Merry Christmas!!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I survived the first week!!!

unfortunately, I also forgot to take pictures of Tony's first day of school on Monday. How sad is that??! So I don't have any pics to post this time, but it is what it is....

So, yes, I am one week down on my first student teaching assignment. My brain is mush, my feet are killing me, and I am LOVING it! I have 28 first graders at a "perfect" elementary school here in Redding. My master teacher is wonderful. He has been teaching 1st grade for 25 years and is a wealth of information. The other 1st grade teachers here have been really accepting and welcoming- I am counting my lucky stars every minute of this assignment....which lasts until mid-October. After that things may be a whole other story (last I heard session 2 will be with 38!! 4th graders), but I'll worry about that later!

For now, I am a happy camper. I am also dead tired and I hear a bottle of wine calling my name....

Birthday Fun

Not too long ago, the Tonyman celebrated his 7th birthday. We "kidnapped" 2 of his best buddies and spent the afternoon playing mini-golf and bumper boats before heading up to the lake for a BBQ and swimming. I left the camera at home, so we don't have any pictures from the bumper boats, but here are some from the lake. The boys spent the night and we all made pancakes the next morning.

Yes, this was completely exhausting but totally worth it as Tony declared it was the best birthday party EVER!!

Star Wars fun

In addition to Tony's Lego obession, there is also the Star Wars obsession. When I came across this I couldn't resist....

Cuteness

Ok, so I've been a bloggin' fool today. There are lots of new posts to enjoy. I couldn't fit this into any of the others, so it gets one all by itself.

Princess Meagan, for your viewing pleasure.....

Lego Creator

To say that Tony is obsessed with Lego would be an understatement. The Little Man is perfectly content to play Lego for hours on end. Last night he begged us to take him to Target to check out the Lego and see if there was anything new. (There wasn't, but you never know, right??....) Anyway, he came across a set that made a bucket truck and street light, with a little person who could "fix" the street light. The wheels started turning inside his head. He came home, combined a couple of his other sets and built himself a bucket truck and street light. Not bad, Little Man, not bad....

Fourth of July Fun

We're back from a week of fun in the sun at the Lake with Nana and Papa. All four of us spent the holiday up there and then Tom came back down the hill to work (bummer!) while the kids and I stayed on for the rest of the week. The lake was in full swing, with boats and jets skis everywhere. It has been a really long time since we've seen that many people using the lake. The kids spent lots of time playing in the water, slip'n'sliding, and chasing the geese. Tony got an early birthday present which he had lots of fun with. Daddy found him a remote controlled boat, very cool! Some of our southern California cousins came up for the week and we had fun with them too. I'll post those pictures later- I didn't take any with my camera, so I need to get copies off of my mom's camera.

Pony rides

Ever since our excursion to the horse unit at Cal Poly, Meagan has been in love with horses and ponies. She has accumulated quite the collection of stuffed ponies, and lately she has taken to "fixing" them with bandages (stickers and tape). Her uncle gave her the pink rocking horse for Christmas, which she rides with wild abandon.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and thank my lucky stars that she isn't as enthralled with riding the real thing. We wandered through the county fair last month and came upon the pony ride. She was all but bursting at the seams to get in line to ride the ponies, until it was her turn to climb the steps and get on. The smiles disappeared quickly. Luckily there were no tears, but this was look on her face for the entire ride.

She's still playing and "fixing" her stuffed ponies, but doesn't want anything to do with the real deal anymore.

The garden is growing

We got a bit of a late start this year, but we did manage to squeeze in a few veggies to our little plot. The kids have gotten so into growing veggies they are willing to give up their "playground" to turn it into a bigger garden next year. (We'll see how long this lasts, I'll keep you posted.) Anyhoo, they had a blast picking out the seed packets and mixing in the soil amendment and planting the seeds with Nana. I didn't take any pictures of that part, since there really wasn't much to look at, but here are pictures of how they are doing now. We planted "easter egg" radishes, carrots, beets, lettuce, green beans, corn, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. Meagan loves to pick the tomatoes, and Tony races out each morning to make sure the corn is still taller than he is. He can't wait for it to reach the eaves.

