Costume Parade

This is my morning class at our Halloween party and costume parade. Aren't they so cute! My afternoon class was as well, I just have to find their pictures!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins EVERYWHERE!

We had a blast this year with our pumpkin unit! We measured, weighted, and decorated our pumpkins! Lots of fun!

Color Month

Can you guess what color it was today?!?!

I see....

We sure have been busy in Kindergarten! We've been talking a lot about details and how we add details to pictures and to sentences to make them come alive. This was a really fun new activity that I came up with to help with details! Everyone had a partner and they had to study each other for 1 minute without talking. They were suppose to notice the details about each other. Then they colored the body on the paper to match what their partner looked like and they had to add as many details as they could. Then we finished it up by writing the sentence I see....

We had tons of fun!

What does a bluebird, flamingo, and a crow all have in common?

So here is this years Halloween costumes! I think these ones are the best yet. Every year I make the nieces and nephews costumes and of course they have to be in a theme. Some of the past costumes have been:

Garden: ladybug, flower, spider, bee

Scarecrow

Pirates

Superheros: Batman, Robin, Bat Girl, Super Women, and Super Girl

Fairies

80's girl and a hippy

This year was the year of the birds! I wish I would have gotten one good picture of everyone together, but the rain had everyone in a hurry this year. Added to the crow, bluebird, and flamingo we also had the twins as a blackbird, and a cute red parrot.

Halloween in Boise

Where has the time gone! I've got lots of catching up to do! In October my parents, Lola and I went to Boise to spend time with the Means family. We had lots of fun picking out costumes, pumpkin hunting, eating at fun resturants and shopping of course!

Lion King

It was months ago that Lexie and I decided to go see the Lion King at the Capital. I was so excited to see a good show! I haven't seen any really good shows since I left Vegas. I really miss that. So we made a day of it. We went to SLC and had dinner at the Lion House. It was....just okay! Not as amazing as I have heard and kinda pricey! After dinner we went to the show. It was sooooooo good! The costumes were AMAZING! I would find myself just staring at the characters trying to figure out what part was person and what part was costume. It was great! We headed back for the night and ended up in crazy traffic but we got a good chance to catch up while waiting and waiting to get home. The next morning we went to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast and ended up shopping more than eating! I found some super cute stuff and I'm sure will show up in a future post! Thanks Lex for a fun weekend!

Halloween Here We Come!

I get a little bit CRAZY with Halloween. I LOVE IT! Every year I make my nieces and nephews their costumes. Of course they all have to be a theme. Can you guess what this years theme will be?! And yes....they are already started! I can't wait! My sister and I had a little crafting day. I was working on costumes and I found these cute pumpkins on a blog so we decided to try it. I think they turned out great!

Moosetache

We have had such a great time in Kindergarten lately! For the letter M we ready the story Moosetache. I LOVE this story it is so funny. It is all about this moose who had this crazy mustache and he can't control it! He tries everything to tame it and nothing works. One day he trips over his mustache and falls into a beautiful girl moose with beautiful hair. He asks the girl moose how she takes care of her beautiful hair and she told him her secret is glue. They fall in love and get married and they say I do...glue! After we did an author study on the book we made our own Moosetache. It was a random idea and it think it turned out great. What do you think?

Bear Lake....reunion!

I have a hard time calling this post a reunion because a reunion would require some time apart and really my family isn't very far from each other! We see each other quite often compared to other families that really only get together once a year. But anyway....My family and I attended an charity auction for a teacher in Nibly that has Cancer. It was a really fun! The nieces and I got wrapped up in bidding for different items. I was so excited when I saw a cabin rental up for rent for a weekend. So I quickly got on the phone to see what the sisters would put in. We all agreed to go for it! All in the name of a good cause. I really didn't think my frugal dad would go for it because essentially it was his money! But he shocked us all and said to do it! We watched and watched to make sure nobody was outbidding us. It was pretty funny because we stayed there forever! And the girls would run and check out the bids and we would hurry and out bid them. Well it came down to the last 5 minutes of the bid. And someone had out bid us by $50.00 but I knew those people had already left so we quickly added another $5.00 to the bid and WON! It was great.

We had a great time in Bear Lake for the weekend. It was a perfect cabin with room for EVERYONE! The views were great, the company was so much fun, the food was abundant, and the laughs were plentiful! My dad and mom did so much work planning everything and we all appreciate it so much! I think we might have a yearly tradition!

Ready to Learn S'more!

This is my welcome to kindergarten wall that is just outside my front door of my classroom. Lex, Haden and Regan came to school with me one day to help get it put up. I think it turned out really cute. Regan was such a big help, someday that girl will become a world class organizer of some sort. She kept me on track all day and worked really hard! She had the cute idea of adding the cute little sayings to the signs and flags. The say Camp-Learn-A lot, Fishing for Knowledge, Ready to Learn Smore, and Happy Campers This Way!

