  Everyone was feeling puny on Friday.  I was glad to have the day off and we enjoyed a leisurely pancake breakfast.

Alice enjoyed relaxing on her birthday present before bed.