Kaylee's 5th Birthday

Wow, I can't believe Kaylee is now 5. Last week was Kaylee's birthday. We decided to have Kaylee's party at the park this year. We invited some families that we knew, and had hamburgers and hot dogs. Then of course we did the cake and presents. Fun was had by all. Kaylee really enjoyed having my dad here for her birthday. He was in town for the week and actually had to leave the party early to catch his flight. Instead of trying to take pictures and video at the same time, I just filmed it with the flipcam and took pictures from it. I think the pictures turned out great. Here is just a sampling of pictures. (Yes, I know the cake is in the box but it was really windy and that is the only way the candle would stay lit!)

Tangled cake (however, all the rest of the decorations were Little Mermaid)
Blowing the candle

Wow my own Zuzu pet

Kaylee loves musical cards

Naomi's First Solo

The 1st grade classes at Naomi's school do a special Mother's Day program every year. The different classes sing a cute jazzed up nursery rhyme. And then the moms or grandmas go to the child's class for "tea". Naomi's class had a couple of solo parts in their song. And you guessed it Naomi was one of the soloist. Sorry I couldn't share the whole video but here is Naomi's solo. Her jazzed up nursery rhyme was Humpty Dumpty. She is wearing a nurses hat.

A Day Off = Trip to the Zoo

Last Friday, Naomi and I had the day off of school. Since we have a zoo membership, we headed to the zoo early Friday morning. We did not leave as soon as I would like so we had a hike from our parking spots. But we still enjoyed ourselves. The girls and I brought along Kaley (our babysitter) and Isaac (one of the boys from my church class). I don't know if it is because I have no sons or just Isaac but he has a special place in my heart. Here are few pictures of our day at the zoo:

Kaylee on carousel
Naomi on the carousel

The girls and Isaac by the giraffe

The girls and Isaac by another statue

I love the elephants especially the two babies (Baylor and Tupelo)

Kaylee always has to get a picture with this elephant statue!!

Field Trip to Galveston

Every year in April sometime, I bring my Aquatic Science classes to Galveston. This year because of increased class sizes, I went 3 times. I was short a chaperone one day so I dragged David along with me. And of course if David and I went, the girls had to come too!!! Naomi was so excited. She did everything the big kids did including filling out the field trip information and specimen records sheets. Kaylee just enjoyed all the attention from the teenagers. She also enjoyed helping find things and playing in the water. When Naomi returned to school the next day, she gave an oral report of the trip with pictures to her class. Her teacher and class LOVED it!! On a side note, her teacher did not even mark her absent! ;o) Here are the pictures that I took of the girls down there! There are plenty more on my student's cameras. My girls were definitely a hit. In fact, I had lots of babysitting offers after this!

Naomi with a marsh periwinkle snail
Kaylee with her periwinkle snail

Naomi shuffling her feet to help scare up animals into the seine net

Kaylee having a ball

Kaylee heading off on her own little adventure!!

Kaylee is Learning Math

Kaylee has always been and probably will always be my free spirit. She is becoming really head strong and has a problem listening especially to David. Last night David put Kaylee in a 5 minute time out for not listening. Once she got out, she was still not listening so she went back in for another 2 minutes. A little while after she got out, she said came to me and said, "Mommy, I was in time out for 7 minutes. Because I was in for 5 minutes and then for 2 more." My teacher friends all got a kick out of my daughter learning math from time outs. They were joking with me when she goes to kindergarten next year, and she is asked how she learned to add she will tell them she was in time out a lot!!

It Takes Talent...

I am truly talented or should I say accident prone. Last night while I was driving I jammed my fingernail into my steering wheel. Since I have fake nails over my real ones, my nail could not bend back. I knew it lifted up some but thought if I babied my finger it would be ok. Well, this morning on my way out the door I caught my nail on the front door and immediately had a rather sharp piercing pain in my finger. I did not realize what happened until I got to my car and noticed my nail was crooked and completely pulled out of the nail bed on one side. I drove to work and then went and saw my school nurse. She pretty much told me what I was thinking that my nail was going to have to be removed. She buddy taped it to my middle finger so I wouldn't bang it on anything else while I waited for my doctor's office to open to see if they could take care of it. Turns out my doctor's office could not take care of it so my option was the ER or urgent care. Since my students were doing a lab today, I held off going until my lunchtime because I only have one more class (6th) and conference (7th) afterwards. I also have a helping teacher in that class. One of my good friends has lunch at the same time as me and her conference is 6th so she brought me to the urgent care. After a wonderful shot to numb my finger, I am now nail-less. The doctor says it will take a few months for it to grow back. The urgent care was so fast that my friend made it back to teach her 7th period class. For the next couple of days I get to walk around with a wrapped finger and doped up on pain meds.

