mallory's class

I picked a super awesome day to volunteer in Mallory's class....they were doing a CRAFT and there was GLITTER involved, not to mention 30 of the sweetest, kindest, most polite kids you ever did meet.


I got to sit at Mallory's table:











Yayyyy glitter:







By the way that the kids reacted to cutting out paper and gluing stuff down, I wondered how often they do crafts in their own homes...... or if school is the only place they get to do that.  Which made me sad to think about.  It also made me think that with all the crafts we do in MY home, we don't do nearly enough that involve glitter.  So I made a mental note to use more glitter.  We'll just have to do the craft outside.  In the street.  In front of the neighbor's house so we don't make a mess in our own space.  :)







I think Mallory must have been telling her friends stuff about me beforehand, because by the time I got there I felt like I already had quite a reputation.  For some reason, the kids all thought I was an "amazing artist", a "genius at art", and things like that. 

When they had traced out a heart and I suggested to one kid that he put the glue on the side with the pencil markings so they wouldn't be seen after he glued it down, he burst out "Wow! So that's why you're the great artist!  You know all the good ways for crafts!".  :)  It was cute.


I handed out the bookmarks I had made for the class.  Even though I had made the boy ones blue, I knew they were still very girly and so I couldn't wait to see the boys' reactions to them.







As expected:










At least they didn't rip them apart like they did with the halloween pencil toppers I hand embroidered before.  Well that was 1st grade, a looooong time ago, so I guess they've matured.  Not only did they not tear these up or turn them into weapons, they seemed to enjoy and appreciate them.  I'd be interested in knowing how many of those kids actually use them in a BOOK...but that's not really important.  :)


What IS important is that Mallory was ecstatic to have me there, and those kids are awesome.

making babies

Mallory has the nicest, sweetest, coolest teacher this year....she adores her like you wouldn't believe.

And she just found out she's pregnant!

(the teacher, not Mallory)

Mallory wanted to get a gift for the baby-to-be, so we got her a little snowglobe and a pair of baby booties, wrapped 'em all up nice and pretty and everything.









Mallory was real excited that (according to her teacher) the baby is as big as an avocado.  She just thought the food comparison was the neatest thing.  We happened to have some avocados in the fridge and she asked if she could bring one to school to show the class. 

So Monday morning on our way out the door, she got it out of the fridge. 

But I said wait wait wait, we ought to put it in something BABYish, to make it cute.  I think it was Jesse who came up with the idea for what we ultimately ended up doing:








I diapered his little bum (the avocado, not Jesse) with some felt, secured it with a safety pin, added some googley eyes, and then -I know it's kind of girly but at least it's blue- topped it off with a bow.  This is why I think everyone is lucky I have girls, not boys, because no matter the gender, I like putting bows on things.  :)


Mallory was so happy with him:





Our little avocado baby was a huge hit with the class, a few moms texted me saying their kids wouldn't stop talking about it.

I thought "how cute would it be if I made little avocado babies for the whole class!". 

When I had last bought avocados they were .50 each, and there's 30+ kids in the class, so I decided if the avocados were still .50 on Thursday night, I would do that.

But of course they were back up to a dollar each.  :(  I considered using apples instead, but figured it'd still cost quite a bit and it's just not the same.

So Thursday night when I picked up the girls I told Mallory I was sorry but I wasn't going to be able to make little "Baby Lloyds" (as the class calls them) for everyone.

Mallory said excitedly "Mommy that's ok, because today Mrs. Lloyd told us that now Baby Lloyd is the size of an ONION!".



Yes, of course:

No, I did not make 30+ onion babies.  Thought about it, but decided against it.  We made one for the teacher, and then I made these bookmarks for the students instead (more evidence that I love bows):

I look forward to finding out what piece of food I'll be diapering next week, as Baby Lloyd continues to grow and grow!

pictures & funny girls

This post is supposed to be about the girls' parent/teacher conferences at school, but then when I went looking for photos, I found a bunch from our "christmas photo shoot" (with our own personal, fabulous photographer Andrea Flow) and I wanted it to be about that too.  And so it shall (be).  :)

These girls are very, very sweet:

And taking pictures of them is always hard, but fun. 


