Kitty Opera

Download your free copy on iBooks...

I recently worked with a group of fourth and fifth grade students to create a book about our elementary school culture. We studied the work of our visiting author, Jan Reynolds, and created our own book based on her style. It was a fantastic project and the students are so proud that their book is now available for a free download on iBooks. If you go to the iBooks Store on any apple device and search either by my name or the title you will find it. Enjoy!

New Toys...New Joys...

Not only did we have a great time skiing in Bulgaria, but we also had so much fun playing with our new toys.

Monopoly Jr. was a great addition to our sparse games collection.

Bryce's Christmas wish came true when Santa brought a McQueen Boat. 

He took three baths on Christmas day!

We can now re-enact the Disney Cars movie. Bryce loves all of the different characters and mommy and daddy like his car caddy, which is really a fishing tackle box.

Amelia in her golden dress with her new horse stable.

What a lucky girl!

Puppy Needs a Tag

What was originally designed to be a holiday ornament, turned out to be a puppy tag for Bryce. Amelia loves to create!

Sewing Stockings

 During our Christmas holiday, Amelia wanted to do some sewing. With a little help, she was on her way. She mastered the basic hand stitch needed to create two stockings.

By drawing dotted lines for her, she was able to have a guide.

It took a bit to learn how and where to move the needle, but she was determined.

Look at that concentration!

Ta Da!

A Few Snapshots from School

Aside from what is happening in the US, our 2017 has kicked off to a great start. We are enjoying winter more than ever and school is going so well for all of us. Here are a few photos from last week...

We celebrated Book Character Day last Friday. 

This is my dear friend Ula, who will be moving to India next year. 

Amelia was not interested in taking a photo of her dressed as Sleeping Beauty.

Amelia's Goals Revealed...

"My goal is to do friendship with animals." 

Oh our sweet girl wants a pet more than you can imagine.  

"Get ready on time for school."

Always an important one!

"My goal is to be a good counter to one million."

I love how determined she is!

My friend Ula introduced me to the idea of a one word resolution. You choose a word that encompasses the change you want to see happen in yourself. She did this with her students and it was very powerful. I shared the idea with Jim and he tried it with his sixth graders, too. I wrestled with my own word for quite sometime time. I thought about commit because I tend to start new projects, but don't always finish them. This has especially been true with fitness goals. But, these just didn't feel right. Other considerations were: joy, do, grit. In the end, I settled on connect because I want to connect more with myself through exercise, I want to be more connect with the kids as they become more independent and of course connect with Jim as our lives can be a bit hectic. A huge part of my job is connecting with others and building trusting relationships so that they feel comfortable to grow and accept my coaching. Overall, this seems very fitting for 2017.

So Thankful for this Blog

Although I haven't always been the greatest about posting consistently, I am so grateful that we have this record of our adventures. Tonight before he went to bed, Bryce and I watched videos from when he was a baby. He was overcome with joy. Hearing his four year old laugh overtop his baby giggle was priceless. He loved seeing this clip so much that tonight he will be sleeping with the monkey I tickled him with when he was a baby.