nobody does it better: explorer's 2015 fundraiser

it's that time of the year again!
things have been busy busy as we parents, teachers,
and our kids prepare for explorer's biggest fundraiser of the year,
art from the heart.

every classroom is busy with their art project that will be
auctioned off and board members and volunteers are busy
getting businesses around san diego to donate hotels stays,
meals at various restaurants, spas, bookstores, camps of all
types {surf, music, art, language, robotics, etc.}

all this work for a great cause - our kids!

i love this year's james bond theme. so very cool!
one of the moms on our board came up with the idea,
and it's been extremely well received by all.
{finn even declared this will be a future b-day theme}.

the cute invite.

i attended a meeting last week for 5th grade parents to meet
the directors of the two middle schools on HTH's campus
{the campus consists of 2 elementary, 2 middle and 2 high schools}
more to come on that. 

before and after the meeting, there was buzz about this event.
some ladies were discussing what 'bond girl' they were going
as and what their men were wearing. one might have overheard us
and think we were talking about the oscars from how we went on. 

i hadn't even given a thought to what i was going to wear yet,
but now I'm thinking my gold new year's sequin dress makes sense for
this event. {there are only so many occasions a girl can wear gold sequins}

anyway, both c and i are really looking forward to it!

~ the only bummer is this same weekend is my aunt frankie's 90th
b-day celebration in florida.  I SO wanted to be there!  her children are
hosting it and flying in from all over the country {grandchildren too}.

i was having difficult finding affordable flights and then when i
learned the date of this event was the same night as the fundraiser,
it seems I'm not destined to be there. i will eventually get back to visit
and will be sure to celebrate my auntie's milestone birthday.
she's a truly amazing lady. 

hopes and dreams: finn and scout

i attended 'back to school' night at explorer last week
and have been anxious to record the exciting night.

with two kids at the same school, dividing time between
each of their classrooms for any event is challenging.
since i already knew scout's teacher {she was finn's asst. teacher for
kinder and 1st grade year}, i spent the entire time in finn's 5th grade classroom,
getting to know miss laura zimmer, a teacher who is new to me.

parents were instructed to sit at their child's desk {which fortunately had a nametag},
and to start by reading their hopes and dreams sheet.  finn's list read:

- build lego robots in science
- get better at math
- learn more about space
- build boats and test them
- build a small rocket in science

none of these were a surprise to me,
but they certainly let his teacher know what is near and dear to his heart.

within just a few minutes of listening to miss zimmer tell us about herself,
and her hopes and dreams for our children this school year, i was smitten
with this young woman's enthusiasm and passion for teaching.
{i felt the same with scout's kinder teacher}.

she talked about the importance of being lifetime learners.
{i smile because c and i use that term at home}

we learned miss zimmer is a lifetime learner, always pushing herself to do new things
{read new books, learn a new language, try solving math problems differently}. 
her goal is to instill this same principle in her students, and part of this includes teaching
them about their brain - how it works and how it learns. wow!! {finn will love this}

i whispered to a mom friend next to me "she's the kind of girl i dream of my boys bringing
home someday".  she whispered back "me too"! she went on to say she is a huge lover
of books and pointed out the shelves stocked with books in her classroom.
she also has 7 nooks students can  check out and bring home. i couldn't stop smiling.
i couldn't have handpicked a better teacher for finn. {he gets the science stuff on his own,
this teacher will help strengthen him in other areas he needs help with}

i dashed to scout's 2nd class to quickly say hello to ms. manguil, and to pick up the packet that
was prepared for me to review. i found scout's hopes and dreams note. it read:

- i hope that i can go on a  family trip to hawaii to surf in the warm water
- i hope that i can go camping with my family again
- i hope that i can go back to florida and see my grandma and grandpa
- i hope that my family can all get better at tennis so we can all play each other. 
- i hope that i can get better at playing the piano so that i can play for my family.
- i hope that me and my dad can modify our R.O.V. so that we can explore Mission Bay.

i really enjoyed reading these.  some of his hopes were new to me, other's weren't.
the trip to hawaii to surf in warm water was and boy does that sounds wonderful
{that's on my list too}. *grin* someday....

