2nd Grade Community Field Trip/Late Night

Whew! What a full day of activity...I think that even the kids were worn out at the end of the day.

We started from the school at 11:14am and walked to Atencio's Market. The kids were split into groups and given a shopping list with items that they will need for Monday's picnic. They had to locate the items in the store, write down the prices and determine the number of servings per package. Monday morning, they will have to figure out what (and how much of each item) they need to purchase for their picnic and make it all work within the class budget. Math in action!

We left Atencio's and walked to Calvillo's for lunch. Everyone was on their best behavior and lunch was very enjoyable.

From Calvillo's, we walked to Cole Park to let the kiddos burn off some energy. They had a great time!

From Cole Park, we headed to Main Street for a downtown "window shopping" tour. It was kind of funny how the kids all gathered at the windows and looked into all of the downtown businesses...the people inside the shops had to have wondered what the heck was going on!

The kids were getting pretty tired by the time we got back to the school at 2:55pm. Some were complaining, most dramatically, that they weren't going to make it. Funny how, when the bell rang (at 3:00pm) and the Late Night activities began, they were able to run and play at Boyd Park for almost an hour!!

Late Night is, apparently, a highly anticipated event and tonight's activities began after the remainder of students, teachers, etc. cleared out and Mrs. Price's students were the only ones inside the school building. When Jamie first mentioned it he was very concerned that he wouldn't be allowed to participate because it would interfere with his bedtime. Late Night was to go until 8:00pm, which is the time he usually goes to bed. He was thrilled when we said he could go. There were lots of activities planned (board games, playing in the gym, watching a movie, pizza & birthday cupcakes) but the highlight of said Late Night was having PERMISSION to run in the halls!!

board games

the look on Parker's face says it all...pure JOY, while being allowed to run in the hall!

shooting hoops in the gym

movie (Over the Hedge) & pizza

cupcakes to celebrate Parker's birthday!

A full day of fun! I bet they all sleep good tonight...I know I will!

Spring is in the Air!

It finally appears that spring is on it's way! We've had our spring winds for a few weeks now but I was beginning to wonder if our trees & shrubs would ever bud out or bloom. I was actually beginning to believe that the 50 - 60+ mph winds we've had had blown all of the life off of them!! The trees in town have all bloomed and there is lots of color and today, for the first time, I noticed a hint of color here at home. My crabapple tree is just budding out and I found two blooms that were almost ready to open. The lilacs are getting close to blooming as well. The aspen trees have cute, little, yellow-green leaves.
YAY for Spring!!!

crabapple tree

crabapple bloom

lilac bloom

baby aspen leaves

When things are in full bloom, I'll take more photos and post them.

Bowling

Jamie's class earned a bowling trip because they reached their AR reading/testing goals for the year. So, nineteen 2nd graders descended upon our local bowling alley for an afternoon of craziness! Luckily, we had the entire bowling alley to ourselves. They bowled two games and had pizza and pop. I was exhausted afterward...don't know how anyone could spend all day, everyday, trying to contain all of that energy.
God bless those teachers!!

I tried to take some pictures as I'm kind of toying with the idea of making a CD/DVD of the year in photos to give to each kid at the end of the year. I still need to learn more about my new camera and tweaking the different settings. They turned the lights down and turned on the laser lights & disco ball...the kids LOVED it but, it made for difficult photography. The lighting was just weird and those silly kids wouldn't stand still for a second! I had to, finally, resort to using the flash to get some clear shots.

Jamie

Without the flash, I was able to get this cool shot of Parker and the laser lights dancing on his shirt.

Zeke, Parker, Diego, Austin T., Jyziah & Jamie

Six lanes of energetic 2nd graders!

Zeke, celebrating a spare!

Spring Fun Run

Today was the Fun Run at Jamie's school. This event is held in the fall and in the spring. The kids run 2 laps around the park and the few blocks east of the park, for a total of one mile. The third graders run as a group and then the 2nd graders run. The weather cooperated for today's event, never a guarantee in the spring around here!

