All the wonders of the Sea

Summer wrapped up her visual assignment for class last night. I have to say that I am ready for spring break. I suppose that if we hadn't waited until Wednesday to start it, it may not have been so much. But a second grader cant start without you. They have no vision, because they really have never seen any examples of projects like this. So we discussed( I told her what I thought was easiest and best based on supplies I already had in the house). There is a large world map on Grady's wall, so we used it for our inspiration. Painted some old display boards. I cut out the land masses. she labeled them and the oceans. Then we went hunting for pics of sea creatures. She found some in old coloring books, we copied a few out of a very old TimeLife book from the 70s, and I did find a couple in google images(btw-be careful what you google when searching for images. I was horrified when searching for baby seals and kept getting hits of pics of them being clubbed, thank goodness Summer was busy coloring and cutting. It was BAD.)

I was worried because I worked last night and Summer had to finish the project without me. Jason helped her label everything and she did a great job with modge-podge-ing it all down.

She is proud of it. Hope she still is after turning it in.

Summer has had a great week. She was recognized in an assembly and given a certificate for Buffalo Wild Wings. Also we got a note home that she was chosen to have lunch with the principal and a group of other outstanding students. They get to have Tony's Pizza and Sub Shop. Lucky bum! And to top it off, she won a tee shirt and some crazy sunglasses for a fund raiser.

So proud of that girl. I love weeks like this:)

Can you help?

I am a boxtop saving fool. I am pretty sure that Jason is not impressed. I admit to purchasing things because they have a boxtop(as opposed to the store brand) But the class with the most boxtops gets a party some time before the end of the school year, and Summer's class is very close. To be honest, I am surprised that we are not in first place! I have had friends send them to me(thanks Jenny!) and I certainly look for them on everything we buy around here. I send in a ton of them. Must not be many other parents from her class playing along.

So I am asking that if you don't save them for someone else, please send boxtops my way! The school gets a dime for each one. You wouldn't trash a pop can thats worth 10 cents, that how I feel about Boxtops:) And with all the budget cuts, this school needs all the help it can get.

You could help a sweet, long-haired, toothless little girl feel like the class hero:)

Awe, her first research paper

Summer turned in her first research paper today. Yeah, she's seven. Its on the Ocean, which as you know, is a pretty broad subject.

Now, I realize the 2nd grade was long (long) ago for me. As I recall, the hardest thing we did were those dreaded timed math test. everything else was basically projects that included the entire class. Nothing requiring my parents to help me find materials suitable for a seven year old's theories on the ocean as an ecosystem. (OK, so the teacher's blog did give suggestions on where to find info, but still...)

Also, before writing papers, didn't we all learn the process? Like creating an outline so you kind of keep your thoughts organized? I believe my 1st paper came in about 5th grade. I imagine it should have been in 4th grade, but those of you in the same class I was in (Mrs. J) know we did not learn a thing that year. What a dear sweet woman, but she really put me behind.

OH and she had to type it.Which means after an HOUR at the computer, Jason swooped in and finished typing from her rough draft. She's 7. Her typing skill have not fully developed. Apparently she needs more time on webkinz. Or her own facebook page. But it was a good experience for her to get familiar with Word and spell check and all that good stuff.

Here is a sample from her 2 page paper. This is one of my favorite paragraphs:


"We need the oceans. If we didn't have the oceans, we would all die. We would not be the only things to die, animals would not be able to survive. It does so many things for us. It gives us many things such as food, oil and natural gas. Many people like to eat fish from the ocean. Sushi is raw fish. My favorite foods from the ocean are shrimp and fish sticks. That is why we need the ocean. "

Originally, she wrote the word "die" 3 times here. I convinced her to change it to "could not survive". It was sounding a bit morbid.

Friday, she has a visual aid due. Its my job to get that rolling. Hopefully I can just get her started and then keep my hands out of it. Conferences are next week, so I guess we will see what her teacher thinks then:)

I just want to know what we are going to do when we have 3 kids in school and they are ALL assigned challenging projects. I may have to hire someone.

