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Natalie – 3rd grade Poems

Conor

Cute, cuddly, dance monkey

Dances,

Running.

What would be it be like to stuff my mouth with that fluffy stuff, (whipped cream)

Scared of his sister kissing him too much,

Mama lover, 

Who dreams about tons of Cheerios!

My Room

My room is as hot as a savanna, 

Stuffed animals come to life, 

The heater becomes the sun and it never seems to turn off.

My canopy becomes a tree,

While my plugs become vines, 

Books become lily pads, 

My sheets become a river, 

The papers become birds and my slime turns to quicksand.

My room is an adventure.

Leafs

The leafs dance in the cool autumn breeze,

they leap

they twirl

They get down on their knees.

In the fall, they turn a bright golden red,

Then the firebirds leap off the edge, 

In the spring, they turn a spectacular green

if only, 

if only,

I could be a leaf.

Now we’ve been in WI for 6 days

Green Bay

Half Moon Lake

And lots of ice cream

And also lots of calls to the doctors office. c came down with a fever Thurs night. Doc said to monitor and treat the symptoms. By Sat Am fever was 103.3 and our pediatrician said to go to urgent care. Luckily just an ear infection. Possible side effect / allergic reaction is a rash which he got After 2.5 days of that medicine. So now we stopped that and are on Benedryl for the rash. He has been crabby since he is uncomfortable. Poor little guy. (And a little bit poor mama who gets up with him at night.)

and ? Even more laughs.

trevor who wanted a V8: I don’t think I’ll be able to finish this soda. It tastes like tomatoes!

trevor playing bags: Jordan says comes on. My Grandma throws better than you! Trevors response: oh really?!

At girls night Mackenzie clearly wanted grandma to paint her nails. So I asked, you really love grandma the most huh? She said “yeah, I really missed you! And looked adoringly at Grandma. Natalie was like was not liking this. Then Nat asked who her fav cousin is. She answered Becca and Bree. Natalie had a grimaced look in her face? Then To tease me Nat asked who is your favorite aunt? She said Aunt Erin… and Uncle Howard.

randomly: Kenzie says she talks a lot and that makes her go potty

An overnight road trip… we arrived at 530am and N and P took N and E while the rest of us slept. Four fun-filled days at the Linville resort. Much of the time is in water and outside so I nearly never have my phone so my pics are limited. Favorites include: the garden (C heads over there 2x a day to chow down on strawberries, raspberries and pea pods), the treehouse inspired by Natalie’s design, an amazing swim pool, lots of yummy food and treats (including milkshakes, s’mores, homemade pizza on the grill and hot dogs on the fire), and lots and lots of family time.  Clayton and Elliott also get lost in Hotwheels for hours and Wesley is just so sweet and cozy. We head to GB tomorrow and then get to come back to Barrington for more fun. We feel so fortunate and so happy to be able to visit our immediate family. It has been a tremendous pick-us-up!  We also celebrated some great dads on Sunday

Gray.  

Gray reminds me of rhinos!!!!

Gray is the color of robots.

Gray reminds me of the Death Star from Star Wars.

Gray looks like a cloud on a dark cloudy day.

Gray tastes like a gray candy rock.

Gray smells like ash.

Gray feels like rhino skin.

Gray sounds like a gray car zooming by.

Gray makes me feel bored.

Gray…. But red is still my favorite color.

How has it taken me 18+ years of knowing Jordan before I cooked him Elvis’s favorite sandwich? Peanut butter. Bacon. Honey. Fried. it was a bit. It filled Elliott up so much he had to wait 2.5 hours before he finished his second half of the sandwich.

The chocolate peanut butter pie was dessert two nights in a row. and here is some cuddly love from dinner tonight

May 29th started with the kids field day… after 75 minutes of trying to keep balloons in the air, high knees, jump rope, bean bag toss, and many things with balls, we took a break and need to revisit today (Saturday May 30th).

