Final Grades

As most of you know I am studying to become a Kindergarten Teacher. Last week I had finals in my Cultural Diversity and Environmental Science classes. I recieved my grades for them and I would have to say they were a little shocking. I didn't feel that I had done as well on these papers as I have done in the past, but much to my surprise, I did really well. In Cultural Diversity I scored 243/250 with an overall final grade of 97.67% Environmental Science was a big shocker with a score of 300/300 and a final overall score of 99.16% and that I would have never imagined. I have never been very good at science, I guess I just never had a reason to be good before.

I am now in two new classes, Teaching as a Profession and The American Experience Since 1945. This is my first week, but so far so good. I have managed to maintain all A- and now I even have a straight A in one class. Whoaaa! 24 credit hours down and 36 more to go before I can substitute teach!

Yet Another Party!

In our huge family there are five kids bithdays in a matter of a couple of months, so I decided to save my sister the cost of gas to travel down ever two weeks, I would combine my boys parties into one big party. We now have a friends party for Quentin, a friends Party for Zachery, and a combined family party for both of them. I usually prepare supper and make a night of it!

Anyway, the kids "family" party was last Sunday and it went suprisingly smooth. The boys started off the day by decorating their own birthday cakes. Quentin wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and Zachery decided on Funfetti cake with white frosting. This year they decorated with sprinkles and candy letters. It was interesting to say the least. I am not a baker by any means and so I backed this cake and as soon as it came out of the oven I tipped it out of the pan for easier decorating and cutting. Well...It kind of broke! The top came out of the pan, but the bottom remained in tact in the bottom of the pan, so...I scrped the bottom out of the pan and used frosting to paste it back together. The top looked pretty, but the bottom looked like scrabbled cake:) After I destroyed the cake, I frosted them and the boys were ready to decorate. Quentin spelled out "Happy 7th Birthday Quee," and then he was done. Zachery on the other hand, was supposed to spell out "Happy 5th Birthday Zachery," but he soon realized that he had extra letters, so it became more of a word search by the time he was done :)

The party was scheduled at four, but people started to show up around three, which we come to expect so there were no worries! After everyone arrived, we started the night off with food! We had hot dogs/chili dogs and chips, something simple and cheap! I made tons of food and I thought that I would have leftovers, but they cleaned us out, which made for easy clean up :)

When everyone finished eating, Zachery insisted on opening his presents, so we brought in the boys and they opened their presents together. I guess everyone had they same idea, because Quentin racked up $62.00 and Zachery landed $42.00. Aunt Brandi and her gang gave Zachery a transformer car and Quentin a Ben Ten type of toy (sorry can't remember the name) and both boys got stickers from them as well. They have played with these toys non stop since Sunday, so you guys did good! They both got a fishing pole from thei Aunt Cheri. Zachery has decided to spend his money on a new bigger bike and Quentin says, "I don't know, I'll have wait till I get there and see."

After allowing everyone to digest for a little bit we served cake and ice cream. Again tinking I had more than enough, but had no leftovers, so perfect! They had their choice of chocolate and white cake as well as chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Everyone chowed down and had a good time, but since it was a school night everyone had to start filing out shortly after cake. Everyone was gone by eight o'clock and the boys continued to play and have fun until bed time. Zachery insisted that he didn't have school on Monday, but it did him no good :)

Now Zachery is waiting for his Miner Mike's "friends" party on March 8th!

Circus Fun!

Thursday evening the Family Fun Circus rolled into Eldon, MO and gave us a night of winter fun. Unfortunately, James had to work, so we asked grandma to come with us and I think I even seen her smile a little. We are use to outside circuses filled with animals in the middle of summer, so we didn't know what to expect from this small inside circus, but all in all it was a good show. Like most circuses, this group was a family that traveled around entertaining and selling high priced toys and food, but unlike most circuses that I have seen, this circus was a traveling Chinese circus. Which was pretty cool considering my newest little neice is Chinese, so I got to learn a little bit from this experience.

