Written by our new Superintendent.
Congratulations are in order. All campuses of the Wolfe City Independent School District were awarded the highest accreditation rating given by the Texas Education Agency. The High School, Middle School, and Elementary School all received Exemplary ratings.
This achievement is a direct result of the hard work of the students, professionalism of the teaching staff, leadership of the administrators, the efforts of all the support staff and the support of the parents and the community as a whole.
My goal when I came here, and still remains, was to help continue the excellent achievement record of Wolfe City ISD. To this end I have inherited a very special and gifted facility and staff. Everyone who provides the transportation, food service, maintenance and custodial services, secretarial support, classroom teachers and administrative guidance are of one mind, to provide the best education for your children.
I must also recognize the time and effort that is donated to the District by your elected Board Members. It is under their guidance that policies and procedures are put into place and your tax dollars are put to best use.
Most of all it is you, the parents and students who make WCISD what it is. I want to thank you parents for trusting us with your child’s education and a big congratulation to the students for their many academic achievements.
I would also like to take this opportunity to say Thank You to all of you who have made my return home a happy one. Your kind words of welcome and encouragement have meant a lot to me and my family.
Sincerely,
James E. Scott
Superintendent of Schools
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Favorite Moments
We have been exceedingly busy round our place, but here are a few of my favorite moments from the past couple of weeks. Use your imagination to make the captions for the photos.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Internet
Readers....bear with me for the next few weeks or months. When we recently moved to Wolfe City we came to the startling reality that we can't get DSL at our house. We have cables running through our house, a fiber optic line running through our yard, but the companies tell us that all of the broadband for our area is allocated to others. They would not consider upgrading the box because there are only 1500 people here...and let's face it, they need to make money. We checked into satellite Internet, but the fastest the company offers is about the speed of dialup and three times the price!! After considering a life without Internet we purchased iPhones and all is right with the world. Having written all that, all I wanted to say is that all blogging is being accomplished on my phone--my fingers aren't quite adept to this new challenge. I'm looking to purchase a keyboard dock for the phone, but until then you'll be reading short, sometimes misspelled posts. Just know there was a lot of concentrated effort and finger typing taking place!!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Haircuts
We all took a family trip into Rockwall today to get the kids hair cut and hit Half Price Books. Rémy just had a trim but Bens hair was getting so long, thick and too hot on his head for these Texas summers. It wasn't until after the haircut that I realized he looked more like a little boy and less like a baby. I'm thinking that haircut took off 5 pounds and made him grow 3 inches! After all the hairs had been cut, balloons received and suckers opened we proceeded to HPB to add a few new childrens movies to our arsenal.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Feeding ducks at TAMU Commerce
We go to Commerce to go grocery shopping and the college is right across the street. We've made it a habit to go and feed the ducks while we are there and the kids have a great time feeding them. Many will eat right out of our hands.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch
Me: Look! There's a camel and an antelope!
Rémy: Oh! A cantaloupe!
Ben: Tractor. Tractor. Tractor.
Rémy: Oh! A cantaloupe!
Ben: Tractor. Tractor. Tractor.
Friday, June 04, 2010
Ode to My First Year of Teaching
Forward to Ode
The Lord never promised us a rose gardens or bon-bons. In fact, the only time He ever used the word ‘easy’ was when He referred to a yoke. Every journey is accomplished one step at a time. These were our steps of the journey that took us to live in Wolfe City, TX. “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58
Side note: this is quite debatably an Ode....
Ode to My First Year of Teaching
The joys of the first year are best expressed as growing pains.
Pain comes in many ways.
By setting the alarm for 4:45 am to leave the house at 6:00 am.
With two dressed kids in tow.
Completely ready to go, sans makeup.
Walker drove to work, I drove home.
Our school was renovated and updated over the summer.
The project was not completed before school started.
They updated to central A/C and heat from a furnace and fans.
The days of our Staff Development were spent moving furniture back into the building.
I think I forgot to speak on the first day of school.
We had no computers, internet or role sheets for the first 2 weeks of school.
There were no bells, no technology, no blinds, no communication system with the office.