Jamie placed 9th overall in the fall fun run and told me yesterday that his goal was to finish, again, in the top ten. He finished in 9th place today and he was very happy! He is a fast runner but definitely more of a sprinter than a long distance runner. He could probably be a good distance runner with practice, though.

All of the second graders, at the starting line.

Jamie, noticing that I'm present for his run...love that smile!

On your mark...get set...GO!!!

...and they're off!

Jamie...first lap...

...second lap...looking a little tired!

Nothing like being met at the finish line by dad!

Dianna Rodriguez, Boyd's principal, is retiring at the end of this school year so after the fun run, they had a picnic and entertainment to celebrate Mrs. Rodriguez' many years of dedicated service.

One of Jamie's classmates, Inez (in pink skirt), dances with the Semillas de la Tierra dance group. I just love Inez...I think she is so adorable, and she did a great job!

Another one of Jamie's friends, Alonzo, also dances with Semillas de la Tierra. He also did a great job!

The weather held out until about 12:30 when it clouded up and actually started to rain. We've had so much wind lately that it was nice to have rain, just wish we would've had enough rain to settle all of the dust...sigh!

Happy Mother's Day

I had a nice Mother's Day today...nothing exciting, just nice & relaxing. Jamie gave me a poem and a picture of flowers that he made at school. I'll have to scan them & post them later. Bill gave me a Starbucks gift card and Ghiradelli Chocolate...coffee & chocolate, can't go wrong with a combo like that! We went to church and then spent a quiet afternoon at home, I even had a nice nap. We went to Chili's for dinner. I am so blessed to be Jamie's mom!!

Walgreen's had a coupon for a free 8 x 10 collage print so I uploaded 20 photos of Jamie that I've taken this year (since January - too bad this child is NEVER photographed!) and ordered one for myself. I thought it turned out pretty cool so, I ordered one for my mom as well. I just sent her an email and told her to go pick up something at the Walgreen's near her house...she had no idea! And, of course, she loved it!

Spring Cleaning

Nothing like a group of ladies coming to your house to motivate you to do some spring cleaning. I'm hosting P.E.O. this month and my house is in serious need of de-cluttering!! Yesterday, I went through all of Jamie's toys, books & videos and this is the pile of stuff I gathered for our next yard sale.

Today, I went through file cabinets and consolidated four drawers into two! It feels good to be getting rid of a lot of accumulated junk that just sits around collecting dust. I'm sad to depart with some of the toys that Jamie loved (Thomas the Tank Engine) but, it's time for me to let go. (He, apparently, let go long ago!)

Frosty's, Day Two

Jamie's class didn't have time to enjoy their soda fountain creations yesterday so, Mrs. Price promised that they could be their own "customers" today. They would get to order off of the menu and enjoy a $1 employee discount. When Jamie got home from school today, I asked him if they got to have their restaurant. He said yes, then explained that Mrs. Price and the class voted on who was the most polite and well mannered kid in the class...that person didn't have to pay for their soda fountain treats at all! Jamie was the one who was selected and enjoyed a Black Cow for free!! YAY Jamie!!

Frosty's Soda Fountain Restaurant

I knew I should've brought my camera to school today!!
I volunteer in Jamie's classroom on Wednesday afternoons. I sometimes get to hang out in the classroom but most of the time, Mrs. Price has projects for me to do (grade papers, run off copies, etc.). When I got to the classroom today, it had been transformed into an old fashioned Soda Shop! I was glad that I did, at least, have my phone because the entire scene was definitely photo worthy.
Jamie, Cortez, Inez, & Lindsy were the "cooks", Parker, Austyn M., Dani, Lisseth, Austin T., Alliyah & Nicole were the "wait staff", Ashley & Diego were the "cashiers", Johnathan & Ezequiel were the "health inspectors/restaurant managers" and Rosa, Danae & Anne were the "bus staff". Another 2nd grade class came in and were the "customers". The menu consisted of Brown Cows (vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup & Coke), Black Cows (vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup & rootbeer), Red Cows (vanilla ice cream, Strawberry syrup & 7UP) and french fries. I cooked the fries in the teacher's lounge so they were fresh & warm. It was SO cute to see everyone acting their part!

