Third Grade Drama

I guess you can see from the date on the paper below that this happened back in October, but now that I have a scanner I just had to post this.

It's a little hard to read since it was written in pencil, but it's just so darn cute and third grade-ish! I found this on a clipboard and I knew right away that it was the same paper I had seen John David hunkered over a little earlier. At the time, he was madly "in like" with a girl named Caris in his class. Kyler, another girl, was going to help him in his attempts to woo her. As fate would have it, he is now "arch enemies" with Caris and head over heels for Kyler. =)

Then we have this paper which is much more recent. The back story is that a 4th grade girl had been chasing John David and Braeden all during recess. So the two boys decided they would leave the following note on her coat hook.

Too bad she took the note home and her parents saw it. They took it seriously (which I can assure you - it wasn't anything serious!) and the boys went to the principal's office. A warning note was sent home and we had the obligatory talk with John David explaining why you can't write notes like that. Then we sent him to bed and had a good laugh.....

Getting Out of Bed on School Mornings

School mornings come early around here. It's so dark and sooo cold outside that pulling back the big down comforter and putting your bare feet on the frigid wood floor is just short of torture. The kids apparently agree (as demonstrated by their oh so convincing "I don't want/need to go to school today" pleas every morning).

When I go into John David's room to wake him up he usually moans something along the lines of, "Ohhhhh, not again!" I "gently" remind him, "Son, morning comes everyday.

Julia is especially hard to get up since she sleeps on the top of a bunk bed that has big side rails. We also have to keep the ladder put away (one word: Joshua) so I can't exactly get to her. If she doesn't want to get up (which is pretty much every morning), she just scoots to the side of the bed that's against the wall and pulls the covers over her head. A few days ago I started stroking her and telling her good morning and she sat up quickly, looked around and, in the most disgusted voice ever, said, "Are you kidding me??? It's morning already? Ughhhhhh!" Of course, she immediately laid back down and pulled the covers over her.

Today, John David's room was especially cold for some reason so I crawled under the blankets to snuggle with him and wake him up. I asked him if he could wake up and go anywhere he wanted, where would he go? He only thought for a moment before answering, "Colorado", so he could visit Grandmamma and Dodie (my parents). So sweet.

On to Julia's room next. My little question had helped John David wake up easily enough so I decided to try it on Julia too. "Julia, if you could wake up today and go anywhere you wanted, where would you go?"

That child didn't skip a beat. "Back to bed," she said.......

And then pulled the covers back over her head.

The Girls Sing and a Snippet of the Christmas Program

We're so excited here at our house that Christmas is only 7 days away! After school today, Julia decided to throw a birthday party for Jesus with Aulora since Aulora didn't get to have a school party. They put stuffed animals in all the chairs and set out treats and decorations. They even had a goody bag ready in the corner. I heard them from upstairs and Julia was leading Aulora in singing the birthday song. Too cute! I had them do it again for the camera. You'll see in the video that Aulora was a little busy enjoying her treat to sing again.

The school program was last night. It was very sweet and the kids were pumped about the night. I tried to take more video but I had a little too much help from Mr. Joshua. Enjoy. =)

Teacher Treat & Bible Character Day

A couple of weeks ago I made a double batch of my mother-in-law's yummy walnut muffins for the school teachers. I sprinkled them with a tiny bit of powdered sugar to make them pretty and then I bagged them in sets of 6.

I tied them up with raffia and added a twig and some leaves from the yard. The kids took them to the teachers' lounge and they didn't last long, I was told. If we had a working printer I would have printed out some fallish looking tags that had some meaningful words on them.

Here's John David dressed like Lazarus for Bible character day at school. The kids were told to dress up like someone of something from the Bible. We talked about a number of options.

Daddy suggested perhaps one of them could be the "still small voice" that spoke to Elijah.

We quickly realized the impossibility of any of our children being something "still" and "small".

Then I (we both claim we had the idea first, but this is my blog so I say "I") had the idea to be Lazarus after Jesus called him back to life. "I" thought we could just wrap him up like a mummy and it would be clever, cheap, and easy.

Yeah, not so much. Thinking back, I don't know why this was so hard, but it was. I should have been able to find cheaper fabric but I used cheesecloth which was $1.75 a yard. I didn't want to spend a fortune so I bought 5 yards and even though I cut it into long strips, it still didn't go far enough. Of course we didn't try all of this until the morning of. Because that's how we roll.

Julia just wanted to be an angel so I just dressed her in one of her plain white dresses and bought her wings and a halo. Easy peasy and she was happy.

He did NOT want the strips around his legs. He's posing with a girl who was representing the verse, "And Jesus wept." An appropriate picture since the reason Jesus wept was because Lazarus had died.

(Oh man, it just hit me! I should have bought a couple of white flat sheets from walmart and just cut it up in strips. Arghhhh. Cheaper AND better. I'm so annoyed with myself now....)

Back To School Night (aka Open House)

Thursday was "Back to School Night" and the kids were SO excited about it. Every family was asked to bring a dessert so the evening started off with meeting other families and eating. It was night to talk to some other moms - I've yet to really make friends here yet so hopefully I didn't talk to much!

Julia adores Mrs. Jamie and I think the feeling is mutual. I teared up taking this picture because her teacher reminds me of my own kindergarten teacher. I remember being that age so clearly and look where I am now!

This is her seat for every day and she is busily working on a frame for a class picture.

This child loves, loves, loves school!

Julia was the student of the week and she had her own bulletin board in the lobby.

This is a picture she proudly made for the board.

I was able to get John David to stand still for a quick second with his teacher, Mrs. Nicks.

Daddy and John David worked together on a math project using candy corn. Julia just tried to eat it.

The 3rd graders were all excited about this math game they challenged their parents in.

His class had memorized two pretty lengthy poems that they recited for the parents. Of course, you could count on our son for some great animation and hand motions throughout the recitation.

Seriously though, he has really stepped out as a leader this year. I'm seeing things in him that I hadn't before. Glimmers of giftings and leadership that I somehow missed before. He is not a perfect student (behavior wise that is - grade wise he makes near perfect scores), but it's so neat to see how his character is being shaped. I'm thankful for a teacher who seems to also see these things in him. Instead of continually beating him over the head for every minor cut-up, she showers him with encouragement and pushes him to do better. She is a wonderful lady!

Airing Dirty Laundry Via Homework

John David is currently doing a science section at school about our senses. One homework paper was all about hearing and it wanted him to list five things he could hear right at that moment. His list?

• The TV
• Babies screaming
• My Mom
• Birds
• My breathing

How bad does that sound? Could he not have specified that the TV was tuned into PBS? Educational programming? Should I just be thankful the list doesn't say, "Mom screaming", instead of "babies screaming"? That would have earned a superb grade, I'm sure......