Snow!

The end of November started the snow, and Thursdays have been particularly snowy this year!

11-21 The first sticking snow was actually not much, and the snow gauge (truck) was not in place for a picture, so I snapped a picture of the snow dusted plants instead.

12-1 The first "proper" snow.  It was a Sunday, so no school to know how bad the roads were. lol.

12-5 No School for anyone!!!

William got up around his normal time, and worked on his math until Alice's band concert, but he finished!  Better than giving up his weekend, which is what the plan was before the snow day?

Post-concert snow art:

12-12  Snow Day for Emily and William, who had a field trip planned and really wanted to go.  No snow day for Alice, Grace, and Juliet who were hoping for a snow day.  So, I got whined at by everybody.

12-20 no one got a snow day, the snow was really thick, and I found the sidewalks and driveway quite slippery as I was shovelling! = (

One day, my car blower fan was not working in the front vents, which is a poor time of year for it to not work.  So, we took my car in, and I was just going to use Alice's future car, the van, to run my errands.  However, when I hopped in that afternoon to drive it to collect the twins, it wouldn't start! = ( We had just driven it a few days prior, but apparently that was the battery's final hoorah.  Luckily, I can walk to collect the twins, and didn't have plans to collect Emily that day, but I was late, and it was a cold walk!  I was able to call AAA the next day to get it started and get a new battery put in, but that is a whole other story.*

Not all was bad though, I saw a sight I'd never seen! I thought I saw a beaver, well, at first I thought it was a duck with its head underwater, but then upon closer inspection thought it was a beaver.  While there are beavers in Michigan, I've not seen any personally.  I have seen woodchucks though, and it turns out they can swim too!  So, probably a woodchuck swimming the river.

Alice and Grace went out to build a dragon sculpture in the snow.  The lines are hard to see, so this is just the head, but it looked pretty good with wide wings and a long tail!

One more interesting sight was this cool icicle outside of the bakery at MSU where my mom treated me to a bagel & cream cheese!  I thought it was a very cool shape & design, for an icicle.

My weather watching is temporarily on hold, since the kids aren't in school for the next two weeks, but I'm sure there will be more snow to add in the new year!

later days

*Which I will include right here, because I have no plans to put it anywhere else, as I took no pictures documenting the morning.

I was able to use Billy's car to drive Alice, Emily, and William in the morning, but he's gone by the time the twins go to school.  So, we bundled up and walked to school that day.  I called AAA as I was leaving their school, to get on the list.  I could have called much earlier, but I really don't have time to deal with someone else's schedule while I'm trying to get children out the door.

He came, but his battery jumper was dead, after helping people all morning.  Thankfully, we were able to use the Kia, which is 'in storage,' but kept in operating order, to juice it up.  Once he got it running, I took it to Walmart, where we always get our batteries, but they had no openings that day!!!! = 0

I tried to call Billy, but he was working and was unable to answer, so I called my mom to help me figure out a next step.  She recommended O'Riley's because they will help you put it in, if it's not too busy or too difficult.  Of course it was difficult, why wouldn't my car be difficult!!!!!  Luckily, they knew a guy, a local mechanic, in Grand Ledge (where I was) who was able to put in the battery that I bought, right then and there!  So, if you are in Grand Ledge, I totally recommend Scrib's Auto!!!

Living to the Full in Fourth Grade!

The twins were able to serve as Safteys at the same time this year!  About the time they were over it, it was time for the next group to keep the kindergartners safe!  (Grace is shorter than Juliet, but this picture definitely exaggerates the situation!)

Grace got in all of her recommendations super quick, so that she could be VIP early in the year!  She was actually the first one, but Billy and I were in Germany when I got the email from their teacher, and I didn't want to stick my mom with yet another responsibility, so I said we'd wait.  

I helped her make up her word search, so that she could just copy it, but decided to use the one that I made.  I sent an answer key to the teacher, just in case I misspelled something! 

Her poster turned out really cute, and very Grace!

We went to family reading night, but Billy and Emily both had other engagements, so they didn't come.  Alice was on her own schedule, so we didn't see much of her, but she was under strict orders not to leave the building.

Everyone had a fun time, and Grace and Juliet both won an invisible ink pen from the raffle the next day!

One day, when I was working as the para in Grace and Juliet's classroom, we went for a nature walk!  I was the caboose of the group and took some cute pictures.  I won't post the ones of the class here, but I did see some cool moss!

Grace and Juliet were assigned the assignment from he)) last week.  It is the first 'last' that I've not been sad to see go!

It's an estimation/multiplication page that has five single digit numbers and five triple digit numbers, and you are expected to match them to meet the criteria.  Some aren't so bad (make the lowest product) but others are just cruel, find a number with only digits of 2 and 9 and there are 6 options!

Alice was so frustrated when she had it 5 years ago, and we did our best, but after an hour or so I had her turn it in unfinished.  With William, I was able to help better, but we still did not finish!  Finally, on my third iteration, I found a system that helped them without giving them the answer!

They had to make an attempt on their own first.  If they did not find the correct answer, I would give them one of the numbers from the answer.  If they were still unable to find the second number, I would give it to them, and they would calculate the product.

Since the practice was supposed to be multiplication, I didn't feel bad about this method in the least and finally had children* finish the assignment!!!!

As a child, I personally would have just solved every combination (by the time you do the page, you've pretty much done that anyhow) so that I could easily match the answer to the problem.  The issue was, I couldn't convince mine to solve the 25ish combinations at the onset.

But it's all fine now, it is over, and I never have to help with this particular assignment ever again!

later days

 *Emily was homeschooled for fourth grade and never had this particular assignment, though I fully expect that she would have finished it.