Last Day of Second Grade

Second grade flew by!!! I cannot believe he is done today.  Gloria asked him if he had grown overnight so I thought it would be a good day for a measure on the wall.  And it is about an inch higher than in February!! UGH! 

I worked from home in the morning so we had more time to get ready but I did not redo the chalkboard until it was time to leave!  

And a quick photo before heading into school.  His face was puffy, I think from the mild sunburn on his face from the picnic the day before. I walked in with him because we had the gifts and a few jars of jam to hand out.  I gave Mrs. Smith a jar, she is the office secretary but is really much more. And one for Mrs. Failla and one for Mr. Alex along with their signs. 

The repair guy was waiting for me when I got home. I told him I left him a note and he should have gone it.  We are practically family now, it is the fifth time he has been here in about six weeks. Jake loved him and always wanted to be in his face or licking his legs.  He was salty, like a chip, I kept telling him.  

Everything out of the pool, or freezer.  And most of it in the trash, it has been heating instead of cooling for almost three days now.  Not much survived. We rented a small fridge and had the cooler in the kitchen to save the stuff in the refrigerator.  It has been fun, and when Jesse was not there working, I tried to clean up a bit in there.  Much easier without all the drawers in there.  

Jake is a great dog but still a butt that needs entertained.  He can stay outside for a long time but gets into trouble when he gets bored.  I put water in his pool and put his toys in there. He loved it!! 

But then he decided to kill the fox I bought him at $5 Below.  Death to all things stuffed! 

That evening we had ice!! For the first time in two months.  It was fixing the ice maker that lead me down the path of all this mess. Thankfully it is under warranty and I do not have to pay for it and the food loss is covered.  

I picked up Baylor from Landon's, he went there after school let out at noon, and we took Jake to the dog park.  He gets pretty bored there but loved to have a selfie with Mommy!  One his way to being a third grader now!  

Let's Jam

But first I had to rush to make teacher gifts because I was going to take the lazy way out and buy something. And then I talked myself out of it because I would ruin my two year streak of making something for Baylor's teachers.  Two years was a bit too soon to give up especially when I really liked his teacher this year.  And Mrs. Failla came with a student co-teacher (and by student I mean HS, he graduated on June 2nd and starts college this fall to become a...... teacher!) He has been helping out throughout his four years of high school and will be an amazing teacher.  I trolled the internet for some teacher-y sayings and found two that would fit the teachers.  And then I worked on them in the evenings and when working from home during the great refrigerator collapse. 

One of my neighbors called asking if we would like to buy some of her strawberries, $2.00 a quart.  We said yes and bought so many I had to make jam and quickly because my refrigerator was dying and I could not keep them in there.  

My helper came up to spend some time with me and helped me out right up to the ladling into the jars step.  I love when he helps me and we get to spend time together with the things I like to do.  

Slicing 

Mashing and measuring 

Sugaring 

Stirring 

Jamming, until it started to heat up and then I took over.  

While I was working Jake barked at the TV dog. Thankfully we were protected and safe from the doggy invader.  

And jam was so much fun, I woke up early and made more out of the starting to show their age berries still sitting on the counter because the fridge was now heating up!  

State Museum Field Trip

This morning was a bit of a sh*t show for me.  Thankfully I was off work because I was a chaperon for the school field trip. But dealing with a wet dog, because he wanted to play in the water and then rolled in the dirt outsidt and cat crap on two of the three beds in the house kind of ruined my lazy morning.  I am not sure what is going on with Grimm but he has had the runs for the last two days and he likes to leave them on fabric like bedding or laundry or anything he can fit his butt on other than the litter box.  The amount of laundry in the last two days was wearing me thin. 

Thankfully he is cute! 

I went to school with Baylor and was assigned my kids: Baylor, Kartikey, Savanna, and Haileigh. Mrs. Failla gave me a warning that the boys behavior has been less than stellar the last few days.  I think they have short timers syndrome. 