We are on our feet all day long but,
I was on my feet more at Half Price Books.
The first 5 months, while commuting, we used $100/ wk in gas.
BUT we did carpool!
We listened to NPR every morning.
We sang Raffi songs every day.
We watched Baby Einstein every day.
We watched Sing Along Songs every day.
Sang the ‘Ben’ song every day.
We see deer, chickens, wolves, cows, horses, alpaca, snakes, wild hogs, roadrunners, goats, sheep, vultures and hawks very frequently.
We were stared down by a bull blocking the road.
We became very familiar with Chickfila and Starbucks.
Our daughter can identify both from great distances.
Replaced 3 car tires in the first semester
And patched two since then.
One had a large piece of rebar in it that caused us to be late to a Staff Development meeting.
A wolf watched from a distance
As Walker changed the tire on a rock road.
In his dress slacks.
A/C compressor went out on the car--
The same week we closed on the house.
My father in law came to the rescue.
Between our 2 children there were 10 ear infections
At least. I lost count.
Remy, Ben and I all had pink eye
At three different times.
I lost my voice for a week and a half due to allergies.
As in totally gone.
I had student interpreters those days!
Remy learned the ABC song, Ring around the Rosy, Jesus Loves Me, and she can count to 19—sometimes 20.
She can cut with scissors, glue, identify most colors and shapes.
She learned about friends and friendships.
She is almost 2 ½.
Ben loves Mrs. Sharon and Mrs. Sharon LOVES Ben.
He is her favorite.
We love her because she looks like Sue Lehmann.
Ben’s favorite words are truck and tractor.
He is 15 months.
The center has a Bible based curriculum and 5 wonderful caretakers.
Remy has 11 friends, Ben has 8 friends.
I was evaluated 5 times in the first semester, all positive with constructive feedback.
Learned what a Title I school is and that 62.5% of the students in our school district are on free or reduced lunches.
Their households make less than $25,000.
Became a TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment Standards) holistic rater
Became TALA(Texas Adolescent Literacy Academy) trained and received a $500 stipend.
I logged 50+ hours of Professional Development.
Had an offer on our house to which we placed a counter offer, to which they counter offered for a little more than our asking price.
As long as we paid the buyer’s closing costs.
We replaced the roof for them, THANKFULLY, insurance covered the cost.
We sold Walker’s Ford Ranger, used savings and borrowed money to scrape together enough to pay the closing costs.
We sold our home in 6 weeks only to have the closing put off 4 times by the buyers.
Lost our rental house in Wolfe City due to closing put off.
The day we were set to move out of our home in Frisco, the first one of us got Swine flu.
Remy had it worst and we didn’t find out until 3 days later what it was.
It was a domino effect after that--Mama, Daddy and Ben.
Ben got the good stuff (tamiflu) and his was not nearly as severe as Remy’s.
Daycare required that they stay out for 10 days after having H1N1 or RSV.
Ben got sick 7 days after Remy.
This was almost 3 weeks that they were out of daycare.
Sometimes you have to call in the reserves.
My in-laws cared for us and let us stay with them.
Mom and Aunt Elizabeth and Tony and Annie moved us out.
Completely.
Teachers are allowed 7 sick/ personal days.
By October we had each used 5.
By January we had used them all.
We spent all of our free time working on school stuff.
WE HAD A 2 WEEK VACATION IN DECEMBER!!
Which we used to MOVE, again!
Did I mention we were homeless for 7 weeks?
I shouldn’t say homeless, but nomads.
We lived out of the car and our families let us invade their space
And lives
And refrigerators
And washing machines
And hospitality
We could not have survived without those 7 weeks of nurturing, love, support, caring, helping and giving from those surrounding us.
You sustained us.
Coffee certainly played a role.
Our school had a delayed opening for cold weather and a couple of icy puddles.
Get to wear jeans every Friday.
Other days we pay $5 to wear jeans (all donations are given to the local Clothe a Child)
I sponsored Ready Writing for UIL, three students’ placed.
I judged Impromptu speaking and Spelling.
Walker sponsored Impromptu speaking and Calculator., two students placed.
