Emptying out picture files

John's 7th birthday!

 Oh so cute couple:

 Sundae party in our class for the kids who tried hard on the STAR test!

 Family celebration for Mothers Day

 Happy birthday, Katharine!

 My Sac State supervisor came to visit!

 Katharine's law school graduation...

 ...and party

 Open House!

 I had a really hard time trying to put up enough work without making the room look super cluttered, but I think it turned out ok...a good balance.

 I actually loved this board; I found the border in a teacher store and decided, no matter what it was, I MUST use it for a bulletin board of some kind.  So I watercolored a quick map and the kids who were done with their pioneer narrative pop-up books got to write short descriptions of some of the stops the pioneers made on their way to California.

 Loving their planet reports :)  Who knew planets were so many shapes?

 Totem poles :)

 Another special visitor to class!  Melissa (and G) came and the kids LOVED them!

Easter and new birth

Happy Easter!  We had Easter at Mom and Dad's again this year, but we had an extra body that hadn't even been born yet last Easter :)

 Angela and David:

 I got into a weird napkin-folding, tablecloth-ironing kick the day before and spent a couple hours ironing these napkins (more formal for the adults, the little shirts for the kids)

 On March 16, my friend Bethany's baby Elisha Scott was born!  And he is the cutest little thing!

Family portrait:

My nephew turned one yesterday, so we made some cupcakes to match his birthday napkins:

Trivia winners!

Some of us have been playing pub quiz (trivia!) on Mondays on and off for the best four years (or thereabouts).  Our team name is Science!!! (with the three exclamation points) and we won for the first time on November 6, 2008!  At that point, there were 30 questions, we were getting an average of about 25 right and the quiz was at Bistro 33 in Davis, at 9 pm.

Left to right: Aliotsy, Hanan, me, Bethany, Katharine, John

The team keeps changing as people get jobs, get married, have babies...

but we are still named Science!!! (there IS a story there), there are still 30 possible points, and we earn an average of about 22 points each time we play.  Pub Quiz is now played at de Veres Irish pub at 7 pm.  

February 13, 2012 we won again (yes, that long between winning.) with 26 points!

Left to right: John, Patrick, Ashley, me, Joe, Laura

And THEN (miracle!) we won again in the space of a month, on March 12, 2012. Hooray!

Left to right: Ashley, Steve, John, me, Joe, and Sarah.

On Tuesday mornings, Miss Raski has been coming in MUCH happier to class.  The kiddos love hearing how trivia went, too.

Food, Fireman, and Field Trips

We had our annual small Valentines dinner and I was in charge of dessert, so I made a chocolate decadence cake and an almond pear tart.

I had never even heard of almond paste, let alone worked with it, but it came in this little foil-wrapped cylinder, inside a little box

Broke it down with sugar, beat it with eggs and almond extract to make the bottom of the tart:

and then added sliced pears on top.

After baking, the recipe called for an apricot glaze (made from water, vanilla, apricot jam, and lemon peels):

Somehow the chocolate decadence cake didn't get a picture--but to be fair, I forgot to chill it and it ended up the wrong consistency anyway (until I chilled it after dinner, overnight...delicious the next day) :)

I also experimented with pizza for the first time...

...I was kinda disappointed that the basil wilted.

Fruit and Vegetable Friday!!  I brought in raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries for the kids.  They especially loved the strawberries and blueberries.

Read Across America time (otherwise known as Dr. Seuss birthday week, where various community members came in to read to the K-3 classes).  Miss Pinky sent our class Captain Josh:

So I made Miss Pinky a thankyou card :)

Miss Angela (my sister!) loves to (or at least, does) come in and help in our classroom.

(random picture: we wrote this poem as a class and everyone did their own watercolors)

Miss Angela went on our field trip, too!  To the state capitol...

The Crocker Art Museum...

and oldtown Sacramento!