Today We Went to the Zoo...

and saw a lot of animals.

It is Grandpa Spiehs' birthday. Happy Birthday Grandpa! We had a wonderful brunch. The boy's wondered why we didn't have cake. Well we had coffee cake.

Grandpa unwrapped gifts. Mica made him a card, a picture of George Washington {not his best} and a picture of himself {pretty good}. Then off to the zoo {as a family} we went.

Everyone seemed to have a good time. It is hard to stay together though. Mica and Isaak are punks about running ahead. Isaak runs ahead and then cries because he can't see me. Mica runs ahead and doesn't look back until he's called.

I kept talking to Mica about being kidnapped. Here's what was said:

Me: Mica I worry about someone grabbing you and kidnapping you!
Mica: I'll just kick them and get away Mom.
Me: Mica adults that want to kidnap children are more powerful than you. Sometimes they put their hands over your mouth, so you can't scream or say anything.
Mica: I'll just lick their hand, they'll get grossed out, wipe my spit away and then I'll run away. I'm fast Mom!
Me: Mica, just stay with me, or I'll force you to hold my hand the rest of the time.

That sort of worked. Then we had additional conversations about kidnapping both in the car and at home.

Regardless of the running off,  everyone had fun. The boy's loved playing with the chains that is the entrance in the aviary. Yep they could of cared less about seeing the birds. They were only interested in the chains. That is until Elijah went through and one popped Isaak in the head. Then of course it was Elijah that hurt Isaak - according to Isaak that is. See for yourself:




On another note: Isaak woke up three times tonight crying for me. He kept dreaming that monkey's were splashing his eyes with water. Sort of funny, but must of been scary for him.

Last Night We Went to the Outback

Outback Steak House that is. We took my parents out. The boys loved coloring before the meal. This is how Mica looks when he's coloring:

Yep his tongue hangs out. It looks funny! Especially since his tongue isn't straight.

For those that don't know, Mica was born with a cyst under his tongue at birth. One side was super thin. It's not thin any longer, but the line down the center veers off to one side. I'm just glad he eats and talks perfectly fine!

Earlier This Week We Had Conferences

We had Mica's Kindergarten conferences. Next week we have Isaak's preschool conferences.

First of all I have to say that I was so happy that we didn't have to get a babysitter. They just sat in the hallway at a table and watched a movie on the portable DVD player. I love those things!

Mica's teacher was very pleased with his progress. She said he is at the top of his class right now. Academically he's doing very well. He does have a problem chatting with other kids. She says it wouldn't bother her if Mica and this other kid got their work done. The problem is, is that Mica does get his work done and the other kid is unable to.

Then Mica's teacher pulled out a self portrait Mica drew of himself. All the portraits stayed at school because they are getting hung up. I so wish I would have grabbed my camera and shot it! I could NOT stop laughing! It has a very pronounced unibrow. I've always said that Mica will need a bit of plucking when he gets older. The portrait reminded me of a Frida Kahlo painting.

Source

Have you ever started laughing so hard that you can't stop? That's how I felt when I saw Mica's self portrait. It was cute, funny and clever all at once. Mostly I couldn't get past the unibrow. I had to force myself to stop thinking about it in order to be more serious.

Mica writes well, draws well and reads well. His teacher encouraged us to have Mica do something for the science fair coming up. Daddy is helping him make a record player. It's something I'm not supposed to know about. 

I'm kind of anxious to hear what Isaak's teachers will say about him next week. He's so the type of kid that says, "I can't do it!" all the time. I don't know if it's a stage, or if that's just how he is. I'm hoping it's a stage! I've been doing my best to not do things for Isaak. I pretend that I don't remember where his toys go and I forget how to dress him. That's fine when we have the time. At other times I just need to get to work, to the Y and so on. We have to hurry up. Kids have no concept of what, "Hurry it UP!" means. I think they move SLOWER when it's time to hurry it up!

Midterms Are Done!

I'm so happy! Today is the end of midterms! You know what's even better? I have 98% of my grading DONE! That hardly happens. My whole week has been devoted to grading. Everyone is doing fairly well in two of my classes. The other one, I'd like for their scores to be higher. I have to decide if I want to add points to EVERYONE'S midterms in that class, or not. That's a decision for Monday. They generally don't do as well in that class because:

A) It's on Friday. Many take off to go home for random reasons.
B) On the exam I ask a lot of dates and name questions. Artists and facts like that generally don't do well together. It's an illustration course so I ask about stock art, copyright information, the history of illustration and talk about illustrator's themselves. I'd talk about techniques, but I have a class first semester called Art Media Techniques.
C) The Education Director thought I should have the midterm and final exams weighted more. I never had tests in my hands on classes when I was in school. I also didn't have lectures either. I weighted the exam more. Now it's hurting them more. What's a teacher to do?

I'm not a fan of scaling exams. I believe that if I'm going to add points, they should get added across the board. That means if a student did really well, good for them! I don't want to discourage their efforts! They deserve extra if everyone else gets extra. 

I only had a few non-interested students this semester. That's pretty good considering each class size is around 50 students! I can't believe how many students on average change their minds for a major. Here they can't. It's illustration, design, web, advertising period. If they decide not to go into that type of art, we've pretty much lost them.

Last night Daddy and I got to go out. We went to the The Creative Institute. It's a newish nonprofit organization that's geared towards helping artists in the area. We got to talk to other artists about what we think they should incorporate on their website. It was pretty fun. I liked being able to have adult conversation without little voices jumping in.

