First day of school

The girls had their first day of school last Monday August 8th. They were nervous at breakfast  but seemed ok and ready. We had no idea where they were suposta line up because we missed meet the teacher night because we were in Washington visiting my dad and family.* Side note: we don't have a camera right now so all we have is our phones but hopefully and I mean HOPEFULLY we get a new one soon! Pictures on my phone don't look that great.

Anyways back to the first day of school, we walked over to the 6th grade line up area and it was crazy! So many kids, No sign with her teacher's name, had no clue what her teacher looked like. I was just like what am I going to do, I can't stay here because I have to walk to the other side of the school to find out where Samantha lines up! Just then this sweet girl Maddie from church who is Kayla's age asks us what teacher do you have? Turns out they have the same teacher but Maddie doesn't know where they line up either so I said "you girls figure it out, its almost time for the bell to ring I have to take Samantha to her class, bye, have a great day!"

So Samantha and i walk over to the 1st grade line up and man it is getting so hot, I'm sweating like crazy! Luckily I know what her teacher looks like so I'm just waiting and waiting for her teacher to come out. All the other 1st grade teachers are out but not Samantha's. So I ask a teacher where does Mrs. Boatman's class line up, she points me where to go and says Mrs. Boatman had recess duty or something thats why she's not here yet. When her teacher comes over she is so sweet and loving to the kids! I'm immediately impressed with her! So I follow them to the classroom, at this time I'm in heaven with the cool air! I say bye to Samantha and watch her go into her classroom. When I picked them up after school they both said they had a good day and like their teachers. Kayla has 4 teachers, one for every subject, she also has to dress out for PE which I did not expect till 7th grade, I guess its because the school is K - 8. She was not happy about that at first, now she's ok with it mainly because she doesn't have to undress in front of the other girls. They change in the stalls, makes me feel a little better.

They didn't have homework the first week, is that weird or is it just me? I guess I'm used to their other school giving homework the first week, at least a review sheet or something. Actually Samantha hasn't had any homework at all yet and its the middle of the second week! Makes me a little worried, not that I'm a homework pusher but there should be at least something! I'm beginning to wonder what kind of school did I put my kids in? I have heard that Higley schools are behind Gilbert but didn't think it would be like this.  I just want my kids to get a good education. We will have to see...

Samantha said some funny things to me concerning the bathroom she uses. One day she said to me " There are no bathrooms in my classroom, I have to wait a long time to go and once someone left pee and toliet paper in the toliet, gross! It wouldn't go down! I don't like 1st grade that much."  Then one day she had to put on her tennis shoes because she had PE that day. Well her shoes are black and yellow which are boy shoes that Jake picked out for her and at the time she was ok with them and wasn't happy with any of the girl shoes she had tried on.  So she told me "I don't want to wear these  shoes because I was in the bathroom and some girl looked at my feet in the stall and said "is there a boy in here?" It made me feel bad, I want girl shoes! I told her she has to wear them because thats the shoes she picked out and she could get new ones when these wear out and are too small. I also said you could wear girly socks so no one will make that mistake again, and she was ok with that. Then last night she said some girls were looking under the stalls, like putting their faces under the door, when Samantha was using the toilet. She was not happy about that, she didn't understand why they would do that. I just told her to tell them not to do that or tell her teacher. Poor kid having some bathroom issues! LOL

Happy School year for everyone!

May

  In May there were a lot of things going on, mostly school stuff. Here are some of those things.

Kayla had a big school project where she researched a famous person and she chose Mary Cassatt. She made this poster and dressed up like an artist. I made the beret which was my first time really sewing something. I think it turned out ok for being a beginner! I splattered paint on a white tee shirt and Jake helped her made the palette. She looked great!

One of Mary Cassatt's paintings titled The Bath

 There were a lot of other great costumes, like this one as Leonardo daVinci.

 Some famous princesses and queens like Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana.

 This one was one of my favorites! Brigham Young! I was surprised he was able to do his project on a religious person! Another reason I really liked this one was because I used to be his Primary teacher.

Another good one was this girl who was Sacagawea, I also used to be her Primary teacher. You can't tell but she's wearing one of those baby carriers on her back, it looked like the real thing! I should of taken a pic of it.

 Kayla was honored at Academic Night which was for kids who got all A's and only one B the whole year! We are so proud of her for this great accomplishment!

On the last day of school Samantha's kindergarten class had their end of the year program where they sang songs, it was really cute!

Samantha excited to sing!

Her teacher gave all the kids scrapbooks she made full of pictures and things they had made in class! She was a great teacher, Samantha loved her teacher and kinder so much!

 A hug from her teacher!

 Samantha lost her top tooth!

 And last but not least...we got a kitten! His name is Sparky and we love him a lot!

Fun stuff and Easter

 The kids had their school carnival in April. It was a lot of fun! They had blow up bounce houses and such. Here's Samantha waiting in line for the slide.

 Kayla having fun!

 Weeeee!

 They had pony rides too!

This was how the girls felt after not winning anything in the raffle.

 This is a picture Kayla drew in art class that was selected for the school's art show! She also received a medal! We are so proud of her!

 Easter at my mom's house. There was a egg hunt, great dinner and a awesome time!