~ c was is sacramento for an architecture thing for a few days last week,
so he wasn't able to join me for parents night.  i called him on my way home to tell
him all about the evening and how excited i was about the boys' teachers.

as finn said over dinner this weekend, it's going to be a great year.
{i think so too}

explorer skate night: 2014

i'm not sure who was more excited about this year's skate night - me or the boys.
c took them to the one earlier in the school year and i couldn't join because of a work event.

with auntie jen moving to texas in just a few days, i knew this would be our last
time to skate together for a while so we invited her to join us and she said YES.
she braved skating in a rink full of elementary kids falling left and right.

i rented the 'skate mate' for scout, but after just 15 minutes with it, he opted to put it
aside and skate on his own.  he is improving and still has one speed - fast.
{i'm trying to work with him on skating slower and smoother but he wants
nothing to do with that}.

i managed to capture just a few videos on my phone.
forgive the shakiness or blurriness.
i was dodging little people the entire time.
here's my big 1st grader rockin' in his retro skates.

auntie jen, finn {10} and scout {6}

on the drive home, finn shared that he is much more stable on
skates than he used to be, and scout shared that he made it around the
rink 6x without falling, 4 more than he did the last time he went with dad.
now that's progress!

we are already looking forward to our next skate night.
{i don't think i'll ever outgrow my love of rollerskating!}

field trip with finn

today i joined finn and his 4th grade class
for a full day at the wild animal park.

it was a treat to drop scout off at his class.
he quickly did his morning chores and then
it was 'free time'.  he grabbed sea of monsters,
the 2nd book in the percy jackson series,
and seemed to forget i was there. *grin*

from there, finn pushed me along to his class where
we enjoyed bagels and juice with his friends and other
parents who were volunteering.  afterwards, parents were
given the list of kids we were responsible for.

since i drove the prius,
i was assigned 3 boys and unfortunately one was sick
and couldn't make it so i just took finn and his buddy luka.
{easy peasy}

 



 

a quick summary of my photo collage:

{top}: my passengers: finn and luka, me and finn, giraffes
{middle}: the 4 kids for the day: finn, charlie, olivia and annie

{bottom} elizabeth and finn, finn and teacher, ms. jones, and finn taking notes

we had a fun day learning and exploring and this mom was exhausted by day's end.
{scoutie reminded me on our drive home that the next field trip would be with him}
yes, it will be i assured him.
 



winding down the school year

the school year is winding down.
i can hardly believe it after friday, finn will no longer be
a 3rd grader, and scoutie will no longer be a kindergartener!

even though the school year is winding down,
the activities that come with the end of the school year,
have been keeping the students, teachers and parents busier than ever.

last week was explorer's exhibition night.
it's a pretty big deal for the kids.
they prepare for weeks to showcase what they've
been learning and doing all year.

we started the night in scout's classroom which had 'stations' set up.
students took their parents {and in our case, their auntie too},
around the room to each station to show us all of their projects
{a book they wrote and illustrated, value of money game,
an interactive human digestive system game, etc}

the kids were in the rooms before the parents arrived
and when we walked into the room, our sometimes shy scoutie
had completely disappeared.

in his place was a confident and very verbal 5 year old. 
he was SO serious as he went through every station explaining them to us,
as well as to other parents whose kids weren't quite so excited about sharing.
he truly shined, and even took a little bow after leading his tour.
{got this idea after seeing finn bow at his recent piano recital}

a created a little photo collage with the couple phone photos i
snapped.  the app i used is called framemagic.  i'm a beginner
camera phone person so bear with me, i'll get better in time
{i hope}



bottom left: scout and jen, bottom right: ms. lim and scout

and here is finn's 'outside the lens' project which is sortuva
photography/writing class.  i wish they offered something like
that in my elementary school!