Its a Summer kinda day

We are lovin these new tatertot alphas. However, it took me 10 minutes to put together all three kids names. But they couldn't believe it when they saw their plates!
Oh, this one came out really dark. Crud. It was my favorite card that Summer made. Inspired by a pair of jammies.
Her is her group. She only sent out 5 of these. Keeping the rest in an album. Her and Teagen both did the red tulip in their own way which I thought was very creative. Several different mediums going on here. We have marker, acrylic paint, colored pencil and decoupage. I think next time I will limit to one medium. I cut the cards to 2.5x3.5 and used various cardboards. Most of it was packaging or the back board of notebooks. We primed them with white paint to give the girls a clean slate to work with.
On the back she wrote the title, her name and age, and the city,state and year. Easy and fun. I don't know if I posted this before, but they had 900 kids in this swap. We received all our cards we had coming to us. Which often doesn't happen in swaps. If we get one going, I think the important thing is to set a deadline that is not too far ahead in the future. Look for some info later in the week. Open to ANY kid. So feel free to share the info.

I spent Saturday with friends on a road trip to Canton/Novi/Howell. Total blast,but I took not a single photo. Just meant I was living the fun I guess. And Ikea is actually giving me dreams of redecorating. That place is crazy. CRAZY. The funny thing is everyone thought I was going to shop myself right out of fitting in the car, when it was Mandy and Kristin who took home the giant boxes! Summer's class is putting together a giant kitchen gift basket to raffle off during the spring carnival, and I was able to buy a ton of gadgets really cheap. Also got some fun organization for my studio.
All we did was eat and shop. And laugh. a lot. The rain was a bit much for me, but Mandy is the most amazing driver and was always calm. Great time. Thanks girls!


For the record, there were no pinky sightings or dead chickens anywhere to be found...

Blogger isnt allowing me to post pics today. I don't know why. But I wanted to post the pics of Summer's ATCs. She recieved one from Australia yesterday! so cool. I will post when Bloggger stops being so difficult.

Instead here is 5 for Friday randomness off the top of my head.

1. I just got back from taking the babes to Mcdonalds. I had to also have a happy meal so that there was a crappy toy for Summer when she gets home. I guess thats good portion control for me. But I did order diet coke for mine and Grady's so that I could drink them both. The breaking of the diet pop addiction is not going well.

2.My husband is GOLFING today. I am actually really happy for him because its beautiful out there, and because I will be gone all day tomorrow to the eastside of the state to hit Ikea and some other fun shopping destinations with a few of my besties.

3.I have to watch LOST online tonight because I missed it when attending dinner/gabfest with 2 of the above besties. DONT TELL ME ANYTHING!!!

4.I went to Glamazon for the 1st time this week and got the BEST salon haircut/style ever.I think that the best cuts I have gotten over the years have come from my SIL, Laura,and no salon has managed to measure up to her. But Greg at Glamazon was fab. I spent at least 30 minutes at the shampoo bowl. I could have passed out cold. So so good. After the cut,he flatironed it straighter than straight. I was there for over 2 hours. For a haircut, no color. I admit that I have not washed it yet. I am scared that I will never get it that straight again. I would post a pic, but then you know the issue I am having with blogger...

5. I fought off yet another cold before it it got bad. I swear by zinc/vitamin C (and thanks to you guys for letting me know that I can take a pretty big amount of that)sleep and fluids. I think it could have been bad. I was getting all this congestion and crud Yesterday. But today I feel great:}
Hope you do too, Have a SUPER weekend!

So sweet it makes my teeth hurt.

Teagen Art

Anyone else having issues with posting pics on blogger only to have the html show up intead of the pic while you are trying to write your post? Sorry for the strange post.

I THINK the 1st couple pics are of the little card we made for the girl next doors b-day party. This is why I keep really strange things. The little party girl on this one is from the packaging of a gift Teagen just got. I saved a ton of these little cardboard peek-a-boo girls because they are SO cute. Teagen even used one on one of her ATCs.

And speaking of her ATCs, Here they are! She had so much fun with this and loved coming up with titles for each one. She also has recieved all of hers already! There is no doubt that getting mail is enough to make a kids week! She talks about it non-stop. MAny of the cards came with photos of the kids and/or blog adresses to get to know them better. one even came with an extra card made by a little sister who wasn't old enough to play, but still wanted to be a part of it all. So cool.

Hopefully I'll have Summer's posted tomorrow.