Downstairs

I just rearranged my entire downstairs living space.  I've resigned myself to the fact that I can not keep up with the laundry.  IT IS everywhere, but at least most of it's clean.  The boys helped me take a dresser downstairs and we made a pact to put the clothes in the dresser.  We also now have two televisions downstairs.  Now, there will be no arguing about whether to watch TV or play a game.  The entire house now looks like only little boys live here.  I don't really care because I hardly ever have anyone over and this time of my life will be gone in the blink of an eye.  Harrison will be going away to college in less than 2 years and I'm starting to freak out about this.

I want to paint this tree on my wall downstairs.  I'm going to work on this little project when the boys go away to hockey camp in July.

Adventures in Camping

I think 4 days was one day too many.  I'm wiped out and the storms made everyone crazy.  Henry freaked out during one of the storms.  I'm pretty sure it was this one.....

The tents were abandoned and everyone ran for the camper.  The camper is meant for five people, not fifty.  Luckily, my friend Lora showed up with lots of snacks and she took a bunch of the kids home with her.  She also brought her mobile wifi hot spot for the boys.  They all jumped on the internet and life calmed down.

Last night was probably my favorite because Hayden was there and a good friend of mine came out.  She brought me a bottle of my favorite wine and we talked for hours.  The rain stayed away, so the boys were able to ride their bikes and explore the woods around the campsite.  They found this cute little frog.  

We ended this camping trip by renting a double decker pontoon with a slide.  The kids LOVED this!  They spent the entire four hours jumping and sliding off of that boat.  The boys were doing front flips off of the top deck and my mom even went down the slide!  My friend took some great pictures of all this funness.

The craziness

All of my friends told me that I was nuts for inviting so many kids to camp with us. I said, oh, I got this, I'm usually surrounded by 20-25 of these little guys. Well, today was a little stressful. Henry was grumpy and it was hot as hell. We swam in the lake most of the day and all I wanted out of life, was a nap.  I'm getting Hayden back in the morning and then the chaos will hopefully, subside.  The boys had an hour long argument about where Hayden will sleep when he gets here. I finally had to walk away. It became 5 o'clock immediately. 

On the bright side, Titus and little cousin Charlie, have become good friends. Titus calls him Char Char or Charlieboy and Charlie loves this.  Charlie is gonna be a big, bad, kindergartener next year.  

Also, there are about a bazillion rocks out here and I've been in heaven.  The kids brought rocks to me all day long today. I was able to identify about half of them and I did little mini-lessons all day about the 3 rocks type. Some of them rolled their little eyes at me and said, it's summer, STOP!!!  They did love listening to all that I knew about crinoids though. Those things are pretty freaking cool! 

These memories

We are camping on Lake Monroe this week with a bunch of friends and the cousins. Abby lost a tooth right before she got here, so I had to make sure the Tooth Fairy showed up last night. Abby slept right next to me.  She had her little hand on my arm most of the night. It was pretty cute. 

This Boy

I am missing this crazy, Streib boy a lot right now.  I've talked to him a ton, so that's keeping me sane.  He'll be home on Wednesday, just in time to spend the last night out at the lake with us. 

He has won the heart of his little cousin, Emma.  I've been told that whatever car Hayden is riding in, that is where this little girl wants to be!

Henry is so excited about playing in his championship game today.  His team won first place last year and he is dying to bring home another first place trophy.  Rained Out 

I'm writing a unit about rocks for my little third graders.  I have some pretty fun ideas.  Our final project is going to be a story about three rocks, one from each of the rock types, igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. I picked the Schist rock from the metamorphic group because we will get to say Schist A LOT!

Idea #1  These three guys have been friends for a long time, but the metamorphic rock, the Schist, (see fun right?) and the igneous rock, the Obsidian, are going to butt heads a little.  You see, these two guys think that they are greatest, shiniest rocks around and they both want to be in charge, so level headed Mr. Sedimentary needs to find a way to get these two hot heads to chill out.


Idea #2  Mr. Metamorphic and Mr. Igneous are bff's.  They go to Rushmore Elementary School, and they are super shiny, so everyone wants to be friends with them.  One day, a new kid arrives. (uh oh) His name is Mr. Sedimentary.  He's pretty cool, but not very shiny.  He is however, a really amazing football player, (how to get the boys involved in this game called WRITING) and really wants to make a new friend.  Mr. Sedimentary moved in right across the street from Mr. Igneous and they play football after school, a lot.  Mr. Metamorphic lives about a mile away and doesn't see his best friend, Mr. Igneous, much after school.  Mr. Sedimentary and Mr. Igneous are becoming really great friends.  A big school project is coming up and Mr. Igneous doesn't know who to pick for his partner.  Mr. Metamorphic is getting a little jelly of the situation.

Idea #3  Amazing Third Grade Student makes up their own story about I, M, and S.


