Game Night/ Would You Rather...?

The first week of May, I found the game WOULD YOU RATHER at Deseret Industries (for those of you who are unfamiliar with Deseret Industries, it's a thrift store similar to Goodwill). The game was clearance priced at Target for $7.48, but I picked it up, still wrapped in plastic, for $2.00.

This weekend, my son, daughter-in-law, and I opened the game and played. It was so much fun!

The object of the game is to stimulate entertaining, ridiculous, and thought provoking conversation with "would you rather" questions as the ice breakers. For example, "Would you rather age only from the neck up OR from the neck down?" and "Would you rather, as a man, have your grandmother's first name OR her haircut?" As fun as this was, we thought the BEST part of the game was the challenge cards.

When someone lands on a challenge space on the board, they must pull a challenge card and perform one of the Do It challenges. 

Chase (my son) had to let Talitha (his wife) draw  glasses on his face with lipstick and stay that way for the remainder of the game. 

This is Asher wondering what in the world his mom is doing to his dad.  :)

Here he is again with a look of astonishment. 

Talitha had to perform a 30 second dance solo with only her own humming as music. Be sure to turn up your volume. ;)

One of the things I had to do was lap up water from a bowl like a cat. Talitha videoed  it on her phone and we are trying to figure out how to get it uploaded to the blog. 

In the photo below, Walker and grandpa are playing their own game with the Bristle Blocks. 

I can hardly wait to get all of my kids together, so we can play WOULD YOU RATHER as a large group. Oh, the memories we will make!!  

Kindergarten 2014-2015/ Part Two

Here's a look at the end of year gifts I received from students, parents, and Mrs. Johnson's (OEK) class...

The OEK children wrote thank you notes to me on flower pedals. Pretty cute idea, huh?!

OEK stands for Optional Extended Day Kindergarten. It's in place to help children who are low and need the extra assistance. I spent an hour each day helping these kids learn their sight words, letters and sounds and writing skills. It was amazing to see each child's progress. 

Here is the "POLISHing us up so we can shine" part.  

I love, love, love my job! 

Kindergarten 2014-2015/ Part One

Another school year is over and I am feeling the love! Just take a look at the thoughtful gifts I received from Mrs. B. today...

I'm not going anywhere, but Mrs. B. is retiring.

She gave me this Coca-Cola tin sign... 

...and wrote me the sweetest letter. 

This is what I gave to Mrs. B., along with a clever card that I forgot to take a picture of (ugh).

I sure am going to miss working with her!

I will share some of the thoughtful gifts I received from students in my Kindergarten 2014-2015/ Part Two post.   :)

Mother's Day 2015

When it comes to my children, words cannot express the love I feel in my heart! Thank you Katelyn, Casey, Chase and Cody, for allowing me to practice mothering skills on you. Somewhere along the way I must have done something right, because you are responsible, hard working, kind human beings. When I count my blessings, you four are at the top of the list!   :)

Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad

Ingredients-

12 oz. mini penne pasta

1 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1 cup Olive Garden Signature Italian Dressing (You can find this at Wal-Mart.)

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 tablespoon lemon juice

ground black pepper- to taste

salt- to taste

1 (2.25 oz.) can sliced black olives

4 green onions. sliced

6 large leaves Romaine lettuce, thinly sliced

1½ cups grape and/or cherry tomatoes

3/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese

8 oz. package Tyson’s Grilled and Ready Chicken Breast Strips, cut into bite size pieces

1½ cups croutons

Directions-

1) Cook pasta according to package. Drain and rinse with cool water.

2) Whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, Olive Garden Italian dressing, garlic, salt, pepper and lemon juice in a large bowl. Add green onions and olives. Fold in pasta, chicken and Parmesan cheese. Chill.

3) Just before serving, stir in Romaine lettuce, tomatoes and croutons. 

Inspiration for this salad came from Christin at Spicy Southern Kitchen. I made a few adjustments to the recipe, including omitting Worcestershire sauce and adding Olive Garden Italian Dressing as well as sliced black olives. 

Special Friend of the Day- Two

Every child in Mrs. B.'s Kindergarten class has the opportunity to be Special Friend of the Day and, since all of the children have had a turn, Mrs. B. chose me to be "Special Friend" this morning. 

Last time I was Special Friend of the Day was in 2012. (Click HERE to see portraits of me from that group of students.) By comparison, I think the Kindergarten graduates from 2012 have more artistic talent than our students this year, nonetheless, they drew some pretty cute pictures. Take a look...

Never mind that I'm pig nosed and built like a box. This little girl is a future calligrapher! 

I'm sure it's obvious, but I'm going to tell you anyway. This is me getting out of my green car at Disneyland
 and Mickey and Minnie Mouse are there to greet me. 

The fact that this little guy took his time drawing my picture makes my heart melt. Usually, he is either daydreaming or hurrying to get through his assignments. (By the way, it was 'wear your school t-shirt' day.
I don't typically sport shirts with roadrunners on them.)

Here I am, riding Toy Story at California Adventure Park. I don't know what's going on in the crotch area. I was afraid to ask. 

This is me riding California Screamin'. The two girls in the box are waiting in line. IF ONLY lines were that short! 

Once again, I'm at Disneyland. This time I'm riding Pirates of the Caribbean. In Ethan's words...
"It's the dark part before you go up the hill. The box is where that thing flashes."

 I sure am going to miss Mrs. B.!

Make-Believe Monday

Kindergarten is drawing to a close for the 2014-2015 school year and we are testing the students on their progress. Mrs. B. and I have one little boy, Ryan, in our classroom who tends to have an occasional meltdown, so I try to be careful not to pull him for testing unless it's during a time of transition. Yesterday, after the students had written their ABC's, but before they started another activity, I asked Ryan to please come back to my table. As we were walking across the room, I noticed that he was moving like a Tyrannosaurus Rex (We just finished our dinosaur unit.) Inquisitively, I leaned down to Ryan's level and asked him, "Are you a dinosaur?" He kind of growled/roared at me and I thought, "Oh great. This is going to be painful if he's going to 'growl' his numbers zero through twenty!" Then I had a brilliant idea. This is how I handled the situation...

Me- "Mr. Dinosaur, do you think you can tell me what these numbers are in a Ryan voice?"

It worked like a charm. He rattled off the numbers with 100% accuracy, then walked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex back to the carpet to sit with the class.