I'm still here

Happy Thanksgiving!

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year! 

I promise I am alive! The past few months have been a bit crazy as we learn to adapt to life as two working parents and a baby going to day care through the holidays. I think we are now in a semi normal routine and we are beginning to cook real dinners again. Gone are the quick throw in the oven, horribly non-nutritious dinners. Okay there maybe a few every once in a while, but it is no a nightly staple.

My class is still pretty amazing and we have learned so much this year. Here are some of our highlights from the past 3 months.

We celebrated Veteran's Day with a school wide assembly. We ended the day making Miss Kindergarten's soldiers. My kids did a great job, and I love how they turned out.

My district celebrates the Great American Teach-In. One of my best friends is a veterinarian oncologist. A few years ago, she and her husband moved to North Carolina, but they just happened to be visiting during the GATI so she came to visit. I love that she took time away from visiting her family to talk to our kindergarten kiddos. We also had a fitness trainer this year. 

In December, all of the kindergarten kiddos got to participate in a Q and U wedding. It was great!!! We really had to persuade our administration to allow us to do it. The students were invited to dress up like they were going to a wedding (as opposed to their school uniform). Each child also drew a gift for the bride and groom that started with qu. Plus, no wedding is complete without cake. Yes! We even had cake. Any food that is shared with our students must be store bought and package. The Little Debbie White square cake things worked out perfectly. Everyone was happy. It was a great day to see all kinds of smiles from the students, the other kindergarten teachers, and other staff at school.

We received a visit from one of Santa's Elves in December. My class wanted to name her Olaf, Elsa, Anna, or Sparkle. Secretly I was hoping for Sparkle, but Olaf one. Maybe next year she will come with a name . . . Is that a good idea or should I just let them pick the name again? 

For as long as I know, kindergarten has always had a polar express/pajama/hot chocolate day the last day of school before break. This year we had a polar express/hot chocolate day. The no pajamas was very disappointing. The kids were sad. The teachers were sad. It was just sad. However, I had forgotten that my wonderful husband had bought me a Cocomotion years ago when we moved to FL. This machine heats and mixes up to 4 cups of hot chocolate at once. I might have had an addition to hot chocolate once upon a time (this is my second machine).  As I was cleaning out my kitchen, I saw it and thought to take it in for the last day before break. It was brilliant! I didn't have to stir 18 cups of hot chocolate and spill it all over. This was the cleanest hot chocolate experience I have ever had for my classroom. I actually packed it up with our Christmas stuff so I remember to take it again next year. The class loved it! 

We've spent the last three weeks subtracting. On Friday we did bowling subtraction. As in, I (or my husband) taped pictures of bowling pins on 40 water bottles (this made 4 sets). Students stood back 10 blocks, and "rolled" a tennis ball towards the pins and subtracted x from 10. They had the best time! It was totally worth it! 

Next week is a bit crazy. We have groundhogs day fun Monday. Tuesday is our 100th day of school, and Wednesday we are having a visit from a local dentist office. All I can say is the beginning of February seems to be a marathon at this point. 

I don't know if anyone else feels like their brain is running a million miles per hour. Here's a sampling of my brain . . . 

• Staycations with beautiful hotel pools and lazy rivers
• Miami
• E's finalization
• teach summer school?
• replace flooring
• finish bathrooms
• E's baptism
• clean my house

. . . anyone else? Please tell me I am not alone. So my hope is to keep my blog up to date this year. Please help me. Bother me. Annoy me. Let me know when I've fallen off the face of the earth again. 

This post wouldn't be complete without any E photos. He definitely has made me become more efficient in what I do so I can spend as much time with him as possible. He has made me laugh more and become much more patient. He's getting so big!