It's hard because when I want them to all smile, they frown.  When I want them to be silly, they get mad.  When I tell them to look that way, they look this way.  When I tell them to act natural, they look posed and strained.


But it's funny because when you're able to capture them just being themselves, the results are always (in my opinion) winners:

Ah, good times!  Those are my favorite.

I couldn't exactly use this picture for our christmas cards, but I sure wanted to!  Don't know why I love it so.

Anyways, back to the girls & school. 


I expect certain things when I have appointments to meet with their teachers....I expect that they'll tell me they are good, they try, they are generally nice girls.  I even expect to hear about a few behavior issues here or there.


But I was so happy & proud at the conferences I had this week.  I couldn't stop smiling, and it made my whole day.

Arissa:

The facts: She led her own conference and showed me all her work and her report card.  Her grades are great but what really impressed me was her "plan" she had written out which identified her "problem" areas (such as they are) and how she plans to improve.  She sounded so self-assured and confident!

The funny:  When we were discussing a paper with her teacher which we all agreed could have had a more developed ending, she tried to call me out by saying "I had to finish it like that, because my mom was watching Oprah and yelling at me to go to bed!".  :)  Her teacher and I thought that was pretty funny.

Mallory:

The facts: She is the one I kind of expected I might hear about being too "chatty" in class, or god-forbid even bossy.  But her teacher only raved about her and how bright she is and that she strategically placed her next to someone she wouldn't be too chatty with, and in fact her seat-mate is a little less motivated than her so she keeps him on task.  She is helpful and respectful and well ahead of the standards for mid-year second grade.

The funny: The teacher was so impressed with a certain project that was given to the kids just for fun to supplement what they had learned in class, and how thorough Mallory was.  The reason that's funny is that when Mallory told me the project was "just for fun" and didn't even have to be turned in, I thought she was making it up and I was bound and determined to teach her good work habits and planning and I made her work on that thing bit by bit, even meeting with an actual police officer and writing a play about it!

Mariah:

The facts:  She is eager to learn, takes on extra responsibility, is so friendly and kind.  Her grades are perfect, she catches on quickly and likes to help those who are not as quick.  She loves to write and always goes above and beyond what's asked.

The funny:  Her teacher likes her new glasses.  wtf??  She doesn't HAVE glasses!  Apparently for the last two weeks though, she's been wearing a pair daily that I had gotten her from the Dollar Tree to play with.  I'm pretty sure they're reading glasses which means seeing beyond her desk must have been a challenge, but she stuck with it!  Silly girl.  Also, her teacher showed me this paper that Mariah wrote, which had me laughing out loud the entire time I read it:

My great-grandma is very special. She is ninety years old.  She is very beautiful.  She sounds rich, she gets money from the government.  She is careful with living creatures and will always help.  She is stronger than me.  She has many friends, and is curious about dead things.  She has two children.  Her daughter died but her son is still alive and helps her with her garden work.  She says she is ugly, she has wrinkles.  She also lives alone.  She is very special to my whole family.  She is about to die...I am not sure, but I think.  She likes having family over.  She likes to eat spaghetti.

Oh my goodness.  :) 


Oh and one more thing, which really amazed, delighted, and shocked me:


All three of them excel in math.  It comes easily to them.


How that's possible is beyond me, but I'm just thankful.

first day of school

New backpacks, all filled & ready to go.  I shopped all over the internet and the real world for these three things.  I ended up finding ones that were practical and that the girls approved of at: Gymboree (Mallory's), Amazon (Mariah's), and JC Penny (Arissa).







I always start off the school year really good as far as making breakfast (and getting up early) goes.  Usually that tapers off to where eventually everyone serves themself cereal.  But at least on the first day they get something home-made and warm, guaranteed.

