Dr. Seuss Day

Our family definitely has a special place in our hearts for Dr. Seuss.  Our boys have spent hours being read and reading all of the goodies that this brilliant man wrote.  We usually have green eggs and ham for this day, and last year we tried to make it a little more of a party, which was really fun.  I added some Cat in the Hat pancakes to our traditional green eggs and ham.  Palmer called it the "Cat in the Hat Stack." 

 

The boys' school is so fun and I love how the go all out with things.  They invited the kids to dress up as their favorite book characters to commemorate "National Reading Week," and Dr. Seuss' birthday.  Palmer and Lincoln wanted to be "Thing 1 and Thing 2" so I made them these little shirts. 

I got the shirts at Michael (4 for $10 total deal!) and cut up one of the boys undershirts for the white fabric :), then I just appliqued the white circles and used iron on letters for the words and did a little blanket stitch around the circle with black thread. 

Lincoln and a few of his friends had decided to be "Jack" from the "Magic Treehouse" books that they love so much.  He had a great time that day. 

That night for dinner we had "Rare Who Roast Beast", from the Grinch that Stole Christmas (this was actually pot roast).  "Who Hash", also form the Grinch that Stole Christmas that was potato hash (I slice up potatoes and fry them in butter, cover the pan until they are soft and then put in a cup of milk and cook until it is all absorbed and then cover it in shredded cheese.  We LOVE this side dish and now it has a new name :).  We also had apples ("10 Apples up on Top") and pink ink (One Fish Two Fish) to drink (I was going to do Pink Lemonade, but we decided to do strawberry milk).

For dessert we had One Fish Two fish jello. 

It was fun and festive!

We were going to first read all of our favorite Dr. Seuss books and then watch "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat," but we got a little carried away reading our favorite books and read until it was bedtime.  I have to say my favorite Dr. Seuss book called "I wish that I had Duck Feet."  We had a great time and can't wait to celebrate again next year!

Palmer's Second Grade Program

 In January, Palmer's wonderful school teacher came to me and asked what I thought of Palmer memorizing the Gettysburg address for his second grade program.  I was a little stunned for a second and I am sure I asked her "do you think he can do that?"  I love to see my kids take on challenges, but never in a million years would have thought a second grader (even one as bright as I believe my Palmer is), could do that.  She told me she thought that he could do it and then asked Palmer if he would like to do it.  He looked a little bit scared at first, but then decided that it was something he would like to do.

We started by giving him a line or two and as soon as he had that memorized, I would give him another one.  His agile mind ate it up and he memorized the entire thing pretty quickly.  Josh and I just sat and watching him in awe as he rose to this challenge.  He worked so hard on it.  I would ask him multiple times a day to give me what he had learned of the Gettysburg Address, and he would smile and recite.  He never complained, he never said no.  This boy really is amazing to me. 

 This past Thursday was the second grade program.  The day for him to finally recite what he had been working so hard to do.  We had bought him this cute Abraham Lincoln costume for the occasion and all of our boys have decided they want to be Abraham Lincoln for Halloween so they can wear it.  There was another boy in his class that was asked to do the Gettysburg Address for the school program, and Palmer was asked to do it for the parents program.  I was TERRIFIED for him.  He however, was excited and happy and couldn't wait to do it. 

 This program was amazing.  It was entitled "Heros".  The kids went through 4 heros and the things that they had learned this year from studying them.  They did George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr.  and Helen Keller. 

 I was teary through the entire thing.  It was so touching and talked about so many things that I hope my kids will internalize. 

 Palmer stood out front as they talked about Abraham Lincoln.

 The kids all had their parts memorized.  I could tell they had all worked so hard.  It really was so good.

 Palmer stepped up to the microphone and began his speech.  I don't think Josh or I breathed through the entire thing.  He did it perfectly.  At one time he ran out of breath and had to stop a second to catch his breath that the audience got a kick out of it.  It really was so cute. 

 I was in tears the whole time and at the end the audience erupted in a huge round of applause.  I also let out a huge cheer (of praise and relief that he had accomplished what he has worked so hard to do).  It was an incredible moment. 

 Josh and I could sit back and relax for the rest of the program (I am so glad his speech was toward the beginning).

 The program also paid tribute to the scouting program and the wonderful things that program teaches.

 Palmer and Mrs. Inderrieden.  I can't even begin to express how much I appreciate this amazing woman (we seriously have always lucked out in the teacher category).  I am especially grateful for all of the potential she sees in Palmer.  She is always encouraging him and the other kids in her class.  She is incredibly patient and I want to be like her someday.  She is definitely one of my heros. I truly feel like some of the biggest blessings in our family's lives have been the teachers our children have had.  I feel like all of them have become our friends. 

 Lincoln had seen the program earlier in the day at school and McKay would have had a hard time with it, so my wonderful sister Debby said she would babysit them for me.  Hunter came with us though and was so good for the whole program!

It was definitely a special night for our family, especially Palmer.  He left that school on cloud 9 as he told us all about the goals that he was going to achieve next (I think he mentioned wanting to memorize Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" next ).  After watching him work so hard I don't think I will ever doubt that he can accomplish what he wants to again!

As soon as we can figure it out we will get the video we took of him reciting up on the blog.

School Art Night

I have definitely loved our new school.  In the fall we went to Science Night and had so much fun.  We heard so many good things about Art Night and were so excited to see it for ourselves.  It was crazy!  So many people were there!

We were lucky that Josh got to come with us.  We played this game where we had a race blowing drops of colored water down to a finish line.  Hunter dominated :)

The boys were so excited to show us all of the art projects that they had been working hard on. 

One of those cute little ants is Palmers. 

I loved this garden, especially the ruffly cabbages. 

This dragon was amazing breathing fire (dry ice for the smoke) and everything!  McKay wasn't sure what he thought of it.  He was scared, but kept wanting to come back and see it.  Even the days after that we were at the school he would say "dragon" and drag me into the library to see it, but he would never get too close.

Each of the classes did an umbrella for these umbrella trees.

Palmer's class did so many cool dragons.

Lincoln's class did these great rocks and fish.

McKay had fun with all of the art. 

There were so many fun art projects that the kids got to make and there were fun musical performances in the hall from classes where their teachers actually taught them songs on musical instruments.  It was really great. 

The whole school did a flag to add to the banners in this hall.

It was such a fun night!

Crazy Hair Day

 The boys had a fun week full of reading at school this week.  The entire school participated in a read-a-thon at the same time and ended up reading 4,043,075 pages!  Pretty neat accomplishment.  Today (Friday) was a fun day that they got to come to school with "crazy hair." I saw this idea here and wanted to do something similar.

I bought some little lizards at Dollar Tree and then hot glued them to some hair clips. 

Lincoln wasn't too sure about how he felt about Crazy Hair Day.  At first he didn't want to do it at all, but then his brothers were so excited, he decided he would do it after all.  We just had to calm Palmer's version down a bit.  He wasn't too into the mohawk idea.

He wanted his hair to look like grass with a lizard in it. 

Hunter has afternoon kindergarten, but was dying to be in the picture with the boys so I hurried and did his hair too. 

Gotta love Crazy Hair Day!