This made my day...

I got on fb this morning before school and I read this:

if your mom is or was your hero, your best friend, or just the best mom ever; if you are blessed to still have your mom or if she is an angel in heaven, then copy and paste this as your status and let everyone know you are proud of your mom, and that you love her dearly. You can replace a lot of people in life, but you only have one mom!

Jack posted that and I thought it was the sweetest thing.  I mean I know he used to think I was the greatest thing in the world, but that was before middle school, LOL.  Lots of hormones in the last couple of months especially, so that really hit home and made my day!  Love that kid!! Great way to start the day :)




Me and Jack

Trying to get someone excited to be in this picture with me, LOL



Weekend ramblings......

My weekend started off by me talking to Danny's teacher about his progress. Ya know when your gut tells you your right, but your heart feels a little bad.  I know he should repeat first grade.  I should practice what I preach.  I tell parents who have this same question that they'll never regret it. I kept Jack back in 2nd grade but we moved here so it was no big deal.  And Jack thanks me everyday, well not everyday but you know what I mean.  My head tells me to do it.  I know it's only January but I've been feeling this way all year.  And his teacher totally is on board, but she thinks he might have processing issues as well.  The problem is, his class, actually his whole grade level is so needy, so he definetely will not be tested this school year. I think I'll question myself until September is over, then I'll be so glad I did it. I just keep thinking of the other kids saying , "Danny why are you still in first grade?"  Ugghhh!  Anyway, so how's everyone elses weekend going?   As usual, we've been running around all over the place, so my weekend has flown!!!  Jack and I went shopping this morning, I cannot wait for spring, I'm so done with this weather.  We went to JoAnn's to buy some things I need for the Valentine craft the kids are making for their parents.  Then we went to Dick's to check out some lax shorts......I cannot wait for lacrosse to start, that means spring will be here soon, yay!  Jack wants these shorts, I think they're so cute but he also wants these:
kinda crazy patterns but way better than last years~U-G-L-Y.  Then we were off to his basketball game, we got crushed and he fouled out, it was a bummer.  The only upside was that we were at this gorgeous school, where money obviously grows on trees, even the headmasters house which was on the campus was unbelievable, it looked like it belonged on the shores of Nantucket.  So pretty. I sent my resume there last year when we all got our pink slips, but they had no openings, bad timing. Oh well, it's almost time for the Pro Bowl, got to go drool over Hawaii :)

One more thing...

What a touching story......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elaXeN15isM

Snow Day #6

Well here we are at snow day #6, what is going on with this weather?  I was watching the Today Show this morning and all of a sudden it clicked off to our local news and has been on ever since, BECAUSE the major news of the day is what else...THE SNOW, that only means one thing, all the good shows will be pre-empted so that the media can dwell on the storm.  I had to turn it off when they actually interviewed someone on how to make an igloo for safety...wth??? So here I am on the computer instead. I read some blogs this morning and  everyone seems to be getting into Valentine's Day, actually my sister has been planning hers for over a month now, it's going to be so adorable, I can't wait to see the pics.  I found these on some other blogs, very cute ideas.....
this idea came from here
and this one came from here. I thought this was very appropriate for our side of the country right now and I think the colors are so pretty.
And this came from here.
I can't wait for Valentine's Day either.....I LOVE CANDY and I love the whole idea of Valentine's.  I have my kids make these Valentine's for their parents, I think it's ADORABLE and it's so easy, just paint puzzle pieces "Valentine" colors glue onto cardstock to make a border and have the kids write "I love you to pieces!" on an index card.  It's in their handwriting which is so cute and just hang with pretty ribbon.

I'll post the ones my class makes next week, I had Ryan make this 7 years ago.  Happy almost TGIF!

Annie, please send me back.......

Danny and his buddy Flat Stanley

Where's Flat Stanley?