Took 14 Drama students to compete in Campbell, TX for 2 days.
We performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream.(December)
We did not place, but received much constructive feedback.
Took those same 14 Drama students to the Dallas Music Hall to see Phantom of the Opera and out to eat. (February)
Previous to this, only one of them had been to a live musical or play.
Our school district received a grant for Promethean boards and Active slates.
They are awesome and I am in love.
I want one at home.
Attended a football game that was rained out in the first quarter.
More than half of our football games were cancelled for one reason or another.
The team played 4 games.
Took our children to watch a basketball game and a track meet.
Had detention duty for a week.
In the last 16 years Walker cannot remember vomiting, but he did so twice this year.
Took 52 8th graders to Celebration Station in Mesquite.
We were chaperones at Spring Fling.
Walker painted graffiti art as the backdrop/ decorations for the 80’s grunge/ ‘Rave’ theme.
I danced more than ever before in my whole life.
In the second semester, after our sick days were spent
Ben had RSV with double ear infections. (February)
Another 10 days out of child care.
Another call to the reserves for aide.
Remy had croup with an ear infection.(February)
Remy threw up for 5 days straight not even keeping liquids down.(May)
Another call to the reserves.
Walker and I had a lovely date night to Children’s Hospital.
It really was lovely. Sometimes the biggest comfort
Comes in our most trying times.
I administered every TAKS test the school gave.
Waited 3 ½ months for my class’ scores.
We have an exemplary school district.
My principal said she doesn’t remember the last time there was such a high number of commended writers. Not to brag, but I have the most percentage of commended students in the whole school.
Mr. Plagge had 95% of his math students pass.
Our principal doesn’t even remember the math percentage being any more than 90%.
She’s been here 10 years.
Mr. Plagge was voted Favorite Teacher this year by the student body.
Show off.
As I’m writing this he is paiting a mural in the entryway to the school.
He makes me a very proud wife.
I made the school newspaper ‘Most Memorable Moments’ for when a student punched me in the mouth, a favorite student.
Walker also made the church bulletin a few times, notably as the new co-youth minister in town!
We are FIRST YEAR TEACHERS!!
These are our steps of the journey that brought us to Wolfe City, TX.
As summer approaches I am reminded to “Come to Me, all you who labor and are…over burdened, and I will cause you to rest- I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.” Matthew 11:28
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Colossians 3:15
The Lord never promised us a rose gardens or bon-bons. In fact, the only time He ever used the word ‘easy’ was when He referred to a yoke. Every journey is accomplished one step at a time. These were our steps of the journey that took us to live in Wolfe City, TX. “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58
Side note: this is quite debatably an Ode....
Ode to My First Year of Teaching
The joys of the first year are best expressed as growing pains.
Pain comes in many ways.
By setting the alarm for 4:45 am to leave the house at 6:00 am.
With two dressed kids in tow.
Completely ready to go, sans makeup.
Walker drove to work, I drove home.
Our school was renovated and updated over the summer.
The project was not completed before school started.
They updated to central A/C and heat from a furnace and fans.
The days of our Staff Development were spent moving furniture back into the building.
I think I forgot to speak on the first day of school.
We had no computers, internet or role sheets for the first 2 weeks of school.
There were no bells, no technology, no blinds, no communication system with the office.
We are on our feet all day long but,
I was on my feet more at Half Price Books.
The first 5 months, while commuting, we used $100/ wk in gas.
BUT we did carpool!
We listened to NPR every morning.
We sang Raffi songs every day.
We watched Baby Einstein every day.
We watched Sing Along Songs every day.
Sang the ‘Ben’ song every day.
We see deer, chickens, wolves, cows, horses, alpaca, snakes, wild hogs, roadrunners, goats, sheep, vultures and hawks very frequently.
We were stared down by a bull blocking the road.
We became very familiar with Chickfila and Starbucks.
Our daughter can identify both from great distances.
Replaced 3 car tires in the first semester
And patched two since then.
One had a large piece of rebar in it that caused us to be late to a Staff Development meeting.
A wolf watched from a distance
As Walker changed the tire on a rock road.
In his dress slacks.