I decided to keep with the camping/outdoors theme this year but added some new elements. I added some really cute owls. I got rid of the tent and playhouse and added the cute camping chairs with the giant leave canopy. We are going to be the Green Bears in the morning and the Blue Moose in the afternoon! I've found it so much easier to keep track of morning and afternoon stuff if I give each section a color.

All my hard work!

So my mom has been asking for some pictures of my room while it was still clean and organized. In other words, before the kiddos show up! So here it is the day before school starts and I'm finally getting some pictures posted! Every year we do a big bulletin board in the hallway for all of the kindergarten classes. I love the crayons! I think it turned out really cute! All the items on the shelf were gifts over the years from some fabulous teachers and friends!

Where has time gone!

Where has the time gone! I kinda had a slow start to the summer, with the bad weather and really not much planned at the start of the summer. But things have slowly gotten busier and busier and now I'm looking at the rest of the summer and wondering how I'll get everything in. Here are just some of the highlights...so far!

Cassidy was involved with Arise a Youth Spectacular! (or something like that) It was AMAZING! Of course I only had my phone and I don't even know if a camera could have captured the magnitude of the event. 3500 youth, 500 adults, and lots of money went into this project. It was a chills up the spine moment to see so many teenagers make a good choice and participate in this event.

Everyone came to support Cassidy at her event. Grandma and Grandpa Thomas, Grandma Smith, her aunts, uncle, cousins, and family. Even Sharla and Jeramiah came from Boise. The twins are getting so big and I love any moment we get to spend with them. Logan and I (at 6:00am in the morning) had a 20 minute argument about seeing Cassidy in the show. Because there was so many youth on the field it was really hard to spot Cassidy. So the twins never really "saw" her perform. They both kept on asking "where's Cassidy?" We would answer "she is coming, or she is in the dressing room, or she is over there." So when I said to Logan "did you like seeing Cassidy in the show?" he said "No, Cassidy wasn't in the show!" I said "Yes, she was! She was the angel!" He said, "No she wasn't, she was in the dressing room, and wouldn't come out!" Oh well, I know Cassidy was glad they came!

I went with my parents to Boise for a little vacation to start the summer. Sharla and her crew ran in a race and so we came to help out with the kids. We were happy that Taelor decided to come at the last minute. She is such a good kid! We ate at Rocky's in Boise. It was part of the show Man vs Food. I love that show! We didn't take the challenge like they did on the show, but the food was still really good!

Even Taelor ran in the race with the team. Logan and Lauren ran in the 1/2 mile race. It was so cute. They had an ice cream truck and all the kids chased it around the block. Lauren made it around the corner and something told me I should go check on Lauren. So I ran to meet them around the corner. There was Sharla holding Lauren as she cried! I took her so Sharla could go join the rest of the crew. I asked Lauren why she was crying and she said she didn't want to chase the truck, she just wanted to stay with her Kiki (that's me)! I love that girl! Logan and Taelor were amazing! They finished the 1/2 mile and then went right after to run the mile. Logan loved that people were cheering the little guy on!

I went to Logan with the crew to celebrate Rachel's birthday. We went up to USU to look around. It had been a VERY long time since I had been up there. Funny, it still looks the same. I don't have very good memories as a student at USU. But I still love it! We went in the Bookstore and found a killer deal on backpacks so I bought the lot of them new backpacks for school. It was so much fun to have Payson with us for the weekend. When I moved to Rexburg, Payson and I spent a lot of time together at Grandma Ree's house. We would have Carrie and Payson days and go do whatever he would choose. He has gotten so big and I don't get to see him as often but he is still the same old lovable Payson!

Karen and Ron took on the huge task of being a Ma and Pa for Trek this year. They had a lot of preparation to do and planning! Grandma LaRee and I stayed with the kids while they played Pioneer for the weekend. They hiked 28 miles in 2 days! They were pretty miserable when they came home. Blisters and dirt EVERYWHERE! But they had good stories to tell and you could tell they were proud they did it. I've read some of the emails and notes from the kids in their "family" and I was touched! They really made a difference in those kids lives and the made memories that they will have forever! Cassidy made it! I thought she was going to be a MESS but she did it! She didn't have the amazing experience that her parent had with her family, but she learned that she can do and deal with situations and things that she didn't think she could before.
The rest of the kids and I had a blast! Grandma cooked, and we played!

