Cultural Festival 2014

In mid May we were treated to the Cultural Festival at Woodcrest. Last year James' class focused on Mexico and James recited a few lines about Mexico's art. This year we didn't know what to expect because we just received the time and date, no other details. We were lucky that we are on-time people because we realized that James was due in the gym at 6pm for his class' music performance.

A quick picture with his self-portrait.

 

Waiting for the adults and sound system to get ready...hanging out with friends Sam and Christopher.

 

The performance. James is in the bottom row, near the middle.

 

And some videos of the performances, if you're curious.

 

 

 

Back at the classroom, with Señora Sierra. She is wearing an Ecuador soccer jersey, since James’ class studied that country for the festival.

 

The classroom was transformed into Nigeria, Thailand, and Ecuador.

Frogs...

 

Monkeys...

 

A pit stop at James' desk. He was very eager to show us all of his class work and journals.

 

 

I LOVE his journal. I need to study this thing and learn all about my son. Here he started to map out his corazón, or his heart. Mom and Dad, of course, and then there are his Abuelas, the Vikings??, and then his Fish. He said he didn't have a chance to finish so of course I'm assuming he'd include his Grandpas, his Tías, and his Uncles...

 

 

Rainforest.

 

 

 

 

Lion puppets.

 

And a glance at his daily agenda.

 

Hanging art/work

 

And back in the school hallway, near the kindergarten area. Last year James' class concentrated just on Mexico.

 

So it was a fun night to explore the school and cultures! And see James in action- with friends and then singing.

 

 

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Mother's Day 2014

I don't think I appeared in any pictures this Mother's Day but I did take pictures of the artwork James gave me.

His homemade card that said, My love grows and grows and grows for you.

 

Describing me as his Mom- pretty, kind, helpful, intelligent, fun, very good, funny, interesting (I think), funny (again), and creative.

"Mom, you are the Queen of my heart because...you are kind and I like to play with my Mom."

 

And a book, "If you give flowers to my Mom..."

 

And this store bought card opened...

 

To be huge!

 

My boys gave me some alone, chill time. It was a nice day full of love and flowers!

 

Thank you, Jim and James!

 

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Whoa

There was this spelling list for May.

 

Hardest words yet! It was a huge jump in difficulty and I had to let the teacher know that our study efforts were met with some frustration. She told us that yes, this was the most difficult list and to let James know he can do it and they do expect the kids to make lots of errors.

I showed the list to my FB friends and we all agreed- what happened to learning cat, dog, tree, or other small words?! Also, my eight graders (in their first year of Spanish) were flabbergasted. They truly are at the cat, dog, etc level. James felt better knowing that he has even more Spanish than an eighth grader!

The results? Well, the first Friday he only got ONE right. There were too many red pen corrections :(

We learned that they were testing on the same list the following week too. We studied even more.

The 2nd result? Only ONE WRONG!

Yay James!!!!!!!!!!

 

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Don't mess with tradition

Jim usually takes James to swimming lessons but on this fine evening I took James. It is tradition to eat at DQ and get a small chocolate cone "for strength".

 

 

He really needed it for this workout! Lots of back and forth swimming, plus some safety lessons.

 

 

 

Lots of breathing tips, some "what if" scenarios, and then swimming with bulky clothing. Not easy they found out!

 

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Early May shenanigans

A student gave me this mini May Day basket of flowers and candy.

 

I put a few more candies in it and put it on our front doorstep for James. As far he knows a neighbor was kind and left that for him.

 

Cuddle time and silly faces.

 

You can kinda see here that he has the two teeth way up in his gum line, the ones next to his top front teeth. Those teeth are above and over the baby teeth, one of which has fallen out now. The concern is that he will have moderate to severe crowding.

 

Silly.

 

James helped me try out a craft before I did it with students for Cinco de Mayo or Mother's Day (whichever they chose to celebrate). I did this craft with my Gay Straight Alliance group and of course they were rainbow colored flowers! Painting coffee filters...

 

For flowers!

 

One of my students was very creative and made his fancy. Love it!

 

Here are some shenanigans. James received this wind-up spider in a Happy Meal. He knew it would be perfect to scare his Dad! He hid it on his Dad's side of the bed (:

 

One weekend in May I went on a "scrapbooking weekend" at a rented cabin. I think this was just an excuse to hang out with my fun colleagues, be silly, and drink a little wine!

We ventured into Taylor's Falls to look around. Two people are missing from this picture.

 

There might have been some midnight strolls in creepy barns, and knocking on windows to scare the other girls. Silly "old" women!

 

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Finishing up April

I took James to his swim class in late April was fortunate enough to see his new skill- side breath!

He really just dives in and tries his best!

 

 

 

Here's the side breath.

 

Side breath.

A race to finish!

 

 

 

And there was a dentist appointment. No cavities! But silent tears. He really doesn't like fingers and instruments in his mouth. Oh, and they are referring us to the orthodontist...!

 

And work related for me- I went on a behind the scenes tour of the Target Stadium! I was supposed to help chaperone this fieldtrip but I had so much fun with my friend Jessica (a HUGE Twins fan) that it didn't seem like work (: Too bad it was rainy and we couldn't get on the field.

 

On to May 2014...!

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