Who said life isn't FAIR?

We had our last Book Fair for the school year in April. Which means I'm officially done being in charge of the Book Fairs. (I'll help next year, but I'll pass on the main responsibility!) We were pretty steady all week, so it seemed to go fast. (The picture was taken while the fair wasn't open.)

The Buy One, Get One Free Book Fair always keeps us busy.

Drop, Cover, and Hold On! We participated in the Great Utah ShakeOut! It was a state-wide earthquake drill. (I got the school to sign up too.) We were at the school during the drill, so we got under the table for one minute, and then evacuated like a fire drill.

Under the table at the Book Fair.

That same week was the Science Fair. Woodruff had 181 participants! That's a lot of projects. Andrew choose to feed 12 different ingredients to some flowers. We took pictures of the plants each day to monitor the progress. The first plant (that was fed vinegar) died overnight, so we had results to document immediately. Along with some other things, he learned that feeding a plant milk makes it stink, that power aid survived for quite awhile, bleach and window cleaner died pretty quickly, and that water is the best for plants.

Andrew showing off his display.

Tyler was assigned a partner in class and worked on his project both at school and after school. Toby and Tyler decided to see what brand of bubble gum could make the biggest bubble. Tyler got the job of measuring Toby's bubbles, since he can't chew gum with his braces. They found out that when Toby has one piece of all the brands of gum in his mouth at the same time, he could make the biggest bubble. (Isn't that funny?)

Toby and Tyler showing off their display.

Next year's PTA Board had a Convention at the end of April too. (Yes, I threw things off by having my due date fall the same time as the Utah PTA Convention in Provo. So we made our own training and retreat.) We had a great turn out and had a lot of fun as well as setting up the calendar for next school year's PTA events. I'm excited to work with my new board next year, I think we will have a great year! We have some fun stuff planned and a lot of willing volunteers! I just need my boys to stop quoting the book Diary of a Wimpy Kid. "My mom is the President of the PTA, and she can ruin your life!"

"The sky is falling down, It hit her on the crown"

Woodruff Elementary's Annual Theatrical Production this year was Chicken Little. The volunteer director and her assistants held eleven practices after school during the month of March. Tyler was cast as a Foxy Loxy. Andrew was a Henny Penny Chick. They loved it and had so much fun! They performed four times last Friday, twice as assemblies for the school and two evening performances. Thanks to everyone that came to watch them.

Look at those cute feet!

Scared Chicks! "The sky is falling down, and we must spread the word around."

Silly pose!

Tricky Foxys! "We're putting our trust in the fox."

Silly pose!

Tyler

Andrew

The cast of 73 students! "This is our barnyard home, We live here as a group."

A photographer from the Herald Journal also took some pictures for Sunday's newspaper!

"The sky is falling down. It hit her on the crown."

"We're Foxys who love to scheme and plot to get our way. No cunning plan is too extreme when we're on the hunt for prey. Foxy Loxy is our name, and huntin' prey is our game. Somewhere near we smell a treat, we are Foxy Loxys, ready to eat."

"We count on one another to save us all from trouble."

"The world's a scary place, if you go it alone."

"Two heads are better than one (than one), and three are better yet (you bet)."

"We'll never be undone, when we work together as one."

"We try to get along, though different as can be."

"It's here we all belong, on that we do agree."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Everybody picked what they wanted their own card to look like. Andrew wanted his to have a pencil this year. It says "You're the 'write' one for me."Tyler added "I think you're sweet!" to his. (And a kiss on his cheek too.)

The kids were being silly...

December 2011: Andrew's Birthday

Andrew turned 7.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Building his new Lego set.

Andrew's cake.

October 2011: PTA Book Fair

I ran the PTA Book Fair for a week. We raised about $2500.00 in books for the school classrooms and Media Center. We do an estimation jar during the fairs. I turned that project over to Tyler and Andrew. The theme was "Reading is out of this world," so they made a rocket. Can you guess how many packages of Star-bursts are inside? (None of the students got it right.)

The Scholastic truck.

Estimation jar.

August 2011: First Day of School

School started at Woodruff.
Tyler is in Mrs. Olsen's class. Andrew is in Mrs. Galloway's class.

First day of Fourth grade.

First day of First grade.

Happy for a new school year.

The girls wanted their pictures taken too, even though school wasn't starting yet.

August 2011: Teeth

Andrew lost his second top tooth.

Tyler got braces! At age nine! He has more teeth that still need to come in and there was not enough room for them.
Goal: Move his jaw and have the braces off in one year.

Tyler before.

Tyler with Lacey.

Tyler with Dr. Doug.

Tyler after.

August 2011: Budding Hobby

During my cousin's wedding the kids waited outside the Temple. Tyler spent the time taking a few pictures.

Buddies

Most of the time all of my kids get along with each other. But lately Laura has loved hanging out with Andrew. They are really cute together. Laura likes to sleep on Andrew's floor, but one night she was upset and he let her sleep on his bed. When Lee checked on them as we were getting ready for bed that night, he found them like this...

"All I need to know I learned in Kindergarten!"

The kindergarten classes had an end-of-the-year program before school got out. They sang songs and each student told their favorite thing about kindergarten. Andrew's favorite thing was the field trips.

Andrew was also a narrator. I'm glad he stuck with his assigned script. Most of the time when he was practicing at home he ad-libed a little bit. When he got to the part introducing the song Six Little Ducks, he talked about going to see the ducks and ducklings at Willow Park Zoo. The script said they loved seeing the ducks, while practicing, he added "but not as much as I love jet packs!" The pictures are a bit fuzzy, but he looked great, and did a great job. He loved kindergarten!

Mom, Mother, Mama

I got some cute pictures and poems for Mother's Day.

This watercolor is from Tyler. The poem on the back says:

Becca

Lover of people, foods, and books

Who enjoys parks, games, and helping

Who fears spiders, snakes, and lions

Born in the United States

Who wants to travel to Hawaii

Mom

Love, Tyler Crookston

 This one is from Andrew. The poem reads:

My Mom

By Andrew Crookston

My mom has brown eyes. I call her "mom".

She looks good and she smells like flowers.

Her hair is straight and brown and her hands are hot.

She helps me work on my books.

She likes to fold laundry.

We like to play monopoly together.

She is special because she smells good.

My mom makes me feel happy.

She loves me because I love her.

I love her because she is cute.

Happy Mother's Day 2011!

I also got a coupon from Andrew that is "good for one day of not talking about jet packs". When he gave it to me, he said I couldn't use it that day because he already talked about them.

I got cards from Emma and Laura too, but they destroyed them before I could take pictures.

May the 4th be with you!!

Andrew loves Star Wars!! And jet packs! (That might be an understatement!)

We even made a jet pack for his show and teach day at school. He gave three clues hoping that his class would not be able to guess what he brought. His clues were: 1. My family helped me make it. 2. It looks like it has fire on it. (Well at least that is what the balloons on the bottom are supposed to look like.) 3. I can use it in any sentence. (In his Kindergarten class they have a word of the day and a book where they write a sentence with that word in it. He can always make jet pack fit into a sentence with the word of the day. Mrs. Kelly said he has even got other kids writing about jet packs too.) His class loved it!
Just in case you didn't know in Star Wars Jango Fett, Boba Fett, some clones, and some droids have jet packs.

His first show and teach was his Pine Wood derby car. It also looks like a jet pack, he drew the plan himself.

One day he asked me if he could paint. I said he could and got out the watercolor paints for him. Later when I came back into the room, I thought my answer to "Can I paint?" should be, "Yes, you can! Not only will I allow you to paint, but you can do a great job."