We were on bus 1 with Mrs. Healey and Mrs. Kline this time.  

They gave the parents an IPAD and a scavenger hunt.  This was the first year they did it and I think it worked out well.  There are three floors in the museum and four things to find.  It helped give some focus and my girls were great.  The boys, not so much.  They wanted to play and run from each item to the next but not really pay attention to any of it.  One instruction was a group photo with the statue of the founder of PA. 

They are really just goof balls. I did have to speak sharply a few times but for the most part they kept it together. 

The boys liked the red foxes and several other displays.  We worked our way down from the third floor and then had to go back to the third floor for the planetarium show at noon.  Then we had to walk around for another half hour while the second group watched the show.  

At one we went outside for lunch. It has been a rainy month but we were lucky to have a cool but sunny day for lunch outside.  After lunch we crossed the street to the capital building and took some group photos.  This is all three 2nd grade classes together. 

And me too 

And my amazing kid.  I am so happy I have a job that I can be there with him during the school trips.  I know he loves it as well.  

My favorite girl to hug, Sofia. 

Once the camera comes out, the kids start to show up. 

And Mrs. Failla's class. 

Then we loaded up and headed back to school.  They finished their day and I puttered around until it was time to pick him up.  They only have a week left in school! I cannot believe second grade is nearly over!  

Second Grade Fun

Tuesday morning was the first spring concert Lower Allen has had since Baylor started school.  He was telling me about it for a few weeks and singing the songs they were learning.  The whole school participated.  There are three of each class, kindergarten, first and second grade.  The school was not expecting as many parents and grandparents to show up, which was a good problem to have, so there was a chair scramble. I sat on the floor in the front row with Kartikey's parents and Gloria was given a chair.  Each grade had different hats, the theme was Teddy Bear's Picnic.  They were asked to dress in all brown, black, or white if possible and bring a teddy bear.  Baylor chose to be a black bear.  He did not have any acting parts or solos but I know he was singing along.  

He is in the back behind Landon.  

They sang familiar songs that had been reworked into teddy bear themes. Kartikey was one of the conductors for the second grade.

Our friend Molly was a teddy bear having a picnic by the honey tree.  

My little teddy bear was so happy to have both of us there to see him and I know Gloria was really happy she was able to attend as well.  The second grade sang their songs, then the first grade and then the kindergartners who were just singing at a whisper. 

The flying canopy did cause more than a scratch on the hood of the van.  It apparently activated a crack as well.  It was not there on Sunday but Monday morning it was. By Tuesday it had grown out further into the center.  I have had a chip in the windshield on the far side right in front of my view for as long as we have had the van.  I had it checked before and it was not something that would turn into a crack.  Unless the metal frame of a patio canopy landed on it and it got below freezing overnight and ping, off it went. 

Thankfully Safelight Repairs, Safelight Replace right there in the parking lot during work on Wednesday. I even backed the van into the parking spot so he would have easy access.  I am nice like that.  

Thursday morning we were actually on time leaving for drop off and work.  Until we hit the cars backed up almost a mile before the first light we come to.  

Friday after work was the school Spring Fair.  It was a hot spring evening but for a fair it was wonderful.  

Annual tree photo.  He will be going to this elementary school for third to fifth grade.  They apparently already had moving up day a week or so ago when they go visit the school.  Baylor never said a word about it until I asked him.  

We had bought a bounce of tickets this year because last year we blew through them.  This year I ended up giving them away because he did not want to do anything.  Either with a friend or by himself.  He did the bounce house obstacle course with Ryder and then did the regular bounce house.  

I did convince him to do the mining booth which he did enjoy.  Kartikey did not arrive until almost 6:30 and he was a happier kid then. 

And I was able to sit and talk to his mom while the ran back and forth for tickets. All they did was the obstacle course for red tickets to turn in for fair crap.  

These two are still thick as thieves and I love seeing them have fun together.   

I had to save this one, my favorite meme so far.