A/C compressor went out on the car--
The same week we closed on the house.
My father in law came to the rescue.
Between our 2 children there were 10 ear infections
At least. I lost count.
Remy, Ben and I all had pink eye
At three different times.
I lost my voice for a week and a half due to allergies.
As in totally gone.
I had student interpreters those days!
Remy learned the ABC song, Ring around the Rosy, Jesus Loves Me, and she can count to 19—sometimes 20.
She can cut with scissors, glue, identify most colors and shapes.
She learned about friends and friendships.
She is almost 2 ½.
Ben loves Mrs. Sharon and Mrs. Sharon LOVES Ben.
He is her favorite.
We love her because she looks like Sue Lehmann.
Ben’s favorite words are truck and tractor.
He is 15 months.
The center has a Bible based curriculum and 5 wonderful caretakers.
Remy has 11 friends, Ben has 8 friends.
I was evaluated 5 times in the first semester, all positive with constructive feedback.
Learned what a Title I school is and that 62.5% of the students in our school district are on free or reduced lunches.
Their households make less than $25,000.
Became a TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment Standards) holistic rater
Became TALA(Texas Adolescent Literacy Academy) trained and received a $500 stipend.
I logged 50+ hours of Professional Development.
Had an offer on our house to which we placed a counter offer, to which they counter offered for a little more than our asking price.
As long as we paid the buyer’s closing costs.
We replaced the roof for them, THANKFULLY, insurance covered the cost.
We sold Walker’s Ford Ranger, used savings and borrowed money to scrape together enough to pay the closing costs.
We sold our home in 6 weeks only to have the closing put off 4 times by the buyers.
Lost our rental house in Wolfe City due to closing put off.
The day we were set to move out of our home in Frisco, the first one of us got Swine flu.
Remy had it worst and we didn’t find out until 3 days later what it was.
It was a domino effect after that--Mama, Daddy and Ben.
Ben got the good stuff (tamiflu) and his was not nearly as severe as Remy’s.
Daycare required that they stay out for 10 days after having H1N1 or RSV.
Ben got sick 7 days after Remy.
This was almost 3 weeks that they were out of daycare.
Sometimes you have to call in the reserves.
My in-laws cared for us and let us stay with them.
Mom and Aunt Elizabeth and Tony and Annie moved us out.
Completely.
Teachers are allowed 7 sick/ personal days.
By October we had each used 5.
By January we had used them all.
We spent all of our free time working on school stuff.
WE HAD A 2 WEEK VACATION IN DECEMBER!!
Which we used to MOVE, again!
Did I mention we were homeless for 7 weeks?
I shouldn’t say homeless, but nomads.
We lived out of the car and our families let us invade their space
And lives
And refrigerators
And washing machines
And hospitality
We could not have survived without those 7 weeks of nurturing, love, support, caring, helping and giving from those surrounding us.
You sustained us.
Coffee certainly played a role.
Our school had a delayed opening for cold weather and a couple of icy puddles.
Get to wear jeans every Friday.
Other days we pay $5 to wear jeans (all donations are given to the local Clothe a Child)
I sponsored Ready Writing for UIL, three students’ placed.
I judged Impromptu speaking and Spelling.
Walker sponsored Impromptu speaking and Calculator., two students placed.
Took 14 Drama students to compete in Campbell, TX for 2 days.
We performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream.(December)
We did not place, but received much constructive feedback.
Took those same 14 Drama students to the Dallas Music Hall to see Phantom of the Opera and out to eat. (February)
Previous to this, only one of them had been to a live musical or play.
Our school district received a grant for Promethean boards and Active slates.
They are awesome and I am in love.
I want one at home.
Attended a football game that was rained out in the first quarter.
More than half of our football games were cancelled for one reason or another.
The team played 4 games.
Took our children to watch a basketball game and a track meet.
Had detention duty for a week.
In the last 16 years Walker cannot remember vomiting, but he did so twice this year.
Took 52 8th graders to Celebration Station in Mesquite.
We were chaperones at Spring Fling.
Walker painted graffiti art as the backdrop/ decorations for the 80’s grunge/ ‘Rave’ theme.
