1st Birthday Fun!

We celebrated Sam's first birthday this weekend. My mom flew in on Thursday and then on Saturday a little bit before the party we had unexpected guests...grandma & grandpa from Oregon! Sam enjoyed cake and then we all went swimming. He got lots of presents, I guess it makes up for the last year of playing with sissy's barbies. His favorite toy was the gift sis bought him with her own money, a little squishy basketball. But somehow it does not surprise me that he liked the $1 toy the best. Here's some photo's.

All of this for fifteen dollars?

Here's a steal of a deal for us Phoenicians. It's a produce co-op!
50% fruit, 50% veggies and 100% YUMMY!
Go to www.bountifulbaskets.org to sign up. You purchase the produce every 2 weeks and when you sign up you are NOT obligated to purchase more than once. Try it out, there are several locations and my family LOVES it!

The aliens of a 5 year olds imagination

A few days ago while I was making dinner:

Lizzy: "If you and daddy ever left I would cry."

me: "If we ever left it would be to go to Hawaii."

Lizzy: "I would still cry the whole time."

me: "Well, if we were in Hawaii, grandma would be here with you guys."

Lizzy: "If grandma were here, I would not cry but smile the whole time. But if aliens came to watch us instead of grandma then I would scream the whole time."

me: "Aliens? Well, are they good or bad? What do they look like?"

Lizzy: "They have 8 eyes, 8 noses, one mouth, 2 arms and 1 leg."

me: "What do they eat?"

Lizzy: "Magnets. You need to hide all yours before they come."

me: "Do they have any special skills or powers?"

Lizzy: "Yes. They have razor sharp teeth that can cut through a sword."

Me: "Do humans have a chance against them? Do we have any special skills that they do not?"

Lizzy: "We can run much faster than them, they only have one leg."

Then she proceeded to paint pictures of the aliens bones. Their arm looks kinda like a house, she assures me that this is normal for the aliens although very strange looking for us humans. Here is a picture of some of their bones. It's very abstract looking and hard to tell what each bone is, but I suppose with an alien you never can tell.

Going bAck to school...

NO, not to learn, to HELP.
Some day I think I want to teach. The question has always been what grades do I want to teach? Swiftly followed by the question would I be any good, which remains to be seen. The grades I am most interested in are either Kindergarten or High School History.
A few years ago I was a substitute teacher at Lizzy's pre-school. The kindergarten was always my favorite. So, I decided to volunteer in Lizzy's Kindergarten class this year. I also decided to volunteer with the high school speech and debate team. They typically need judges for their tournaments. And I did this all through high school and some in college and LOVED it. Yesterday I was both with Kindergartner's and with High School kids. I smiled so much the kids probably thought I was a little loony. I think I could have stayed in both classes all day and some. I enjoyed myself immensely. However, I was not teaching, only helping and observing. I am hoping this year of volunteering will help me come to a decision as to what grade I want to teach when the time comes. Right now though I have no more insight except that I really do enjoy a classroom setting where I am not the one doing the homework.