Just Duncan

We went to Savannah's school carnival Saturday. It was a lot of fun. The highlight for Duncan was getting his WHOLE face painted. He even got stripes in his hair! These pictures where taken at the table after we got home. I was sitting across from him trying to get him to smile....just smile, not a goofy smile. Well, he just couldn't do it. And so I think I pretty much captured his personality fairly well in these pics. He is such a fun kid....so animated, so silly, and just plain cute. Oh I love this boy!

Fishing in the Freezing Cold-Trout Derby

Ending the day with a hot dog off the big grill.

Duncan doing the casting competition. Check out the stance. He had a few spectators that got a kick out of watching him cast. He did win a snickers bar for his efforts though!

Poor Kendall was FREEZING! It was miserably cold, but we still had such a great morning.

We went to the McKinney Trout Derby a few weekends ago. IT WAS SO COLD!!! The wind was miserable, but it was still a great time. The kids drank their weight in hot chocolate, had candy and ended the morning with a hot dog off the grill. Basically the way it works is they dump a bunch of trout in the lake and the kids try to fish'em out. No license necessary. Troy and Duncan went last year, but we all decided to give it a try this year. What a fun day we had!!!! We didn't get any fish but sure made some memories!

February Flashback Part 2

We went out on an unusually warm day and went exploring. Troy takes Duncan on these outings most of the time, but today while Savannah was in school Kendall, Duncan and I decided to go. We threw about 50 lbs. :) of rocks in the water and they climbed all kinds of "mts." But the exploration was not complete until Mr.D-Man ran from where we were playing to the playground. He really wanted to listen to my IPOD and run BY HIMSELF! So I let him and followed along on the street in the van, yelling and cheering him on like he was running the NY Marathon or something. Uhhh...well, I didn't think how strange what might look to see a lady yelling out her window to a child running away from the van! Here's a picture of my little one day marathon man. Kendall playing in the "creek." She loved it.

Duncan helped her up the "mountain!" He also loves basketball ever since Savannah cheered for UPWARD bball. This is his uniform and he has it on EVERY chance he gets.

A page from a book he wrote at Preschool. Check out that jump shot!

And finally....this is Kendall's FAVORITE baby. She picked her out after Christmas for saying goodbye to diapers. She HAD to have this baby. She is pretty cute. Makes me giggle though....

Here's our Mardi Gras pictures. We had king cake, made masks and listened to the Mardi Gras Mambo about a gazillion and one times. We also had muffelletta sandwiches...yumm.

Alright, after further review...I don't know where the rest of my pics are of Mardi Gras Conly style. And I do realize Savannah Banana isn't in these pics...but the girl's at school! Plus, she's had her spotlight blogs a lot lately. BTW, she's raised $500 for the CF foundation! Cool huh?

Hopefully I'll be caught up on the next blog.

Love to all....Kellye

February Flashback Part 1

What fun February is! We Valentined it up the first half of the month! Here's a Feb. Flashback...Part 1! I have more great pics and stories, but I'm starting with these.

We went to the LOVIE video release party at the skating rink on Valentine's Day. We love to skate and it was perfect for us to go skating at a new place AND support our LOVIE girls. Savannah had her picture made with all the band members through out the night. Here's Rebecca (our fave) and the bass player. FYI, Rebecca is mommy to Violet, Duncan's BFF, and she has another cutie too.
Duncan decided to be in choir again. This was his first time on the stage. He did such a great job!! His little hands were doing all the motions and he sang his little heart out. I was in tears. He was precious!!! He was especially cute because he had fixed his own hair. Well, he actually cut it b/c it was getting too long. He has two little curls that go nuts when he gets hot. Well, he's particular about his do, so he just took those little scissors, you know the kid kind...and WHACKED those cute curls to the scalp! Then the part that didn't get WHACKED, he just spiked it up like a mo hawk! Yes, my little guy likes his hair in a particular style!

