Indians and Cereal Box Book Reports

This weekend was all about school projects.
Shawna’s class is studying American Indian’s. She was given the Yurok Tribe to do a report and art project on. The report part was fairly easy given she’s in 3rd grade. I wasn’t sure how the

Art project would go. She could do a drawing, mask or diorama. She (we) choose a diorama. We had a bunch of stuff left over from Paula’s Mission project last year like grass, trees, rocks, animals. I just had to buy

A couple more Indians and some glue.

Shawna drew a picture of their traditional house, knew exactly where she wanted the trees and deer to go. She even came up with the idea to puncture the grass with the bottom of the tree, then insert the tree bottom, kind of like putting an earring thru an ear hole. This way the tree’s would stand up better. It worked great.

Todd and Paula left the house so I could concentrate. I can’t help with these projects if others are in the house making noise and stuff. In 2 hours we had her project completed.

Paula’s project day was Sunday. Hers was a cereal box book report. Her book was WAR HORSE. If you’ve never read the book the book is told by the horse. The movie is told by the boy I’m told.

She had to create a cereal using her book as inspiration. She named her Cereal Horse Pops. A toasted vanilla cereal shaped in a horseshoe. Her project took like 5 hours. She had to create a game for the back of the box. She made up 2 games. A prize was optional. We had a horse prize to put inside. On the sides of the box you had to list the Ingredients (main characters) and summary of the story. As the kids get older the details get more intense.

I have scrapbook supplies I used to use for scrapbooking, but now they are just for these activities.

Todd and Shawna took off at 11am to his parents house to help with his dads computer. They didn’t return until 5pm.

Paula had just finished her project In fact, we were still tweaking it a bit even after they returned home.

She’ll turn it in tomorrow.

Pictures below

Lighthouse Adventure & more

This weekend my family and I went camping in Pescadero to a place called Costanoa KOA. It's sandwiched between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz.  Pescadero is famous for Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

photo



We toured the grounds, went into the visitor store and purchased Girl Scout Pigeon Point Lighthouse patches, a book on dolphins and a paper book mark. All in the spirit of supporting the lighthouse. At least that’s what I told myself as I was shelling out the dough.

there is another building where the original light lives.  The light in the lighthouse now is the 3rd light since it's erection.  heh

There was a man there to tell us all about its history.  Once we were done checking out the lighthouse the girls checked out tide pools for fishy critters. They discovered many fun living creatures. 

We spent time in the campgrounds riding bikes and not freezing our fannies off. 

The campgrounds were nice and clean.  Although the nearby horse stables did not smell nearly as nice as the ocean. 

I had to work on Monday where everyone else in my family had today off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day so Todd and the girls went home around noon while I left the campgrounds before 8am. 

It was a great time had by all.  We were overdue for a camping adventure. This one fit the bill. 



Field Trip

Yesterday both 5^th grade and 3^rd grade attended a play on Tom Sawyer.  Thankfully both my kids are in those grades so I was able to be a chaperone and kill two birds with one stone. Which is to say, I attended a field trip for both my kids but it only cost me 1 day out of work.  Heh. 

I was technically a driver and had another mom in the car with me. I had to get my car washed prior because dang….the car was a filthy mess.  I have been on field trips where I didn’t wash the car first.  It’s not a must for me. But there was so much dust inside my car on everything plus the windows were awful.  In certain lighting it was hard to see out! 

I had 3 girls and 2 boys in my car.  The mom chaperone with me belonged to one of the boys.  I didn’t know her son or her so I’m glad they paired us up.  On the way home I think I even convinced her to chair the Halloween Event next year.  Score!  She was saying how she wished we had one like another nearby school does, where her bosses child attends. I explained we used to have it, but the chairperson no longer wanted to be in charge of it (it’s a big task) so a few year ago it went away.  This mom thinks she might get a couple others involved for next year.  Yay! 

I really enjoyed the play and especially enjoyed experiencing the reactions of the children in the audience.  Kids are so funny.  When the scary Indian showed up in the graveyard the kids got scared, when the actors did funny things they all laughed and giggled. When Tom and Becky kissed the audience giggled louder.   I was sitting next to the 3^rd grade teachers aide for half the show (during intermission Shawna decided she wanted to sit on the other side of me so we switched places).  Even the TA was cracking up at the kids reactions. 

