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!



Happy Birthday Jackson (1 week late)

OK, so I missed Jackson's birthday post by a week. But honestly, we've been partying for at least the past week.

We started last Monday, Labor Day, with lunch @ Panera, a trip to Barnes & Noble and Petco.

Then I made homemade granola bars to send into school on your special day.

We went to Italian Village Pizza for supper on your birthday evening.

On Friday, we celebrated, once again, with a little supper-party @ our house with family. Jackson wanted Subway, so that's what we had (and delicious homemade veggie soup from Grammy Linda). Grammy Linda also made Jackson his Mario Bros cake he wanted.

This is me putting together the locker that Aunt Dana & Uncle Nate sent for Jackson's birthday.

Jackson got quite a few gifts: DS game, books, Legos, remote control boat, just to name a few!

So, just in case you were scared that we missed Jackson's birthday, fear not - I'd say we maximized the celebrations :) And why not? He's an awesome 9 y-e-a-r  o-l-d! I can't believe he's starting his last year as a boy in the single digits! Wow!



A Rose and a Thorn

I had a meeting today @ work and the consultant-guy asked all of us to 'play' rose and thorn where we identified one thing about our job that we really love (rose) and one thing that we really thought was rough (thorn). I carried that game home this evening and as we sat @ the supper table (eating a delicious crock pot meal), I asked the boys to name a rose and a thorn from today.

Jackson: "My rose was coming home and seeing all of you guys. My thorn was doing language in school today."

Jude: "My favorite thing about today was shouting 'Good good' @ school today. The bad thing was when we had to leave school."

I didn't want to forget this conversation, so I had to blog it!