happy valentine's day!

Science Fair aka why I hate that my kids are getting older

I love the Kindergarten days. Days when your kid brings home unrecognizable artwork and cute made up stories in their illegible writing. No stress involved. I am NOT loving the monthly book reports, daily math homework that I cannot even figure out with a calculator, and projects that are accompanying this 5th grade year for Kensie.

Sure, I always make her do her own work, but I still stress about it for some reason. As soon as she is done with her book report for the month, I start thinking about the next one. Is she reading enough? Will she finish the book on time? Does she know what she's doing? It's hard for me to let go and turn over the responsibility and control. She always does great and is a fabulous student, so I don't know what I'm so stressed about!

The science fair was one of those things that I thought for sure I would be a nut case about, but I was surprisingly stress free about the whole thing. Kensie's teacher decided that they would assemble their boards in class (no gluing for me!), and Kensie was diligent about keeping up with her experiment for 2 weeks. All I had to do was help her type up what she had written in her notebook. She did a great job. She was a little bummed that she didn't win an award or move on, but you should have seen the experiments some of the other  parents students came up with!

valentines

 We decided to change things up a bit this year for Valentine's Day. Instead of the traditional shoe box, we used cereal boxes. Just cover in wrapping paper, cut a hole, add a handle, and decorate with whatever random leftover doodads you have hanging around!

I was also getting sick of the Valentine candy for the classmates idea, so this year Jackson is giving toy animals and the older kids are giving Mad Libs (thank you, Design Mom! Genius ideas. I just love her!).

Much better than antacid hearts, I think!

lack-luster snow fun

 The lack of snow this year is totally getting on my nerves. I know some people are rejoicing, but I love the 5-6 feet of snow we usually have at our house in the winter. So do the kids.

This year there have been no snow forts, no sledding, no red-nosed children stripping off their snow clothes and cuddling in a blanket with hot chocolate. Last week we finally had just enough snow to play in and for 2 days that's all the kids did. Sure, you could still see the grass poking through on the hill, but that didn't stop them from climbing up and rollling down. They even explored "the woods" at the top of the hill.

Now, the snow on the hill is nearly gone and I don't know if they'll get another chance! I sure hope they do. Maybe in May.....