This young clown was halarious and had Quentin rolling in his seat. Like most clowns he was annoying to the other performers, but halarious to the crowd. At one point in the show, he came out playing a trumpet while the Ringmaster was trying to introduce the next act. He got sent away, but kept coming out with different items such as: a bike horn, a harmonica, a Kazoo, and many more. At the end he came out with a whistle and he ran to hide it, except he didn't hide it, so when the Ringmaster went to get it, the clown attatched the whistle to the Ringmasters behind. Then he went around behind him as he looked for the whistle and blew it.

There was also a guy (can't remember his name) that came out and kindof scared the kids at first, but then they realized that his face changed colors. Red, blue, green, purple, white, black and more. As the colors would change you would hear the kids yelling out the next color. It was great!

They had a bounce house for the kids to enjoy before, after, and during intermition. Zachery didn't want to go in, because he wanted to stay and eat popcorn with grandma. Quentin begged and begged to go in and then got right back out, he was to scared...pansy :) The girls went in a little scared at first, but got used to it quickly. They loved it so much they went back in a couple times.

Above are some pictures of the poor guys that got attacked by the clown. They were picked from the audience and were picked on when they got to the stage. The end result was all of them laying on each other to make a table, the best part is when the clown left them there and didn't give them back the chairs they started out on :)

Of course they had the girl who could hula hoop with like 50 hula hoops. I used to be able to do that, but now not so much!

Quentin was kind of disappointed to find out that there were no animals in the show, but he quickly forgot when the Chinese lions came out. I didn't get to see the whole act, because I was taking the girls poddy, but I was told that they balanced on a giant ball at the same time, played teeter-totter, and balanced on the poles above. I would have to agree with Quentin, this was my favorite part too (as much as I got to see).

The kids made out pretty good by the end of the night. They had peanuts, balloons, soda, popcorn, and cotton candy. Not to mention the Mcdonald's they had afterwards. We all had a blast, but the big bite of the night was that James got off as we were coming out the doors. He called to see if we were still there :( All in all we all had a blast!

Valentine's Party!

Friday was Quentin's Valentine's Party at school and I'm his room mother. We started off by making his Valentine's box for school and he wanted a Teradactyl. So of course, my creative wheels started to turn and came up with a soda bottle, paper mached, and painted. It took us about a 3 days total, but it turned out Awesome! James did the shaping, while Quentin and Zach paper mached and painted. Some how I even got them to spread all the paint out instead of leaving clumps :) They had fun doing this and has already came up with next years projects!

Then came the day of the party! We played a relay race with the kids to start with and they kids enjoyed getting to run in school :) They raced to a stack of hearts and picked one up. The heart said something like spin three times or wiggle dance, they then had to race back to the start, so that the next person could go. The first team through wins (they all are winners).

After we got them all nice and roudy, we let them pass out their Valentines and candy. They were able to look through them and read them for a little bit before snack time. They had cupcakes, cookies, candy, chips and dip, and Hawiian punch. There were also pudding cups, more cookies and candy, and chips donated that were not used. The items that are not used are given to his teacher to use for snack days in the future. After snack it was time for the kids to move on to other classroom fun, but we gave our hugs and said our "Thank Yous" and went on about our day!

Since Zachery's party overlaps Quentin's, I'm usually only able to hit the last 10 min. or so. But after Quentin's party we trucked on over to Zach's class and had more fun with them. They decorated their own boxes and cards for their friends. They use Valentine's Day as a time to learn to spell their names on the from line. Zachery had tons of fun, but was ready to go when we got there. Each of the boys gave a candle holder and candle to their teachers and we left school early.

After parties, we take a few min. for mom and boys and go to the Eldon Drive-In (AKA: The Drink Store) and have us a soda and maybe even a small baby cone. Then we go pick up the girls and head home!

Happy Valentine's Day to All!

Happy Birthday Quentin!

