Natalie's First Birthday-Minnie Mouse Themed

I have seen many ideas on Pinterest. Some feel very unrealistic to do for a full time working mom, and some are reasonable. I had a lot of fun creating the decor for my daughter's party.

My mom was awesome, and cooked most of the food. My husband cooked the delicious tri-tip and helped where ever needed. I was so thankful to have help! I would definitely recommend getting help!

I had seen many ideas with Minnie Mouse cupcakes, where stick mini-oreos as the ears, and come up with a bow out of fruit roll up, or something. I figured this would be easier because I didn't want to curl many bows. We used black frosting tubes for the Minnie Mouse shapes, and a red sparkly tube for the bow. It took about 45 minutes to do all the cupcakes. I am sure the bow and oreos probably takes the same amount of time, but I already had black frosting tubes, and no mini-oreos or fruit roll up! Just seemed easier!
The gift bags were also fun to make. We found minnie/mickey sippy cups for the younger kids, and minnie/mickey insulated cups for the older kids. I also got crayons and bubbles too. I purchased plain red bags, and labeled the bags with each kids' name that was coming. I added a plain mickey head to add to the decor!

My aunt is awesome. She was shopping at Costco and saw the giant Minnie, and got if for Natalie since she knew she was having a Minnie Mouse birthday party. We used it as gift table decor. My mom also joined in and got Natalie her first set of Minnie ears with her name, and Minnie Mouse shoes (that she would have worn, had they fit, but they turned into good decor).
For the food table we had a bit of fun! The bowl we got were plain black bowls, and we set them up as Mickey heads. The cookie jar you see in the top left corner was already given to me. The plates & napkins we got at Party City.

Then Natalie had a "visit" from Minnie Mouse. She signed the table (meaning I took her signature off the internet and used that to write happy birthday to her! :)

Now, I did get this 1 idea off of Pinterest. We had a photo shoot with my daughter the week before, and used those photos to create the one. I took a poster board and drew out a one, then I realized I could just placed the pictures in a one. I just had to cut down a few photos with my photo cutter I already had. I used double sided to get the pictures to stick. I loved the 1 so much that it is now hung up in my daughters room.

This was another thing I saw on Pinterest. I got the balloons from Party City. They cut the string really long, so I had to figure out how to put these balloons onto the pictures. I decided to tape the pictures to scrap booking paper, then I hole punched (I had a Mickey hole punch, so stinkin' cool) the paper. I strung the string through the two holes and tied them to themselves to get the balloons to the same height. Then the pictures started kind of floating oddly. So, I had to tape the bottom of the scrapbook paper to the table, and the balloons just kept the pictures up.

There were some simple decor ideas. A first birthday is fun! We kept it simple. We had good food, fun decor, cake, and opened presents. Then we just let the kids play in the backyard, and we were able to hang out and chat as parents. It was a fun, fun birthday!

Native American Project

The new school year has begun. This year I am teaching a 4/5 combo. As we all know combination classes are tough. I have been planning all summer to make this class the best possible.

I am integrating a lot of social studies and science into reading to fit both curriculums in. However, those will come later in the year. Thankfully, common core makes it easier to integrate subjects.

In 4th grade students in California focuses on California events, in 5th grade students in California focus on US history. Instead of looking at US history as separate events, we are looking at events on a timeline.

We started with the Native Americans. The students were assigned into groups of ~3-4 students (10 tribes in total from all over the US). They had four things to research: What they ate, what shelter they used, what they did for fun, and what environment they lived in.

Each person had a job: Researcher, writer, illustrator, and assistant (if they had 4 people in their group). The researcher looked up information on the computer, or the social studies books. The writer wrote the information in the sentence frames provided (The __(tribe)____ ate _____, etc.). The illustrator, draws pictures to represent the captions. The assistant helps where ever needed.

Once the posters were completed, I reviewed what the presentations should look like. Each student would present one part of the poster. Then I put them with one other group to practice their presentations. The students then rotated twice to practice at least 3 times. The next day they did their presentations for the whole class. The audience took quick notes on each Native American group, so they were paying attention too, they had to fill in 1-2 words about what they ate, did for fun, their shelters, and environment. It was a good activity. After the students were finished with the Native American presentations, we created our timeline, and added the Native American's flourished in 12,000BC. Next we will move to the different explorers!

4-Day Basketball Unit

At the end of the year, it was fun to do lots of PE. My students loved it, and so did I!
A typical PE lesson would consist of 3 days of skill work, and 1 day of games.

On the skill days, we would typically play different games, that focused on skills the students needed to learn in order to be better at the game we were playing.

