Christmas 2011

I've been a little 'slacky' on the blog posts (as I'm sure you've noticed but so kindly didn't bug me about it).

Since I'm on Christmas break, I guess I have no reason to not put up a new post ;)

Christmas celebrations started on the 23rd with supper the family at a local Chinese place - yummy! Even Aidan joined in the good stuff (A little shout out to Aidan who turned 1 on 12/20 - what an awesome little guy).

We all gathered at my parents' house on the 24th for breakfast, gift opening, hanging around, and finally the traditional Polish supper of fish, pierogies, mushroom soup, and lots o' cookies :)

Pop with Aidan and Jude

 Aidan

Opening gifts



Ready for church.

Jackson sang in the school/church choir!

Our Christmas tree

(Looks like Santa came:)

Christmas morning @ our house.

Jackson tried getting up ~ 3:30am but I told him to go back to sleep.

Everyone was up ~ 6:30

Jackson's favorite gifts: Claw machine, Kinex Mario Cart, and Star Wars III for DS

Jude's favorite gifts from Santa: Lego sets, police set, and Playmobil ambulance

My loot from Jeremy - my favorite is the race bib hanger he made me :)

Now I don't have to put them in a box and store them away.

After opening gifts from Santa, we went to Grammy Linda and Pap Jer's house for more fun, a yummy lunch, and gifts.

Linda made the boys hat/beard combos.

Kiddos all playing with Jackson's claw machine (from Grammy Linda and Pap Jer).

We finished out Christmas day @ my parents' house with a turkey dinner and a sleepover!

This was a great Christmas!



The Big Apple

We took the boys to NYC this past weekend. Interestingly, we took them to NYC the same time last year (becoming a tradition? I hope so). We went to see the tree in Rockefeller Center. The scaffolding was still up around it but that's OK, we still got the idea and honestly, the boys enjoyed seeing the workers putting the final lights on.

We drove to NJ on Friday, stayed over night, got up bright and early on Saturday and drove to Hoboken, NJ to catch the train into the city. From there we transferred to the subway and rode that to 59th St. & 5th Ave.

Highlights in upper Manhattan included:

Plaza Hotel

A walk through Central Park 

Lunch at Whole Foods in the Time Warner Building (Columbus Circle).

Strolling along 59th Street/Central Park

FAO Schwartz

Central Park Zoo

We then jumped on the subway and headed to Rockefeller Plaza.

Highlights:

Lego Store

Each of the boys created Lego mini figures (they have been waiting all week year to get back here).

Hey, there's the tree (in the background with the curtain over it)!

On the subway once again to Herald Square (34th St) to take a quick peek @ Macy's; always so exciting to see all the parade prep the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Before we knew it, we were beat and it was time to leave the city for our 5.5-hour ride home!

Another great trip to NYC.

Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving week! One of the best weeks of the year! I have lots to do, including a new post on here. I promise it's coming! Got lots of great photos to share from our trip to NYC!

T-o-T

Trick-or-Treat!



A Great Weekend Visit

Way back in the early days of my teaching career, when I was much closer in age to my students,  I became friends with one of my students who I kept in touch with since she graduated in 2003. Since her graduation, Amy has moved around the country, married a fantastic guy, had four incredibly beautiful and awesome kiddos, and settled just outside of Erie. It seemed fitting to visit Amy's gang this past weekend since I had a conference in Erie. Amy kindly opened her house to my family for the weekend and we had a wonderful time with her family!

I made a banana pumpkin bread for the family and Sophia (who is usually called FiFi) found it and sampled it just to make sure it was OK for everyone else! She told Amy that it tasted like it was birthday cake. I'd say that's the 'OK' for everyone else to eat it! FiFi is 2&1/2 but can talk like nobody's business!

 Amy, Ian, and the kiddos took us to the Erie Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun and every kid had fun. This was part of the gang standing outside of the museum.

From left: Sophia, Clint, Alivia, and Jackson

Jackson trying to make the world's biggest bubble!

Me in the antigravity mirror

The two 4-year-olds. Jude and Clint are just 2 weeks apart. 

 Jackson and Jude coming down the slide

Jackson playing with a recycling exhibit

Oh Jude! They had a face painting station........

My absolute favorite room was the grocery store - the kids could walk around and get items from the shelves and check them out. There was an old cash register to 'check out' the food. This is totally where I would've spent hours as a young gal!

Our one shot of all 6 kiddos.

Sophia, Clint, Sam, Jackson, Jude, Alivia

A cute but sad site: all of Amy's kids waving as we were pulling out this morning.

Although my boys wanted to get back to their house, they didn't want to leave. Jude spent the evening crying last night. He told me, "I want be at our house but I don't want to leave this house." His idea was to hook Amy's house up to our car and pull it home with us with, "...everyone inside and Henry(the dog) too!"

The 2 Amys!

What a great weekend. And yes, I did go to my conference!

Thanks to the Hetricks for the hospitality and friendship!

Open House

We went to Open House @ Jackson's school on Monday night.

This is always one of my favorite evenings - we get to meet his teacher, see his room (and this year, his locker), buy books @ the book fair.

Here are some of the highlights:

Good habits are encouraged!

 Say please, say thank you, pray, smile, be respectful, listen, study!

Here it is - the entire reason Jackson loves 3rd grade - the locker!

Mrs. Stevens uses positive reinforcement in her classroom. Every kiddo gets and apple and if you keep your apple in the top of the tree, you can earn various levels of rewards.

She also had the kids work together to collect pebbles in a jar; once the jar is filled, the class gets to watch a movie and have a snack.



This is a view of the entire classroom. Jackson's seat is close to the back of the room.

This is Mrs. Stevens. I'm not sure how long she's been teaching @ St. Mike's but she's very good and seems to be totally in tune with the needs of 3rd-graders. Jackson's happy, we're happy, it's a good year!

Honestly, if we all followed this simple rule, wouldn't life be better?

Classroom rules.

My favorite is "Think before you speak."

It's hard to believe that we'll be visiting 2 classrooms next year!