Conference Survival Kit

This week is conference week at our school!  Because I understand how tough conference week can be on a teacher (after experiencing it myself) I decided to bless the kids teachers by preparing Conference Survival Kits for them with the help of other classroom moms.  I gathered money and a friend and I put these together. 

We had 9 moms give $5 dollars each for the kinder teacher!  

 

Conferences Survival Kit

           Focus & Energy Vitamin Waters – hydration is key

·        $5 Starbucks Card – a quick pick me up

·        Ghirardelli Chocolates – a sweet energizer

·        Tylenol – for headaches after those long days

·        Hand Sanitizer – for keeping your hands germ free after all those handshakes

·        Lotion – to keep those hands moisturized in this changing weather.

·        Burt’s Bees Chapstick – all that talking can chap those lips. 

·        Fuzzy Socks – for relaxing after all your hard work. 

·        Kashi Pumpkin Pecan Bars – an easy yummy snack. 

·        Altoids Mints – a quick freshener. 

·        Designer Pens- you never know when you need a writing utensil. 

·        Polka Dot box- for storing anything you want! 

We hope you enjoy your survival kit as you meet with each student and their families next week!  We are so appreciative of your hard work with our children so far this year.  Thank you!

Jamie (Max’s mom)

Susan (Rooney’s mom)

Lisa (Quinton’s mom)

Courtney (Jack’s mom)

Kathy (Melanie’s mom)

Kristin (Taylor’s mom)

Kelly (Kitana’s mom)

Jenny (Danielle’s mom)

Christina (Gabriela’s mom)

Here is the one for E's first grade teacher.  Only three moms participated, but it still turned out cute!

Here

 We had a lot of fun putting these together.  We presented them to the teachers last Friday and they were both extremely blessed!  It is fun to spoil teachers who work really hard!

American Girl

A few weeks ago, my mom was up for a visit, and so my sis in law and mom and I took the three oldest girls up to the newest Seattle/Alderwood American Girl store.  If you haven't been to one of these stores before, and you have a little girl, give it a try.  Although, I do warn you, the dolls and accessories are NOT cheap.  They are however really good quality.  The girls had fun just looking around, and didn't ask for anything, but gave my mom some Christmas ideas.  We also visited the Disney store to look around, and the girls got a Strawberry frapp from Starbucks as well.  It was a fun girly afternoon. 

Luciana, Eloisa and Gabriela with their treats

checking out the store

free craft station at the store.  They made origami butterflies.

the new Hawaiian doll

one more for good measure

Just you and me babe!

The title of this entry has been the saying that Luci and I have been saying to each other since the older two started school full day back in September.  She has been my little buddy.  We go to the gym, story time, grocery shopping, run errands, art class, and play at home together.  I absolutely love my special time with this sweet and precocious 2 year old.  She has been my tag along kid up until this point.  We have gone to park play dates for the older two, or an extracurricular activity for them, but now Luci has her own activities with me.  She is especially loving story time (there is an amazing new guy that teaches and he even does puppet shows each time) and art class (where she is so focused as she creates three projects each class). 

Funny Luci-isms

• When we ask Luci what color something is she always says, "I don't know........and then the color."  She is always right, but just has to start with the "I don't know."  Silly girl.  
• If we call Luci babe, or baby, she says, "I not a baby, I a big girl!"  And, she is really, she doesn't have a paci anymore, she doesn't wear diapers or pull ups at night anymore, and she sleeps in a big girl bed.  BUT, being the third, she'll always be my baby.  
• If we accuse her of something she says, "NO MY NOT," instead of "No, I'm not."
• While talking on the phone to my mom recently she said, "I'm watching Jungle Book...... actually, I'm watching the movie."  Pretty cute that she thought the title with book in it didn't make sense when she was clearly watching a video. 

We just love LUCI!  She is our fiercely independent, extremely imaginative, spicy/sweet little princess!  

The "Boo" is back!

