Pinterest Party at school

The day after spring break the word was out:

PINTEREST FOOD PARTY at work!

Time for some clickin' and cookin'

Are those chicks about too cute?

And the homemade "oreos" were much better than packaged oreos

I'd seen the pretzel bites online and was curious about their texture

Yea....got to taste them both ways

cheese

and

cinnamon

Chewy yummy

The spread

Y'all come...and they did

So yes, I tried some healthy

along with some sweet

Also delicious

Don't you love the color variety here?

I borrowed a recipe from our family Pinterest Party

White chocolate+crushed peppermint candy poured over popcorn

Did it make going back to work easier?

Uh-h-h, that's a stretch

A Heart of Service

This lovely granddaughter called me late Thursday night

Kind of in a time crunch

She had a deadline for a school assignment

By Tuesday morning she needed to have completed 4 hours of community service

She wondered if she could come do some service at my school

Certainly.......I'm sure I can generate a list of helpful tasks

if you can get to my school Friday afternoon

and stay late

I interviewed several teachers early in the day on Friday

By the time m'lovely girl arrived

they had supplied me with a fine To Do list

Slicing Memory Game cards

Bagging math money games for at home practice

Stapling kindergarten homework packets

Tidying stacks of papers

Dusting  and washing shelves and counters

Organizing books....the biggest book stash Taylee had ever seen in one school room, she said

Measuring

More slicing

216 chunks of sliced paper

ready for little kiddles

to cut and glue flower shapes

Sorting math manipulative pieces that had migrated out of their bins

It was 7:30 and we ran out of time before we got to the tasks in the library

I was worn out

but Taylee seemed to still be going strong

And then we got to see that splendid rainbow on our way to dinner at Subway

Such an awe-filled finale for our girls' night

Thanks for the fun time, lovely young woman

So glad you are willing to make the world a better place

Don't you love it when you glimpse the kindness of our youth!

What kind action of kids have you noticed lately?



Last Call for Star Wars

Alisha asked to see a picture of my costume 

Someone else got these shots

OK....so the gold jacket was a good start on the C-3PO costume

I can't see the gold hairspray I caked on my hair

nor the sparkly makeup I spread all over my face

The purple ribbons around my waist

are supposed to be his wires

The gift bag front disc

is my attempt to represent the round place on his chest

It was bright enough to put your eyes out

So be it

Heading to the parade route

Turn up the Music...Let the Drama Begin!

We had our Halloween parade on Friday

(Back to academics on Monday!)

What a blast!

I didn't get any pictures of myself

My costume version of C-3PO was pretty scant of detail

(gold hair spray, glitter face makeup, gold jacket, shiny chest disc, dark waist ribbons)

The best part was I got to push R2D2

He was a WOW character

Many flashes of parent cameras when he rolled by!

(picture way below)

Oh Yoda

You even scared some of the adults

as you rose up from your bent-over posture and loomed in their faces

No one could figure out who was under the mask

She could probably use a chiropractor now
after spending 45 minutes in a bent-over loping stance!

In her other life

this is the creative-extraordinaire

referred to in an older post

You want to have her on your how-can-we-create-it team!

Isn't Chewbacca splendid!

Chewy owes a big favor to his real time wife

She stayed up til midnight sewing the shaggies on his sweats

And, yes, he really is a tall dude

In his other life is he one of the most helpful custodians I've ever known

Always a good sport, obviously

How do  you spell Princess Leia's name, really?

I think I messed it up

Her ear buns are on a headband.....looking great!

She has long hair anyway.....so that is her mom in back

sweeping the real hair

into swirls around the fake hair buns

In her other life she talks on the phone

So I guess the buns won't be staying for long

Luke Skywalker was such a hit with the kids

His hair cracked us all up

His usual 'do:  shaved bald

so when the kids saw their PE teacher's new look

they screamed

"Mr. Maines......you have hair!!!!!!"

His reply

"Hair is over rated.....it itches!"

The darling of the parade was our very cute R2D2

(another product of our creator extraordinaire)

Don't you agree

that he could be straight off the movie set?

He had a music CD playing inside

unfortunately too soft to be heard over the chatter as we went classroom to classroom

In his former existence he was a shop vac and a salad bowl

Amazing, huh?

Leading the parade was

our own

Darth  Vader

Classic on the outside

bermuda shorts and calf high socks on the inside

"Principal"-ly, another good sport

 

The principal is surveying for post-parade opinion.

Do we want to continue this tradition or not?

How would you cast your vote?

The Making of the Queen

 This woman knows how to put it together

to make a Star Wars Queen

Almost time for the school Halloween parade

On goes the make-up

Pretty soon we'll staple down the

posterboard bodice

Must have lips

(Do you love the hair rolls?   Hair-covered insulation tube!)