Our basketball unit:
Day 1: 30-45 mins
1) I had the students do a short lap around the track we have at our school to warm up (this gave me time to get the basketballs out and ready to use).
2) Then we did a short stretch.
3) Then we played a dribbling game.
    *To play the dribbling game: About 5-8 kids have balls. They are dribbling in a court. The other students are trying to steal the ball away from the students. When they do, they are now the dribbler. It's a pretty simple game, but gets the students' heart rates up like crazy! And they practice dribbling!
4) After the dribbling game, I line the students up and we practice two types of passing, the bounce pass first, and the chest pass second. I emphasize to the students in the bounce pass to pass with their thumbs down, and to aim about half way between yourself and the person. For the chest pass, I have the student catching the ball put their hands at their chests, so the tosser has something to aim for. And I emphasize passing through the finger tips.
5) We then played monkey in the middle, but by using different passes.

Day 2: 30-45 mins.
1) Repeat steps 1-4
2) After the dribbling day we practiced shooting. Before we even get to the baskets, I show them how to shoot the ball properly. We first practice using one hand, flick the wrist, and use the fingers to point where you want the ball to go (follow through). Once they master that, I show them how to balance the ball with their other hand, and we continue to practice small shots (without the basket still). Then we progress to getting the ball higher and higher. Once they seem to master that, I assign them a hoop to shoot at, and they practice on their own.

Day 3: 30-45 mins.
1) Repeat steps 1-4 on day 1, and step 2 on day 2, but before you assign them baskets, show them how to shoot free-throws, and what that means (if they are fouled during the game). Then let them practice free-throws as well as other shots.
**You could also teach them lay-ups if you have advanced basketball players. I went around to hoops individually and taught them if they were ready.

Day 4: 30-45 mins. (including explaining the game inside)
GAME DAY
1) Explain how the game (Basketball) works before you go outside. It is a lot easier to explain the rules BEFORE you go outside, and have to yell.
2) I also like to make two different games, competitive and non-competitive. I have found that some kids like to be rough, and others just don't. Also, the competitive students will only pass to each other, and the non-competitive kids just stop and don't get the work out they really need. For some reason, this worked, and the kids seemed fine with it. Plus, some kids like other sports more than others, and will surprise you by jumping into the competitive group when they are confident. Also, DO THIS BEFORE YOU GO OUTSIDE Too!
3) Walk outside, Repeat steps 1-2 from day 1, then let them start their game!

It was a fun unit!

Easter Baskets for Babies

My Mom and Dad got Natalie an amazing Easter basket, and Caleb and I got her one as well. We bought her a two stuffed animals from Target, a book, a pacifier, a sippy cup and an Easter bib. We kept it simple since we knew it was more for pictures, then for her. However, she loved playing with her new toys and books.

My mom got her a book, three stuffed animals, and a hat!




The bib came in handy too when she ate later that day, as did the pacifier during nap time! She still plays with her toys too. It is good we got her all those fun toys.

Giving her the baskets was very fun! She is quite adorable, and such a fun baby.

Surprise Saturday!

Our neighbors are incredible. We are very lucky to live where we live. We decided to start a new tradition. It is called Surprise Saturday. All of us decide on a dish and side dish to bring, without talking to each other, and the Surprise is whether all the dishes work together!

Our first Surprise Saturday actually worked really well! Some how they all meshed very well. We brought tacos, our across the street neighbors brought an applesauce pork, and guacamole, and our next door neighbors made a polenta shrimp. Oddly, it worked! And we had tons of left overs for the week - which was incredible. It was a fun experiment, that we will recreate!

Just Because

My daughter is quite the explorer. She also loves dogs! And just because I love this photo and find it hilarious, I wanted to share it.

I call it: What is Daddy doing in the Kitchen? 

Our Experiment in Compost Gardening

My husband is amazing. He bought a com-poster last year. We had an amazing garden the year prior by using seeds. This year we wanted to experiment. We put our plants at the end of the season in the com-poster as well as the seeds from our food, and food that could compost well.

We would stir the compost every month or so. Then in early spring, with a shovel, and wheel barrow we moved the compost to our garden area, and spread it out. along the garden area we used last year. 

After a week or so, we had plants budding! It was very exciting. We called it our Mystery Garden. Since we had no idea what would grow. We put a lot of seeds into the compost! 

Then, a few weeks later we had plants growing every where! It was crazy! My husband has thinned it out now, and it looks like we have a three different types of squash plants, and two tomato plants. We are quite proud of our Mystery Garden, and can't wait to eat our left over food!