Danny's teacher sent home Flat Stanley today.  We are supposed to send them to people out of state, and Annie my totally ultra creative sistah lives in California.  I was so excited because I thought this is great~ Danny will have the best journal, it will be so interesting, full of cute entries, fabulous pictures  (I swear a camera is part of Annie's wardrobe)  plus if you haven't been to Cali...GO!  It's awesome, the weather is beautiful and there's so many fun places to see.  So I call my sister to tell her about this little project and she gasps and says I hate Flat Stanley....HELLO....Who hates Flat Stanley?   This is supposed to be fun, Annie thinks it's too much pressure and she'll probably forget...Anner you know I will hound you with reminders to send Stanley back.  Would anyone else like to help poor little Danny out with this F-U-N project?  LOL  

One more day....

I am so excited....I am a Kardashian junkie....I didn't even realize it until one day while I was watching, Ryan says,  "Who is that Kourtney or Kim?" Me: (a little taken back) "How the heck do you know their names?"  Ryan: "Mom whenever you're in here, you're watching this show."   So here's a sneak peek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlDwVURrWo4

Saturday ramblin's.....

Who's got the best slippers? LOL

So my friend Annie invited a bunch of girls over to de-stress......we have had 5 snow days + MLK day in the last 2 weeks. Not that I mind spending so much time with my kids, they actually leave me be and do their own thing most of the time, but you do feel like you have to do something to keep them occupado. Anyway, these are the girls I usually see everyday at parent pick up.  However, since pick up has been few and far between, it was a great night to catch up.  We brought our slippers (little side note here....yes I went out and bought new slippers and came very close to buying UGGS however common sense took over because of course the pair that I thought were awesome were $100.  I am not paying that for slippers~ at least not now;)  besides I like my $11 ones HA), back to my story, we brought our slippers, shared yummy hors deurves, played Taboo for awhile and chatted.  I left at almost 1 and was one of the first to leave.  I had to be up early to take Jack to church for his interview for confirmation which he is making at the end of April.  Jack is shy so I was real nervous for him, plus he had to memorize the Nicene Creed~that is a long you know what prayer.  I've been saying it for probably 30 years and I feel like I don't have it memorized.  Anyway, he did it and I'm so proud of him.  So.......while he was interviewing I headed over to Kohl's to see this:  http://www.kohlscorporation.com/communityrelations/Community02.htm  What a bargain......$5 HARD COVER books and stuffed characters to go with them. Anywho...this month it's Eric Carle, I bought The Grouchy Ladybug and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  They were all out of caterpillars so I'm on the hunt today for another one, just have to figure out where the next closest Kohl's is.  Off to shop, have a great Saturday!!

I LOVE how these came out!!!!!

So, like everyone else in the month of January we read tons of snow related books.  We read, Snowmen At Night, Snowballs, All You Need to Build a Snowman just to name a few.  We brainstormed all the fun things a snowman could do if he really came to life.  We made these ADORABLE snowmen out of a shaving cream and glue mixture, I LOVE THEM! I don't even want to send them home...seriously.  They came out so darn cute.  And I love the kids handwriting, that just makes the picture. So now I have to find somewhere in my room to hang them up or wait till Feb. to hang them outside.....but I have the cutest idea for my outside February bulletin board too.....what to do????  Anyway, check them out:

Another cute thing I do during literacy time is "Sticker Stories."  The kids get to choose 2 stickers, create a detailed background and then tell me the story so that I can write it down under their pictures, eventually allowing them to write themselves, see the progression below from Sept.-December.  I choose stickers that are season/theme related with very little extra detail, such as a background.  My kids love this.  We do the stories in small groups but eventually I will do it as a whole group since many kids are using inventive spelling at this point in the year.

And one last thing school related, my principal's goal this year is about the impact bullying has on everyone involved.  We are having a school wide assembly next week, each class has made these little people(which I already turned into the art teacher) They were cute, we all had to color ourselves and doodle our favorites, what we love etc and add photos of the above as well. We also were given clouds for the kids to draw how they could make the world a better place.  I added the writing portion ~ because with some k pics you may not know what the heck they are drawing ;)  Anyway, as I said the entire school has done this and our pictures will be hung up in the gym during the assembly, I can't wait to see it(and of course I will post those too)  But this is what we ended up with:

And BTW, I have been teaching for 18 years and I had never heard of CONSTRUCTION PAPER CRAYONS.  Where have I been???  I borrowed the art teacher's. They are awesome, they come out so nice and bright on construction paper.  This is a must buy for next year! On another note, we will most likely have yet another snow day tomorrow, it will be day #5, we get one more before they start taking away from April break.  I'm not even going anywhere but I can honestly say, I'm totally bummed about that......we NEED that break, wish they could take from February.  GRRRRRRRR!!!

