Annual Easter Egg Dying

I used Easter Egg dying as a carrot to get both kid bedrooms clean last night.  I have started just pitching in.  No comments about the mess, no freaking out about how they should just pick up as they go, just trying to enjoy time with them. I am allowing myself to say, "keep moving," and "what's next," stuff like that.  It's worked out pretty well the last few times we've cleaned.  I manage to get them to clean the whole room in relative calm.
Anyway, I could have probably saved myself time by just cleaning their rooms myself and skipping the egg dying and Easter decorating.  But since I went on a rampage after last year when they wouldn't help clean up the Easter decorations that they got out, I only have one small bin. We decorated last night and then dyed eggs today.
What we learned today:  Ben can't count to 4.  He dyed at least 2 eggs more than his quota.  All the kids are VERY territorial of their eggs while they are soaking.  Sharpies on the eggs aren't a bad way to go.  Cold eggs are kind of trickier for crayons.  We ended up mostly just color dunking and redunking.  It was over pretty quickly (even including clean up). And...it is so much neater when they are older.

Happy Early Easter!

April Showers...literally

As in, it's been raining.  Today we even had some hail. 
And, Maren and I gave a baby shower on Saturday for my niece Paige.  Maren pointed out that that means we are about to become Great Aunts.  That sounds WAY TOO old.
Maren and I are a good party planning team.
Theme: Adventure Awaits (Paige got a degree in Recreation, and works at a Rock Climbing gym, so this seemed appropriate.)

We will have to wait to see who wins this game! 

Maren got these adorable favors on Etsy (I'm not into favors, but I let her have her fun :)

Maren also got these cute animals for decor.  Amazing. 

We had yogurt parfaits.  It was yummy, light and easy! 

One guest (who will remain nameless) said she wouldn't play any [stupid] baby shower games.  But she was pleasantly surprised.  A quiz about who knows Paige best (her mom and mother-in-law tied for the win), a Name that Tune Baby edition, and a guess how much people contributed to her "Adventure Fund" actually turned out great.  We gifted Paige an additional $66.76 into the jar from people's purses, pockets and change cups. (And this was a fun throwback because Paige's mom did a variation on this game for my baby shower when I was pregnant with Libby!)
Credit to the game developers:
Name that Tune Baby Edition
Who Knows Mommy Best
It's good to keep the links somewhere. You never know when I'll throw another shower :)  Everyone but Ben thought it was a great party. 

The End of Wrestling (for the year)

We also went to Everett on Wednesday afternoon for the District Wrestling Tournament.

Their computer system failed, so I ended up running the staging for the tournament.  I didn't see any matches or get any pictures.  But Einstein took 2nd.  They had a tough tournament!  

Lots of medalists.

Wrestling awards were on Thursday and Mariners started on Friday.

Spring is here! 

Happy Spirit Week

Last year I decided that a Spirit Week would be a good way for the students to use all their Spirit Day ideas at Meridian Park.  Turned out to be a pretty stressful, but fun week.  So we did it again this year. 
Skits written (mostly) by students on Mondays during lunch.  Sadly I got no pictures!  It was really fun though.  We got some good laughs, and even had a little choreography at the end!
In the skits we introduce the Spirit Days for the week.
On Tuesday we did "It's Pawsitively Pawesome to be a Cheetah."  I can get a pic of this tomorrow.  Many classes had their kids write on a paw something they love about being a cheetah.  Then we put them up in the halls.  It is really cool what kids wrote.
Wednesday was the Student Store (thankfully I delegated that one away last year)!
Thursday:  Book Character Day

I love reusing Halloween costumes! And, since we just read Peter Pan, it was appropriate that Ben was Captain Hook. His friend Juliet also dressed up!  

I was Robinhood, and Sarah was Cleopatra (we swapped costumes from last Halloween).  Libby was Ginny Weasley I think.  The one thing I learned is that I should wear a cape more often.  I loved it. 

Friday was Cheetah Swag day.  I put a lot of work into making sure we gave out lots of free Cheetah Tattoos and stickers, but I had to do the work before hand and have other teachers help out, because I was at a training.  Boo.  It was a hectic day because Libby ended up going to the dentist (thanks to Grandpa) and having a tooth pulled because her permanent tooth was popping out the side. Then she wanted me to come get her from school because it hurt.  Anyway, it was a busy day, but no pictures!  (And you don't want a picture of the inside of Libby's mouth, trust me!)

SCC Spring Concert

I got to be the Intermezzo Tech Director for the spring concert.  Which meant I only took this one picture because I was being "responsible."  It actually wasn't too hard.  This is a good group of kids.  We moved through the rehearsal and performance without any real hitches.  

I kind of hope I get to be the tech director for their next show at Benaroya Hall!

Ben still isn't sure about the whole choir thing.  But it is so amazing!

I got glasses...

And I'm getting used to them.  It was a rough few days at first.  But it is nice to not have to hunt down readers all the time.  And there is some distance help in the top of my "progressives" too.  Ahhh, aging! 

Fairy Visit

One of Libby's teachers had a clean desk fairy.  I loved this idea and we have had a clean room fairy in our house.  She brings little treats or toys or books occasionally when rooms are clean. 

I found this note from Ben a week or so ago.

Okay, so the fairies have been busy and haven't come for quite some time!

So they came in the night last night after I went to the Disney Store on my outing with Libby yesterday.  I bought a whole Wreck it Ralph set so that the fairies can come visit Ben without any prior planning.  He basically keeps his room clean all the time, so I don't really need this carrot with him.  But I can reward his sweetness and good behavior, right?