Toothless Wonder(ful)!

Finally! The little man has lost both his front teeth!! These puppies have been wiggly since before Christmas, if you can believe that! He lost the first one a few nights ago and the second one popped out last night while he was sleeping. He woke up and couldn't find it, so he thought he swallowed it. He was soooo disappointed, thinking the tooth fairy wouldn't be able to visit him since he didn't have it. We tore his room and bed apart quickly before school and found it in the rug by his bed. A happy boy once more....

(Oh, and the award is for his notice of and interest in all things science. )

May fun

Well, that month went fast! Its now been a month exactly since my last class. I have enjoyed every minute of my "freedom" and reveled in my return to stay-at-home-momness. I horded every minute (thus no posting!) I could of this last month where the kids were in school and I had a few hours to myself during the day. I whipped out quite a few fun little quilt projects:

Most still need to have the bindings finished but I am loving them already, especially the Mary Englebright table runner. I'll post pics of it when it's finished and washed. The flowers are raw-edge applique and the edges will unravel and give the runner a bit of texture.

Let's see, what else have we been up to??? Well, soccer finished up. Now the kids are begging for gymnastics, so I'll have to see what I can do about that. We packed up the "brewery" and headed down to the homebrew shop to join in Big Brew Day- where the American Homebrew Association tries to set the record for the most gallons of homebrew beer brewed in a single day. Each local chapter logs how many gallons were brewed and adds it to the tally of all the others across the country. I'm not sure how much was brewed this time, our chapter made around 95 gallons. Several of the other local homebrewers brought their set-ups down and everyone brewed together. It was cool to see all the different ways people have set themselves up to brew.

For Mother's Day we packed up a picnic and "hiked" to Crystal Creek Falls, next to Whiskeytown lake. I say "hiked" because it is a quarter mile walk in from the parking lot up a gravel paved road to the falls, but the kids had a blast and there was a lot of water running, so that was neat to see. We're hoping to start hiking a bit more seriously with the kids this summer and this was a nice introduction for them.

School is wrapping up for the year for both kids, Thursday is the last day for Tony. Meagan joined Tiny Tots for the last month. It is the same preschool program that Tony went to before PreK. They had their annual bike parade and field trip to Turtle Bay last week. Tony had his spring performance this morning. They rocked out to Rockin' Robin and did the twist, very entertaining.

So there you have it: The month of May for the March family.

Class Assignment

(for regular viewers, this post is part of a class assignment, regularly scheduled (?) posts will return soon...only 2 more weeks of school to go!)


Hi Dr. Forbes!

The only thing I could think of that wasn't included from the original project was a hyperlink, so I am including one here. This will take you to a fun multiplication website we found for Tony to practice multiplication.

Segways & Soccer

Big adventures this weekend....
Mom & I took a little Segway cruise on the Sacramento River Trail Friday. Lots of fun! This was our first time segwaying and once you get the hang of it it's a blast zipping around on one of these things.

It's also soccer season, so I thought I'd put a couple new soccer shots up. Tony spent spring break at soccer camp and is learning new skills. He has found he really likes playing goalie. It's fun to watch him out on the field.

Tony makes the save!

2 more weeks of school, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel....

I wanna be a cowgirl...

So long, Tata

Last week was a bit of a blur for us. My great-grandfather past away after 98 years. To celebrate such a long life, we joined the many (35! 3 sons, 11 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren) of his descendants to say goodbye. We drove down to Southern California for the services, and then stayed to catch up with the rest of the family we so rarely get to see.

Big thank yous to Tom, who had the courage and determination ;) to round up this unruly bunch for a photo. In the picture are the 3 sons, 7 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren, and 2 great-greatgrandchildren (Tony & Meagan) and various spouses.