Ron, Lex, Regan, Haden, Greg, Kade, and I traveled to Pocatello to watch Garrett at the State High School Rodeo Finals. Garrett made it to state in EVERY event so he was a busy guy and I didn't get a picture of him. But Wyatt came up for a little bit and visited. I LOVE watching Haden with the Smith boys. He loves them so much and just wants to be just like them. It doesn't matter where or why but you can always find him next to Payson, Kade, Greg, Garrett or Wyatt. The poor thing just doesn't get a chance to be around "boys"!

Well, that is it for now! I can't believe I'm already thinking about back to school ideas! The way I've been going with this blog my next post will probably be about my new class! Wish me luck!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know...totally out of order and very late. But what can you do! We had a very interesting Mother's Day this year. We were all very excited about making gifts this year. But...my kids decided it would be a good week to fall apart! I have such a GOOD class but we were ALL having a off week. But we made it and the outcome was so cute! Each leaf had a word the kids would use to describe their mothers. They put words like owsm, kut, wundrfl, kind, and nis. Can you read kindergarten?

Bye! Bye! Butterfly!

At the end of April we became the proud parents of 13 caterpillars! We watched them grow and eat, and grow and eat some more! It was crazy how big they got and how quickly it all happened. We named some of the caterpillars. We had Dolf, Fuzzy, Caterfly, Creepy, Goldie, and some that I can't remember. It was an exciting day when all the caterpillars formed into a chrysalis. Then the real waiting began. It seemed like forever but suddenly one day they came out! They were so pretty and fun to watch. But I learned from experience (not a very pleasant one) that we can't keep them very long or they would die. So, we quickly released them out into the wild/playground! We are all sure they are flying to Mexico in hopes of some warmer weather!

Miss Rodeo Utah

It's not a secret that I LOVE rodeo! So my last unit in Kindergarten each year has been about cowboys/cowgirls and rodeo. The kids love it and so do I. This year I was lucky enough to come in contact with Miss Rodeo Utah Chris Wade. She agreed to come and talk to the kids about rodeo. She was fantastic. It is not a small task to entertain 150 kindergarten kids but she handled it like a pro. She brought a saddle, spurs, chaps, and a roping dummy for the kids to see. It was a fun day and hopefully she will help us get the next Miss Rodeo Utah to come next year!

Wild West Performance

You know when you get behind with your blog and so much has happened it seems way to overwhelming to try and catch up! But I'm going to attempt!

We have been having so much fun in kindergarten lately! We have been busy, busy, trying to get EVERYTHING in before the end of the year. On May 5th we had our kindergarten Wild West Review. I was so proud of my kiddos. They did such a good job. I was so happy that my sister, her crew, and my parents were able to come and see it. My mom and dad haven't missed a performance sense I've started teaching. They were even in Vegas for one! I of course do not have any great pictures because I was busy running around and freaking out. But here are a few to share!

When I grow up I want to be...a PENGUIN!

So this year I have really been battling the winter blues. The best way for me to get through them is to take on a fun new project for my kiddos. I came up with the idea of having a penguin day at school. I encouraged the kids to dress up in black and white and to get ready to be mommy and daddy penguins for the day. Then I bought plastic Easter eggs and put a beak and googly eyes on them and turned them into baby penguins. I gave each kid their baby and told them it was their job to take care of them all day. It was so much fun! They were so careful with their babies and always kept their eye on them. Some of the kids were putting their eggs in their socks, hats, pockets, pencil boxes just to keep them safe. The best part of the day is when I pulled out the snack. I told them we would eat what penguins eat. I opened a can of sardines. The kids about died! We smelled them and poked them and even pulled one out but decided they didn't look very yummy. So we went with Goldfish crackers and washed them down with Arctic water (blue cool-aid) It was such a fun day and it covered what we needed to learn about arctic animals and Antarctica!

Don't you LOVE this picture!

We practiced waddling with our babies on our feet. We decided that was not an easy thing to do!

How do those penguins do it?

What good mommy and daddy penguins I have!

We even pretended that we could slide on our tummies just like they do.

Where has the time gone?!?!

Here we are already heading into March and I never got a chance to blog about Valentine's day! We had a great time in kindergarten. I had two very different experiences that day. Usually on Valentine's Day we don't do a huge party. I keep it pretty low key because the end of year party is a BIG one. Plus we were celebrating Valentine's Day on a Friday and that is our short day so we didn't have a lot of time. So in my morning class I had a couple of moms come in. They totally helped me get things ready and then we decorated cookies and passed out Valentines. Everything went so smoothly we ended up with enough time for the kids to go through their boxes. It was so much fun to see the excitement on their faces as they looked through everything. We even had enough time to go outside for a short recess and get all that sugar out. I usually don't get a chance to "play" with the kids and it was really fun to do that.

My afternoon class was a huge success. I had a fabulous mom who asked to come in and do a craft. They made the cutest love bug hats and then they played bingo. I felt really bad because we had a TON of parents come in to help. I LOVE the parent support at my school. I must admit I'm so use to doing everything myself that it is still a little hard to delegate. The kids had a great time. I hope they know how much I appreciate them!

