Fun in Preschool and First Grade!

Jackson's class performed with the other First Grades in a music program: "Our America!"

They sang several wonderful patriotic songs, and Jackson had a speaking part!  He practiced a lot beforehand and did a great job :)

Jackson also participated in Jump Rope for Heart with the rest of Pattie Elementary!  During PE, the kids rotated between different stations.  They also were encouraged to get pledges as donations to the American Heart Association.

Graham LOVES all of the helper jobs at preschool!  Isn't this the cutest of him being the Calendar Helper!

Science Day!

Brushing an egg that was dyed brown with toothpaste to see how important it is to brush our teeth!

Jackson celebrated the 100th Day of First Grade!!!

Blowing rockets off of straws!

#snoverit

Surprise!  We woke up to about five more inches of snow than predicted!

We baked, played in the snow, exposed Jackson to one of our childhood favorite movies: "Flight on the Navigator," cooked, baked some more, constructed a homemade skeg for Josh's kayak, played Uno, Monopoly Junior, Star Wars Duel, and on the awesome tablets the new library is checking out, read lots of books, put away literally loadS of laundry, enjoyed an adult reward and relaxed with Hulu catching up.  Phew!

And, then it all iced over...

#snoverit

Luckily, we already were scheduled to have today off!  Haircut Day, it was!

Smoothies as rewards for being such good sports :)

Very Valentine-y

All the fixings to make Valentine's treats for school!

A little Starbucks pick me up for the teachers on the day of sugar highs for the children ;)

Cute bags with special pictures!

I had never heard of Valentine boxes!  Apparently, it's a big "thing!"  Jackson had an assignment to make one to bring to school to collect Valentine's, and after some time on Pinterest, we settled on this basketball box!

Mini strawberry cupcakes for Jackson's class :)

Checking out the Valentine treats

Graham checking out his

Yummy chocolates, Cupid Corn, and a new Star Wars car

A box of chocolates just for Graham, Cupid Corn and a Blaze truck!

Jackson LOVES watching our Amaryllis flowers grown each winter!

Guess how much Graham wanted to take this picture?  I cannot get over his face!!!

We took Daddy to the new library to play and hang out before going out to dinner for our traditional Qdoba Valentine dinner!

A MUCH happier photo shoot!

Check out our cute Valentine's Day shirts!

Brothers :)

START Night at Pattie

Once a week, Jackson spends about an hour with the fabulous Mrs. Croghan and a group of other First Graders in the START program at Pattie.  They work on special projects and explore different topics as a group.  We were invited to come to school for the evening to check out what the kids had been working on so far.

The kids are in the middle of a GeoInfinity unit right now, and Jackson really enjoyed showing us all of the different designs he learned how to make on the geo boards.

We got a babysitter for Graham, so we could really pay attention to JUST Jackson, so of course, we took advantage of our special time and went to get ice cream :)

We are SO proud of our big guy and all of the awesome things he's learning so far!

A Little #snolycrap Humor...

It feels like we are starting school all over again, so I made special signs for the boys :)

 "I survived snow event #1 of 2016!  First Day Back to School After *8* Days Off!"

"I survived snow event #1 of 2016!  First Day Back to School After *5* School Days and 12 Days Total!"

Mimi Saves Our Sanity!!!

Mimi's trip was planned, but we had no way of knowing when we scheduled it that she would arrive at the end of #snolycrap and in the midst of EIGHT days off of school!!!  Our first adventure out of the house with Mimi was to our favorite Barnes and Noble location with a fabulous train table, a huge selection of books and lots of yummy drinks :)  On Saturday, Kristyn, Arturo, Diego and Aurelia stopped by on their way to visit other friends and stayed for brunch and some playtime.  

 On Sunday, we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History!  The main dinosaur exhibit is closed, but they had a smaller area to visit open.  Someone was a very happy camper...!

 Our goal was to go to Red Robin for dinner after the museum, but traffic was not on our side.  We convinced these yahoos that Five Guys would be a suitable replacement.  I think their faces call that a success :)

 Sees Sucker faces!

 The long-awaited day was finally here when our brand-new neighborhood library opened!!!  We were so excited Mimi was here to go see it with us for the first time!  The building is beautiful, there is underground parking, and the whole place is just so bright!  The boys are standing in the front lobby after riding the elevator up from the parking garage.

Jackson found this fun rocking chair in a little area that will be used for storytimes.  We chekced out quite a haul of new books to read at home.  That was the best part for me: ALL OF THE BOOKS ARE BRAND NEW!!!