Head gear made

by one of our creative-extraodinaire staff

all hot glued to a stocking cap

There is even a filial at the top

I adore the headpiece

Put it all together

(I love the bodice curliques ....that was my creativity at work)

The skirt designs are stapled on

There's a hula hoop under there foo-fooing it out

I think she's ready to stroll among the masses

Where is the rest of the party?

Sh-h-h, it's a secret

Our elementary school may be the last of its kind

We still have a major dress up parade for Halloween

Pretty much everybody dresses up

Teachers, kids....and even some visiting parents

It is a colorful riot of a tradition!

OK....here's the "don't tell" scoop . . .

The secretaries at my school plan a different secret costume theme each year for the office staff

It is hush hush . . . . a surprise for the kids and the rest of the staff

The principal barely knows....

And he's the star!

He is such a good sport

(You should have seen him as Scooby Do two years ago!)

So this year's big secret is

STAR WARS!

I volunteered to sew the dress base for the secretary's queen costume

This is the inspiration

As I sewed, I kept telling myself

It's a costume.....it's a costume......don't fret!

She brought me dyed sheets

I borrowed a basic dress pattern that looked nothing like this

My imagination coached me on how to lay it out to magic it
into something long and flowy
to represent Queen Amigdala

Sort of . . .

This is the result
Still waiting for more black ribbon
I am imagining some red poster board attached to a wire hanger bent over her shoulders
as the front fancy yoke part
(Can't wait to draw a shiny gold design and black outline on that!)

Reality check:  no matter how many times you iron an old sheet
it still looks like a rumpled sheet

Repeat mantra....it's a costume, it's a costume

I stared at the skirt design

Hm-m-m-m

I sketched my rendition on stiff felt

. . . and painted away
(kind of reminds me of altered candy corns....or a weird toucan)

That was fun

I black outlined the designs and cut them out

We plan to staple them to the bottom of the skirt

We may figure out a way for her to wear a hula hoop underneath
to hold the skirt out a bit

Someone else is designing the headdress----whew - - -

using dark foam pipe insulation as the hair bun part
(Oh my, I saw it....it is fabulous...I hope to get some pictures)

For my costime, I am whipping together a sort of C-3PO look

Last secret you must keep:

The principal is . . . .

you guessed it
Darth Vader
with dark headgear, music and voice alteration

Yikes . . . Do you think the tiny kiddos will need some counseling therapy after that?

Have you been good?

Here comes the bus!

At my school
if you're good
you might receive a
Caughtcha Bein' Good ticket
You put your ticket in a bucket in your home room

There it goes!

On special Fridays
the principal makes the rounds of all the rooms
(he is an amazing administrator)

He pulls some tickets out of each classroom bucket
Those LUCKY kids get to "shop" for a prize from the bus that
just rolled up to their doorway

You want a closer look, don't you!

Oh....the difficult decision
they have in front of them

(A little extrinsic motivation anyone?)
Works for me!

Is that just the cutest vehicle you've seen all week?



A breath of fresh air

What a treat

This is what I found on my office table one morning last week

A sweet thank you  from a teacher

Life is full of surprises

Doncha love it when they are happy ones?

Parents who care

Our school had Back to School Open House this week

Two nights of staying late there (we are a big school)

I decided to set up a little display

outside of my school office

to call attention to the Parenting Class registration info on my wall
(I'm teaching Love & Logic soon)

It was also a good opportunity to talk to parents about their current concerns

What a great reason for my

love of miniatures

to get some play time

In my home office

I pulled out the baskets of people and furniture

and picked out some family clusters

I scooped them into a bag and took them to school with me

In miniature I had two full size families,

some grandparents raising their grandchild

and a single dad sitting at a table, playing with his kiddo

There are a lot more family configurations in our real live school families

but that was an attempt at representation

I don't know if anyone "got" that I'd set up little families

But several people commented

they really enjoyed the new look

the homey ambiance of the table cloths

and the glow of the lamp

Me too

One of the teachers who stopped several times to enjoy and comment said

"How do you dare put out all your special things?

I'm going back to my students

and doing a lesson on how much Mrs. McKinley trusts them

and how to act with that trust."

I love the way her brain works

So proactive

So empowering for kids

That's the kind of teacher we have in our district . . . .an amazing kind!

Always thinking about and doing things in the best interest of our students

I had a couple of fine evenings

with productive conversations

with parents

And I had some "cute" near enough to make me smile!

Doorways: We enter to learn . . . we learn to enter

I'm thinking a little about doorways tonight

First day with kiddos walking through the doors at school

So many faces of happy anticipation

New backpacks

fresh markers

shiny hair

certainty about which class is theirs

And some terror

Or at least fiercely spiked anxiety about leaving mom

What a hard thing it must be

to believe the tall people who say it will be OK

It doesn't feel OK to them

Perhaps in prior new settings

the little one could divert change by offering ear piecing wails 

Persuasive

Heart-strumming

Often effective

But now

it must be confusing

to find mom and dad

support the

new dastardly plot

and cannot be swayed by pleading or tears

The new door must be entered

the child finds he is expected to stay

til that soft speaking teacher at the front says its over

Surely

enough sobbing will convince the tall people that their idea is folly. . .yes?

or

maybe just refusing every request will change their minds

Yes . . . . ?