It was interesting as I compared the two different classes and just how different they are. They all had so much fun even with one class being very chill and the other class being busy, busy.

I'm so thankful for the parent support I have at my school! I tell the kids daily that we wouldn't be able to do any fun things if it wasn't for them! I appreciate you all so much! I loved going through my Valentine box. My nieces and nephews were more than happy to help me go through all the cards and treats!

Afternoon class decorating cookies

Morning class checking out their loot!

Getting ready to pass out cards and treats!

Ariel's Grotto

One of the highlights of this trip! It was really cool and I totally recommend Ariel's Grotto. Especially if you have little girls that LOVE the Disney Princess. We really don't have anyone who is CRAZY for them, but it was cool anyway. The service was fantastic and the food was really good too. I was worried that the kids wouldn't find much to eat but they loved it. Plus not having to wait in line for a minute with the the Princess was all worth it. They came to the table and spent a lot of time posing and taking pictures with the kids. It was fun!

California Adventure

We said goodbye to Disneyland and headed to California Adventure. We had a lot of fun there and some not so much fun there! We had a blast going to Playhouse Disney because Logan and Lauren LOVE Mickey's Clubhouse and Handy Manny. So they thought it was awesome. Logan was yelling when it was over "Ohhh TOOTLES!" and it was very cute. I love the Bug's Life 3D show. It creeps me out every time, but I love it anyway. The crowds were so much better in CA that we could actually breath a little bit.

Now...for the not so much fun. BEWARE THIS PART MIGHT BE CONSIDERED TMI. But it needed to be documented!

Taelor had gotten sick in middle of the night and decided to stay at the hotel with mom and dad for the day. Which was the best decision because it was rainy and kinda cold. Then the next day Haden started puking and we tried to have him stay, but he was so sick so Karen ended up taking him back to the hotel. Then Lex started puking and so I took her back to the hotel and stayed with the kids so Karen could come back. Not long after that Cass called and said she felt bad and then Regan puked as well. So much for an exciting New Years Eve in California Adventure. We were all asleep by 11:00. The good news...it was only the 24 hr bug and everyone was good to go the next day. So we left our mark ALL OVER California that week. Haden left his mark in Adventure Land. Lex on the Vineyard in California Adventure. And Reg in the line for Tower of Terror and again on the plane ride home. Cass and Tae did good and kept it to the bathroom at the hotel.

Oh ya....did I mention we lost Taelor and didn't realize it for 1/2 an hour! More on that to come in the next post!

And They Lived Happily Ever After

This trip was a once in lifetime experience. We had so much fun and it was great to be able to experience Disney through the kids eyes. We had the best of both worlds. Small enough kids to go on all the kiddy rides and big enough kids to have a partner on Tower of Terror. We built memories that will last a lifetime.

Here are some things I don't want to forget that happened!

Mom getting stuck in the railroad tracks

Lauren LOVING the teacups

Giving Logan and Lauren their first taste of gum

Dad saying.."I don't know where I've been and I don't know where I'm going." Poor guy!

Haden and I have a great converstation while he stood over the toilet puking

Logan, Lauren and I playing while the rest were on a ride. We just talked and played pretend.

Cass putting the chocolate shell up to her ear to see if she could hear anything

Seeing Goofy take Logan's hand and walk him up to his house. Logan couldn't stop kissing his nose.

Logan also wanted to kiss one of the princess and it was so obvious she didn't want him to so she kept on patting his cheek. He wasn't easily let down!

Lauren and Woody

Spending time with my family and laughing so hard my stomach hurt

Lexi sleeping between Mom and Dad

It's A Small World

It's A Small World was by far my favorite ride. I know it is kinda cheesy but I loved it. For one reason...we all got to go together. And two it was so cool all decorated for the holidays. I love it!

Teacups and Dumbo

We finally found a ride that Lauren liked. She LOVED the Teacups! When she got off the ride she said to Jeremiah "I love that ride. That was fun!" Then she pointed at Alice in Wonderland and said "That ride is too scary for me." There are a few rides in Disney and CA that just make me sick. So I volunteered to stay out with the babies. One time I was playing with the kids while everyone went on Soaring Over California. And they would do roll call and say "where's Haden go? where's Lexie go?" (and on and on) And I would say they are on a scary ride for big kids only. Lauren would say "To scary for me? Yes, to scary for you. To scary for you Kiki?" Yes to scary for me too" Then when everyone got back Logan ran up to Ron and said "Ron! Did you see monsters and ghost?" I couldn't figure out what he was taking about and then I realized that scary to him means monsters and ghosts!