To celebrate Jordan’s birthday, I picked up Portuguese food because we were supposed to leave for Portugal (for our 15-year wedding anniversary trip – it would have been the first time we had ever been away from the kids for a week… and in fact, my first time ever being away from Conor for even a night).  Natalie and I also made a peanut butter chocolate crust pie.  And we had a post dinner family swim (well, I was the lifeguard – its wasn’t warm enough).  Hence the no-shirt birthday pictures.  The kids did an amazing job with their cards.  Natalie also worked it out with Grandma to send Jordan’s favorite peanut butter chocolates for Seroogy’s, but super unfortunately, the place I hid it (above the fridge, in a box, in a plastic bag) was ransacked by a mouse.  GRR.  Something to address today.

Aunt Leah has kindly taught five weeks about habitats to her neices and nephews.  To wrap up the unit, she asked each kid to share a habitat haiku.  Elliott helped me write mine because I didn’t know the components of one.

NATALIE

A habitat is
Water, shelter, space and food
That makes a great home

ELLIOTT

Habitats are so cool
A habitat is the woods
Isn’t that awesome?

ERIN

Four requirements
Shelter, water, food and space
Make a habitat

I had saved this post in drafts and forgot to post  so now I’m adding on from leahs Facebook post a month later

One of the best things to come from quarantine was hanging out with my niece and nephews during our weekly “Science Class with Auntie Leah!” After 9 weeks of learning about HABITATS, it has come to an end. These kids are so smart, excitable, and interactive… it has been such a pleasure to spend time with them while I live so far away. And now they all desperately want to spend months on end with Auntie Leah and Uncle Lee in Alaska – mission success!

Classes held:
– Habitat overview
– Food
– Water
– Shelter
– Space
– Deep Sea
– Polar Habitats
– Deserts
– Caves

Work has gotten crazy busy.  I’m leading the planning for phase 1 of reopening offices, as well as the district’s overall reopening plan for the fall.  And Jordan had a work “retreat” (virtual) this week, so he wasn’t really able to help out with “learning time” as much. Here’s an assortment of pictures from the last month.  Kids are in great spirits, all things considered.  Conor is 16.5 months old.  His favorite things are:

Just exploring the garden (which I do not attend to)

Big man on campus! Bike riding!!!

Thanks for the masks, Nana! (Jordan and I use them at least a few times a week for the grocery, CVS, etc.)

We have pizza at least once a week… we’re in the midst of a taste competition. Can any pizza beat Bona Vita’s cheese and sausage? (So far, no… but I’m wondering what the kids think of Giordano’s when we hopefully go to Chicago this summer!)

More taste testing… with a tiger stuffed animal that Natalie got for donating to WWF (after Elliott first thought of the idea of donating to save the rhinos)

Nat was so kind to video tape me and hold up my Spanish talking points for a teacher appreciation video we made for work

Everyone is learning piano! (Well, except Mom, although I do have a crush on the piano teacher)

Do you see this rat tail?!? Ugh – totally want to cut that off.

For Mother’s day weekend, Elliott and I got to read books together in bed one morning… he couldn’t decide which one to start with (eenie meenie minnie mo – sp?)

Conor loves Flash Flash – Elliott’s prized gift from his 2-year-old bday (from Nana and Pop)!

Ball! (Conor loves throwing tennis balls from the front porch into the thick bushes… I’ve spent at least an hour of my life digging through bushes in search of tennis balls. Btw, doesn’t he look stylin’ in this outfit?!?)

Elliott’s geometric creation – thanks for the suggestion teacher Becky!

Hiking in Wilbraham…. LOVE!

I wonder how the white chalk tastes. Yuck. I wonder how the green chalk tastes. Yuck. I wonder how the brown chalk tastes. Yuck. But shouldn’t it taste like chocolate? Let’s try again. Still Yuck. What about the green again? Mom, how do I get this taste out of my mouth?

Natalie’s first play date in 10 weeks… following social distancing guidelines, of course. She did not like that I said hi to them from my bedroom window… and she is not going to like that I took this picture. And she reads the blog now too, so I’m going to get in trouble. I love you Natalie!

Cuddle time with Daddy… and his water bottle

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