We went to Disney World!

We are back from our MAGICAL week at Disney World!  Since I blog simply to have a scrapbook of our life (and to keep in contact with loved ones that are far off), and I am making a separate scrapbook of our trip, this may be the only Disney blog!  We used a Disney travel agent and I will gladly give you her info.  It was a breeze to use her!!! We loved every minute of every day!  We got to spend time with my dear college friend Katie and her family each day, which was icing on the Disney cake!  The boys became Jedi knights and we discovered they LOVE LOVE LOVE roller coasters!  It was a wonderful experience and we cannot wait to go back! :)

Patterning.. GI Joe style

The boys had math homework the other night.  It was to use their toys to make ABB patterns.  So my GI Joe loving boys got busy and made some great Cobra-Joe-Joe patterns!

Teaching again!

Back in November the principal from my old school called to see if I would be interested in doing reading intervention with first graders for 12 weeks.  I would be doing the Leveled Literacy program and work with 16 kids.  It was only 4 days a week for half a day.  It took Jason and I about 5 minutes to decide yes!  Now we could pay for our upcoming Disney trip! The Lord provided once again...

So the week after Thanksgiving, I became a teacher again!  I had/have very mixed feelings about it all.  I am in my old classroom, which is awesome and weird all in the same breath!  It is HOME, but it is not the same.  Not that that is a bad thing... just different.  It was wonderful to be back home at my old school and see familiar friendly faces.  It warmed my heart to the fullest to be welcomed back.

 I have really enjoyed working with the small groups.  It is very fulfilling to teach kids to read.  I like still having an hour or two a days to run errands or do housework while the boys are at school.  And I got some new clothes too!

They say you can't go home again, but I've come awfully close!

Family Math Night

A few weeks ago, the boys school had Family Math Night.  It was AWESOME!!!  There were 6 lower elem game stations and 6 upper elem game stations, several estimation stations, 2 smart boards with games and door prizes!  Jacob won the very first door prize of the night - a new math game! :)

This was a fun adding game presented by Jacob's teacher.  Jacob's friend was at the station too, so this was a HUGE hit!  We have played this game several times at home.  Jacob was really excited to do his teacher's table first.

 This was a cool probablility and adding game.  It was a little slow, but still fun.

 Jason and Rylan loved the bean game!

 Jacob and I loving the adding competition!!! We are both numbers nerds! hahaha

Jacob's 2nd Lost Tooth

Four days later the other big front tooth was a wiggling up a storm.... Here's the last photo of Jacob with only one missing top tooth!

 Let the pulling begin!!!

Jacob was SO excited!  I'm not sure if he was more excited to have a new smile, know the tooth fairy was coming or that he was finally tied with Rylan on the number of teeth he had lost! ha ha

 Don't you love that new smile!?!??!

Jacob's First Tooth to Lose

Jacob has been wanting to lose his first tooth for months... maybe even years!  He had a wiggly tooth for several weeks.  We had attempted to pull it no less than 10 times (with the camera ready each time) but to no avail, that tooth would not come out!  Then one Thursday while I was tutoring the boys went to play with GPop and Granna.  A sword fight got a little agressive and the tooth was knocked!  Here is the last photo of Jacob with all his baby teeth.

 Jason and Jacob sat at the table annnnnnnnd....

the tooth was pulled!  What a glorious event!!!

 Seriously, there is no doubt that this kid is EXCITED!!!!!

 I love his new window smile!

 That night he wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy.

 Then he put the note and tooth in his Boyd Bear tooth fairy bear.  He fell asleep quite quickly so that the Tooth Fairy would come!

 Since it was his first tooth, she left him a toy and a gold dollar.  The toy was GI Joe Mutt and Junkyard.  He was SOOOOOo happy!

Rylan loves Legos!

The boys got several Lego kits for their BD in August.  Then they got some more sets for Christmas.  Rylan has become our resident Lego Expert!  He loves to put the kits together and also loves to just build "whatever I want to build."  We have sent many afternoon sitting on the kitchen floor making vehicles and parts of the GOld Mine.  I love these precious moments!

HBD Granna!

This year Mom's BD fell on a Wednesday and Popa was just home from the hospital, so we had a very low-key celebration.  After school, we all went down to Popa's to share a Cake Lady cake that was as delicious as pretty!

 The boys picked what candles to use and where to put them on the cake.  They they loved helping her blow them out!!

I think the best part of the day was sharing a table after so much stress-filled days and laughing as we celebrated my mom and all that she means to each of us!