First Grade Fun

As the school year came to a close I had some wonderful opportunities to help out at Xavier's school. Since I still have little ones at home it's hard to volunteer my time during the school year and Xavier's teacher didn't need much help other than class parties.  So, I jumped at the chance to do more at the end of the year.  The first thing I helped with was Forks Field Day.  I was in charge of the tug of war and potato sack race station.  The kids had a blast!  One group wanted to do boys against girls and the girls won!  GIRL POWER!!  

It was so cute to watch the kids try to hop in those potato sacks.  I know I would have been tripping and falling the entire time.  The kiddos did a great job trying to stay upright.

Xavier was pretty happy to have his mama at school!  I secretly wish I could be there more often.  My heart is very passionate about education and now that my kids are in school I care about it even more.  I guess when you grow up having a mom as a teacher it feels like home visiting any school.

Here Xavier's class is playing kick ball.

I sure love this happy guy!

The kids also did some relay races.  This one was a baton race.

The kids had a blast and it was so much fun being able to see Xavier with his classmates.  He's got a great group of kids in his class.

The next fun thing for my budding scientist was the SCIENCE EXPO.  The first graders had a conservation unit, so they were given the assignment to make something new out of recyclable materials around the house.  Well, Xavier decided to repurpose baby food jars into Lego storage.  We cleaned the jars, painted them, drew Lego faces on them, and filled each jar with a specific color of Lego.  Xavier also made a poster illustrating the events that led to the repurposing.  (i.e. the baby food jars are made, the jars are filled with baby food, the food is then transported to stores, moms and dads buy the food, the baby eats the food, and then the jars get repurposed.)

The third activity I helped with was chaperoning Xavier's classmates on their class Field Trip to the Crayola Factory.  I don't have any pictures, but we had so much fun.  I had a group of 4 kids including Xavier and we just had a blast going to all the exhibits together.  I'm so glad Xavier has such nice kids to be around at school.

Finally I helped with the first grade FuN iN tHe SuN day.  Unfortunately the sun did not shine and it rained all day, so we moved the fun inside.   They had different classrooms set up with a variety of activities.  One room had computers for online activities, one room had board games, one room had art supplies, one room had a movie, and one room had music and dancing.  I helped with the dance room.  I was a little unsure about going to that room, but it ended up being super fun.  We did dance freeze, free dance, limbo, and we taught a line dance.  The kids were hysterical.  Watching each child move to their own rhythm was quite entertaining.

After everyone rotated through each station the kids layed out their beach towels in the hall and ate their lunch.

Xavier and Mrs. Geiger (the most fabulous first grade teacher around)  We are sure going to miss this wonderful lady.

Fun in the Sun selfie.

Xavier and Jacob- best buds!  They have known each other since preschool and Jacob's family recently moved around the corner from our house.  They both love Legos, Chima, Ninjago, Star Wars, Sharks, and as Jacob puts it, "they get each other".

This year for teacher gifts I bought drink dispensers and filled it with salt water taffy, a powder drink mix, a matching cup, pistachios, a fun dishtowel or hand towel, an iTunes gift card, and a thank you note written by Xavier or Gavin.  The tag on the outside said, "All year you worked hard to make learning fun.  So now it's your turn to relax in the sun!"

Xavier's official last day of school pic.  He is no longer a first grader.  Mission completion.

As a fun kick off to summer I had a bunch of Xavier's friends over for an ice cream Sundae bar.

The toppings and ice cream assembly station.

Sebastian, Xavier, and Gavin

 Justin, Ashton, Gavin, and Cye

 Another shot so I could get Hayden in the picture too.

 Martin and Xavier

 He waited patiently all morning for this treat!

 Hayden, Justin, Xavier, and Jacob.

 After ice cream the boys got creative and decided to playing "Swampketeers".  Xavier and Jacob's imaginations can think of the greatest play scenarios.  I love seeing their two minds work together.

One unhappy "Swampketeer"!  Or maybe it was his post sugar high.

 This day will forever be in my memory because it was quite an eventful day as the hours progressed.  It started out as a normal day.  It was cloudy and looked like it would rain, but cleared by the time the kids got off the bus.  It was beautiful and sunny and our ice cream party wouldn't be cancelled.  I brought the kids home from the bus and started putting everything out for the ice cream sundaes.  Our friends came, we ate ice cream with lots of toppings, chatted, and let the kids play.  Then......a couple hours later.......the sky grew dark and the rain moved in.  It wasn't just a little rain, it was buckets of rain, wind, and thunder.  When my friend Liz and her son Jacob were about to leave it was raining pretty hard still.  Liz went to pull the car closer to the house and came rushing back into the house.  She looked like she had seen a ghost.  She said as she was running to her car she felt the ground vibrate and saw lightning just ahead of her.  If she had gone any sooner to her car she might have gotten struck by lightning.  It was definitely scary!!  So needless to say everyone that was still at the house at this point stayed until the storm passed.  

Then Tim walked in the door and told a story of his drive home.  He happened to leave work early just in time to get stuck in the storm.  The road had quite a bit of water and he could barely see in front of him.  Then boom.  He hit something.  He didn't know what, but he just kept driving.  Come to find out he had run over a muffler that had fallen off someone's car and put a hole in our tire.  It was a blessing he didn't flip his car, hydroplane, and crash.  How he made it home in one piece?  Only one answer, a blessing from above.  The Lord was watching out for him no doubt.

Lastly, when Tim got home I realized I left Gavin's bike and the stroller out in the front yard.  When Tim went out to grab them and put them in the garage another sad event occurred.  I had left my phone in the stroller.  It was sitting in about 2 inches of rain!  What a dork I am.  Fortunately we turned the phone off immediately and looked online if it was a fixable issue.  Many sites said to put the phone in a bag of rice.  That is what we did.  2 days later I hesitantly turned on my phone.  Magically it was working!  Yet another blessing from above!  

Boy oh boy was it a crazy afternoon.  And even though I don't deserve such blessings I can say that these events showed me that God's hand is in my life.  He is there for the little things such as a cell phone working after it sat in water or for the big things like keeping my husband safe on a dangerous drive home.  The ice cream was yummy but these memories are the cherries on top!