 Samantha with her money that grandma and grandpa gave her along with all the candy she found!

 Kayla's money and candy!

Jake and I enjoying ourselves!

Spring Break

Spring Break was this past week and we just stayed here at home. It would of been so much fun if we could of went out of town like so many people do but we couldn't afford it this time. We ran into some unexpected bills to pay recently so staying in town was the only option. I worked most of the week but only at night. But I did find some things for us to do. Monday we really didn't do anything because I had to do laundry and other stuff so the girls just hung out at home. Tuesday I took them to the Arizona Art Museum for Youth in Mesa. We've been there before 2 years ago but they've changed it since then. In my opinion it doesn't feel like much of an art museum, there is some art displayed but it's geared for younger children like Samantha's age so there's a lot of hands on stuff to do and see. Kayla was kinda bored but she did find a couple of things she liked such as the giant eraser board and  the IPad art table. They had a section for Fairy tales so there were a lot of dress up areas, lots of little craft tables. Then there was a baseball section, which was mostly about the Chicago Cubs training ball field in Mesa.  Wednesday we cleaned the house from top to bottom! The girls helped me by cleaning the bathroom, dusting and cleaning their rooms which were so messy! Thursday we went to see a movie with some friends at the mall, had lunch and walked the mall. Friday we didn't do much, just the park and out to dinner and rented movies. Saturday I was at work while Jake babysat the girls and their friend, worked on his friend's truck while his friend planted a tree and some plants in our front and back yard. So it wasn't too bad of a week. Samantha is happy to be going back to school, she told me "I think my  teacher missed me!" I'm sure she did.

Samantha in the glow and dark room at the Art Museum. The theme was Alice and Wonderland.

Kayla in the glow and dark room.

This was the Princess and the Frog corner, I added the hair garland for fun. 

The Three Little Pigs! They wanted me to be the 1st pig but I got out of wearing the hat by telling them that someone needs to take the picture! Clever me!

This is in the playroom where the girls built a fort out of  these blocks.

Goofy face time!

Our new tree in our back yard!

A little tree planted in the corner of our drive way. The potted plant will be planted next to the tree at a later time.

This was planted in our front yard.

In my last post I showed a picture of my end table that I was working on. I finished them! I sanded and painted them (this was a few weeks ago). My next project is painting Kayla's desk white. I sanded it a while ago and Jake painted it for me. He spray painted but it doesn't look very good so we might have to get a different kind of paint. So its been sitting in the garage for a couple of weeks. Hopefully soon we will finish it so I can move on to my next project!

Valentines Day

 Pretty roses Jake gave me for Valentines Day!

 Cards! We feel so loved!

 Valentine cookies!

Last but not least...on Valentines Day I decided to start my first wood refurnish project! I sanded my end tables and painted them a dark brown to match the entertainment center. Jake coached me on how to sand and paint, cuz I know nothing! After the paint dried, Jake painted on the polyurethane which gives the table protection from scratches etc. Well, we(meaning Jake) ran into a little problem with the polyurethane. So Jake is fixing the problem and once he is done I will post the finished project!We went out to dinner the Sat. before because I was going to be at work on V-day night. But Jake stayed home on V-day cuz he wasn't feeling too good so we went out for lunch. So it was a nice day spending time with him (even if he wasn't feeling his best). We got the girls some little gifts(candy, V-day socks) they got lots of candy and cards from school! Hope everyone had a nice V-day!

Decor changes

I've made a few decor changes in our house. We painted the front room back in Nov, to be exact Thanksgiving day! We wanted it painted before we had my mom come over for Thanksgiving dinner so nothing like waiting to the last minute! Then last month I bought this dark brown scarf curtain, I've never had to hang a curtain like this before so it took some time to figure out how to keep it from falling down because the material is sooo slippery! After stressing about it for a while, I got the idea to pin it in place, easy! As you can see I got an early start on my Valentine decor!

Back in Nov I think we bought this tv stand, we tried and tried to find something on craigslist for real cheap that we liked but we couldn't find anything. So we broke down and bought this at Walmart. We love the dark color and plan on changing the rest of our family room furniture to match. Oh and we just recently painted the family room the same color as the front room.

 Last month I put up some objects above our cabinets.

 Thats a pillow in the right corner, one that Jake's grandma made years ago. For the longest time I didn't know what to do with it because it didn't go with anything. So I just held onto it for sentimental reasons all these years. I recently became interested in vintage/old decor so I thought this was kinda vintage looking. I don't know maybe it looks weird up there. What do you think?

Just the other day I told Kayla and Samantha to bring down every single Valentine stuffed animal they had to decorate the front room! So this is want they came down with, 9 animals! Is it too much?! *I just noticed that that picture looks really small on that wall, hmmm need to fix that!

This one is my favorite! Love Puppies! Its actually mine from when I was a little girl but somehow Samantha ended up with it!

A close up look at our decorated windows!

Samantha made this calendar for me and gave it to me at Christmas! Every month has her hand prints, talk about creative! I love this one for April!

Cute little ghosts for October!

Of course the classic turkey hand for November!

The one for this month, hearts! Happy Valentines everyone! Love ya!