I danced more than ever before in my whole life.
In the second semester, after our sick days were spent
Ben had RSV with double ear infections. (February)
Another 10 days out of child care.
Another call to the reserves for aide.
Remy had croup with an ear infection.(February)
Remy threw up for 5 days straight not even keeping liquids down.(May)
Another call to the reserves.
Walker and I had a lovely date night to Children’s Hospital.
It really was lovely. Sometimes the biggest comfort
Comes in our most trying times.
I administered every TAKS test the school gave.
Waited 3 ½ months for my class’ scores.
We have an exemplary school district.
My principal said she doesn’t remember the last time there was such a high number of commended writers. Not to brag, but I have the most percentage of commended students in the whole school.
Mr. Plagge had 95% of his math students pass.
Our principal doesn’t even remember the math percentage being any more than 90%.
She’s been here 10 years.
Mr. Plagge was voted Favorite Teacher this year by the student body.
Show off.
As I’m writing this he is paiting a mural in the entryway to the school.
He makes me a very proud wife.
I made the school newspaper ‘Most Memorable Moments’ for when a student punched me in the mouth, a favorite student.
Walker also made the church bulletin a few times, notably as the new co-youth minister in town!
We are FIRST YEAR TEACHERS!!
These are our steps of the journey that brought us to Wolfe City, TX.
As summer approaches I am reminded to “Come to Me, all you who labor and are…over burdened, and I will cause you to rest- I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.” Matthew 11:28
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Colossians 3:15
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Easter Sunday & City of Greenville Egg Hunt
What a fun and meaningful weekend.
We joined with a few hundred other people on Saturday evening for a city wide Easter Egg hunt.
I'm pretty sure they grossly underestimated how many 0-4 year olds would show up. Our category was finished in less than 2 minutes, most kids had 1-3 eggs in their baskets. In the other categories kids came out with full baskets (4-8 yrs, 8-12 yrs).
Remy and Ben still had fun trying to collect the eggs. Remy collected 2 and Ben ended up finding 1/2 of a shell. He was pretty amused with himself. It's a good thing they don't realize what was supposed to happen or they might not have had such a good time.
Ben is walking around on all fours lately. He is capable of walking, he just doesn't want to commit yet. I can tell he doesn't like crawling because it hurts his knees, so he's settled on the spider walk.
Remy thinks it's a funny game to walk behind him and step on his heels and push his bobo down. He laughs about it, but I know he's plotting a scheme to get back at her. He told me just before nap time.
We also attended the Easter service at 11:00.
At this time I would like to enlist the help of any parents that would willingly offer advice. The church we are currently attending, and have been attending for about 6 weeks, has one option for service time. Eleven o'clock. If you are a parent, you know that this is right around nap time. Not only is it difficult, nay, impossible to get my children into the arms of the nursery caretaker without tear streaked cheeks, runny noses and wails of agony, the enhanced tiredness of the said children only adds to the melodrama that ensues. This makes me want to stay home in my pj's with my cup of coffee and watch a televangelist. I'm pretty sure the sight of our family walking into the nursery causes tension and knots on many a neck and shoulders.
We have avoided any conflict in this area in the past by attending a Saturday evening service at Preston Trail Community Church. It started at 5:00 pm and we could be home by dinner and have the kids in bed by their normal time. We have done this since the kids were born. If there was ever a scheduling conflict on a Saturday night we could just move to the 9:30 service on Sunday and still make it home for nap time. When we moved we had to hunt around. The first thing we checked for was beliefs, but a close second was service time.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that we did not choose this church. A series of events led us here, events that will be best described in another post. In order for us to retain our sanity, reputation (like we had one) and to fellowship with a community of believers we really need some help in this matter.
I'll tell you what we've tried: bringing snacks, drinks. Bringing familiar toys from home. Talking about it on the way there. (BIG no.) Saying we're going to visit friends. Going to play with friends. Going to play. Going in to the nursery to play for a minute and let them get settled. Dropping them at the door. Allowing the main culprit, *ahem...it's a she*...sit with us during the service. (BIG BIG no.)