No.....?

What would you tell the little people?

The Lunch Bunch

Had a fun visit at my school last week

A post-birthday celebration for me

Amber brought Daisylyn and Sterling

to eat lunch with me

First wave was two crying children

Out of their familiar environment, I guess

Once we settled them down

Amber and I

took kiddos with us to buy our school lunch

Taco salad day- - - not bad

Then we holed up in my office

Shut the door

to create a boundary for curious Daisylyn

Lil Miss ate some

but was more interested

in the Transportation box of toys

Sterling let me comfort his

teary-ness

then had some smiles

Yeah, going to school makes some kids cry!

I've seen that phenomenon before :o)

Sweet grandkids
A fun treat to have a little visit.


Does anyone else think Sterling
kinda looks like Morgan?

Standing in a New Postion

Where's the camera when you need it?

Imagine me

standing in a busy street

stopping traffic!

BIG red sign.

I had a little career development experience today

It was a blast

I was the kids' crossing guard at the end of the day

The usual reliable and brave adults

were staffing the track and field events

we hosted

for several elementary schools

A last minute all-call went out for safety assistance

Hey . . . . I'll do that!

Training was included:

Hold the sign high;

Watch out

when you're headed back to the curb!

I listened to my trainer

I complied

with exactness

I lived

to

tell

the

tale

Art Invitation at School Part 2

Above is my finished art project. day 3

A while back I mentioned

I got to sit in on an art lesson in a 6th grade class

(blog entry on 3/20/11)

I was so excited

I've wanted to do this

water color play time

for a year

I am kind of embarrassed

to go public with it

as my rockin' results did not fit my expectations

Bummer . . . .but oh well

Finished project is above, day 3

Above is the start...result of Day 1.

I LOVE . . .

did I tell you I LOVE the colors?

I could have stopped here

and been color happy

But we weren't done yet

Rock on! day 2

The next day the teacher gave

instructions on how to draw in the boulders/pebbles

with a black felt tip (I was not there for that)

My schedule got a little wild and crazy that day

There was no break

for me to go in and get some boulder-drawing tips

So

at home

I

launched into my own rock-drawing version

Lots of fun

Yet something didn't look quite right

When I got back to school and checked out some 6th grade art

I could see what I did and didn't do

I figured out what I want to do differently next time:

*Use a skinnier black pen - - - my rock outlines are too fat

*Use the bubbly-looking parts of the water color as if they are water

rushing over the rock

and make the rocks seem to disappear behind that watery part

Actually, for an artist wannabe

I am tickled that I tried the project

Maybe I can talk my daughters into

coming over to

try something like this again

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Now

let me show you one of my favorites

from a 6th grader

She gave me permission to take a picture and

share it

Here you go below:

This one ----made by a student----

gets oo's and ah's from me

What do you think?

Wanna play?

Special guests at my school

Dramatic Lizzie brought her mom and baby Levi to my school.

We had a Youth Theater troupe doing a version of Hansel and Gretl

for our school kids.

I thought Lizzie might enjoy that.

She was a dedicated audience!

Laughed and gasped in all the right spots. :o)

After, the cast let me take some pictures of Lizzie with their

clever set.

I think Lizzie's outfit kind of matches tne lollipop forest.

You'd look sober, too, if you had to stand that close to

that ominous oven!

We got some puppet time
in grandma's office after the production.
Pink-cheek Levi had just awakened from a mini nap.
Lizzie is giving us one of her drama faces.
Beautiful mommy Candice is surrounded with love.
Thanks for coming to visit, sweet family.
It was fun to share some time with you.

Art Invitation at School. Part 1

Art privilege!

I was invited to join a 6th grade class last week.

They were beginning a water color project as a Mothers' Day gift.

(flowing color with "boulders")

Last year I drooled over the kids' art results,

oo-ing and ah-ing.

(yes there was purple in them)

So this year, the volunteer teaching the project invited me to join in.

Yea! I thought that would be a therapeutic thing

for the counselor to learn to do.

I only got the first stage done

before I had to leave the room.

If I can get finished, maybe I'll share here.

I think the kids were tickled that I had enough interest to join them.

What's for Lunch?

Now that's a HUGE salad!

This is standard fare

as my school lunch these day

At least for as long as the honkin' bag of spinach lasts

after each shopping trip

I am making a conscious effort to get more veggies and fruits

into my day
It takes a little longer to prep in the morning

chicken cooked ahead and frozen

some chopping, grating, bagging

It feels good to be making healthy choices for my body

What are you doing for yourself today that feels just right?