Happy Birthday Ry!

So......at 9:05 this morning my little hunk turned 12!!!!  Ryan I love you like crazy, even when you make me crazy LOL....seriously, I hope this coming year is wonderful, just like you  :)  So many fun and exciting things happened this past year...however this coming year will only be better!

Here's what you've been up to:

• You finally got X BOX LIVE....woo hoo...I think ;)
• You found our beautiful dog on pet finder on a flook~thank you!!
• You were awarded The Pop Warner Little Scholars Award and we went up to Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, so you could receive your award
• You broke your middle finger~YUCK!!!! Possibly the grossest thing I've ever seen :) 
• You graduated from Booth Hill and it was on to middle school
• You caught your first fish, and several after that
•  Football began and you played for all new coaches on the Pee Wee team, your team was awesome and you won the New England Regional Superbowl.  You were awesome too, #72!
•  You really didn't dress for Halloween this year, I guess you're getting OLD  lol ~next year though
•  I know I may be hard on you but you really are doing so well in middle school and I'm very proud of you, keep up the great work!
• Now we're into basketball and lax,  I LOVE WATCHING YOU PLAY!!!!

Here's to a fabulous year..........I love you to pieces!!!

TGIF

So I made it to school today by the skin of my teeth...I thought we were doing just fine and then OMG, it's 8:00, I need to drop Danny off and get to my own school, about 10 minutes away by 8:20 at the very latest.  Checking the computer and letting Danny play the wii is a no no and should be banned from my morning routine!!  I made it with 5 minutes to spare~phew!  We had a lot to catch up on since we were out for the last 2 days, so I gave them super easy morning work, just enough to check folders quickly and start the day.  Our letter this week is Kk, which I did not get to yet and since we're off on Monday for Martin Luther King, I needed to cram it all in today(it's only half day k which is so hard), I used to teach full day, holy cow what a difference.  Anywho, I read Happy Birthday Martin Luther King! which is perfect for their level.   They got the whole concept and thought it was so silly that people weren't allowed to do and use the same things together. So, we read little sight word books and made these:

 

 it was so simple(most of my crafts are elaborate) and for some reason they loved them and couldn't wait to take them home.  I was sitting there looking at them thinking, these really need glitter or something, it's all about the GLITTER people~lol.  But if we put glitter on, they wouldn't be dry in time, so off they went glitter less.  And clearly, some of us need a lot more practice in tracing and cutting ;)   

Sight word book from Teachers Helper Dec/Jan 2004-05

After school I FINALLY GOT MY HAIR blonde again, yay!  I couldn't take it anymore~ looking in the mirror and seeing a few gray hairs on my extremely dark roots~YUCK!  I don't even think 40 somethin' is that old, why does everything seem to go after 40? I actually had to buy those glasses at CVS a few weeks ago because I can't read tiny writing anymore:(   Hopefully that's it for awhile....you're only as young as you feel right??? Then it was time to chauffeur my kids all over town to sports practices and that's why I have a few minutes to myself to post and of course stalk some blogs. Although, it's almost time to start picking up, oh well.   Hope everyone has a nice long weekend!!

Note to self...

I want to remember this site and for some reason it won't load onto my ever growing list:
http://partiesandholidays.blogspot.com/

Holy Snow Part 2......

Danny busy making his Puffy Snowman.

We used a mixture of glue and shaving cream and a variety of craft items.

The masterpiece! 

Cannonball!

Danny Boy is lovin' this

Getting ready to shovel a lot of snow....FUN!

Ryan the snowman

Taylor and Jack playing

Jack!

Holy Snow!!!!

See my mailbox past the tree, and to the right are 3 steps leading to my front door, so much snow!




 

This was Fridays storm.

Wow, the snowfall is crazy, they were predicting 12-18 inches and it is way past that now AND it is still snowing at 10am.  Anyway, it was so nice to sleep in again or sorta sleep in.  We got the call last night that school was cancelled but John's company called us this morning at 5:48 to let us know they were closed too.  Gee thanks!  I didn't fall back to sleep but it was nice to just lay there and not get up and make lunches and rush everyone out the door.  Today will be a lazy day.....yay!

