Sips-N-Strokes

Some of the girls in our Sunday School class went to Sips-N-Strokes last night. We've been trying to find a date forever to get together to do this. We painted a cross and had a great time! The class was packed and the teacher got a little fast at times. It amazes me how different everyone's picture turned out.

We missed everyone who wasn't able to come.

Shealy's Work in Progress:

Shealy's Completed Art:

Ashley's Work in Progress:

Ashley's Completed Project:

Laura Ann's Work in Progress:

Laura Ann's Completed Project:

G-ed

The works of G:

Every day. Never fails.

Overheard

"Guys, that's a big daddy long head"

(ignore the reflection)

Is it bad....

that after only a week of school I was a little happy ecstatic that my friend G was not at school today? I mean it was so nice not to have to use broken English to repeat things...all. day. long.

Happy Birthday!

(Can you tell who didn't want to take pictures?)

Happy Birthday Drew and Mallory!!!

We celebrated both Drew and Mallory's birthdays over the weekend. Mallory's birthday was August 13th and Drew's is today. After bid day, we had lunch at the house and celebrated with some delicious cake. We're going to celebrate Drew's birthday again on Wednesday night because he has to work on his birthday tonight.

Can you spot him?

Can you spot my friend G?

Bid Day 2009

Congratulations to one of the new baby squirrels!

Survived

That's what I did today. Survive. That's what the first day of kindergarten is all about.

I've had criers before. Last year I had one who cried all day every day for the first week of school. Then just in the mornings for a few weeks. But today took crier to a whole new level. See, I have a student from the Ukraine. Let's call him G. G speaks very little to no English.

Well somehow G got on the wrong bus this morning and ended up at Ogletree instead of AEEC. So someone went to get him. By the time he got to school, I had the rest of the class calmed down and our day started. It got interrupted. G came in and started saying "I want to go inside." I said "Baby, you are inside, you are inside the classroom. You are at school. School is inside." This continued for about 20 minutes. I guess G got frustrated and started to cry scream. I mean wow! He almost gagged himself several times because of the screaming.

When we got outside to play, he cried because we went outside. When we came back inside he cried because we came back inside. When we were "practicing" lining up, he cried. I finally got frustrated and called for backup. Someone came and G calmed down for the 10 minutes they were in the room. When they left, it started up. He cried through 3 or 4 stories. He cried through the lunch line. He REFUSED to eat. He cried and cried and cried.

Finally, our reading coach came and somewhat force fed him. She ended up telling him "First eat, then go home" and he all of a sudden stopped. "Go Home?"

The last 20 minutes of my day were definitely the most peaceful. So with all that said, I survived.

(Side note- I do feel very sorry for G. I cannot imagine going to another country to live and not knowing anything they are saying. Poor baby just wanted to make sure he was going home but didn't know how to communicate it! I can't wait until our ELL's start with Rosetta Stone.)

Reality

Does summer really have to end? I quite enjoy not having much to do all day. But until next June, I'll be spending most of my days here....Please ignore the missing triangle curtain... someone borrowed it to do their own!

Pool

I was very priveledged to have some wonderful moms/girls in my class last year. We've been trying to get together all summer to go to the pool... but it hasn't worked until today. We spent most of the afternoon in the pool playing, swimming, jumping, etc.

The girls were all very excited to see each other and play together again, especially since they're all going to different elementary schools. The little sisters had fun too!

Sips-n-Strokes

I went to Birmingham Thursday night for a Girl's Night before school starts back. When I was there for a wedding a few weeks ago, Amanda and I started talking about going to Sips-n-Strokes. You see, she's a pro- most of the art in their house is from Sips-n-Strokes.

***Side note- Amanda and I went together last summer too. Mine resulted in the cross hanging in the foyer... her's resulted in the trash (It's the only one she's ever done that wasn't good!)

So...we found a painting we liked or thought we did anyway. We also called up two other high school friends to go with us. Mere couldn't make it, but Julie came. The three of us had a great time... the paintings just didn't quite turn out like the original. Amanda's was good.... mine is probably going in the trash! Here's a picture of us with the original:

(Julie, Amanda and I)

Needless to say.... mine doesn't look ANYTHING like the original... it was defnitely worth the trip though!