I'm going to provide a basic outline for our story to my students and little by little, they are going to write the story.  Then, I'm going to get one or two published by Shutterfly or Snapfish or some place cool.  Some students will illustrate and some will really get into the story writing, so we will all come out winners in the end.  I can't wait for the students to pick the names of these three rocks.  This will probably be the most entertaining part of the process for me.  Of course, we will have to vote!  I'm gonna throw a few names into the pile.  Maybe, Pluto.  Poor Pluto, he's not even a real planet anymore, just a floating rock.

So, I'm really supposed to be working on my ASSIGNMENT right now, but I wanted to blog, so I merged the two.  Schist, I have to get to work!!!

New Look

I've been working on my blog.  I'm trying to decide if I like the new look or not.  I'm also working on a classroom blog for next year.  I'm going to keep track of all the cool stuff that we are working on and I have some ideas about how to keep the students involved.

1.  Have a guest blogger each day.  They can blog a joke, a list of their favorite things, etc.  I don't care, just set a 15 minute time limit as soon as they log in!  I want them to plan it out and write it up before they sit in front of the computer!
2.  Insert a picture in the blog and have a student write a caption or story about the picture
3.  Pick one amazing student story a week and type it into the blog
4.  Have the students make a to-do list in our blog.  Example:  learn how to multiply, learn how to divide, learn how to add fractions, learn how to write a story about a character that is bossy!
5.  I like to read chapter books to the class.  It would be pretty cool if one student would blog the main idea for each chapter, or a prediction for the next chapter.  KIDS LIKE CHOICES.
6.  Blog a math story problem and give a prize to the person that solves it first!


But right now, I'm going to eat some ice cream and sleep.

 

Harrison and Henry

Arizona

So I was taking my mom to the airport yesterday and she said, I should take Hayden to Arizona with me.  I think we were in Martinsville and her flight was leaving in 3 hours.  I said, ok.  We talked to Hayden about the trip, who he was going to see, why they were going and the airplane ride.  He freaked about the airplane ride.  He said that it was going to crash.  I assured him that we were more likely to get in a car crash than an airplane crash.  It calmed his nerves, a little.  I told him that we would have to stop at Target and buy him a backpack full of new clothes and he said, OK, I WANT TO GO!  This apparently sealed the deal.  I called the airline and bought the ticket.  Well, my mom bought the ticket.  Thanks Mom!

Henry couldn't go because he's in the middle of his baseball tournament.  His team is playing in the championship game on Saturday!  I heard the boys discussing the trip in the back seat and when I turned around they were holding hands.  I quickly grabbed my phone and snapped a pic.  I love these boys.

My mom's brother is moving back to Indiana.  His two sons live out there and four of his grandkids. Hey Uncle Louie, Indiana is boring.  You grew up here, remember?  So Hayden and my mom will be driving Uncle Louie's Mustang back to Indiana.  It's a 3 day trip.  Hayden loved the airplane ride.  He took a bunch of pictures with his iPad.  I got to have a little FaceTime with him this morning.

Old Pictures

I spent most of the day sleeping and looking at old pictures.  I found two pictures, taken almost a year apart, that made me laugh out loud.  Hayden and Harrison are making the same ridiculous face in each photo.  I'm pretty sure that Harrison would kill me, if he ever sees this post. 

Camping 2007

Christmas 2007

Spike

I was cleaning out Spike's cage today and I noticed that his plastic, fake rock that he likes to chill on, was broken.  I asked the boys how this happened.  Henry swears that his little cousin broke it.  He told me that he caught Charlie spitting in his cage and squealing, "Spike is eating my SPIT!"  Last year, I caught the cousins feeding Spike skittles, so I believe it.  I'm gonna get him something new for his cage.  They have some pretty cool hammocks for Beardies.  I thought my bearded dragon was spoiled, but this one looks like he has the life.

This is a picture of Harrison holding Hurricane.  He was so little when we brought him home and we were so worried about him eating that first week.  He only lived for 3 years and when he died, it really crushed the boys.  I'm trying to decide whether I should take Spike back to school next year.  The students definitely LOVE it, but it's kind of a pain worrying about him eating and staying warm every weekend.

Friday

I'm so glad it's Friday.   My amazing science week is over.  I had a great time and I got to hang out with some pretty cool people.  I get to sleep in tomorrow and I'm soooo excited.  My plan tomorrow is to read most of the day with a bike ride in the middle.

I walked into Harrison's room today to talk to him for a minute.  He had all his running ribbons, bibs, etc. laying out on a table.  He took a week off from running and now he's back at it.  This kid is intense.  I wish I had his moxie.

The Old Ford Falcon

My mom took five of her grandkids to the pool today.  She has the summer off and she plans to spend a lot of time catching up with them.  My Granny used to take me to Mills pool when I was little.  My brother, cousin Jason, and I went on a lot of field trips with her every summer.   I remember her taking us to Mills pool, the library, the skating rink, Holiday World, the beach out at Fairfax and the zoom floom.   She drove us around in her old, tan, Ford Falcon.  That woman would drive off of the road and kill us all, to avoid hitting an animal and we loved every minute of it.  I have a lot of great memories of her.  I wish I could remember more about her.

