The end of first grade

This has been a great year for Maggie. She has had to deal with transitioning to a full day. She also got a new teacher in the middle of the year. She has learned so much and has really grown up. I'm so proud of her!

I tried to get a picture of just Maggie to really show the comparison, but the best one was with her little brother. He yelled "CHEESE" as soon as I got out the camera and she started giggling.

I guess we're behind

On Sunday afternoon, Maggie and I were relaxing in the backyard.

I asked her what she learned in church from Mr. Mike in her class.

She said that they talked about when Saul met Jesus.

Then, she asked me what we talked about.

I told her that we talked about sometimes it's scary to go and do what God wants us to do it, but it's important that we do it anyway.

She looked puzzled.

She said, "We talked about that a LONG time ago."

I guess the adults are behind.

Our not so awesome weekend...

I have to say that I thought it was gonna be a good one. Owen's birthday party, Steven home for most of the weekend, pretty weather. Yea, not so much.

It started with a weird phone call from a student that got me in a funky mood on Friday morning.
I just couldn't get over it. It ended up not being a big deal, but I'm just in a weird place with my job. I love it most days. I just feel a little burnt out right now from it. It never ends, so there's not a good break and regroup time from it.

On Saturday morning, we were outside with the kids watching them play. Steven noticed some people pulling weeds from around the church. It was odd cause we didn't recognize anyone.

Steven finally realized that it was members of a local church. They pick projects around town and just help people. It was really nice of them. They pulled some weeds and picked up around the parking lot. Just stuff that we hadn't gotten a chance to do. I noticed that they picked up some trash from in front of our house. Our house is a very busy spot for walkers from the apartments to the park. So, there's always random trash that is dropped in the yard.

I went outside a little while later to water my plants. Steven and I planted zinnia seeds in the front bed about a month ago. We weeded and got rid of the old stuff there and I have been watering about twice a day for a month in the front bed.

Guess what was gone? My seedlings. They had just started to poke up their heads from the soil. I guess the volunteers thought that they were weeds and pulled them. They were all gone.

I know they are just plants. But, I lost it. Like had to go back to bed and put my head under the covers. I was so proud of those little seeds. They were ripped up.

I wasn't mad. I knew that they were just being helpful.

The rest of Saturday was uneventful. Steven had a wedding. Patrick and Maggie played outside most of the day. Patrick put on Steven's hat (he always puts it on backwards) and said "I Daddy. I dri(drive) tru (truck)." And walked towards Steven's truck. It was pretty cute.

After church, it was raining, so Maggie made a big tent. She wanted me to get in it with her. I laid down and she decided to put up a flashlight with scotch tape in the top of it. It fell and jammed into the side of my temple. It hurts so bad!

After Patrick woke up, we went back outside. He loves it out there. Maggie was swinging and eating a cookie. She swallowed her bite of cookie and accidentally swallowed her tooth. She was hysterically upset. I convinced her that the tooth fairy would still bring her some money.

She wrote a great letter to the tooth fairy that ended with "Can you still bring me my money?".

Tonight, we went to OSH and got some pretty geraniums for the front yard. We had the best ride there and home. Patrick was doing his arm dancing to Taylor Swift. I tried to get it on video. He is a great arm dancer! We sang and drove around for a while. We saw a double rainbow on the way home and where it started and ended. Just like the video!

When we got to our house, Patrick and Maggie both said, "NO". They were having a good family moment. I guess the weekend ended on a high note?

If I won $250,000...

The other night, Maggie and I were watching America's Funniest videos. It was a big show where they decided on the funniest video of all time. The winner won $250, 000.

I asked Maggie what she would spend on $250, 000.

Her immediate reply: I'd eat hot lunch at school every day.

At least she has big dreams.

Zhu Zhu babies

WARNING: This is an extremely CUTE blog!!

A couple of weeks ago, I got a package in the mail. It contained utter cuteness.

Maggie has several Zhu Zhu pets already. They get played with OCCASSIONALLY.

But, this was a box of babies.

According to Maggie, "everything is cuter when it's small and little."

We received a huge box of zhu zhu babies and a nursery that is powered by a big Zhu Zhu pet nurse. And the best thing of all was baby clothes!

Even Patrick loved them. I think it was because there was a tiny toy train for the Zhu Zhu babies to play with.

This is a big hit in our house. They get played with a lot and taken on the swing set and loved and cuddled.

And they are "little and cute"!

Field trip

Today, Maggie's class went to the farm. The last field trip to the farm that she went on in preschool didn't go so well. Who knew a kid could hold her nose for 2.5 hours?
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This one was much, much better! We went to a small farm in Stockton. I heard they have an excellent website.

Maggie's in a first/second grade combo class, so only the 1st graders went today. There were 15 of them. She has been with most of them for 2 years now and they are such a sweet, smart class of kids. It was really a lot of fun to hang out with them today.




The sun was so bright that Maggie "couldn't look up". Oh, the drama.


They loaded up on the bus, which was very exciting. Most of them had never ridden a bus before. They were very cute and nervous. Kirsten commented that you couldn't see them from the side because they were so short. It looked like an empty bus.



They went on a hay ride to see the orchard.



They picked strawberries. They got to pick out 5 strawberries. Maggie and Katelyn kept talking about how "fresh" they tasted.



They talked about what it takes to make a plant grow and they planted their own watermelon plants to take home with them.

It was such a fun day. I'm so glad that I get to go on these trips with Maggie!