Be Silly; Have Fun

My happiness commandment #4 is, "Be silly; have fun."  When I pause in my whirlwind of chores and work and general busy-ness, and remember to follow my happiness commandments, this is the one commandment that I think does the most to make my relationship with Flanna stronger.

And I think that being silly together creates bonds between Flanna and her friends, too.

Take, for instance, Pajama day at Flanna's school last week.  The kiddos (and even Flanna's teacher!) wore their PJs to school last Thursday as part of a special Polar Express party celebration, and it was such a cute bonding experience for all of them!  They gasped at one another as they came into school that morning (I made sure to come into her classroom to snap pics!) and just laughed and grinned.  Flanna  was visibly beaming, and her sweet classmates were, too!

How can you be more lighthearted during this holiday season?

My Life in Pictures: Party Time!

Flannery's school had its end of the year party yesterday.  When the director, Mastaneh, throws a party, she reeeeally throws a party!  There were some bounce houses, an ice cream truck with free ice cream, a popcorn machine, face painting, yummy food, a DJ, and even goody-bags for the kids.  We had a wonderful time!

Indigo has been a great school for Flannery, and we're going to miss everyone there!

The ice cream made everyone feel like a kid again!

She chose a unicorn for her face-painting

Flannery with her teacher, Ms. Angelique

Flannery with her teacher, Ms. Jennifer

Flanna with her teacher, Ms. Sarah

What was your favorite ice cream from the ice cream truck when you were a kid?

A School Garden: Before

My coworker, Mary, and I applied for a grant to start a school garden at our elementary school.  And guess what?  We got it!  Out of 14 applications, ours was chosen to be funded!  We're very excited!

I took some "before" photos of the area where we're going to start the garden.  Years ago, this was a "victory garden," but it's been neglected for quite a while.  It used to have a pond in the middle, but we're going to fill in the pond and plant flowers in that bed.  The two raised beds are going to be for herbs and veggies.


I work with the intermediate autism classroom at my school, and we're really looking forward to having some language lessons planned around gardening experiences together before the school year is out.  Stay tuned for the "after" photos as spring approaches and we get the garden in shape!

Have you started planting your spring garden yet?  What are you planting this season?

Montessori Moments

Flanna's wonderful teaching assistant sent us these photos of her doing several of the "works" during her morning montessori program.  It's so neat to see what she's been working on!

What new thing are you learning right now?    

My Little Artist

On Friday, my daughter brought home a gazillion scraps of paper that she cut, stapled (yes, they let the children use staplers! by themselves! at her school--eegads!), painted, hole-punched, and sewed (and needles, too!--can you tell it's a montessori yet!?) in her "Friday Folder."  As I poured the contents of her folder onto the top of the dryer, as is my custom, these 4 amazing crumpled masterpieces emerged alongside the glitter and paper bits.

Seriously, masterpieces.  I have no words.  (OK, except for the captions I've so wittily typed up.)

Flannery said:  It's the sun, the earff, and those orange things are stars.  And then Oscar wrote that purple line on it, and the teacher said, "Class, we only write on our OWN papers."

Flannery drew Ariel (the little mermaid), although she says her teacher helped with the tail.    I love the hair. 

This one was for me, as you can tell, since Flanna wrote my name just as I remember writing it as a kid-- "t t"  :)
Can you tell the kids are on a see-saw? 

Flannery said, "That's a wanebow, and those kids are sliding up and down it."  Of course.
I'm in awe of the new open mouths she's drawing now.
These stick figures are chatty, not just smug line smilers anymore.  

What piece of art brought you joy this week?

School Days

Speaking of learning, here are a few cute pictures that Flannery's teachers sent us from school. These pics were taken just before Flanna got croup, and I now see that I should've noticed she looked a bit worn down. Poor thing!