O' Holy Night + some comedy

Last week I went to this annual event. The big New England tradition. I designed the flyers.

 I made this beauty:

We also did some awesome Joy School Christmas Events. --they can take Christmas out of the public schools, but they can't take it out of Joy School! Hooray!! The kids and their older siblings participated in the nativity. So sweet.

 Some still photos of the "cast"

 Man I love that ugly Westgate activity lounge. SO MANY memories here.

Then the Joy School students sang for us. This one's a MUST SEE:)

I am loving that my kids are keeping that Christmas spirit alive. Maybe I won't be a scrooge after all! Merry Christmas out there!

P.S. I FINALLY sent out Christmas cards yesterday. Don't judge.

Little Scientists

Sorry for the lack of updates. We have been busy around here. I am teaching Joy School at the moment. This means for three weeks straight I will have five kiddos at my house twice a week. I also started a new job. I am going to be a nanny for one of Charlie's little buddies twice a week. The sooner we can pay off student loans, the better! This economy is not going to get any better for at least a couple years (so my inside sources tell me;)

Anyways, here is some of the Joy school fun for this week:

We got messy! We are studying the earth and nature. we started this week with seeds and plants and moved on to animals. We used seeds to make bird feeders out of pine cones.

We mixed flour, cornmeal, and water to make a paste. Then pasted sunflower seeds into the pine cone crevices.

 I think it was the squirrels who liked these the most.

Class is in Session!

 Here I go again! I am back in the saddle of teaching joy school as preschool to my little one and buddies. I still can't believe Charlie is even old enough for pre-school. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. This time around we are teaching three weeks straight of Tuesday and Thursday classes for three hours each. I don't know what I was so worried about now though. After my first day (today) I was feeling like a rockstar teacher! :) I'm sure it was because of the groundwork laid by those that taught before me, but wow! I got through so much material. I think Charlie actually knows what the Earth is. I didn't think a tiny guy could grasp that (who knows to what extent he gets, but still...) We had a lot of fun and the time whizzed by. These were great kiddos. Here they are at lunch:

I forgot how much I loved the "Earth" unit in Joy school. We went on a nature walk and collected leaves for our pretty collages. It's so fun that little kids force you to stop and smell the roses. They are so interested in examining everything. We are starting to get some great color on trees out here. Mainly yellows, the reds are coming though. I have to credit my friend, Lindsey for teaching me to make these. This kids loved it and I adore how they look hanging in my windows. The lesson said to do this just on construction paper or poster board, but I like this method way better. It's like leaf stained glass.

How to:
SUPPLIES

• contact paper- near the kitchen scrubbers and dust pans at Target
• scissors
• leaves

WHAT TO DO (self explanatory, but here it is anyway!)
Collect the leaves. Then cut two rectangles of contact paper roughly the same size. Peel one rectangle from its paper. Place the leaves in a pretty way on the paper. Peel the second rectangle from it's paper and stick that sheet on top of the other with the leaves. Trim the edges to remove excess leaves hanging out or uneven sides. Hang on your window an enjoy!

School Started!

Well, the day has finally come, I have all three kiddos in school! Today Noah started third grade and Presley started first. Charlie is at Joy School at my friend, Danielle's house in MIT housing. Bitter sweet I tell ya! 

Presley has the same first grade class that Noah had two years ago. He wanted to be the one to show her where to go. I had to keep a slight distance behind them. They wanted to do it all by themselves. Funny, the second we got into the building, Noah forgot the rest of us and hustled off to his own classroom! I think he got anxious. These guys are going to have a fabulous year. Great teachers, good mix of friends in their classes, and I have to say they did a lot of growing over the summer. They are going to love being back in the classroom to write about their summer adventures.

What's on my agenda you ask? Oh, I have three loads of laundry going, I've got cleaner soaking the whole bathroom, and I need to run some **QUICK** errands--they will be quick because I have no slow pokes to stop at every toy or candy isle. And of course I am enjoying a few moments to blog :). Maybe I'll have time to actually train for the 5K I am still considering for this weekend!

Charlie Started Joy School today

Today was the big day for Charlie. He is lucky enough to start school a whole week before the big kids. We are doing Joy School this year for him. He is following in the foot steps of Noah and Presley. I'm excited to be a part of his first year of "school" and see how he behaves as a student. I love how much Joy School has acclimated my kids to a learning environment. They all so far have been able to make the transition into kindergarten so smoothly.We have a nice sized group of five so I won't even need to teach till the end of September. Charlie couldn't be more thrilled this morning.

I let Charlie pick out his own outfit. He chose his cub scout shirt. Classic.

He even has the same back pack Noah had way back in 2006!

I think charlie was being still because he thought I was taking a still photo instead of video.

Dad's Day, Classroom b-days, and a Charlie modeling gig

One of the best parts of Father's Day was our big crepe breakfast. Josh ate crepes while serving his mission in Norway so I thought I'd make some for him. We had just gone berry picking so I made lots of homemade jam (seriously one of my favorite foods!). We also had butter, homemade whipped cream, powdered sugar, nutella and Norwegian Goat cheese. Everyone in thae family eats theirs differently. 

 Josh has the goat cheese and jam

 On Monday we celebrated Noah and Presley's birthdays in their classrooms. Summer birthday kids get to pick which day they want to celebrate. I brought ice cream sandwiches to Presley's class and chocolate peppermint cupcakes to Noah's. It's been a busy week!

I have to learn to quit filming sideways!

Charlie and I took a stroll to the library. I heard from friends that there is a giant photo of Charlie in the parking garage and so I wanted to check it out. Sure enough, there is little (big!) Charlie at 9 months old. Charlie liked it. He was laughing at how his teethe looked ! 

Today is the first day out of school. We have big plans for the summer. First up is Charlie's b-day on the 5th. Still trying to figure out how the heck to celebrate. 

Graduation Day

WE DID IT!!

I need to take you on a little walk down memory lane to appreciate this...

Back in 2007 when we came to Boston to look for housing, this is what I blogged:

then this:

We only had two teeny kids at the time!

 Experiencing Josh's graduation was amazing! We had a super full day. Breakfast in the early morning, then Josh marched with the other phd grads down Oxford St. so cars could honk and congratulate. Then we fought the crowds and walked for miles (yards) around the gate of Harvard Yard, looking for our entrance. We opted not to fight the early crowd for seats to the first event so this was our set up:

 GO PhDs!!!

 We listened to a fabulous student speech (we didn't get Amy Poehler- boo! that was undergrads the previous day) 

Later in the evening was the ceremony at the med school It was much smaller and really special.

My very favorite part was the middle ceremony where the kids walk on stage and got diplomas with Josh. I'll have to post about that later when I get the photos from everyone else. 

We've had quite a journey! Glad it has come to an end, but very grateful for it all. So proud of Josh and US.