I'm looking forward to physics day tomorrow at the Wonderlab.  I love the physics game page and I'm totally obsessed with the magic pen game.  I used to play this game all the time and then life happened or something.

science class

I started my science class at the Wonderlab today and I love it.  I love science and I really want to do more of it in the classroom next year.  I'm learning how to incorporate the language arts standards, so that I can pretty much do science all day, if I want.  I wrote a pretty amazing poem about the Wonderlab garden today, but I left it at the lab.  We played with termites and hissing cockroaches in class.  One group got brave and got the big guys out.  I stayed back because those things make me nervous.  They are about 4 inches long.

  Henry pitched again tonight.  He did a really great job.  He only walked one person and the other team only scored one run.  He also got to catch a little.  He was one happy little boy.

I caught Harrison yawning.  Totally cracked me up.  I love that he's wearing his Grinch pajama shirt to a baseball game in June.  Love this kid.

My mom took all the grandkids home tonight, minus Harrison.  I hope they all behave for her and have fun.  We have a pretty wild crew.

Juggling

We went to the pool today and got a little show.  The boys watched them for almost 30 minutes.  These guys were very entertaining, especially when the sun went behind the clouds.

soccer

Hayden had his last soccer game of the season today.  He scored a goal and almost scored a second, but the ball hit the top of the goal post.  I just have 2 more weeks of Henry's baseball and then all of the spring sports will be over.

The garage sale lasted about 30 minutes today.  I had no patience for it.  I spent the day driving loads of stuff to the Goodwill.  I'm waiting for Henry to go to baseball camp to get rid of the rest of the stuff.  Henry has a lot of nicknames, one of them is Henry the Hoarder.

The Blackhawks are winning.  One more win and they will be playing the Bruins for the Stanley Cup!

garage sale

I'm having a garage sale in the morning.  I'm not prepared at all.  I have loads of junk to sell, but nothing is labeled!!  Usually, I just give this stuff away.  I'm not sure why I'm having a garage sale now.  I've involved Harrison in this fiasco.  I have some change and no dollar bills to make sales.  It's time to panic people.  If I sell a few things tomorrow, I guess it will be a successful day.

Tomorrow is Hayden's last soccer game of the season.   I'm leaving in the middle of this garage sale to go to his game.  Harrison will be in charge during this time.  He asked if he could haggle with people.  I said, "sure," and he smiled from ear to ear.  This might not be so bad after all.

cute little dog

I played 2 softball games tonight.  I was super hyper during the games because I took a 3 hour nap today.  I was up coughing all night, so I invested in a little thing called NyQuil this morning.  That stuff is the bomb. It does its job every time, no questions asked.

I pitched both games.  I haven't pitched in awhile because my shoulder is so messed up.  Some days it just doesn't rotate.  Tonight, it was fine and I only walked one person.   I'm just gonna go ahead and give credit to the NyQuil.  I have another double header on Sunday, so I can test this little theory.

I saw this little dog sitting on the back of its owner's car today at O'Malia's.  He was just sitting there waiting for his person to finish shopping.  I want a puppy, but Hayden is allergic to dogs and he can hardly handle being around Stormy.

Twins started hockey tonight.  They have to travel to Columbus every Thursday until our rink opens back up in October.  With gas at $4.25 a gallon, driving to Columbus is going to be very expensive.  Speaking of hockey, the Blackhawks just beat the Kings and we are now up in the series 3-1!!!

Track and Field

Harrison had his track and field banquet tonight.  It was about 3 hours long and the twins started to lose it.  They were begging to leave.  I think they ate more food in those 3 hours, than they have all week.

Harrison got a chevron and was pretty irritated about how his season ended.  He missed going to regionals by .04 of a second.  He was part of the sectional team that won first place and Coach Clark asked them all to sign the trophy.  I thought that was pretty cool.  I asked Harrison if I could get a picture of him holding the trophy and he pretty much lost it.  I think it brought back all the memories of that night.  He worked so hard all season and during the off season.  He never missed a workout, never took a day off and to miss it by .04 of a second sucks.   

So I took a picture of him with his little brothers instead.  He managed to smile for a second.

Baseball, baseball, and more baseball

We have watched a lot of baseball lately.  IU has had an amazing season this year and they are now headed to the super regional in Florida.  Henry and I went to 2 of the 3 games this past weekend and had a blast.  I REALLLLLLY want to go to Florida and watch them play, but I have no money or time right now.

Henry went to a baseball clinic in Terre Haute on Saturday.  The clinic was run by a bunch of retired MLB players.  Henry loved it.  He got all of their autographs and his picture taken with Gene Hiser, an old Cubbie.  

Here's Henry and Ron Kittle.   

Henry had a double header tonight and he finally got to pitch.  He's been dying to pitch all season.  Henry pitched a lot last season, but he's playing in the majors now with some really big kids.  A couple of the kids on his team are going to be in the 8th grade next year.  He pitched almost 3 innings and did a pretty good job.  I taught my little soccer player how to keep the book while his brother was playing.