I'm Ready for April Fool's Day

I've always been a big fan of April Fool's Day (as long as I'm the one playing the jokes)! Family Fun magazine had some great ideas this month and I'm using some of them this year. Here's what I have planned...

1. The kids will stuff socks or cotton balls or something into the toes of Mike's dress shoes. He won't be able to get his feet into them. The kids will think it's great! Does this mean I have to wake them up to see this happen or should I try to get Mike to stay at home later than normal in the morning?
2. I bought two little milk size cartons of Gold Fish Crackers. I very carefully opened the bottoms on the cartons, just enough to get the fish out, and filled them with macaroni noodles. I closed them up tight w/ some of my super strong scrapbook adhesive. I'm going to sneak the real Gold Fish to school before snack time and let the kid's teacher get involved. Maddy will think this is funny. I'm not sure about Micah. I may not send his to school. It might be better if we do his at home.
3. Most of you know that I rarely ever cook dinner. Mike enjoys it so much that I'm always more than happy to let him take charge in that arena. Well, for dinner on April Fool's Day I'm going all out.... Guess what we're having?????? Good old fish sticks and peas (no one in the family likes fish and only peas if they are fresh). The fish sticks are going to be those long skinny wafer type cookies covered in peanut butter and then rolled in crushed corn flakes. Yum!!!! The peas are going to be little pieces of green taffy rolled in balls. The kids will freak out...#1 I made a meal and #2 they will think it's the grossest combination ever. Mike won't like it either, but I bet he'll be polite about it. I am also willing to bet that once they realize that it's NOT fish sticks and peas, they'll be all over it!!
   

Wish me luck!!

PS Another good reason I need to get back into the classroom....April Fool's Day!!!!

Bacon and Eggs

Although I'm not real handy in the kitchen, I do enjoy making cute stuff for the kids once in awhile. I made bacon and egg candy a year or two ago and it was easy, so I thought I'd do it again this week for Micah's spring party. He will be able to help and that makes it even more exciting! Below are the instructions. I'll post a photo or two of our own.

What you need:

Pretzel sticks

12 oz pkg of vanilla or white chips (or a few squares of almond bark)

48 yellow M&M's

What you do: Place pretzel sticks on waxed paper in groups of two, leaving a small space between each. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat vanilla chips for 1 minute. Stir. If not completely melted, continue cooking in 15 second increments, until melted and able to be stirred smooth. Drop by teaspoonfuls over each pair of pretzel sticks. For "yolks", place one or two M&M's in the center of each "egg".

Mike Likes to Sing

Earlier in the week Maddy shared a tidbit of info at school that has everyone wondering...

Mike likes to sing song with the kids. Especially ones that he learned at Boy Scout camp when he was a kid. And he actually has a pretty good voice.

He must have sung with the kids this past week A LOT when I was gone at the conference because Maddy shared during "News Time" how much fun she's been having singing with her dad. Her teacher immediately told me how excited Maddy was about all the singing. She then asked if Dr. Garvey would come in and share his signing with the class. I chuckled and told her I'd talk to him. In my mind I'm thinking "There's no way Mike will do it."

I later find out that Maddy's teacher also went up to Micah to let him know that they would love having Dr. Garvey come sing to the class. I chuckled more and more each time I found out that the word was spreading.

When Mike got home that evening I approached him and wanted to let him know there were requests being made for his singing. Before I could even get a full sentence out, he interrupted me and said that he knows; Maddy's teacher cornered him earlier in the day about singing.

I guess the question everyone is waiting to have answered is...

Will Mike/Dr. Garvey go sing in the kindergarten classroom anytime soon???

I hope so....it would be a hoot!!

A Good Day

I volunteer at school on Thursday mornings. I spend an hour in Maddy's 5K classroom and an hour in 1st grade w/ my teacher friend, Julie, and all of her little rascals. One of the 6th grade teachers contacted me to see if I would be interested in helping a student with her writing one day a week. I met with this student for the first time today. We only spent about 40 minutes together, but I instantly felt right at home with this aged student (some things don't change). Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the little ones, but the older kids are who I'm use to and who I can relate to. I do need to get back into the classroom...my resume is ready and all I need now is for a vacancy to be posted. Time will tell...

Very odd...

I often find very odd and/or puzzling things around the house. Here's today's list...

1. Missing Socks - While folding laundry today and over the course of this past week, I managed to accumulate 12 socks without a match. Now, we're a family of four, so that's three missing socks per person, however, the ODD part about this was that ALL 12 socks without a match belonged to Maddy. Where do you suppose the other 12 are?
   