We decided to break up the return trip by stopping off in San Luis Obispo, for a little reminiscing and positive brainwashing for the kids. They are all fired up to go to Cal Poly when it time to go to college. Meagan has decided she wants to be a horse doctor after checking out the baby horses at the Horse Unit. Tony thinks it would be fun to build robots with the engineers. Tom and I just like that they want to go to college :) We also spent a day in Monterey, checking out the ocean and the Aquarium.

To my LA friends- I am very sorry I didn't have the chance to meet up with any of you- it was drive down on Monday, Tuesday with the family, and Wednesday drive back.

Is my Bunny done yet???

Meagan's much-loved Bunny needed a bit of repair work, so it was Nana to the Rescue! Meagan sat, somewhat patiently, and waited, asking every so often, "Is my Bunny done yet??" Thanks for fixing Bunny, Nana!

Lookin' Good!

Check out Tony's new peepers!

His teacher mentioned last month that there may be a small problem with his eyes. She had rearranged everyone's seats and Tony's was now in the back of the class. Every time he needed to copy something down from the board he was up out of his seat, walking up to the board and squinting trying to figure out what was written. We took him in, and behold, the little man needs specs. He's been slowly adjusting to them, commenting often- "Wow, everything is nearer now, I can see!"

Earthquake update

Mom heard from Dad, he and the telescopes are ok. They felt it, but no damages. Whew. As for my grandparents, they are on the far side of the island, it supposed to hit on the Hilo side, so they should be ok too.

Earthquake and Tsunami

just a quick note. Dad is in Chile and we haven't been able to get a hold of him. He is several hundred miles north of the epicenter, so he probably felt it, but isn't in any danger. It will be a while before the phones are back up and everything. Right now I am more concerned about my grandparents who are in Kona, Hawaii. Their condo is on the coast. I'm sure they will evacuate someplace inland, I just hope there isn't any damage...I'll keep you posted.

Too much fun

It was raining (again) yesterday so Meggie and I decided it was time to make some cookies. My little helper scooped and measured and stirred...all with the hopes of just a little taste. Every time she added something to the bowl she'd ask, "Can I have some now??" At the end, I couldn't resist handing over the beater. (And I'm so glad I had my camera nearby!)

I think she liked it?!

Oh, and here's a shot of my brother last week when he came back from fishing with my mom. He's been borrowing Tony's boat so he can fish at Lake Shasta. Nice catch!

Did you miss me??

I'm Back!! What can I say?? There hasn't been a whole lot going on around the March house lately. After the frenzy of the holidays, we kinda went into hibernation mode. Now that the weather has finally decided to play nicely, we're out and about more. Tom is back to bike riding and brewing up a storm. I think he has 12 gallons waiting to be bottled. Yum!

I managed to finish up this little lovely before school got too crazy....

Cute isn't it? I'm pleased as punch with it. It is hand appliqued and machine pieced and quilted. Funny thing, the piecing gave me more trouble than the applique- go figure. All I can say is that biases are kinda tricky... I have several more little projects lined up, but that school thing got in the way. I'll just have to wait until the semester is over in April. I passed my CSETs (the California Subject Examination for Teachers- California's answer to deciding who is and isn't a highly qualified educator under No Child Left Behind) so that's it for testing until after I student teach in the fall. Yea!

Tony, our first grader, is keeping us on our toes. It seems he has a thing for math. His teacher has him learning the multiplication table. And he gets it! Its like he can "see" the numbers and why they equal what they do. He's been adding and subtracting multiple digit numbers in his head for a while now, and he wants to know what comes after multiplication. Oh boy!

Meagan is our social butterfly. She is begging us all the time to invite her friends from Rosie's over for play dates and tea parties. This is her, all dressed up for the Valentine's Day party at Rosie's. I didn't get them in the picture, but she even has her sparkly "glass" slippers on.

So, there you have it, us in a nutshell for the past two months. Sorry it took so long Dad!