some more pictures

Tara and Meg, Jacob and his buddies Price and Brett, Jacob climbing in the obstacle course, Emily playing air hockey

Events at Sherlake "Party for Two"

We had a combined birthday party for Jacob turning 6 and Emily turning 7. They have alot of friends in common, so we thought it would be fun to have a day of jumping on inflatables and slides, running and dancing to music...everyone had a blast. We had 21 kids there...and lots of cupcakes and other treats. "It was the best birthday ever", says Jake.

Happy Birthday "Iron man"Jacob

Valentine's Day

We had a very busy week. I worked 4 days this week. One was the librarian ( I got to teach the kids doing state reports on the smart board....fantastic fun), and one was the art teacher (that day I had Jacob's class and Emily's class come to the encore class). Very fun! One was the pre-k class. I will never sub that class again. 14 four year olds are 13 too many! I guess alot of illness is going around.

We had a great birthday day for Jacob. He got an Ironman costume with mask....he's been wanting one since last Halloween. He gets home from school and changes into it and sleeps in it. He loves it. We had a terrible wind storm blow through and took out a large tree in our backyard. Fortunately, it was on our neighbors property and just fell into our yard. So, they cleaned it up for us. I'll try to add the photo with Emily beside it.
We had Little Ceasar's pizza to candlelight because of the 2 hour power outage. The next morning it was still out in school...but there was a generator....and they had some power by 9am.

Jacob and Emily are both 6 now....we refer to them as "new 6" and "old 6".
Valentine's day was the other fun day this week. Thanks to all of you who sent special valentines in the mail!
We took the kids with us to Chili's for dinner and ordered the 'molten cake'...they were thrilled. Gene ordered me a dozen red roses...it was a nice surprise. Valentine's morning we had heart-shaped pancakes and made 'secret valentines' and a scavenger hunt.
Tara started playing the recorder in music class. The big news is she passed her 5 min. test and orals and is now officially in the Mighty Math Club. She passed her 11 multiplication test and only has to pass the 12 next week and we will be worry free for awhile. She is doing a report on Jimmy Carter. We did a diarama of the Egypt/Isreal treaty he organized at Camp David...with a peanut bridge (because he was a peanut farmer). The bruce wayne action figure in Jacob's new batman car is dressed in a suit. So, we keep referring to him as Jimmy Carter....so, that maybe by Weds. Jacob will agree to let us use him when the project is due. I snapped a picture when he wasn't looking.
The kids' new thing is knock-knock jokes and riddles. They are getting all those joke books from the library. Some of their favorites were "What did the pig do when the pig pen broke?.....used the pig pencil."
"Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in the mud, and cross over the road again?
Because he wanted to be a dirty double crosser"
Aha. If you have any to share, they will love it.

Jacob's penguin

Here's a little fun from our snow time

Groundhog's day, schmoundhog's day

Not six more weeks?! On Groundhog's day, I went to my Dr.'s appointment. All is well with the recovery post-op. Yeah. But, my dr. was very late seeing me. When I got out of my appointment, my neighbor called to say that "the roads were so slick, there were cars in the ditch all along Robinson Rd. There was a wreck...an ambulance and 10 cars backed up at the end of my driveway" and "don't come home yet".

So, I called around, got no definate answer to see if the schools were letting out early. So, I drove by the school to see what's up...and the kids were all in the assembly room...had been for 1/2 hour, ready to go home. We went the very long way around (trying not to drive on any steep curvy roads....which is next to impossible here.) But, we made it home safely...and had the next 2 days off of school. Yeah.

We finally had enough snow to make a snowman. Gene grilled chicken on the deck while the kids built their "snow buddy".
Jacob had his 100 day party. I'll try to get a picture up.
Emily had a great day at dance and is fully recovered. She went to Audrey Morgenegg's birthday party...that lasted for hours...she spent the whole weekend trying to recover from that one.
Tara passed her 5 min. test and will take her oral test Monday. I bet she can match Marisa's jig of joy!

Goodbye January

We can't believe it's already February. Tara is sad because it's no longer her "birthday month". She's figured out how to milk the whole month for all its worth. She seems much taller to me. She finally passed her 9's time table test (2 min.)...breezed through her 10's and tomorrow she has to take the 5 min. cumulative test....then the oral test and then she will be in the MIGHTY MATH CLUB. The kids that made it last week got their picture taken with Mike Witcher the weather man and were on the news last Friday. That's ok, there's something special to do each week until March. We are working really hard. She also was assigned a President report on Jimmy Carter. She has to do a project that reflects his life and a 2 page handwritten report. She is very excited...happy mostly to hear that he's still alive. It reminds me of the summer not long ago we took her to Nauvoo and Carthage Jail and when they showed us the window Joseph Smith fell out of after being shot she said...."DEAD? He's dead? You didn't tell me he was dead!"

Emily has had a rough week. She wasn't feeling too well...all of us were getting over a cough. Nothing was really wrong until Thurs. afternoon she had a rash all over. When she took a bath that night, I realized it was that parvovirus (fifths disease) again. She had it last year. She might have had a slight fever, but it was never enough to alarm us. Now that the rash is here, she's no longer contagious. But, she looks really bad. We went to a friends birthday party on Saturday and she fell off almost the top of the slide backwards and landed on her ankle. It's not swollen, but she can't really walk on it. So, she's been laying on the couch most of the weekend recovering. It's nice because every time Tara walks by the couch, Emily puts up a flash card. Go team!

Jacob is doing great. He can hardly wait...his birthday is in 10 days. He's counting it down. He's almost to 100 days of school and they are having a big party then too. He helped me make cookies yesterday...for the first time. He actually cracked an egg perfectly the first time. No shell in the bowl. He was so excited.

This picture is of Tara pretending she's Coraline from that new movie where the eyes are buttons.

I only worked 2 half days this week in the library...and helped with CBM testing. Tomorrow I go for my post-op follow up DR. visit. Hopefully all is well ....I'll let you know. I was called today to be the Enrichment leader and released from teaching sunday school. They never did talk to me, just announced it in sacrament meeting. It was an oversight....but, it was sure a surprise to me. Guess I can't say "no" now.