5th Grade Raffle for a Cause

There was quite a stir of excitement last week at school. The reason for the excitement was that Mrs. Jessen's 5th Grade class was sponsoring a raffle and bake sale. Raffle tickets could be purchased before school each morning. The cost for a ticket was 1 for $.25 or 5 for $1.00. This was a class learning experience, but also an Advent project for the class. The class goal was to raise $20 and raffle off 5 baskets of goodies. They wanted the cost of a ticket to be cheap that way every student could participate. What an excitement this raffle caused at school!!!

The class goal of having 5 baskets of goodies turned into 31 baskets of prizes. You could buy a chance to win jewelry, movie nights, kitchen goodies, stuffed animals, books, etc. The list of good baskets was endless. Ashlin, Erica and I each purchased tickets on more than one morning. One boy in Cara's class brought in a $10 bill one day and bought tickets. Another little girl in preschool brought a whole baggy of change to buy tickets.

On Friday morning the class had a bake sale where you could purchase a goody for $.25. Ashlin took a quarter and bought a cookie to go with her lunch for the day. Then at the end of the day on Friday the winners were announced. The photo below is of the basket that Mrs. Leader (a.k.a. me) won.

This is basket #7 filled with Kitchen Items including: a kitchen towel, cookie cutter, two cookie stamps, a cookie mix, a jar of apricot jam and a jar of apple butter.

The final total of money raised for the raffle and bake sale came to over $600. This money will be split with half of the money going to a needy family in our parish and then other half going to Haiti to buy sewing machines. This project over exceeded everyone's expectations and I have a feeling will be repeated in the future because of the huge success.

Take care,

Michelle

Cookies for the Soup Kitchen

There is a lady in our church parish that every year bakes dozens of cookies for the Soup Kitchen at Christmas time. She bakes the cookies and then the 2nd Grade and the 6th Grade have the job of frosting all of the cookies. This morning was the day for the 2nd and 6th graders to complete this service project. This project requires organization because they frosted 900 cookies in about 40 minutes. A group of mothers lay out the cookies, paper towels, plastic gloves, frosting and sprinkles. We are responsible for making the frosting and getting all of the supplies needed to complete the project. When you first see all 900 cookies laid out, the task seems rather daunting, but once started the project goes quickly.

One table all ready for the students to have a seat and begin frosting.

Erica frosting her first cookie. All of the students had a great time.

A long table of completed cookies reading for the Soup Kitchen to pick up and serve.

This was my second year to help with this project and Erica's teacher said that I am on this project for life. I'm not sure I want to be on for life, but the project isn't so bad because it is completed quickly.

Take care,

Michelle

Giving In

Justin and I have a morning routine and very rarely we go away from our routine. We take the girls to school and then we head to the YMCA. Justin goes to the playroom and I workout for one hour. Then we head home and I get ready for work while Justin watches cartoons and if there is time do a little housework. Last week Justin was on my case to go to the gym and ride his bike and scooter. There is a church in town that has a large gym that they open up to the public on Wednesday mornings from 9-10:30 for moms to bring their preschoolers and they can play. It just so happens that this church is right across the street from the YMCA so we drive past it every day and he sees it. Last week Justin was asking me numerous times a day if the gym was open and if we could go and play.

Wednesday morning finally arrived and we took the girls to school, ran a few errands and then headed to the gym with his bike and scooter loaded in the van. When we arrived we were the only ones there, but he hopped on his scooter and went for a ride. He was laughing and having a good time. Only a few other moms showed up which was fine because Justin has a hard time sharing his toys at the gym.After an hour of playing, we headed home so that I could eat my lunch before heading off to work. Sometimes it is okay to give in to their little wishes and go away from our normal routine. Change isn't always bad!

Take care,

Michelle

Bragging On Your Kids

Today I want to brag about our third child Ashlin! She has been doing a fabulous job in her speech therapy sessions at school! Her teacher is Mrs. Johnson and Ashlin goes to her classroom every Monday and Thursday morning for 20 minutes for help with her speech.

Last year when Ashlin was in preschool she didn't hardly talk at all the first semester of school. Then her teacher noticed during the second semester that Ashlin had some problems pronouncing certain letter sounds properly. Ashlin was tested by Mrs. Johnson and it was determined that she needed some help. Therefore, Ashlin went for a few weeks last year and she has been going twice a week this school year.

Her speech has improved greatly. This school year Ashlin has worked on the letter sounds of "f", hard "g" and now last week she got to move on to "k". Each sound has to be focused on as it sounds at the beginning of a word, the middle of a word, and the end of the word. We are soooo proud of Ashlin's progress. Some letter sounds she really has to focus and try real hard to get it pronounced correctly. But, Mrs. Johnson has told me that she is making great progress.

Take care,

Michelle

Plan B

This last weekend Plan A was to go to Minneapolis and take Keith's parents along for the fun. Keith and his Dad were going to attend the Vikings game on Sunday and Keith's Mom and I were going to shop at the Mall of America. But, we didn't count on Minneapolis getting hit with 5-9 inches of snow and the temperatures to plummet below zero with the wind chill. It was a good thing that over Thanksgiving weekend I had given my sister the football tickets just in case the weather got bad and we couldn't go to Minnesota. I hope that my sister and her husband enjoyed the game yesterday. Therefore, on to Plan B for Keith and I. There was no way that we were going to give up our sitter for the day, so, we headed to Sioux City shopping for the day. We left the house at 8:00 and returned home at 6:15. Keith and I shopped all day with the kids' Christmas lists in hand. Keith always likes to shop one day with me so that he knows at least a few gifts under the tree. We even purchased a few things for ourselves during the shopping adventure. I would share more, but I know that a few of my children visit this blog to find out information.

Take care,
Michelle

Weather Report

Okay, old man winter can pack up and go away now! On Monday we received 3 inches of snow with 40-50 mph winds. I'm not sure how they ever measured the 3 inches of snow because the wind was blowing it sideways. The roads around town were ice and snow packed. You should have heard me complaining and yelling at the cars in front of me on the way home from school that day. We almost got stuck on the ice going up a hill because the traffic in front of me was not moving.

Justin does not like the cold. He refuses to walk in the snow in his tennis shoes. Then last night he wanted to go outside with Keith to snowblow the drift in front of the garage and freaked out about the noise that the snowblower makes. This is after we get him dressed in his coat, hat, gloves and Ashlin's snow boots. He could barely move and then is outside for 30 seconds and comes back inside. All the effort was wasted!!! Note to self to go buy this little boy some snow boots of his own. His sister's Hello Kitty snow boots just look goofy on him.

This weather has definitely put the students at school in rare form also. They have been so loud at lunch the last few days that the teachers can barely stand it. On Monday, they were ALL so excited to go outside for lunch recess when the snow had just started to fall. Then on Tuesday, the windchill was too low for them to go outside and some of them were looking to forward to going outside in the snow to play. I wish they could have gone outside because they need the fresh air and they also need to be loud and blow off some steam. I do have to say that recess duty on Monday was not fun for me though. It was freezing outside!

How many days until Spring and warm temps again?

Take care,
Michelle