On this day, seven years ago at 1:27 pm a bouncing baby boy came into my life and I remember it like it was yesterday. I check his toes and his fingers and wouldn't let him go. Even to give hime a bath was a struggle for the nurses who had to fight him away from me. It's hard to believe he's seven already, but I'm so pround of him! I love you baby (I know your not a baby)! Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy bithday dear Quentin,

Happy birthday to you!

And Many More!

Happy 7th Birthday Quentin!

We Celebrated Quentin's 7th birthday at Chuck E. Cheeses and he had a blast. There were plenty of games and fun to keep them entertained for hours and it did. We started off playing games and having fun then ate, opened presents, and soon back to more games. The kids enjoyed winning lots of tickets and feeding them to the "ticket eater" and redeeming them for prizes. Mazes, skee ball, air hockey, rocket booster rides, the options were endless and the memories were priceless. Quentin enjoyed his party for the most part, but played the shy card when it came to starring in his own video. Our hostess was nice and gave him some of the flying tickets even though he didn't participate.

The girls had tons of fun singing and dancing! Quentin was a little shy in his birthday video with Chuck E. Cheese, but the girls stepped right in to show him how it was done. They walked in the Konga line, jumped, danced, and clapped their hands to the beat. They had no problem picking up the flying tickets that were thrown out for the kids to share. They loved seeing Chuck E. and Kierstyn has taken over Quentin's plush Chuck E. for her own. Towards the end they got a little tired, but remained happy for the most part.

Zachery had tons of fun, but started off by just putting a token in, playing for a little while, and leaving while the game was still going. Once we explained to him that he had to finish the games so he could get his tickets, he did just fine. He loved to have his pictures taken and drawn with the picture takers that were there. He really got a kick out of the air hockey table, but said "look mom, I'm playing Ice hockey." He was so excited with playing the games that when it was time to eat, he ate as fast as possible and ran straight for the games.

Quentin's cousins Aria, Emilee, and Amanda (not pictured) came to his party to help celebrate and have fun. I think Amanda said that she racked up over 600 tickets and plus had some at home that she was saving. That's impressive! The girls and I combined were lucky to get 100, so she kicked our butt up and down the block :) Aria said she had a blast and was glad that Quentin invited her. They are only 11 months apart, so they are usually joined at the hip. Amanda and Emilee seemed to enjoy taking the girls around to play any chance that the girls would give them. Over all I think everyone had fun and I thank everyone who came for sharing in our memories! Also thanks to Brandi and Dan (my sister and brother-in-law) for coming and acting like kids with the rest of us!

Happy Birthday to my big boy!

Mrs. Brandy Came to Visit!

Mrs. Brandy is the kids Parent As Teacher educater and she came over on Friday. It has been a few months since the kids have seen her due to a bunch of rescheduling issues. She had some issues and I had some to, but she finally came and the kids just adore her. She brought over some blanket sleepers for the girls and Zachery and a new book for Quentin. She also brought two stuffed toys for the boys, so they wouldn't feel left out :) This visit was just her and the girls and they worked on colors and matching while the boys were at school.

This was the girls first time playing in shaving cream, but she asked them to spread the shaving cream out over a tray with various pictures on it. Then she aske them if they could find the dog or the bird and they had to scrape the shaving cream out of the way to find the picture underneathe. They did a pretty good job with it and suprisingly they liked it. She then had them try to match two sides of a shape together to make a triangle or whatever. This worked on matching, colors, and shapes but I am sad to say they didn't do so hot with that. They just wanted to make a tower. She said that that activity was a little over their heads, but since they are advanced she wanted to try it anyway. Obviously they didn't :)



Finally, they read some books and practiced matching with color pegs. The kids all loved the stuff she brought them and as you can see, the girls striped off their clothes and put on the pajamas right then and there. They were wearing blanket sleepers in 70 degree weather and refused to take them off :)

Quentin's birthday party is tomorrow at Chck E. Cheeses, so I will have pictures of that tomorrow!