Oh, bother...

Today was an Eeyore kind of day. It all started off when I decided Naomi needed milk to drink this morning. When we got to my school, Naomi had placed the milk jug in the side pouch of her backpack and then laid it by my desk. Little did she know the lid was not on tight enough and so we ended up with milk spilling all over my floor and her backpack. So I had to rush to find a new bag of some sort for school. Luckily one of my good friends (the librarian) had a reusable bag for us to use. Once I obtained the new bag I hurried and moved her essentials to it. We just barely made her bus. Needless to say I started my 1st period of the day just a tad flustered. Things started to smooth out a little until my phone rang towards the end of 1st. I noticed via my email that it was the main number for Naomi's elementary school, which definitely could not be good. When I listened to the voicemail, I found out that in my haste to move things to the temporary bag I forgot to put in her homework. For most children this would not be a problem but for Naomi this was a crisis. To add insult to injury Naomi was doing video announcements this morning and I knew she was red faced and tear streaked. Luckily I can think on my feet and realized I could use the copier in the library and scan her homework to email and then email her homework to her teacher. So I called her teacher left a message and then called the front office. The front office ladies were wonderful and said they would tell Naomi right then. Whew diaster diverted. It would have be nice if my day had gotten better after this but alas things definitely got worse. At the end of my 2nd period, I tripped on my own feet (yes it happens) and one of my shoes broke. Argh!! I wish I could say I had a spare pair of shoes in my room but nope I do not. I even brought my rain boots home a couple weeks ago so I did not even have those. Therefore, I taught the rest of the day shoeless on hard concrete floor. Can you say aching feet? At this point, all I wanted to do was go home and go to bed. Too bad, I had to drive downtown for an interview at the zoo. Just got home a little before 9. I am ready to put this day behind me!!!!

Not Fair

Why is it that good teachers get punished and bad teachers get rewarded??? All this year, there has been a constant issue with the other teacher who was assigned to teach Aquatics with me. I don't know if it is lack of ability to relate to teenagers or poor teaching style. But the majority of the students that have her as a teacher do not like her. There has been constant complaints by students and parents alike to the adminstration about this. This really should not be my problem but it has become my problem because if the parents complain so much the student will get transferred to my class. At this point, we both teach the same amount of classes but I teach 43 more students than she does. Her biggest class is the same size as my smallest class. And she has 3 classes that only have 15 students. In conclusion, to get back to my title and my opening sentence I feel like I am being punished by being a better teacher. And the unfairness of it all comes to play right now as I am grading. Because 43 more students times each assignment we have to do is exponentially more papers to grade. Ok, now that I got this ranting done back to grades I go.

I Give Up

Sometimes computers are wonderful. Then there are other days when you just want to do the above. Tonight is one of those nights. First blogger would not let me upload the girls cute dance videos. Now I am trying to diligently get my grades done before the last minute but of course the server for my gradebook is acting up and won't let me input grades. ARGHH!!! Just goes to show you sometimes it doesn't pay to try and be efficient.

Christmas Dance Recital

The girls started taking dance lessons an hour a week back in September from a sister in our stake in her home. Naomi goes afterschool one day a week. And Kaylee goes during the day on Friday. Both girls learn a little ballet and tap. They both really enjoy dance and love their teacher. In December, each girl had a mini-recital during their last dance class that month. I really wanted to get a video of the girls dancing since neither of our parents live close enough to come watch. So I asked my friend if I could borrow her flip camera. My plan was for me to use the flip for video and David to use the digital for pictures. The plan worked perfectly for Naomi but somehow when it was Kaylee's day the flip camera's batteries were dead. Needless to say, I had to use our old digital to take video clips of Kaylee. Therefore, the video clips are not the greatest and I have very few pictures. Lesson learned: next time bring extra batteries (check to make sure equipment is charged). Here is a picture of Naomi and short video of Kaylee. (Blogger was not being really nice to me and I couldn't upload any longer clips. ARRGH!!! I will try uploading from school some other time.)