Booing our neighbors has been one of our most fun and memorable traditions so far in our family.  We usually start the booing in our neighborhood, but this time, we got surprised with a boo basket ourselves very early in the month.  The kids were ecstatic.  We quickly got our supplies together to boo more friends.  Emilio chose a friend, and Gabi chose a friend, and we rode around in our car as a family of five one Tuesday night to make the special deliveries.  We giggled, and were nervous and excited all at once as Emilio ran the baskets, rang the doorbell, and dashed back into our awaiting get away car (ie, mini van!).  I swear giving the baskets is probably even more exciting to my kids than receiving one at the door.  It really seems like booing is a great example of how giving to others can be SO MUCH FUN!  We will continue this Halloween fun for years to come.

Halloween buckets filled with Halloween clings, a box of Halloween brownies to make, pop up spiders, halloween bubbles, candy corn and candy corn flavored Kisses, and instructions to keep the Booing going.  

  If you haven't done this in your neighborhood, it isn't too late, Halloween is a week away still.  Go to this site for more information. 

Sunday on the Ave.

A few weeks ago after church, we packed a picnic and headed up to Seattle's Green Lake Park.  We ate our lunch under a big tree on a unusually warm Fall day and watched all the happenings around the lake.  We let the kids play on the big playground, walked a little ways down the lake path, chased squirrels and birds, and enjoyed the fresh air.  After that we drove over to the U, and John showed us around the law school where he spends part of his day.  We ran around campus in the big open spaces, admired a wedding party, and looked at the leaves that were changed into brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges.  We then walked down the Ave, people watched, and bought the kids Haagen Dazs ice cream.  Emilio and Luci chose Mango sorbet and Gabi went for Cookies n' cream.  We let them get sticky, and enjoy their treat to the fullest.  We strolled over to Trader Joes and got some of our favorite snacks, and then got in the car just as the rain began to fall.
It was a family day, and it was sweet!  One of those times that isn't spectacular in any sort of way, but when you are going slow enough to make mental snapshots of everything that is going on.  The sizes of our children at that time, and their carefree little spirits, the season changing, the world happening around you, the companionship you have with your spouse, and you just feel blessed and thankful for the moment.  It was a "thank you Lord for this precious family" kind of day. 

7th Birthday

Emilio had his first ever ALL BOY birthday party this Saturday in celebration of turning 7 years old. We did a LEGO theme, and it was so much fun. Thanks to many other bloggers who did LEGO themes before, I didn't have to recreate the wheel but used many of their ideas with my own special day for E's big day.

the party table

built a simple little lego stand for the cupcakes.  The candy legos were a hit, you could even build with them.

made a pull pinata myself with a trap door.  It was easier for indoor use than a bashing one.  I used an Amazon box, small individual hummus containers for the bumps, printed Lego signs online, lots of yellow crepe paper, and watered down Elmer's glue.

I use the same garland every year that I created for each of the kids on the Cricut a while back.  We displayed all of our LEGO men for decor.

We have 100s of Lego characters.

Welcome to our party!

used LEGOS and stamp pads to make LEGO decorated foam bookmarks with sticky foam letters with their names too.

lots of square snacks and the boys had fun using one toothpick each to stab their favorite snacks with.

Lego straw transfer game!

First, Second and Third place in the Lego Straw Transfer Game

lots of legos for another game

Build the tallest tower that can stand in 5 mins game

First, Second and Third prize winners, and the Most Creative Tower award as well.

We were going to have an outdoor Obstacle course in the alley way, but weather forced us to change it to indoors.  The teams had to find a paper lego man, jump on a trampoline 25 times, take their Lego man to walk the plank (as seen above).....continued below.

run with their Lego man through the Lego river..........

up and down the stairs, and then stand on a large pillow as a team! 

Cupcake and singing time

The BIG 7!

make a wish

cupcakes and Lego juiceboxes

gift time

hugs of thankfulness!

inside Pinata time.  E's sisters and girl cousins joined the party for this portion at the end.

Gabi found the string that opened the trapdoor and a cascade of candy!

The crew!  They took home lots of candy, a small Lego set each, a bopper balloon, and Lego dot to dot they had drawn along with their bookmark. 

First Day of School

Emilio and Gabriela started school on September 1st. Emilio is in first grade, and Gabi started full day kindergarten. They both like their teachers a lot, and have enjoyed school so far this year. It is a LONG day for both of them (E was in half day last year). Gabi has told me she likes kindergarten, but also wants to stay home with me, because she feels she doesn't see me anymore. She isn't fighting it thought which is good. I think it is going to be a great year.