They had fun and learned that "working" in a restaurant is not easy!! I ordered a Black Cow from my waiter, Mr. Austin, which was yummy!
I love these creative ways of learning. I don't remember EVER doing anything fun like this when I was in school!

Jamie & Spencer

We met Michelle & Spencer yesterday at Mr. Biggs for bowling. We had fun bowling and Jamie & Spencer had lots of fun hanging out together. They were a little shy at first but it didn't take long for them to warm up to each other. It was raining/snowing outside and not conducive to outside play, which is what they really wanted to do. Michelle offered to take both boys back to her apartment so Bill & I could go to Home Depot and Sam's Club. Figured Jamie would have more fun playing with Spencer and Bill & I were able to get our shopping done without any whining.

Jamie didn't want to leave and Spencer informed us that the apartment next to them was available for us to rent. He even offered to let us have his $25 Visa gift card to help with the rent. So cute! We promised that we'd be sure to come back to Colorado Springs again soon (probably this summer).

Crazy, Busy Day!

Happy May Day!
Bill left at 6:00am to take a group from the middle school to a Get Real conference in Pueblo. I had a volleyball match at 8:00am and Jamie had soccer games at 9:00 and 10:00. Found out this morning that they were also supposed to take soccer team photos at 9:40...wow, what a morning!! Turns out the photographer didn't see our 9:00 game on the schedule...d'oh!
My volleyball team won, so we play again next Tuesday. This is the end of season tournament so it's just one game at a time. So far, so good.
Jamie's team won their first soccer game and he scored 3 goals. They lost the second game and Jamie scored 1 goal, with team/individual photos in between. He was so tired afterward!!
I'm having so much fun with my new camera! Today I played with the continuous shooting mode...check out the 5 shot sequence of Jamie scoring one of his goals.

1

2

3

4

5

Pretty cool, huh?

After soccer, Jamie & I headed to Pueblo, where we picked Bill up and then went on to Colorado Springs. We needed a little time away from Alamosa and I needed to do a little shopping that I couldn't do in Alamosa. A few weeks ago I signed Bill up on the Red Robin mailing list and he got a coupon for a free burger for his birthday, so we also needed to do some birthday celebrating!
One thing I was shopping for is a dress to wear to Scott & Corrie's wedding. I figured that I'd have to go to dozens of stores to find a dress I liked that fits the wedding color scheme and that was in my price range. We got to Pueblo about an hour before Bill's conference was scheduled to finish so, our first stop was Kohl's. Bah! I didn't see anything there I liked...period! Then we went to Ross and, viola...a green & pink dress, in my size, that I liked, for less than $20!! SCORE!!

Once in Colorado Springs, we checked into our sweet hotel room at the Hyatt Summerfield Suites...a cool $38 deal I got on Priceline.com. I LOVE Priceline!! The room has a full kitchen, a separate sleeping area, a living room with sofa sleeper and they have a free full breakfast buffet in the morning! Sometimes I think it would be so nice to live so simply...no stuff, no clutter. So, I did the math...$38 per night for 30 days (1 month) is $1140. Factor in the free breakfast (and free evening social hour Mon - Thurs) and daily maid service and I think it would totally be cheaper than our house payment, utilities and groceries. Sounds nice but, I'd probably miss my stuff after a while! (Not the clutter, though!)

We thought about going to a movie but couldn't agree on one so, we just headed to Red Robin for Bill's birthday dinner. He got his free birthday burger (a salmon burger!) and an ice cream sundae, plus an enthusiastic round of "Happy Birthday" sung by the Red Robin staff.

Everyone else is already asleep and I'm not far from it myself...what a crazy, busy, albeit FUN, day! Tomorrow we are meeting up with Michelle & Spencer Hamilton for some bowling. It'll be interesting to see Jamie & Spencer interact...they were bestest buds from birth (Jamie is 9 days older) until Spencer moved away three years ago. I think they've seen each other once since then. Jamie is really excited!