Sunday, March 18, 2012

Leprechaun tricks?

Well, another St. Paddy's day has come and gone at the O'Duggan's.
Not too many tricks this year...
Pippin has a nice green stripe down his back!
No photos though...he is ridiculous looking with his lack of fur!
His hair did not grow back after his summer shave...
not supposed to shave Samoyeds for a reason, I guess!
(he also has a genetic abnormality where he does not shed...
therefore he must be shaved...ugh, a no win situation!)
So, the smart thing to do is paint him green!

The leprechauns left a nice selection of small gifts for the kiddos...
all green things of course!
Journals, pens, bubbles, socks were a few of the items.

My oldest son, Graham, came home from Atlanta, Georgia
for our annual  St. Paddy's day tradition of
heading over to Sullivan's in Trempeleau!

I'd like to think he flew 1000 miles just to spend time
with us however he has a wonderful young lady
also waiting for him in Minneapolis!
Melissa is such a great part of our family...she fits right it!
We had a very lovely time!
Great food, great service, and great company!

Here are a few more pics:
that's John's dad and my mama and step-dad, Bob!






Life is good!
Although sometimes expensive...read on...
Remember last weekend when our freezer went crazy coating everything with 1 inch of frost?
Well, now the fridge part does not work at all!
We lost 5 lbs of burger, 6 pork chops, a meat drawer full of lunch meat, and am almost untouched gallon of milk...oh no!
A leprechaun trick?
Probably not...there is no way a wee little fella could have gotten through 5 years of  dust and icky stuff
that was stuck underneath! Gross!
We were hoping a good cleaning would fix it...
Nope...fridge is still warm, freezer is still working overtime!
It's like a snow machine in there.
But the floor under is spic and span!
And we will be parting with a good chunk of change to replace it.

Oh dear.

 
This week in Kindergarten we will be celebrating the 100th day of K!
Our reading, math, and theme will all center around this milestone.
If you have signed up to help our on our celebration on Thursday,
thank you in advance!  
We will have a dozen or so 100 day stations set up in the cafeteria.
We will see you at 1:00!

Remember no school for kids on Friday due to teacher workshop day.

Playground update:
Boots are not needed.  But please keep them handy just in case.
Thanks!
Enjoy your week!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Leprechaun, Shamrocks, and Gold Coins! Oh My!

Oh yes...another of my favorite weeks! 
But with St.Paddy's Day on Saturday,
the leprechauns were not too mischievous !
We learned how to count to 10 in Gaelic
(thanks Mr. O' for the resources!)
It sounds something like this ...my apologies in advance in all of Ireland..
(written phonetically)
a hane, a doh, a chtree, a care, a cooig, a shay, a shect, a hock, a nooee, a djay

We put out our Leprechaun gold to lure the wee little people in..

It must have worked because they hid the gold all over the room!
We found every single one of the 100 coins!
They also left us some Lucky Charms!

We watched on teachertube (watered down youtube) 2 versions of Danny Boy
One by Celtic Women
(over heard a little boy say "I am in LOVE!"
the other by The Muppets!  Funny!


Mrs. G journaled with us about what we would do 
with a pot of gold.
The K Kids added quotation marks.

This is our leprechaun painting area...



2 St Patrick's Girls!

Monday's Project...

Wonderful Wednesday Leprechauns!






Oh my...look at that BIG Leprechaun!

The k kids are reading our chart unassisted (most words, anyway)
Here we are looking at ending sounds...


Thursdays project was tissue paper and....

Magic shamrock juice!
However our tissue paper was "non-bleeding" 
so the color transfer did not work so well...
Plan B...Glitter Glue instead!



Did I tell you how much I LOVE Thursdays Learning Stations 
with Mr. C and Noah's Mom?
If you wish to help out on Thursdays from 1:30-3:00
zip me a note and we will have a station for you!

Here Chris is helping with teen number activities.


Our "Brain Break" station...Playdough!
We buried small jewels and beads in it...
Leprechaun Treasure!!


Mr. C's Leprechaun measuring activity...


And finally, here is my shamrock wreath station...
Oops, I forgot to take a close-up...
They really were cute!
We played this dice game when we were finished...
We talked about the word SUM...addin' 'em up!



Here is our milk break treat for Friday!
Brownie cupcakes!

3 more family projects!
There are only a few not in yet...it is not too late!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE our morning charts!

Some of our favorite books this week:
Fiona's Luck Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato: An Irish Folktale Clever Tom and the Leprechaun
We also focused on Zz, short i, the star word 'have', numerals to 50, greater than/less than
and those new crazy shapes this week (rhombus, trapezoid, hexagon)
What a busy week!
Wishing you a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

A Wonderful Weekend!

I actually had TWO dates with my hubby this weekend 
(Thursday evening counts, right?)
We made a date night out of a Panera~we needed WiFi for the ipad
and Trader Joe's restock trip!
Love that store!

And Sunday he convinced me to see John Carter of Mars
at the movie theater.
Guess what?  I really enjoyed that movie!
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the original books that the movie is based on.
Well done!!!!

Saturday morning I actually cleaned the freezer!
We had a seal malfunction and everything was covered in an inch of "snow"
Should have taken a picture!
It was kind of pretty...
So we had a clean-the-freezer-out meal plan for most of the weekend.
The crock pots and the dehydrator worked overtime!!!

Saturday afternoon, Sorch and I had a mother/daughter day...a mall trip!
Fionn was invited to Chuck E. Cheese with a friend, 
John ran errands in Winona,
and Maeve stayed home to do chores.


Before seeing the movie on Sunday
John and I began the long process of cleaning up the yard.
We certainly enjoyed the lovely day!
The kids decided to miss the movie and stay home and continue raking!
Wow!
We still have days of work ahead of us but it is rewarding work!


You know Spring is here when the dogs look like this....
Going back to the topic of yard work,
 look at  these "lovely" sculptures....
Can you guess what they were?
Three folk-artsy wooden pelicans kept watch over our Pampas grass.
Well John did a "controlled" burn of that area but forgot they were there
until it was too late. He tried to save them but they were still frozen to the ground!
They look so funny!  I laughed and laughed! 
I guess John will be busy repainting them for me!!!!!

And now for this week in K...
Here are a few pics that got away from Friday's update:
Here's a great shot at what our birthday celebrations look like...
That cake is actually an ice cream bucket spray painted brown 
with caulk frosting!
(actually used decorator tips with the caulk!)

 our first 3 family projects for March

Here's our newest Wednesday student playing in the new Zen garden!

Transportation!

Glitter Zen Garden...

Playdough fun!





In reading we will be focusing on the letter Zz, the sound for /z/ and short /i/,
the star word 'have', and ending sounds.
Math finds us looking at 2 dimensional shapes: trapezoid, hexagon, and rhombus are the focus.
Our themes include wrapping up transportation and beginning St. Patrick's Day projects!
Remember: Boots and  Snow Pants are still required for recess...the playground is MUDDY!



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