Christmas Parties

Christmas is always a fun time of get togethers and rejoycing together the "Reason for the Season", but it seems as our kids have gotten older, we have more things during the Holidays!

Here was our schedule this month:

•  December 4th - Ornament Exchange @ Church with the ladies (Jenna went as my date and it was SO much fun!)
• December 9th - Legacy Christmas Party -- which is what I will blog about in a bit.....
• December 10th - Sunday School Party - which was at MY house! O-o
• December 11th - Jason's Work Party (SO FUN)
• December 12th - Legacy Staff Christmas Party (also a TON of fun!)
• December 14th - Class Christmas Party at school (and also a Geometry final for me to give and Joshie's class party all at the same time as my 6th graders' party)

Here's a few pictures from my outing with my little princess, Jenna;

 She was so excited to dress up like a "princess" and wear her special dress her grandma honey bought her for her birthday. She has SO much fun with me listenin to the music....

 Eating dinner and of course cupcakes....

 And we got a beautiful new ornament to hang on our Christmas tree!

Less than a week later we had Joshua's Christmas party for school. It was neat as he and his other pre-k/kindergarten classmates sang a few songs for everyone. Here's a few pictures from that event:

Josh and his buddy, Sage

Waiting for the performance to start

Josh and his awesome music teacher, Mrs. Cone

Sage, Josh and Ben getting ready to start

 And what performance would be complete without a special clip from the actual performance?? Below are two videos of them singing....As you will see, Josh is pretty enthusiastic about performing. LOL

And lastly, we ended the school year with class parties. Although I wasn't able to attend, I had lots of friends that were able to take some pictures for me. Here's a few class pictures from their PreK party:

And what a perfect gift he made at his party for our tree!

I am so thankful for the school we go to and teach at. It is such a blessing to us. These kids he is growing up with are sure to be life long buddies and special friends!



Raffle

Every year my school holds an awesome christmas party, which also is a major fundraiser for Legacy. Since we are a unique school, we raise any funding we need solely by ourselves. We are currently looking for a permanent residence to build our Lower, Middle and High School campuses as well as increase resources and opportunities for our wonderful students.

Each family needs to sell at least 20 tickets to help make this happen. If you'd like to help us, click on the "Donate" link on the side and in the "note" put raffle ticket. I'll put one with your name on it. You can also mail a check, just email me if you are interested.

$10 gets you a ticket and an opportunity to win an iPad, TV, iPod Touch, vacation getaway or other cash prizes. You do not need to be present to win, I will notify you if you have won something.

So who's joining me in building a legacy for Legacy? :)

Joshua Pre-K {Q1 Update}

The first quarter ended this past Friday at school (hence why there weren't many posts last week - teaching is great, except for the end of a grading period). Here's some highlights of the first eight weeks of Pre-K and the cool things Josh has done!

We made a bird nest for science for the letter "n" sound

"L" shaped pancakes for breakfast one morning to kick off our school day

Josh made a bird feeder in science

God takes care of us, just like He takes care of the animals.
So Josh made this to hang in our front yard.

"T" cookies for Joshie's class when they studied the "T" sound

Math activity involving addition and subtraction

Jenna likes to practice too. She's ready for Pre-K next year!

Studying is hard work, huh Pepper?!

We are excited about starting this second quarter at school. Josh is singing in our Christmas Banquet with his classmates and he is learning SO much!!! I'm very proud of him!

Pre-K {Update}

I love school pictures.

Especially now that I officially have a school-aged munchkin.

Yep, I'm a proud momma! <3

Precious

We have morning assembly each morning before class at school.

Usually, I am up on the second floor next to my door.

Waiting and watching my students.

Keeping an eye on Josh.

This day I was downstairs and I caught the most precious picture of my little Joshie....

Ki-Ya!

We're a month into school..... and it feels like it we are loving all the things we get to do! One of the "enrichment" activities Josh is in is Karate. He has it Monday's after classes (so he's VERY tired on these days, being in school from 8:30am to 4:15pm), and on Friday mornings. Yesterday, he earned a white stripe on his belt! I think you need two or three stripes to move up in rank. At any rate, he is not only doing well, but is having a BLAST!

The coolest thing is that he practices right below my classroom in the gym. It happens to also be when I am switching math classes, so I brought my camera to sneak a quick video of him in action:

Nature Walk {Picture Blog}

One of the great things about attending a UMS school is that on Tuesday's and Thursday's you have enriching assignments to compliment the work done at school and to reinforce what teachers teach. One of Joshie's assignments today was in Science. He's been learning about the difference between living and non-living things. So his Science assignment was to go on a nature walk and find three living things and three non-living things. This is what we found as we walked to the mailbox:

"Going on a nature walk was sure fun! I can't wait until I'm big enough to do it too!" ~Jayden

First Day

 Yesterday was the first day of school... for me, for my Pre-K'er, for my girls who stay in the nursery at school with me, and for Jayden who now is watched down the street from school...

Backpacks were packed, lunches were made - all ready for the BIG day

 Josh got to pick out his uniform to wear

 Isn't he cute?? :)

Of course, Jenna wanted to wear a uniform too - she wanted to be just like her big brother

 the girls were excited to see their teacher, Mrs. Janis

Josh was excited too - this is his seat in his classroom

And of course, I had to get a picture with him in my classroom... although I was SO tired from getting everyone ready adn making sure everything was ready for my middle schoolers!

Josh liked meeting new friends at assembly time 

He had a great first day....

Meet The Teacher

 Thursday evening was Meet the Teacher night at our school. Normally I have the kids stay home with Jason. This year, Joshie is starting Pre-K at Legacy, so he got to meet his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Kim Wright. We kind of laugh because Kim actually was in the childcare dept. when I started, so she has known Josh since he was 10 months old! Are you ready, Kim, for our spunky little guy?

Here's his classroom where he will be taking Kinder math, Kinder language, learning bible, science and history.

 He is excited that Sage, Jenna's best friend, is at his table for class....

 Math meeting board

He woke up today and said: "Today is Saturday, which means tomoorow is Sunday, and then MONDAY!!!!" Can you tell he's excited?  ;)

"Suck It Up"

If you've played sports, then you probably have been told to "suck it up" at some point. It comes when you think you can't give any more... when you have to be pushed to go beyond your physical limits an press on.

That's how I've felt the past two weeks. As I mentioned in my last post, it's inservice, end of summer school, teacher training and school is starting on Monday.

Needless to say, things get neglected

I stay up until 1 am

But I have to press on for them

Let's do this....AND PRESS ON!!!! Because the rewards outweigh the sacrifices....