 



i'm not sure if you can make out the first line,

but after reading it, i couldn't help but smile

and tell him i love his hands {and hugs} too.

yesterday i took the afternoon off work to attend scout's

end of the year class party. i stopped by the store, grabbed

a big tray of fresh fruit and showed up at liberty station park.

it's just 2 blocks from their school so the kids walked over.

we had a fun filled afternoon.  

now the hard part begins before i can enjoy summer...
finding camps and a summer sitter for the boys.



explorer's fall festival

the family spent all morning at soccer games and all afternoon
at explorer's fall festival.

finn wore his new luke skywalker costume and i convinced scout that wearing his
white stormtrooper costume wasn't a great idea because it would get really dirty {the truth}
instead, i suggested he wear the owl costume that finn wore 2 years prior. 

he furrowed his brow at my suggestion.
i responded with "did you know owl's are fierce predators".
{cool or scary costumes are preferred.  'cute' costumes aren't}.

after he tried it on, he went to a full length mirror and exclaimed "i look ridiculous!"

i begged to differ and convinced him he would be unique and that owls are VERY cool.
finn agreed and shared some some owl knowledge with him.

he also shared that he wore the costume when he was 6 and in first grade,
a whole year older than him.  that upped the coolness factor a lot for scout!
he ended up wearing it AND the black tights too. *yay*

the boys ran around from booth to booth with their limited number of tickets we purchased for them. i spent half the day volunteering at the pumpkin bowl booth which was more work than i anticipated. setting up toilet paper rolls into pyramids over and over again proved exhausting, so i eventually recruited some helpers: finn and his friends. {and rewarded them with candy}

 

 


























it was a little bittersweet seeing scoutie in this costume.
i worked so hard on it for finn a few years back.
now, my last little boy is wearing it.

i'm so glad that scout wore it proudly in the end.
i will never tell him he looked absolutely adorable, instead of fierce. *wink*

at bedtime, he reminded me that on halloween, he is going to be
a stormtrooper from star wars, NOT an owl. 

absolutely i said.

exhibition night 2012: explorer elementary

the end of the school year is winding down which means
it was time for another exhibition night at explorer elementary.

finn was anxious to share all the things he's been working on this year.
his teacher, mrs. glover, is a SCIENCE LOVER like him and i feel
like they were a match made in heaven. i couldn't have dreamed a better
teacher for finn this year. {she's also a mom to two middle schoolaged boys}

finn walked us around his classroom, showing us every project he worked on.
the benjamin franklin pop-up book he wrote and created was my personal favorite.
his was the powerpoint presentation he put together on how to build spy-bot 8
{a lego mindstorms robot he built and programmed}

if finn had his way, he would have given us
2 hour dissertations on each of his projects,
but none of us had eaten dinner so we needed to call it a night.
i made a promise that finn could share more about every project
when he brought them home after the school year ended.
{he was content with this}

~ i hope you had a lovely weekend!
it was a busy and productive one here.
i finished the cute teacher gifts i posted about earlier,
cleaned my home, washed and folded 4 loads of laundry,
ran errands, ran 5 miles, met our realtor and toured a few homes {all no gos},
and made stacks of belgium waffles for 4 hungry little boys sunday morning.
finn had a sleepover with two of his classmates {twin brothers in pix above}.
whew - i was almost ready to go back to work today.

exhibition night at explorer

i attended explorer's exhibition night with finn last night and i'll be honest.
it was a bit overwhelming for me.
there were so many kids, too much noise and no place to escape.*grin*

i tolerated it all because this is a very special night for the children of the school.

parents and extended family are invited to the child's classroom

and the kids share projects they've done throughout the year.

christopher had a critique session at the new school of architecture 

so auntie jen was my date which was kind of fun.
i hadn't seen her in a bit so it was nice.

finn showed me lots of fun projects he's done all year long

his georgia o'keefe painting was my favorite of the night.
i snapped a few photos.

it had been a very long day for me,
but i'm glad i went.
finn's excitement was palpable.

he's worked very hard this year and
and i am proud mom indeed!

here's finn and his bestie, drew

a self portrait

on the way home we stopped at yogurtland.

christi introduced us to this place last summer.

the yogurt is just as delicious as the shoppe is beautiful
i was drooling over the green glass tile - LOVE it!