This week in class my 8th graders had a potential/kinetic energy project that was their assessment. They had to figure out how to get a marble to move for 20 seconds. At the end of day three most groups barely had five seconds, so I lowered the bar to 10 seconds. All but one group was able to make that happen within one more day. They worked so hard I decided to bring them treats so naturally Justin volunteered and we ate cinnamon rolls while I walked around and did the final judging. Two groups managed to hit the original 20 second mark and exceed it even. Well done!
Friday we had glorious weather. I watched Lacy's kids in the afternoon and we managed to go for a bike ride. Once Justin finished work we loaded up the family and walked the entire greenbelt down and back. That was a first for the kids. They're more mobile every year as they get older; we're looking forward to more adventures this summer.
As for my birthday, I booked a trip to AZ during spring break to see a couple of friends so that's my big gift (along with some new clothes to go with my trip, of course). I also get to have a sister's weekend in Boise leading up to my flight to AZ, so I am counting all that quality time as my gift...even if we are painting Mitzi's house which will be interested as I'll have Beckham with me. Being the baby of the family and to hit this milestone makes me wonder how it makes everyone else feel! We're entering a new phase of life, that's for sure. I am so grateful for my life. I love my husband, my kids, my job, and my life. I love our simple life with our garden and our kids. We're not flashy, we don't do flashy things; we are just happy exactly the way we are and I feel a deep sense of satisfaction and joy with my life. We anticipate to build a house soon though it may not be this year. If it's not, that's okay. We have cheap rent and hopefully the rental can survive while we continue to save and see what the future holds. 50 is the new 30 I say. Bring it on!
Something about blowing out my candles scared poor Beckham
Mom and Dad invited us over for birthday dinner after church. Now that Beckham can crawl around and sit up on his own it's fun to watch him interact with Emmett and Logan. Here they all are playing Legos while we sat around to chat.
I purchased a curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful because I've been wanting to teach Emmett to read but I don't know where to start. He's eager to start and it's fun to see him pick things up. Kindergarten round up is next month! Oh boy...
What's new at the Rose house? Since reading Glow Kids we've spent a lot less time with the TV on and it's made a difference. My kids play together much better. They are engaged in imaginative play with less whining. They are finally at the age to delve into legos and they will sit and tinker undisturbed for long, lovely stretches of time. As soon as it gets above 30 degrees I kick everybody outside for as long as we can stand it. The last two weeks Justin and I find ourselves saying things like, "I haven't turn the TV on for the kids all week." By all means, we haven't turned anti-screen, but I'm a big fan of the results from no TV for several days at a time.
Logan wrapped a string around his finger during singing time several times and then pulled....it closed down on the end of his finger and when he started screaming I jumped down to see what it was. I started yanking on the string as much as I could while I told a teacher to run and get scissors. Granny saved the day with a pair of clippers she had in her bag and she was able to clip the string off before the scissors got there...good thing because I had little faith the church scissors would be the right kind to do any good haha! Phew I asked Mom to go with him in the hall afterward so I could finish up the last five minutes of singing. This is the same boy that almost got his head stuck in his chair in singing time last year. Poor buddy!
We're preparing to give Beckham his first hair cut. Justin has been advocating for this for months but I've refused. It's finally long enough in the back for me to agree...plus we have family pictures coming up.
We finally had a nice day after barely getting above 20 degrees. I think it was 35 on this day.
We pulled the bikes out for the first time this year
Logan love had his fourth birthday. He loves Spider Man right now so he got his Spider Man themed cake and new Spider Man legos for his gift. We had Granny and Gramps over for Chick-fil-A air fryer sandwiches and ice cream cake. Logan is very generous. He gave half his birthday money to Emmett and let him wear his new Hulk pjs at bedtime that night. He loves to share so everyone can be as happy as him!
Decorating his birthday cake is a favorite part of the birthday fun.
On Logan's birthday we made a paper dino with special cut outs directed by Emmett. I love their creativity.
Hahaha this picture cracks me up. It's like he's afraid he's going to fall backward.
Bubby turned 9 months on Logan's birthday. He officially moved away from army crawling to full-on-big-boy crawling this week. He popped his top two teeth two weeks ago with four teeth total now. He is so snuggly right now. At bedtime he lays his sweet head down on my shoulder while I sing, "I am a Child of God." Even walking around with him on my hip, he likes to rest his head on my shoulder. These are the moments that melt my mama heart.
Sweet babe...we love you!
Dinosaur birthday pancakes.
We've been very lab-heavy at school this last couple weeks. These bar graphs are simply delightful to me.
I made geodes with the boys at home after I brought some home from school that my 7th graders made. Logan and Emmett loved the step where we blow out the egg!
Logan paints his glue into his egg shells to prepare for the alum.
Emmett took leftover cardboard and created a mososaurus for Logan's birthday gift.
Look at all those intricate cutouts! His creativity amazes me.
I can't believe how much snow we still have in March
Kinetic energy lab
Starburst rock cycle lab
I finished my course "Implementing Idaho Science Standards" for credit toward my Idaho certificate. My "final" was to teach basically a perfect NGSS lesson. They brought in as many rocks/minerals as they could stand to and came up with their own categories for how to sort them. Then they would trade rock groups and try to figure out how the rocks were sorted. My kids rocked it.
I finally got my hair done after weeks and weeks and weeks....man it makes SUCH a difference! I love my fake blonde