Paula sat up higher in the seats with her classmates so I wasn’t able to see her reaction.   I was a driver for the 3^rd grade so sat down with the kids I was in charge of. When we were outside before the show Paula came up and gave me a hug. She was really glad I attended, even though I wasn’t her chaperone per se.  Another plus is one of the 5^th grade boys in our school was acting/singing in the play.  All the children in our school knew him and enjoyed watching him on stage.  After the show he signed Paula’s program book.  She was impressed.  LOL

I just had the best day ever yesterday and forgot I even had a job to go back to today. 

School plays

Shawna, who turns nine in a couple weeks, is a vastly entertaining child.  She's energetic, funny, obnoxious, loud, chatty, smart. 

The past couple months she and a few of her friends have been performing plays at school. Not the kind on a stage or anything.  They perform them for each other. As in make-believe.  During lunch and recess. 

In December she brought Santa hats and reindeer antlers to school so her friends could be Santa and reindeer. At first when she was telling me about this play I believed the school was using the props.  Nope, just her and her friends. 

After the Santa/Reindeer play they moved on to the Chipmunks and the Chipettes.  Each of her friends is a character of the movie.  Today in the car on the way to school she described who was who.  I haven't seen the latest movie but the kids have. Paula knew every character Shawna mentioned. 

I love that my daughter and her friends have found such an imaginative and creative way to spend free time. 

Tomorrow I'm going on a field trip the 3rd grade (Shawna's class) and 5th grade (Paula's class) are attending to see Tom Sawyer.  I'm driving too so I'll have some of her little friends in the car.  It's cute to see them all interact.  I wonder if they'll put on a Tom Sawyer play after they see it.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Floods

My kids wear uniforms to school. Paula wears a skirt or can wear shorts or pants. Shawna has to wear a jumper, pants or shorts.  Lately she's been wanting pants.  Last week she wore the same pants all week.  (4 day week).  I get them pants from the free uniform swap but they both are weird sizes and not always do the pants fit.  Sometimes the waist is too tight or something.  I do bring the unfitting clothes back to the swap the next time but 6 months may go by before I do that. 

Today Shawna wanted tights for her jumper but we didn't know where they were. She got all ATTITUDE on me so I left the room. 

I'm in the kitchen making lunches and she comes down stairs wearing pants which are way too short. 'Floods' as we call them here in Cali.  Some folks call them 'high waters'.  I'm looking at them and thinking are those the pants she wore all last week cuz I know they fit her last week.  My kids grow fast but not that fast. 

Nope, these pants were buried in her drawer so she yanked them out.  I said they're floods.  "How are they floods?" she says looking down.  The bottom of the navy pant legs are hitting the top of her white socks.  It's almost blinding the socks show so much.  We are now at the point in the morning where we have to go to school.  There is no changing our clothes now.  I told her she's probably going to get a clothing note home.  She's already complaining that her jumper needs to be let out.  I don't do "letting out".  I hate hemming anything.  Why can't my kids be normal and short so everything is long.  ugh.

13 Wedding Anniversary

Today is my 13th wedding anniversary.  It's amazing we got here considering a few years ago we were both seriously contemplating divorce. I'm thankful we trudged thru the mucky waters and came out the other side. 

To celebrate we went to San Francisco for the weekend.  We had dinner at Morton's of Chicago. Todd's steak was insanely huge. It took up the entire plate.  My tiny "petite" fillet mignon was so small compared to his that we took pictures comparing the two. 

When the restaurant learned it was an anniversary celebration they sprinkled heart shaped glitter on our table and took a picture of us with their camera, bringing us back 2 printed copies.  One photo was in a nice black thick paper frame signed by many employees. The other other photo in an envelope.  It was a very nice unexpected touch and I'm happy to have the photo to remember the evening. They also subtracted our dessert from the bill. 

I don't have the pictures with me now so I can't upload them but come back later and I might have added them to this post.