Gingerbread Houses

On the Friday before break, my kindergartners and their 8th grade buddies made gingerbread houses. We had so many supplies! The kids loved it! My favorite decoration, using ice cream cones for chimneys, pine trees, and church steeples.

Angel Ornaments

One thing I've learned about teaching kindergarten, is that as a teacher you must turn a bit crafty. On Wednesday night, I put together 34 wooden frames with a hot glue gun in my living room. On Thursday, all of us kindergarten teachers stayed at school until 7:50pm finishing up the kids' presents for their parents and their 8th grade buddies. Yes, the kids do the projects, but we do the finishing touches and the preparation. Sometimes it feels like we put my time into the projects. Oh well.

I really liked Thursday night's 10pm project though. I gave my kids angel ornaments for their Christmas present. It is super easy, really cheap, and they look cute.

All you need is some red ribbon, a silver bead, and an "ideal clamp", basically a fancy paper clip. I used the small size and bought them from Office Max.

You string it through the middle piece of the ideal clamp. Then add the bead, then tie off the top. Such an easy ornament!

Happy Christmas crafting!

Blizzard of 2010

It's been a while since I've blogged. I blame working a full time job. But this weekend I need to start again.  There was a big snow blizzard in the Twin Cities. The biggest blizzard since the Halloween blizzard of 1991.  So last time it snowed this much, I was 6 years old. This is the most snow I can actually fully remember. We've gotten about 20 inches. Along with the snow came drifts. The blizzard started Friday night, and went all day Saturday into the evening. I was stuck in St. Paul at Erik's house. But we had 6 of us, and a seventh person joined us Saturday night.

Saturday we hung out, lounged around, and played some board games.

This is us getting ready to venture out. I wore snowpants and Davey wore ski goggles to walk less than a block to Super America and the liquor store. That's right, I wore snowpants to the liquor store.  Cool points for me.

Jenny taught Dan and Davey how to shuffle a deck or cards. This is after Jenny walked two miles from her apartment to come join us.

 The whole snowed in group.

We all got up at 7am to dig out the cars.  St. Paul wanted them moved by 8am.