Savannah sang with her choir too, but the pictures didn't come out so great. Let me tell you, that girl was singing like NO one was watching. Just praising the Lord, I tell ya. She told me she pretended like there wasn't an audience, just God there and she sang to Him. Ugh...why don't I do that? I hope she has that forever.

Kendall got to skate too. She was AdorAble! She had noodle legs, of course and Troy and I took turns helping her/dragging her around the rink. She had a huge smile and said, "I LOVE THIS"! And she did....

Duncan had a blast passing out his Valentine's at school and at his party. He came home and said that it was the BEST DAY EVER! He is still looking over his Valentine's.

Kendall took about 10 Valentines to story time and gave them out. She was so proud of herself. I had almost forgotten about this outfit. I made it for Savannah when she was three. Kendall looked so cute in it. She loved her "Balentimes" Day!

Hope you all know how loved you all are!

Kellye

Savannah & Violet on NBC news!

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Plano-Girl-Shows-Real-Spirit-of-Valentines-Day.html

I hope this will take you to the story NBC did on Valentines for Violet. Enjoy!

Valentines for Violet

This'll be short, but sweet...very sweet. Savannah's been making valentines to sell since this past weekend. All the money she makes will be donated to the Team UltraViolet for the Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis. The are called "Valentine's for Violet," because Violet is our friend with CF. You can check her sites listed to read more about CF and Violet. I'm really proud of Savannah and this "Valentine's for Violet" has really taken off!! She can't make them fast enough! She makes them, goes out snd sells them, comes home to make more.. and then we had phone orders today! Very cool. And to top it off Savannah and Violet will be the feature story in the Plano Profile on Saturday! How cool is that? Just wanted to let you know. Here's a sample of her work....

And here's a few more pics from this week...

Here's how I found Kendall after cramming a stolen cookie into her mouth!

Here's Kendall standing on her stool VERY upset she can't steal another one!

Duncan just being a dude with Violet's brothers.

Teacher of The Year

My kids are totally clueless that I had a career before they were born. But they do know I was a teacher. They just don't get that I lived and breathed teaching before I had them. So when Savannah wanted to be a teacher for career day, I was so happy. Happy b/c teaching really does change lives and it truely is a wonderful career. So, we came up with the outfit you see in the picture. She carried my favorite mug from one very difficult student that I loved dearly, but nearly drove me nuts. I made her promise to take good care of it. She wore her "fashion glasses" and carried a clipboard. We spent a lot of time on what to come up with to write on the clip board. I tried to explain to her what it takes to have a prepared classroom...and that teachers work ALOT of hours to be prepared. It's like having a presentation going on for 8 hrs. a day with no time to prepare for the presentation except before and after school hours. SO her plan was funny. I don't know if you can see it well enough, but here's some of it:

Read 101 pages of Junie B. Jones

call parents if bad

cut out 100 squares

clean up my room

lunch duty

recess duty

she had a list of students who have to sit out recess
conference with Susan and Andy
take a trip to the Dallas Zoo

Troy told her to put..."change the bulletin board again this month, using supplies I bought with my own money." So true.

Her name tag was Future Mrs. Langford, Teacher of the Year, b/c her current teacher was teacher of the year last year. She is an amazing, wise, patient, wonderful teacher. I want to be like her when I teach again. For those of you from BTC that read this, she's alot like Val, my former teaching partner..awesome in every way! Mrs. L has also raised 3 daughters, so there ya go...a wealth of info just from that! I really want to pick this woman's brain someday to see how she does it.

The coolest part of the day was that Mrs. Langford had someone take her picture with Savannah and then she printed it and gave it to Savannah. On the picture she wrote.."From one teacher of the year to another....I believe you can fly." Seriously...is that awesome or what? I just about cried. I emailed her to thank her for encouraging my little fireball of a girl and she wrote back and simple said, "We all can fly, we just have to find our wings!" Ahhhh.... I love that woman. If you know a teacher thank them today. And if you don't like them, find something anyway...

Finding my wings DAILY!

Kellye