You Know You're A Teacher When...

You know you're a teacher when....

Your daughter makes her first balloon animal and names it "Rough Draft."

She then names her second balloon animal "Final Copy."

 You know you're a teacher when you get lovely notes on a daily basis (mostly from the same sweet girl...)  The following notes were just one day's worth of notes from her.

"Your smile is pretty."

 "I love you as my teacher because you rock."

 "Your eyes shine like diamonds." (So glad I taught her similes.)

 The entire pile of notes:

Sure love my students!  (I'm still looking forward to summer vacation, however.)

Rachel and Her Flute

I think Rachel is doing a fabulous job on her flute!  This is her first year in band and she went from playing "Hot Cross Buns" to the National Anthem in just a few months. Nice job, Rachel! I hope you keep practicing!

Spring Break 2013

We had a wonderful spring break. We began with a quick visit to friends in Leavenworth. They have a little shop, Almond Blossom, with yummy roasted nuts. We enjoyed eating roasted cashews, almonds, and pecans as car snacks during our trip.

We spent the first night in a little camping cabin in Emigrant Springs, Oregon. We enjoy this campground a lot. There is heat in the little cabins so it doesn't matter if it is cold outside. It is cheaper and more fun than a hotel and we don't have to pitch a tent. It is the perfect place to spend the night on our journey to Idaho or Utah.

We spent two days in Vernal, Utah. We learned about the many, many dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals that were discovered in the area.

Swimming in the hotel pool was the favorite activity of the children.

I went to three temples during spring break: Twin Falls, Brigham City, and Vernal. All three are beautiful and peaceful. Here is a picture of my parents leaving the Vernal temple:

My favorite place to visit in Vernal was the Dinosaur National Monument. Wow! Over 1,000 dinosaur bones in one rock wall. Amazing!

We went on a wild goose chase looking for fossils. We never found fossils, but we had fun. (Although Erin Joy is convinced the hardened mud tracks from a vehicle are fossils.  She carefully brought them home. I'm hoping for an opportunity to throw the tracks away....)

We ended the day by playing in some interesting rock formations at Fantasyland Canyon.

We enjoyed a session of general conference in Salt Lake City before beginning the long journey home.

Here is a video narrated by my children about our adventures:

Here is another video narrated by me about the dinosaurs.  It is kind of boring. I made it to show my students because we are studying fossils in school right now. I'm putting it here so I can find it again. I wouldn't watch it unless you have already watched the other video and you still have nothing better to do.  I recommend getting off the computer now and playing with your children instead of watching this one......

Easter Fun

 Our first day of spring looked like this....

 Today the weather is BEAUTIFUL!!!  We might even reach 70 degrees! YES!! I love spring! I love summer!

The Easter Spider came along with the Easter Bunny.  The Easter Spider leaves a trail of yarn that the girls have to follow to find a clue that leads to their basket.

We went to an Easter Egg hunt at our local grocery store.

 We then dyed eggs with our neighbors.

Check out these cool eggs my friend dyed using onion skins, flowers, and ferns. I guess it is the Croatian way to dye eggs.

 We had our first watermelon of the season!

 We then had an egg hunt at a campground not too far from our house.

 Look at the blooms on my Magnolia tree!!!

And of course...a movie of all our adventures:

St. Patrick's Day

We usually have corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day, but since it's not really Irish and my kids don't like it anyway, we had traditional shepherd's pie.  It was yummy!

We ended our meal with pistachio pudding bundt cake and green key lime pie ice cream.  Yummy!

 Of course we had to have green lemonade too. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Happy Pi Day!

 We had frozen chicken pot pie for dinner followed by pudding pie. Yummy!!  Happy Pi day!!

Spring!!!

I filled the planter with spring flowers.  Daffodils are definitely my favorite.  They look so happy.  I love the William Wordsworth poem about wandering lonely like a cloud over the field of daffodils. I'd love to be a cloud floating over a field of daffodils in the spring.

 I have to plant pansies because they are my mother's favorite flowers.  The reason they are my mother's favorite flower is because they were her mother's favorite flowers. There is a children's song in our church that talks about pansies growing beautifully even when the weather is still cold. Both my mother and grandmother love that song, so I plant pansies in their honor.

These are poppies just about ready to bloom. 

 I love the smell of hyacinths.  Most spring flowers don't have much of a fragrance, but hyacinths do. I have to plant a few of them.

 And of course...the first sign of spring....crocuses. I hope the squirrels don't eat the bulbs and my flowers come up next year and every year.

 Happy Spring Everybody who reads this!!