WW: Roar! {Linky}

Grandma Spiehs got all the smaller Grandkids these shirts by Mouthman for Christmas. If you cross your arms just right, it looks like the animal on the front is roaring. My boys haven't quite mastered it. They still are fun!

Mica AKA Triceritops!

Isaak AKA T-Rex!

You Can Follow Me Here:

Play Date

Mica's been playing with friends more.

There's a girl two houses down from us he's played with. She has an older brother in second grade. I'm thinking we should have them over again. They go to the Y sometimes.

He's played with a boy that he really likes. I wish he'd play with him more because he talks about him all the time. He lives further away. So far we've only asked him to come over.

He likes two kids from the Y that go to his school. Their Mom is the head of the family gym time. Mica hasn't officially played with them, but likes them. They seem to have fun at the Y. One is a girl in the other kindergarten class and the other is a boy in first grade.

Mica's played the most with little girl who is in his class and has a tom boy sister in first grade. They have a little boy from Mica's class over often as well. Mica likes playing with all of them. Mica had the little girl over last week.

Did you notice that their heads are tilted the exact same way? I didn't notice this until I uploaded the photo's on the computer.

 I hid her face for privacy purposes.

In this shot they are both picking their lips. Mica got this horrible habit from me. I pick my lip when I'm nervous or thinking hard. It's such a bad germy habit!

Cuddle Time

One thing both of our boys are good at is cuddle time! They love to cuddle up to watch movies.

Here's Daddy and Isaak:

Isaak's the type of kid that likes a toy in his hands most of the time! We have rules that are attached to that: No toys at the table during meal time, no toys in the bathroom, no hard toys in bed and if they are going over to another child's house that has toys, no toys get taken there. Mica isn't usually a toy in the hands kind of kid. He plays, but doesn't hold them constantly. Their cousin's Evan and Elijah are like that though. If it were up to them, they'd sleep and eat with their Hot Wheel cars.

Both Isaak and Mica tell me that they are busy growing a beard like Daddy! Then they argue over who's going to grow a beard first. I told them, "I like your chin's naked!" They both laughed.

Yesterday I Felt SO OLD

I went to my cousin's {wife} baby shower. My cousin's cousin for their other side was there. I know confusing! I used to babysit her. She's now getting her master's degree.

Then I got on Facebook and the little boy, whom I babysat a lot just got married. I went down a little bit on his wall and someone said, "Congrats on the baby boy!" My jaw sort of dropped. He's old enough to have a baby, but I haven't seen him for years, which makes him still young in my mind. I can always remember his age because he's the same age as my two cousins Stacy and Brent, who are both married. Stacy has an adorable kid as well. I think the boy whom I babysat had an surprise with this baby though. No pictures of the baby or the wedding were up. That's usually something people want to share. I hope it all goes well! He was such a great kid to babysit. I loved him and his Mom!

This sounds crazy, but I think babysitting was so much fun most of the time! I got to play with the kids and read fun little stories. It was a blast!

Four Things I Fear

1. Climbing Fences. One time I was around 8 or 9 I was climbing a fence and my shorts got stuck on the top of it! I had the most uncomfortable wedgie. It had to be the most hilarious scene to a person viewing me!
2. Going Down Stairs. My sister (Aunt Angela to the boys) tried to push me down them as a joke when we were younger. She probably only did this a few times. Of course the crappy experiences stick in your mind. I still go down them, but I feel like I'm going to fall down sometimes.
3. Escalators. Going up or down an escalator is probably worse than stairs for me. Think about it, the edges are sharp metal pieces. Falling down an escalator could possibly be deadly. I was holding my cousin Megan on one when she was a baby. I needed an extra hand, didn't have one and almost dropped her! A man behind me grabbed my shirt. Such a relief! Mica and Isaak like to go up and down escalators for fun. It freaks me out. I used to always find an elevator when the boys were babies. There is no way I'd travel with them on one of those things!
4. Roller Coasters. I imagine the coaster just riding right on off the track. I've read that more accidents happen on theme park rides then what gets reported. YIKES! I have gone on them. I don't like being the DUD in the group. The whole time I was thinking, I can conquer this! In all actuality obscenities where coming out of my mouth. Yep words I don't normally say!

I do like some adventurous type things. I like to climb, go on hikes, water slides, alpine slides, boat rides, ferris wheels and bumper cars are fun. I know ferris wheels can get stuck. At least if that broke, worse case scenario I'd be sitting at the top for a long while. The seat can't drive off like a roller coaster can.

What fears do you have?

I often wonder what Mica and Isaak are afraid of? We haven't been on too many rides. Isaak was scared of water slides a few years ago. He was little though! Mica likes the ferris wheel and water slides.

Drama in the Classroom

You wouldn't believe the drama I've dealt with last week! It's really silly that college students just can't be respectful of each other! I'd say the majority of the time I love my students! I really have little problems with them. Then there's one time a year that I just want to pull my hair out. That's this time. HA!

A group of girls got along with each other. Then there was conflict. One girl doesn't drink or party, and she got thrown out of the group. Good for her! I think. Well things got worse. Much more drama took place. Once I brought it up to a higher up, they were called in to be talked to. Then they were friends once again.

We had a drug issue with another situation. Nothing could be done because it was an issue outside the school.

There was also a harassment issue. The one(s) that harass rarely think they are in the wrong. Then the one that was harassed feels guilty, like they did something to bring it on.

There were a few more situations. Craziness!