2. It's not unusual for the upstairs bedroom doors to be closed during the day. We close them to keep the dog from getting too comfy on our beds - he has two of his own! When I went to put laundry away today, all the closed doors upstairs were locked. I find this very ODD and am curious as to who would do such a thing and why??
   
3. Seems like laundry is the theme today...It's interesting that I found a muddy coat and snow pants in the laundry this morning. I thought Maddy said she and her friends would find something else to do at recess this week.
   

Life is good! And sometimes a little bit ODD.

What About Micah?

I don't have nearly as many funny stories about Micah as I do Maddy, but even so, there's plenty to tell about my almost 8, yes, 8 year old. First of all, I can't believe he will be 8 this summer! Where has the time gone!?!

Micah is a hard working student and a friend to all - straight from the mouth of his 2nd grade teacher. He is a leader in his class and has a great sense of humor.

At home I don't see these characteristics as much as I'd like to. Micah loves to whine when he's at home. In fact, when he was "Special Person of the Week" in his class earlier this year, he wrote that "pretend whining" is one the the things he does best. Go figure!

Micah loves playing soccer, basketball, baseball, and swimming. He is in an indoor soccer league in Fort Atkinson right now and will play again in JC this spring. Micah is an excellent reader and also enjoys time on the computer playing with his Webkinz, checking the weather, and emailing family members.

He completed his state quarter collection and started collecting the Presidential coins. His rock collection keeps expanding and we've had to buy several new storage containers for them.

Micah and Mike do a lot of neat things with Cub Scouts. It's a great father/son bonding time for them both!

I'm Still Shaking My Head

Monday, March 9 was a rather mixed up day. Daylight savings and the anticipation of my cancer scan really did me in. It was one of those days when I think to myself...Wow, I have a pretty good head on my shoulders, I'm educated, and I'm in touch with what's going on around me. But given all that, I barely made it through the day? Here's how the day went...

• The kids spent the weekend at grandma and grandpa's while we enjoyed time with friends. We went out to dinner, went to a Buck's game (I won four tickets in the third row). It was fun!

• Mike and Micah unexpectedly went to the men's Badger basketball game Sunday night. They didn't get home until 10 p.m. Way past Micah's bedtime.

• Maddy and I went to Patti's house Sunday night. Maddy dawdled with her shower when we got home and didn't get to bed until 8:45 p.m. Yikes, I'm asking for trouble.
  

• Mike got up to check the roads on Monday at about 5:00 a.m.

• I fell back asleep and never heard him come home to shower and leave for school.

• Maddy came stumbling into the bedroom Monday morning at 7:08 a.m. Holy crap, we overslept!! I get Micah up, both kids get dressed, brush teeth, pack their school bags, etc

• Micah had math homework that wasn't complete. I told him I'd rather he do it after school than rush and do a sloppy job in the morning. I'm thinking to myself...great, the Garveys are slackin' off again. But then again, we're just like any other "normal" family and these things happen. I try to convince myself of this all morning long.
  

• Because we're short on time, both kids grab a granola bar (or so I think) and we head out the door.

• We're not late to school and the kids actually have a little time on the playground. Whew!!
  

• I head back home to get ready for my Dr. appt. I no more than walk in the door and see the two granola bars sitting on the counter. Crap, the kids set their measly breakfast down and went to school with nothing to eat! Micah didn't have his homework done! I immediately go into panic mode, which I would not have typically done, but I was a bit stressed at this point. I call Mike. He's as calm as calm can be and simply asks, "What would you like me to do?" I reply, "I don't know! But kids need to eat breakfast before they go to school. And I'll be dammed if I'm going to take them anything. They had the granola bars in their hands. Why did they set them down!?! They need to remember stuff like this on their own!" He then tells me he's in a meeting and needs to go. Opps!
  

• We leave town at 10 a.m. and head to Madison for my appt. While driving, it dawns on me that the kids have Mad Science for the first time today after school. I hadn't gotten any confirmation on it, so it had slipped my mind. I didn't mention it to either one of them, nor did snacks get packed for the 15 minutes between after school and when Mad Science begins. At this point all I can do is shake my head...

• After we get back to town I run snacks up to school. Micah's teacher mentions that he did ask when lunch was a couple times in the morning. Poor guy going off to school without breakfast! At least they both had a snack to munch on.

• Needless to say, we all survived the day. The kids had fun at Mad Science. No one starved. I went off to class that evening and kept myself busy and distracted while learning about Dewey and MARC records. Wowzaa!