Here are some pictures of my classroom, did I mention I LOVE MY SCHOOL.....and I love my room.....when I first came in in August I was a little overwhelmed to say the least.....it is the largest room I have ever had......but I like how everything turned out....

My Classroom

Word Wall, we call them muscle words, white ones are k words we know so far and yellow are first grade words.

Rug area where most of the learning takes place!

This bulletin board is done on the first day of school and is kept up all year.

This is my favorite board. Each month I give them a new sheet and they draw their portraits and write their names. I make it into a book at the end of the year to see how much they have improved.

Each morning 2 kids tell me something and I write it on the board.  I leave some punctuation marks out and spell some muscle words wrong and they pretend they are the teacher and correct it, they love this.

After we read a guided reading book, the kids highlight muscle words, take the books home to add to their "Shabby Shoeboxes" for safe keeping.



Word family flip books

My outside bulletin board is what changes each month,  I will post those soon.  I didn't want to overload too many.  Have a fun day!!!! 

Chicken Caesar Salad.....YUM!

So....I am the worst cook in the world.  There's nothing to cooking that I like.  I watch cooking shows, I read Gourmet Magazine looking for ideas when I'm at the doctor, I read other blogs purposely that pertain to food, anything that will inspire me.  Nothing helps.  However, I found this recipe here, http://oopsey-daisy.blogspot.com/2010/03/caesar-salad-with-homemade-croutons.html which sounds awesome and not too hard to follow.  I really hope I try it and it doesn't become like everything else.....un-eaten......if that's a word  LOL.  I love Caesar Salad but I am picky about the croutons and the dressing.  I don't like store bought and it's a pain to go down to Stew Leonard's~they have very yummy homemade croutons.  Anyway, I came across this, it's sounds delicious.  I'm posting it here, so I can remember what I will need when we try it over the weekend ;) 

Chicken Caesar Salad


5-6 chicken breasts
1 head of lettuce (I prefer Romaine)
1 loaf of fresh French bread or sour dough bread
1 bottle, Ken's Light Caesar dressing
1 bottle, Cardini's Caesar regular dressing
Fresh parmesan cheese
Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Italian seasoning ~ to taste

Marinate chicken in Ken's Light Caesar dressing for at least 2 hours. Cook on Foreman grill. (I have tried broiling it, but I highly recommend using a grill. It turns out much more juicy!) Slice when cool.

Make croutons by cutting French bread or sour dough bread into 1-1.5 inch cubes. Make a puddle of olive oil on tray and then toss bread cubes into the oil. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and Italian seasoning. Bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Turn halfway through with a pancake turner. (You don't want to overcook these beauties! You just want to lightly toast them.)

Make the dressing by mixing 3 parts of Cardini's Caesar regular dressing with 1 part of Ken's Caesar light dressing. **You really have to use these specific brands... it makes the yummiest Caesar dressing!**

Build the salad like this:

1. Chopped lettuce

2. Sliced chicken

3. Freshly grated parmesan cheese.

4. Croutons.

5. Dressing.

A final note, if anyone is wondering what my poor children eat......their dad, my lovely hubby cooks.....thank God!

Snow Day...

Well a couple of surprises happened today. We knew we were getting some snow, but everything I looked at(the news, weather.com etc) all said afternoon snow, so I thought for sure it was going to be early dismissal. At 5:45 AM the phone rings and it's the superintendent letting us know there is no school. That never happened before. Hello...they could have warned us that that was the new plan, it scared me to death. Anyway, at 12:15 this is what my front yard looked like. BTW see that huge contraption by the stop sign, that or something like that has been in my yard since August. It makes me crazy. They have been installing sewers since the summer, I thought they were practically finished when THAT was placed there last week. Our yard looks so junky, it's embarrassing. I can't wait for the sewer project to be over. Here are some photos we took over the past few months.

First day of school, notice back hoe in the background.

no words

Danny having the time of his life in the dirt piles, right before Halloween.