I tried to pretty it up a bit with a nice place-setting, including fresh-cut hydrangeas & fancy doilies on the plates:

















I stayed up late the night before making Mormon muffin batter (the traditional recipe plus some secret ingredients + blueberries cause I had to "healthy" it up to make up for the buttermilk).


Then we were out the door.



















Got to hug & catch up with our friends:





I love the first day of school, and all fresh starts.










M&M brought hydrangeas for their teachers.










Arissa's teacher kept repeating that they should not be intimidated by all those books.

Maybe she wasn't, but I kind of was.

Variety Show 2011

Guess who is super brave,

very talented,

and performed again this year at the school variety show??!

v

v

v

v

v

Yep, it was Mariah Grace. :)

Again, Jesse used his computer/music skills to edit their song so it was the exact right time and didn't have to be just manually faded out at the end. Thanks to him, the song had a beginning, middle, and end, and was exactly under the time limit. He even made a copy for each of the girls in the group so they could listen to it and practice to the right version.

I made a point to work on my control-issues and pretty much just left the whole thing alone.

Except the day before the show, Mariah told me all her friends really wanted me to make the scarves again like I did last year. And since all that's involved in making them is buying fabric and cutting it, I was happy to!

Her sweet friends are just the cutest. They all come up to me and give me hugs, and they are so smiley and fun...I can see why Mariah is friends with them.

They're the kind of kids that make me want to invite them all over for slumber parties every weekend!

(At Nana's house, of course. Sweet and cute or not, our house is just too small for all 'dem kids. But still...)

It was a pretty long show.....2 hours. And Mariah's group was of course, in my opinion, the highlight of the night!

Her and her friends were pretty thrilled when again this year I brought them each a mylar balloon as congratulations. $5 very well spent to see their sweet smiling surprised faces.

They were so awesome and it was so very fun to watch.

Can't wait for next year.

"Student Du Mois"

Guess who was chosen Student of the Month for February??? ...that would be Mallory Mae!!:

She thinks she's real slick and knows that the tell-tale sign of having been chosen Student of the Month is when I set out a dress for them to wear on the day of the assembly. So I threw her for a loop and set out dresses for both her and Mariah (Arissa wears her school t-shirt for School Spirit Fridays, since she's VP). It was a success----Mallory didn't think anything of it. Till she saw us in the audience. :) She was thrilled. She's patiently waited all year and now it was finally her turn. The assembly itself was a blur of excitement:

Of course there were people lined up to congratulate her:

Naturally Mallory was excited to see the small gift in our hands and she wasted no time opening it:

Just some Silly Bandz and some "bling". (I think she liked the bling even more than the Silly Bandz):

Her teacher's comments were that she is a fabulous student, a good friend, and a grrrrrreat reader. Which made a book-loving Mama so proud!!

And Daddy too:

Can't wait...

....for Valentine's day.


This year the girls' valentines for their classes meet every important criteria:



1. they're cute

2. they're simple to make

3. they don't violate the school's "nutrition policy".... and are therfore guilt-free for Mama. (I felt guilty for days after we handed out the gingerbreadmen at Christmastime)

"How do you make unique valentine's that are super cute and fast and fun?" ......comme ca (like this):

I stocked up on these from Oriental Trading:

















I took some pictures like this:



















I erased the background and moved the image to a new, pink background, & added text (in Photoshop):

(I realize my photoshopping is a little choppy, but I like it that way.)

I ordered enough prints for each girl's class + their teacher, mounted it on red cardstock, cut slits around the hands with an X-acto knife, and slid the pencil in:

The total cost would seem like a lot (if I told you what it was) but it's about the cheapest I can get away with when there's 95 kids to give goodies to.


Each girl's is a little bit unique & different, because the girls held their arms out different and I used different fonts. I think the pencils are cute, and I love that it's a photo-valentine. (I love photo-anything!)














So as of february 1st, I had all the valentines done and in cute bags ready to be taken to school and handed out. If I can be so ahead of schedule and prepared for Christmas this year too, that'll be awesome (and unbelievable).