Also, helpful information....the nap time can't change. The child care they attend during the school week has them on a schedule of taking naps around 11 or 12 every day. I'm sure other parents have had this problem. I'm just running out of ideas for a solution.....
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Cousins!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Spring Break (so far)
Have I raved about the teacher work schedule yet? Not so much the work schedule as the TIME OFF schedule?! We're half way through enjoying our spring break together. We started off the week amazed that this much of the school year has flown by and again amazed that we didn't really feel like we needed a break. But hey, if we're given a week off with pay I'm certainly not one to argue about that.
We had no idea what we were going to do on our Spring Break. We knew we didn't want to sit around the house staring at the walls and twiddling our thumbs while eating burnt toast. We also knew we wanted to have fun family times. We got right to celebrating our Spring Break and woke up early Saturday morning to hit the Northeast Texas Children's Museum in Commerce, TX. Below the kids and I were talking to mission control about to launch a space shuttle.
This is only about 20 minutes from where we live and it was recommended to us from a fellow teacher who has small ones. We were there when it opened and spent several hours playing and learning.
They had approximately 30-40 different 'stations' or exhibits. Below is the 'Daddy's Boot Camp'.
Ben fell in love with the instruments, more specifically the drums. He cried when we left them. I think he wanted to take them home with us.
Remy especially liked the put yourself in a bubble exhibit.
We headed home at ten til noon and within 5 minutes both kids were asleep in the back seat.
Sunday we got up and visited a church for the third time. Our kids do not take to their nursery so we decided Remy could come and sit with us during the service. I'll just say that this was a bad idea and leave it at that. This church is considering Walker for a youth minister position. He is one of three candidates and will have an interview soon.
After church we came home and I went to do laundry at the laundry mat. Have I mentioned how much I love doing laundry at the laundry mat? I'm not joking. It's fabulous. You get it all done at once, have it all folded and ready to put in drawers. I'm thinking this might be the solution to our chronic laundry issue.
Then we decided to go camping in Clarksville for a night so we loaded up the car and took the 2 hour road trip to camp. Ben is sleeping in the bundle below and Walker is enjoying some reading.
The next day Daddy made us a campfire breakfast and we relaxed a bit outside before loading up and heading to Idabel, Oklahoma.
The purpose of this was to make Ben an out-of-state traveler. We intended to hunt down a burger joint and eat there but apparently they don't eat. Walker suggested they must still hunt buffalo for dinner. We searched for an hour with no luck(no buffalo or burgers).
Tuesday I met Annie for lunch at Manny's Uptown and then all of us went to the Plagge farm for Kendra's birthday. Kendra and Whit came in town for spring break and brought along some friends. We stayed the night and the group of us went to the Fort Worth Zoo on Wednesday.
The Fort Worth Zoo had half price Wednesday during Spring Break. The news reported a record 25,000 plus people visited the zoo that day. Kendra is below taking pictures and her friend Hannah and her three girls are there too.
Above Whitman and Remy are watching the Flamingos up close. I learned that the Fort Worth Zoo is the only place in the world that actively breeds flamingos.
Today we scheduled the kids' first haircuts at a place called Groovy Cuts for Kids in Rockwall. I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this place.
My daughter let someone unfamiliar touch her hair and did not whine. Enough said. They had an airplane for Ben to sit on and Remy sat in a purple jeep. They got to choose what DVD they wanted to watch (Elmo and Thomas respectively). They could color. There were balloons. And free mani/ pedi with a girl's haircut. There were bracelets. And best of all there were Certificates of first haircut with a lock of hair attached in a small bag. They are mailing us pictures. That package deal was $24.95. Isn't that the best? The mani/ pedi's come free with any haircut. Wish I could get that combo deal for myself for $25.
I took a picture of Remy afterward. Instead of looking like she was attacked by a wild weed whacker it seems to have been tamed by the simple addition of layers. Ben opted for the 'skater boy haircut', as the stylist put it. Walker made sure she was not to cut his side burns!! He was sleeping during the 'after' pictures but I'll be sure to get one of him tomorrow.
