finish your dinner, nathan...

...or put your shirt over your head,

stand up in your seat,

and slap your belly while doing a dance:

quote of the week

Ryan (after seeing a commercial in which a couple kisses):

I'm not going to kiss a girl until I'm 200 years old. 

this week in numbers

5  people in our family

5  people in our family on antibiotics for strep

3  number of times we've had strep this season

2  more missed days of school

1  call to 911

1  trip to the ER for my hubby

9  hours spent in the ER on uncomfortable chairs

1  visit to the cardiologist for my hubby

4  sleepless nights checking to see if he's breathing

7  loads of laundry

1  school-bought lunch for the boys (surprised it wasn't more!)

208 unpublished book kits awaiting my final check before shipping

2  hours spent planning Read Across America activities (to start Monday!)

2  weeks until PSSA testing

1  billion things running through my mind


HOW MANY DAYS UNTIL VACATION?

112

Meet.....SUPER TUTOR!

So, February marks the end of the second marking period in these parts,

 bringing report cards and parent/teacher conferences. 

 Ryan received his very first report card, which was amazing!

And it was no surprise to us how well Evan did either.

I met with Evan's teacher who told me

how bright she believes he is,

how quickly he finishes his work,

how everyone just LOVES him.

I was so proud of him hearing all

these wonderful things.

After all, Mark and I must be doing something right...

And then,

[I should have known it was coming -

heck, I'm a teacher - you tell all the positive things first

and then BAM! hit them with the

"needs improvement" items]

she told me that Evan needs to

work on listening the first time when she redirects him,

work on not trying to be the funny guy

[he gets that from his father, of course],

and work on being a leader, not a follower.

None of this was really much of a surprise,

but we did discuss ways that we would try to

give Evan more opportunities to be a good example

and a leader, because he feeds on praise.

When I came home, Mark and I sat down with Evan

and talked about his school behavior.

I told him his teacher would be asking him to help

 other students who need help with math or reading,

kind of like a tutor.

Then, one of us said he could be like a super hero -

SUPER TUTOR!

And of course, being the mom of boys that I am,

made a 'toot' sound

and

SUPER 'TOOTER'

was born.

Evan LOVED the idea

and since the conference,

his behavior has been

EXCELLENT!

Let's hope SUPER TOOTER continues to make good choices!!

scrappy share

Remember this post?

This is how I scrapped that story...

Supplies: Black & White dot pp, Fancy Pants Designs;
 Orange pp, Crate paper; Monkey pp, Daisy D's;

Journal tags, My Mind's Eye; Blue brads & Thickers, American Crafts;
Star brad, Joann Crafts; Ribbon, other

And since the story included anatomically correct
names, I decided to hide the journaling behind the
photo of Ryan's drawings.  I figured that not everyone
might appreciate the humor of the situation....haha!

happy heart day!

I recently sent secret packages out to some of my friends

as a surprise Valentine treat. 

I LOVE sending surprises in the mail ~

how often do you get fun surprises in the mail

over the age of 10??

I had a lot of fun making these simple cards. 

I stamped the heart image,

filled in the heart with red glitter glue,

and punched it out with my Stampin' Up circle scallop punch.

Then, I took red cards,

stitched three random width lines

with red thread on my sewing machine and

attached the heart punchy with a foam square.

I tucked in a heart garland and mailed them off this week.

I hope my friends enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed making them.

This weekend, we held our 3rd Annual Valentine Par-tay! 

And yes, you have to say it like that :)

Here are the cousins enjoying their red velvet

Valentine cupcakes made by Aunt Kim.

How do you spread the love on Valentine's Day?

100th day

Many of the schools in our area make a big deal celebrating the 100th day of school.  There are tons of creative ways to incorporate math and writing activities using the number 100.  Ryan and Evan were excited to finally be celebrating the 100th day of school last Friday since it had been pushed back an entire week due to snow days! 

Ryan came home with several fun things.

1.  His 100th day hat that he turned into glasses.

 2.  A self-portrait of what he'll look like when he's 100 years old.  Not only did he remember the cane, but he also gave himself "rock-star hair."

3. An illustration of what he'd buy if he had $100.  For those of you who can't tell....it's a cruise ship. 

4.  And my personal favorite,

what he would and would not like to have 100 of...

He would NOT like to have 100 Christmas trees, but

he WOULD like to have 100 bags of cheese curls! 

LOVE this kid's imagination!  :) 

And his ever-present love of food.....

SO, what would YOU buy with $100???

I think I might just have to go shoe shopping!

oh, to be 4 again...

Every day when I pick the boys up from the babysitter's house,
I ask each of them how their days were.

Nathan's version of a good day?

I didn't get in time out and I didn't pee my pants. I had a good day!

scrappy share

This layout makes me laugh every time I see it.  The photos were taken when we took the boys to see Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D.  This was Nathan's first movie theater movie and everyone did awesome considering it was a double feature!  The 3D glasses were humongous!  Even on me....you'd think they'd have different sizes, or at least an adult size and a child size.  Poor kids had a hard time keeping them on their little noses.

Anyway, I used a Martha Stewart edge punch that I got on clearance.  I love the tiny holes it punches along the border.  

Supplies: Green and blue pp, October Afternoon; Striped pp, Scenic Route; Sunglass diecut, Cosmo Cricket;

Thickers, American Crafts; Journaling spots, Jillibean Soup

dancing fruit

Tuesday morning, on yet another snow day,
the following conversation occurred:

R: Mommy wouldn't let me get in your bed last night, Daddy, when I had a bad dream.

M: Yeah, but Mommy came and tucked you back into your bed, though.  You fell right back to sleep, didn't you?

R: Yup.  I exited out of the bad dream and had a dream about dancing oranges and bananas.  They were dancing and playing the guitar.

SMILE :)
Maybe those sugarplums dancing in my head really aren't so far-fetched...

scrappy share

Two of my favorite Nathan layouts...

Supplies: Green pp, Scenic Route; Diecut paper, JB Studio;

Ribbon & Thickers, American Crafts; Rub-ons, Little Yellow Bicycle

Supplies: Blue pp, October Afternoon; Letter diecut, KI Memories;

 Orange pp, Making Memories;Looped pp, Imaginisce; Lined pp, Foof-a-la;

 Owl & other diecut, My Mind's Eye; Thickers, American Crafts