It's snowing! Wait, what? It's snowing?

It's finally snowing in our part of the world! Yay! This is our first snow of the winter I believe.

The bad part is (well there are several bad parts) that it waited until nightfall to snow, that it waited until the 28th of February to snow, and that it isn't sticking because it has been nearly 70 degrees two days in a row. Yes, it has been so pleasant here that I've had the windows open for two days and have walked the kids home from school.

Now no one can enjoy it. :(

The weather forecast this morning called for a 30 percent chance of snow, but I didn't believe them. The big round snowflakes outside proved me wrong. I just wish I had been proven wrong earlier in the day, maybe even earlier in the winter!

Field trip!

My daughters went on an honor roll school field trip to the movies today! They saw "Bolt" at the dollar theater, and my son and two nieces and I went with them.

The students who made the honor roll got to go to the movies. My two nieces — they are also on the honor roll but go to a different school — were home sick with me but not sick enough to make me miss this field trip, so they got to go too. I've missed so, so many field trips taking care of one child or another, mostly the baby and our diabetic and I really, really wanted to go on this one.

They rode to the movies on four buses and got a snack box of popcorn, a drink, and a stick of candy as they came in. We all enjoyed the movie and made plans to come back again to see it again before it leaves the theater. My girls went back to school on the bus and the rest of the kids and I went home for lunch.

That was it for my kids' field trip, but right in the middle of our lunch some important papers for my husband came in the mail and it was almost his lunchtime, so we took them up to him at work and went with him to tend some business. When the kids and I got back it was nearly time to pick my girls up from school, so we just went early and checked them out. We got to sit on on my older daughter's practice session for her school's performance group. The kids are chosen based on their behavior and grades and they go to a few other schools to sing and dance.

Believe it or not, my girls squeezed in two tests each at school, in between going to the movies, doing a practice session, and checking out early!

Report on parent-teacher conferences

The parent-teacher conferences from yesterday went really well with good reports for both girls. My first grader has straight 100s so far this grading period, and is reading on a second grade level. She's one of seven first graders who have a book discussion club and she gets other extra work as well.

My fourth grader has A's and B's; her grades have dropped even from the last grading period, when she had her first ever B's on her report card, but her grades are still good. She is capable of better so we'll keep working with her and encouraging her. It's not that she doesn't understand, it's mostly a matter of not paying attention to directions and details. She sometimes skips problems or does them incorrectly because she didn't pay attention to the directions or the details, and sometimes they throw in trick questions. I can look and see right away what happened, so I can see that it's not that she doesn't understand. Her teacher also pointed out that spring in the fourth grade is a time when "love" blooms ...

All the kids came with me to the school of course, and they played in the first grader's room while I talked to the teacher. My son loves it in there because there is pint-sized furniture in the reading corner and all sorts of things to dump in the floor in the math corner. They went to the pre-k room while I went to the fourth grader's class; they painted, played with blocks, played in the sandbox, and had all manner of fun. None of them wanted to leave when I finished so I had to gently encourage them to wrap things up so we could head home for lunch. They were very well behaved so I was proud of them for that.

Parent-teacher conferences

All the kids are here today since school is out for parent-teacher conferences today, and I have several conferences to attend. I don't think we are going to make all of them though. The girls' teachers want to see me at 10:50 a.m. (yes, both of them, wow that's cool that people think I can be in two different places at the same time) so I'm going to go to one of them a few minutes before that. Both of the girls are in a pull-out program for advanced students, and that teacher wants to see me at 9 a.m. for the first grader and 9:30 a.m. for the fourth grader. I'd really like to talk to her but I doubt I can get five kids fed and ready by that time, and I really don't want to think about keeping them under wraps for two hours, from 9-11 a.m. They'd be just fine, but I'd be nuts.

I'm expecting good reports for both girls as usual. They both have excellent grades and behavior. I hope to find out some ways we can help them improve.

I had planned on walking to the school with them, taking snacks and letting them have a picnic and play outside at school, but it turned cold again during the night. There is plenty for them to do inside the school building though. They like to visit their old teachers and go in the preschool room and play.

School is out again tomorrow for teacher's meetings, so all five will be with me all day tomorrow too. We'll just hang out at the house and maintain, and I do have some work to do.

Almost two!

My son is 22 months old today ... It's so hard to believe he's almost two years old. He's talking a lot now and loves to read books. He's a big handful but he's so entertaining and brings joy to everyone who sees him. We just thoroughly enjoy having him around.

Another lover of books in the family!

My son has joined the *We Heart Books* portion of the family! Right now his favorites are "Green Eggs and Ham" and pretty much everything by Dr. Seuss, "Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman (he thinks this one is by Dr. Seuss too), one called "My First ABC Book" and another one called "What is My Shadow Made Of?" The part he likes in the shadow book is the part about airplanes.

His first book that he loved (to death almost) was "Ten Little Fishes" AKA "FISHIES!!!" but then he tore it up and ate it. *sigh* I have to get him another one.

He wants everyone to read to him all the time. It's so cute to see him sitting in his *big* big sister's lap, the two of them reading together. His *little* big sister also reads to him, and is reading easy chapter books herself!

Here he is in my bed reading one of his sister's books. It's called "Sugarplum Princess" or something like that. Right now he doesn't care if the book IS pink and about a princess!