Still on the agenda: JP and Tracy came in town today with Amelie and Kiellye and we're hoping to get everyone together tomorrow for a visit/ playtime and we'll all be attending a birthday party ho down on Saturday complete with bbq and hay ride.
Here's to an adventure filled rest of the week regardless of whether or not you get a 'spring break'.
We had no idea what we were going to do on our Spring Break. We knew we didn't want to sit around the house staring at the walls and twiddling our thumbs while eating burnt toast. We also knew we wanted to have fun family times. We got right to celebrating our Spring Break and woke up early Saturday morning to hit the Northeast Texas Children's Museum in Commerce, TX. Below the kids and I were talking to mission control about to launch a space shuttle.
This is only about 20 minutes from where we live and it was recommended to us from a fellow teacher who has small ones. We were there when it opened and spent several hours playing and learning.
They had approximately 30-40 different 'stations' or exhibits. Below is the 'Daddy's Boot Camp'.
Ben fell in love with the instruments, more specifically the drums. He cried when we left them. I think he wanted to take them home with us.
Remy especially liked the put yourself in a bubble exhibit.
We headed home at ten til noon and within 5 minutes both kids were asleep in the back seat.
Sunday we got up and visited a church for the third time. Our kids do not take to their nursery so we decided Remy could come and sit with us during the service. I'll just say that this was a bad idea and leave it at that. This church is considering Walker for a youth minister position. He is one of three candidates and will have an interview soon.
After church we came home and I went to do laundry at the laundry mat. Have I mentioned how much I love doing laundry at the laundry mat? I'm not joking. It's fabulous. You get it all done at once, have it all folded and ready to put in drawers. I'm thinking this might be the solution to our chronic laundry issue.
Then we decided to go camping in Clarksville for a night so we loaded up the car and took the 2 hour road trip to camp. Ben is sleeping in the bundle below and Walker is enjoying some reading.
There are fish in there, Mama.
The next day Daddy made us a campfire breakfast and we relaxed a bit outside before loading up and heading to Idabel, Oklahoma.
The purpose of this was to make Ben an out-of-state traveler. We intended to hunt down a burger joint and eat there but apparently they don't eat. Walker suggested they must still hunt buffalo for dinner. We searched for an hour with no luck(no buffalo or burgers).
Tuesday I met Annie for lunch at Manny's Uptown and then all of us went to the Plagge farm for Kendra's birthday. Kendra and Whit came in town for spring break and brought along some friends. We stayed the night and the group of us went to the Fort Worth Zoo on Wednesday.
The Fort Worth Zoo had half price Wednesday during Spring Break. The news reported a record 25,000 plus people visited the zoo that day. Kendra is below taking pictures and her friend Hannah and her three girls are there too.
Above Whitman and Remy are watching the Flamingos up close. I learned that the Fort Worth Zoo is the only place in the world that actively breeds flamingos.
Today we scheduled the kids' first haircuts at a place called Groovy Cuts for Kids in Rockwall. I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this place.
My daughter let someone unfamiliar touch her hair and did not whine. Enough said. They had an airplane for Ben to sit on and Remy sat in a purple jeep. They got to choose what DVD they wanted to watch (Elmo and Thomas respectively). They could color. There were balloons. And free mani/ pedi with a girl's haircut. There were bracelets. And best of all there were Certificates of first haircut with a lock of hair attached in a small bag. They are mailing us pictures. That package deal was $24.95. Isn't that the best? The mani/ pedi's come free with any haircut. Wish I could get that combo deal for myself for $25.
I took a picture of Remy afterward. Instead of looking like she was attacked by a wild weed whacker it seems to have been tamed by the simple addition of layers. Ben opted for the 'skater boy haircut', as the stylist put it. Walker made sure she was not to cut his side burns!! He was sleeping during the 'after' pictures but I'll be sure to get one of him tomorrow.
Still on the agenda: JP and Tracy came in town today with Amelie and Kiellye and we're hoping to get everyone together tomorrow for a visit/ playtime and we'll all be attending a birthday party ho down on Saturday complete with bbq and hay ride.
Here's to an adventure filled rest of the week regardless of whether or not you get a 'spring break'.
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