Teacher Appreciation Week

**Excuse my absence - I've been feeling very tired lately!**

Teacher Appreciation Week was May 6-10th this year.  Being a teacher, I know how important it is to feel appreciated by the parents of your students.  I wanted to make Jack and Hannah's teachers feel special during Teacher Appreciation Week - so I set to work on Pinterest to find easy, inexpensive, little things I could do for the teachers that spend so much time caring for our little lovelies.  Here's what we came up with:

MONDAY

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TUESDAY

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WEDNESDAY

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THURSDAY

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FRIDAY

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Not sure what I did before Pinterest, to be perfectly honest:)  And boy, I can't wait until the kids only have one teacher each year!

I will say the teachers were extremely appreciative - especially because Jack and Hannah couldn't wait to pass out the goodies to them each morning!

Just Jack

Tonight while I was making dinner, Jack and Hannah were playing by the stairs.  I overheard a tiny piece of their conversation, and it made me smile.

Jack, leaning over to talk to Hannah, asked her if she wanted to watch a show in "a few whiles."

Watching him learn time increments lately is pretty stinkin' cute.

Also, just the way he talks to his little sister sometimes?  It makes me swoon.

Wordless Wednesday

{sibling love - captured by Jack's Pre-K Teachers}

Quick Snippets (I'm tired...)

Last night was nacho night at our house.  Jack was loving the smell of the taco meat, and when I gave him his plate of nachos he made a comment about what a great chef I am.  This made me swoon because A) I am not a good chef, and my whole house knows it, and B) he was being oh-so-sweet.  I went over and gave him a kiss right away.  (I tell you this part of the story because it's important here in a bit...)

I also offered soft tacos to the littles.  Well, actually, I offered a soft taco to Hannah (who rooted in the pantry and found the bag of tortillas all by herself), and when Jack saw what his sister had, he wanted one too.

Until he tried it and decide he didn't like it.

He asked me how much more he had to eat, and I told him I wanted to give it another try and take another bite.

And that's when he said, "Mom, you're such a good chef!"

And as soon as I smiled, he told on himself.  "You know why I said that, Mommy?  So maybe you wouldn't make me take another bite!"

*****

Every night when Brad gets home from work, Jack goes off to hide so that Daddy can find him when he comes inside.  Usually, Jack hides under the kitchen table and reminds me to say "my part" while Hannah happily hangs out in her high chair and continues to eat her dinner.

Daddy walks in and I make a big deal about how I lost Jack, and that I don't know where he is, and then Brad looks for Jack.

Apparently, Hannah has also learned "my part" because tonight when Brad got home from work, Jack found a new place to hide, and Hannah walked right up to her daddy and said, "I lost Jack."

We both just laughed out loud, it was so adorable!

*****

Tonight, Jack picked an ABC book about the Navy for his bedtime book.  It was one of the new books I brought him from IRA, and we hadn't read it yet.  While we read the book, Jack seemed to really enjoy himself, and when it was over, he started to flip through and explain to me why he chose it to read.  The teacher in me was getting all excited because I thought he was going to talk about how he liked the pictures and he was interested in the planes...

Instead, he shared that when he flipped through the pages, the book seemed really long, and he knew he'd be able to stay up later.

Oh, okay.

He's a crafty one, that boy!  I need to be careful:)

Silent Sunday

can't quite keep up.

Things are happening in rapid-fire succession around here, and I can't quite keep up.

I guess that's not really new, actually, but still...



Hannah's potty skills are continuing to improve.  She doesn't go consistently on the potty, but I've been trying to suggest she try when she wakes up, before nap time (on the weekends), and before bedtime.  Most times we're successful:)  This week, we overcame a huge hurdle - she went #2 on the potty - two times!  I was so proud, and so was she!

Tonight, she kept saying, "Oh, man," at the same time she'd bring her little fist to the table.  Very funny, indeed.

While we were eating dinner, she randomly broke into song - "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Before bedtime, while Daddy, Jack, and Hannah were all snuggling on the floor, she sat up and asked, "Picture?" because the last time they did that I ran for my camera.

She definitely keeps us on our toes.  I remember with Jack, right around the age of two, I had so many little pieces of paper around the house with all of the adorable things he was doing every day.  I still have those scraps - one of my goals is to eventually get them all onto this blog in some organized fashion.  We shall see.

I am making head-way on my own happiness project, though.  This week, I got completely caught up with scanning the kids' artwork into the computer and getting everything filed the way I think will work best for us.  And then, energized by an online sale at Shutterfly and a coupon I was given after our Easter Bunny visit, I made the past years' artwork photo books.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a wide range of artful designs and embellishments to choose from.

Anyway, that's what's happening around these parts.

Wordless Wednesday

{Dylan turned one month old while I was in San Antonio}