Anyway, the snow really started coming down around 1:30 or so and it looked so pretty, totally blew the blizzard away.  I love how the trees look with snow on them, the wind from the blizzard blew the snow right off, not to mention the limbs and sticks which stuck out of the snow, so again my yard looked gross. OK, I'll stop harping on my yard.  This is what I think of when I think of snow.....looks like a quiet country road.  It's already all plowed now :( Oh well, we're supposed to get another storm on Tuesday.

And one last photo, Jack helps the elderly lady across the street, he gets her mail everyday for her.  So after reminding him(my words) or nagging him(his words) he finally goes out to get her mail, why would you want to go out like this in the snow is beyond me, at the same time he's texting, so it's taking even longer!  Lord, please give me the patience to deal with this for the next 15 years or so.Tomorrow I will post some pics from my classroom.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this website, http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/, best ideas ever!  Happy Friday!!!

Just playin' around

I have been playing around on the computer, trying to make my blog more appealing to me.  I  am not computer savvy at all.  I went on Shabbyblog.com and did this, right now it's OK for me.  I still need to play around.   I want to figure out how to use different fonts and how to put the name of my blog back on top, also I'm not crazy about the pictures kind of creeping into the right border.  That's all for now, Annie if you know how to do any of this, please let me know.  Well, got to go to a staff mtg, woo hooo! Be back later. 

Off to a good start....

Well so far I'm off to a good start to 2011.  I am keeping to my resolutions! We went to church yesterday, although we were a few minutes late, actually a lot of minutes late, but we still made it.  I went to a church in Fairfield  which was beautiful and then we ate at Einstein Bagels, I love their bagels, so do my kids and yes it was a bribing tool to get them to drive to Fairfield for mass. I'm having a hard time getting back to church.  I LOVED the church we went to before we moved here(6 yrs ago).  I guess nothing compares to it in my town.  They had a fabulous family mass and none of my churches here seem to have one.   Anyway, I want to do this for my kids so I'm headin' back.  In the meantime, I'm not one for resolutions, I don't remember the last time I had one, but so far I'm OK with this one.  Well, it was back to school today.  I love my school and I adore my class, they are awesome.  I really hope I can stay at this school, that's why I'm really going to church, ha ha, just kidding.  Seriously though, in March we'll find out the budget cuts again.   Last year, I was last on the seniority list, but this year I'll have tenure(because I was tenured in Stamford) where many of the other people won't. So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will get full time.  Anyway back to today, after morning work I called the kids to the rug to do the calendar and of course we discuss a little of what we did over break and what we got for Christmas.  And this one little boy raises his hand, so I call on him and he says, I missed you!  That was the last thing I thought he was going to say, I was so touched and to be honest I missed them too. They are the sweetest group.  If this was last years class I'd be singing a different tune ;)  I really would be.  This class is one of my favorites of all time! Jack, Ryan and Danny got back into the groove as well.  I'm real nervous about Danny, I really think I should hold him back and repeat 1st again.  I need to get John on board, hopefully he'll go for it.  When entering first, the kids are supposed to be at a level B, Danny was barely and A and now he is sort of at a B.  He just doesn't remember the words and he's getting all this extra help at school.  Yes, he has made progress from the beginning of the year, but compared to where he should be, I'm really nervous for him. We'll see as the year goes on.  Hope everyone else had a good first day back, got to get the showers going and I feel like I'm rambling.  Have a good night!

Last day of Christmas Vacation

Christmas morning, Danny is so excited!

the past week was pretty uneventful at least for me....we had Christmas at mom and dad's, we were supposed to have Christmas the next day with the Kelly's but the blizzard got in the way of that. Then we were pretty much stuck in the house for a few days. The kids went sledding a couple of times. I have to say, I am not a big fan of coldness, so now when it snows I cringe. This storm reaked havoc for a lot of people, my mother in law and Aunt Ann did not get plowed out until Wednesday, how ridiculous is that? I don't know what NYC was thinking about. So we celebrated Christmas yesterday with John's side at Joe and Jill's and had a real nice time..........



The fam





playing legos and relaxin' by the fire

 


sleigh riding




New Years Eve day




Danny and Santa ;)





Happy 90th Birthday Aunt Ann

 



 
  

 


The Kelly Clan