Cassie let me take a video of her playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star last week. She’s getting pretty good at it. She’s gotten better even in the past week, speeding it up a little and letting her fingers move faster on the strings. I’m pretty impressed seeing as she’s only been at it for a few months. (be warned, she’s a little squeaky in places, this is not the symphony folks!)
Maybe Jamie will let me post him playing clarinet soon too.
I just found this and it reminded me of why Cassie wrote it…
A couple of months ago, she called me from school saying that *I* forgot to put her library book in her backpack. Yeah, you can imagine how that went over. Lead bricks. I did, however, find it and schlep it up to the school after reminding her that it’s not MY responsibility to keep up with HER stuff.
My favorite part is the “We forgot to read the book.” – cuz, ya know, something has to be my fault right? *laughing* She did come that night an apologize. Little Brat.
What year would be complete without a Valentine’s Day party at school. I must admit that the room mom’s for Cassie’s class is way better than I’ll ever hope to be. They had these little laundry bag looking things strung up on a laundry line so the kids could hand out their treats easily. Very cute! Tom got to play favorite substitute and call out the Bingo stuff for Jamie’s class? I hid in a corner and took photos, looking at my watching, wondering when it would be over.
Jamie’s Class
Cassie’s Class (that’s one her BFFs)
Earlier this year was Science Night at the school. Cassie did an optional project for the science fair. She did an experiment to see what would melt faster – an ice cube, an ice cube with sugar on it or an ice cube with salt on it. She was quite proud of herself! The kids also got to do some activities. The favorite was the static one. They put their hands on a ball, the volunteers turn it on and voila. Crazy hair! Check it out!
Here’s Cassie with her project. And yes, that dress is totally retro. In fact, I bought that dress for my sister when she was Cassie’s age (my sister is now 23).
And the crazy hair photos:
Cassie has spelling homework 4 times per week. We get bored with the same old assignments so I gave her a special one, to write her spelling words in her very best handwriting. She came up with this… I’m pretty impressed and very proud so I had to share 
Last month, Cassie’s class was supposed to design their own theme park and draw it out on a big piece of butcher paper. No princess parks here, no. Casie designed the Poison Park. That’s right folks, step right up and be half murdered and pay good money to do it!
This is a long video, I won’t be offended (much) if you don’t listen to it, but I cracked up every time Cassie told the class to “Shhhh!” and the fact that the kids were obsessed with the invisible bridge. LOL.
Many thanks for her teacher for taking the video. Cassie was VERY excited about it and wanted me to see it.
Clifford came to visit on literacy night… and Cassie participated in a square dance thing at school… enjoy!
Remember when I posted about how we had snow in Austin on December 4? Someone at the school got the absolute best photo of Jamie playing in it… look at that smile – complete and utter joy. Jamie is a tough cookie when it comes to smiles for the camera. This one left me grinning for days! What a lucky shot!
Cassie also wrote a story about it. Oh, excuse me, she PUBLISHED a story – that seems to be the big thing now… publishing it means writing it, editing it, rewriting it and illustrating it and making a cover sometimes too. Very serious stuff… but this is SO cute. I love that they let all the kids out to play in it. They still talk about how crazy it was!
(click for bigger pic)
Anyone who lives up North, can just skip this post cuz you’re going to make fun of me *laugh*
It snowed in Austin today. It rarely snows in Austin, you must understand. And I have now seen snow up close and personal (that I remember) exactly twice. I grew up in Charleston, SC, moved to Honolulu, HI and now live here. And we don’t travel much, at least not North Heck, we don’t even have real Winter gear. A nice warm jacket and sneakers is about it.
You have to understand, when the forecast here calls for snow or ice, the grocery stores start emptying out of bread milk and eggs (someone on Twitter called it a French Toast Emergency and cracked me up). It’s all kind of silly and dramatic and I try to avoid it. Except for driving. I’m not a terribly confident driver and other people going 80 miles an hour on overpasses with a cell phone stuck to their ear rushing to the grocery store… well, that scares me. When it rains, I hate to drive. So, I knew it was silly, but I canceled my appointment with my personal trainer today (I did work out at home and did pretty good improvising – hey, the fact that I didn’t just blow it off means a lot to me) because I didn’t want to be out there with the morons at 8am. I probably could have went, but honestly, my sanity is worth more right now.
And it did snow. For about 30-45 minutes. None of it stuck, but it was kind cool to see the flakes drifting and blowing around. Tom subbed at the kids school and the principal went around to each classroom and let the teachers take them outside, so there were 450 kids standing in the snow out there at once. Tom subbed there today (he’s there nearly every day in fact) said it was truly a magical day today because the kids were all outside and having the grandest time. I kinda wish I was there to see it. Is it weird that I’m a little jealous that he gets to see the kids off and on each day? I guess for me it really is because I couldn’t do it. All those kids, I’d be crazy. But I wish I had seen that.
They also watched The Polar Express today, so Tom said it really was a fantastic day to be a teacher. Now to find him a permanent position. I think he really wants to work at the school where the kids are. The kids being there is a nice bonus, but he loves the school, he loves the staff. He seems to be fitting in there. I just hope they give him a shot when hiring time comes around. I think he’ll be a shoe-in. If they don’t hire him, they’re crazy! The KIDS adore him. It kinda makes me jealous that I don’t have that affect on kids, but when he walks into the school or into a fundraiser or something, the kids flock to him screaming “Mr. Beauchamp! Mr. Beauchamp!”. I really hope this works out for him. Funny, at 37 you finally figure out what you wanna do with your life, but Tom was meant for this. We’ve been married for over 16 years. I’m amazed at how different we both are and how our aspirations have changed and grown.
Okay, I’m off the subject. Suffice to say that I adore my husband. I really do mean that for so many reasons, but his way with the kids is one of the tops. Yeah, it doesn’t pay a whole lot (teachers are WAY underpaid in my opinion), but to see how happy it makes him… so what we don’t get a pool in our backyard and we use the community one instead. I don’t care. Our happiness both together and individually is way more important.
Blah blah blah… okay, so the snow… I have to tell you this story about Leo, the moron dog. It started snowing and both dogs were outside. Julie quickly came in and found her bed:
Leo, on the other hand, is a moron. He stayed out there for a while and was barking at the flakes, completely freaked out. He’d find one, bark like mad and then get all weirded out when it disappeared if it touched something. After a minute or so of that he decided to come inside and runs full tilt towards the dog door. And misses. *laughing* he whacked himself in the head on the side of it. What the heck is wrong with this dog? Look at him? I swear he peed himself:
(if you squint, you’ll see it just started, there’s little flakes in front of the black thing)
Anyway, so that just sent me rolling. The dog may be dumber than a box of rocks or a stump or whatever, but he’s entertaining at least I suppose!
Anyway, photographic proof that we had snow today – Voila!
A couple of weeks ago, Cassie’s class had a presentation about the seasons. Cassie made it sound like it was required and talked about it for days, so of course we went! There was a powerpoint and everything! It was quite cute…
You can see how Jamie is all excited and just can’t wait, right? Thank goodness a friend was there for him to play with:
As I said, there was a PowerPoint presentation… this is a photo of the slide that had Cassie working on her project. The project was to use real things to represent the seasons.
And here’s the finished project – Cassie voiced-over this one too (the kids read the slides). Super cute!
And, yes, they gave us parents a photo op (the first photo), and, of course, the BFFs made sure to stand by each other so I could snag a photo…
