(119) 4-29-2011 The CLEANING begins

This weekend, we have a wonderful friend helping us "Clean Sweep" our house. We have TOO much! So, we have arranged to have the girls stay with Mimi and Poppy so we could WORK, WORK, WORK!

We met in Mineral Wells and had dinner. Madi enjoyed the butter most of all!Silly girl!The first order of business was the living/dining room. Now, I must say, I don't know if it was because I was just getting started, or if I was that sentimental, but it was ROUGH to go through my picture frames. We used to get a frame for every vacation we went on. Apparently this is not a GREAT idea when you don't have much space in your house! So, I was having a HARD time getting rid of them. So, I was convinced to just take a picture of them and put them in a book. So, here they are: Our very first trip together to Galveston with Lance's family!

We went to New Orleans with his family too and this is what I picked up!For our honeymoon, we went on a cruise to Key West,
and Cozumel.

This is Rachel's fist trip to the beach in Port Aransas!

So, before I put them all in the "Garage Sale" pile, I took out the pictures and will eventually scrapbook them. It was sad for me, but I feel amazing now that my house is being decluttered!!!

(118) 4-28-2011 5th Grade Science TAKS Test

Today I was monitoring a class taking a test. It was long and BORING!!! I have given MANY tests in my years of teaching, but I have NEVER monitored. It was kind of nice being the one to take the kids to the restroom and make sure they didn't talk.When we got home, the girls did a little riding in Madi's car. I know this looks like Madi MIGHT be kissing Rachel, but she is NOT. She is trying to shove her out with her face!A little coaxing later, she was OK with sharing the car space! Then, when that got old, Rachel got in her Escalade and took Madi for her first ride in it WITH her. We had been waiting for this since Madi was born. It was cute to see them in it together!

Madi was radioing other drivers to tell them to "Watch Out!"

(117) 4-27-2011 Dinosaur Valley State Park

We were off campus again today so 3rd and 4th grades could finish up testing. We when to Glenrose, and hung out at the state park. It was WAY more fun than yesterday.

We hiked,

we crossed the river, We saw a ton of fish,we saw dinosaur tracks,and we took lots of pictures.

We even saw these HUGE cement Dinosaurs,

It was a lot of fun. I am so glad I got to go with them. I really enjoyed it. The bus had a microphone and I got to talk to the kids, play road trip games, and tell them all kids of useless facts all the way there, and all the way back! I hope they liked it as much as I did!

(116) 4-26-2011 A Day Away From School Because Of TAKS

Every year when the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades take the TAKS test, the lower grades are sent away so the building will be totally quiet and they can spread the kids out if they need to. Since I have always taught a TAKS test subject, this is the first year I got to go off campus and entertain the kiddos.

Today we went to our Principal's church to hang out for the day. We had planned stations to keep the kids entertained for most of the day.

One of the stations was Just Dance 2 on the Wii. Everyone got to dance to 2 songs. It was a HOOT, and tons of fun. I even got to dance a few times since we had some extra controllers on certain times.

We even had a competition to see who could get the highest scores in 2nd grade. All 3 top scores, were all girls, with the highest being 7014.

*I won TOP score with a whopping 8300!!! Just saying!!!

The day worked rather well I must say, until we went to watch a movie and the projector was a little messed up and they really couldn't see, so they were a little wild.

I have now realized I am NOT GOOD with chaos. By then end of the day, I was pretty frazzled and just wanted peace and quiet.

AWESOME Chocolate Givaway!!!

My Bloggie friend, Michelle, over at Better Together is having an amazing giveaway!!! Go over and enter! Wait, better yet, don't so I have a MUCH better chance of winning!!!

(115) 4-25-2011 Scavenger Hunt Sunday on Monday!!!

This week, FLEW by and I didn't get any pictures taken before Sunday. SO, I went out during my conference and took what I could and did my best! I am pretty proud of my pics.

1. Reflections

As I walked out to my car to run some errands, I was on the lookout for my prompts, and this is the first thing I saw and I love it!

2. Guess What This Is...

I was leaving the bank, and I was wondering what I could take a picture of that would be neat, but a bit challenging. This is what I found. I think it turned out pretty good!

It is Fire Hydrant!!!

3. What's inside?

I had this one in mind when I knew I needed to go to the Post Office. I love how the post office here still uses the OLD mail boxes and they don't even have keys, they give you a combination. They look so cool and I am always wondering what is inside my mailbox at home. I love to check the mail. There is always the chance of some sort of goodies in there!!!

4. Playtime

This is from the archives. I took this one night while Lance, Rachel and I were playing Chutes and Ladders. Lance was frustrated because he kept going down the slides and Rachel and I were whipping him. This was Rachel's winning move. I love how competitive this family is!

5. Lawn & Garden Lance has planted a veggie garden every year we have lived in this house. The first year he just dug up holes where ever and planted different things. It ended up being the best year. The next 3 years were strategically planned out and they had never really done as well. So, this year he just planting 2 tomato plants(Seeing as he doesn't really eat many veggies, this is just for his girls) and putting it back were they were the first time! We shall see how it goes!!!

(114) 4-24-2011 HAPPY EASTER!!!

This year we spent Easter at my parent's house, so the Easter Bunny hid eggs around the house, and a few outside. They had a lot of fun hunting them.This one was my favorite hiding spot!Madi followed Rachel around looking everywhere Rachel did. This is where E.B. should have hid one, because Rachel looked there 2nd!She was SHOCKED that they were outside too.By this time, Madi had figured it out, and knew how to grab them,andput them in her basket!Before the Easter Egg Hunt at church, we had breakfast tacos and we found all the "Resurrection Eggs" around the fellowship hall to talk about what all the items inside meant! She was holding the egg they gave me all morning, and was so excited to finally get to open it!Madi got to go out in the yard first since she was the youngest. We went in a side spot where no one else was looking.Rachel was GOOD, she got her fair share of eggs out of the hunt.THEY HADAN AWESOMETIME!!!This is my favorite picture from this hunt. I love the way she is running to see what else she can find!Madi was sitting opening her eggs, and I told Rachel to hurry and sit so I could get a picture of them together, and as soon as she sat, Madi was OUT OF THERE!!! I am sure she was afraid that her eggs would get taken!So, I got this one of the kiddos going through their eggs. Then, over comes Madi and snatches some eggs from her sister so she can open a few more.

This is where my camera's battery died. I was so sad, because they were holding hands later going back inside and it was SOOOOOO cute. One lady snapped a few pictures, so I hope those make it to me.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!!

(113) 4-23-2011 Toy Story 3 On Ice

Today Rachel and I went to see Toy Story 3 On Ice at the Alamodome. I saw a billboard for it, and thought it would be great for us to go. We were on the second row from the ice, and most of it was with no one in front of us.

I LOVE THIS SMILE!!!It was really neat to see all the characters ice skating.To introduce the toys, the soldiers sang "The Toys Are Back In Town".Then Rex played the Zurg video game OF COURSE!!!One of my favorite parts in the original movie was when the aliens would say "The Clawwwwww" they did it several times and I just loved it!Lotso was in the second half and he was just as mean as ever!!It was great. I was so happy because I had been wanting to take Rachel since it was in Fort Worth. So, we had a great time.