Busy Saturday

Libby went to the Build-a-Bear birthday party this morning for her classmate. Libby was super excited about going there for a party. There were eight children who came and they all had a great time. If you have the money to pay for the package to do a birthday party there and if you don't want to spend any amount of time planning, setting up, running around during the party, and then cleaning everything up then you definitely need to consider a Build-a-Bear party. They children had fun and the ladies who work at Build-a-Bear took care of absolutely everything. The mom of the party girl got to sit back and watch and never had to lift a finger and the children all had a great time. From there we went down to the food court where the party mom had reserved some tables by Auntie Anne's pretzels and they had already set up all the tables with balloons, crayons, etc, for the children and as soon as the children sat down they were served with their food. After lunch they brought out the giant cookie cake, everyone sang Happy Birthday, and once everyone was finished with their cake the birthday girl opened her presents.

After the birthday party Libby and I went to the park to meet up with Ryan's parents because they had Ryan's six year old niece visiting this weekend. It was a beautiful day which was great because Libby had LOTS of sugar that needed to be run off after the birthday party. Libby and Deandra played for three hours and by then it was 5:00 and we neeeded to get home to get dinner started and to give me some time to start tackling some laundry.

Libby had a great time today. Tomorrow she has another playdate scheduled and then Monday it will be time to head back to school for Libby and back to work for me. Luckily there are only five more weeks until Spring Break!! :-)

1st grade performance

Today the 1st grade classes gave a patriotic performance. They've been practicing hard for weeks. They had six songs (like Yankee Doodle, My Country 'Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful, etc) and in between each song that the five classes of 1st graders would sing together there would be a poem that each individual class would recite. They had little hand motions during their songs and Libby's class had little hand motions during their poem. The teachers got white shirts with American flags on them for all of the children to wear and they were so so super cute up there singing their little hearts out. I couldn't have been more proud! :-) The performance was at 9:45 this morning and after it was over they invited us to stick around and have lunch with the children since it was almost thier lunch time. They headed back to class at 11:15 so it was time for me to finally head in to work. Here are some pictures from today (Libby is in the back row)... http://www.flickr.com/photos/14165538@N05/

Wednesday was progress report day - and of course little Miss Libby had an excellent report card! She had great grades so we celebrated (like always) with cupcakes. :-)

Yesterday was as busy as any other Thursday. I volunteered in Libby's class from 7:30 until noon and then I went home to eat a quick lunch and then I was back to pick up Libby at 1:45. We had four errands to run in 45 minutes which I thought was going to be impossible but we actually got everything done and by 3:00 we were at her art lesson. When the art lesson was over we went home and she did her homework and played for a few minutes and then we ate a quick dinner and it was time to be on our way to Ryan's weekly Thursday night softball game (which they won 11-5!).

It's been a busy (but great!) last few days. Tomorrow at 11:00am Libby has a birthday party at Build-a-Bear which she is totally thrilled about. She has never been to a Build-a-Bear birthday party before and apparently each child gets to make a bear during the party so I think she is more excited about that rather than helping the birthday girl celebrate her birthday! :-)

What a great day!

Today was a great day! Tara, her daughter Eva, Debs, Karen and I started off the day going to our favorite Tea Room - The Strawberry Tea Room - to celebrate our friend Tara's birthday. The food was fantastic and we had a great time at lunch. After lunch Karen and I did a little shopping for about three hours and then we met up with our friend Kristina for dinner. Our food was great there, too, and we had a great time sitting, chatting, and catching up. I always really look forward to my monthly get-togethers with my friends!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We started our Valentine's celebration yesterday. :-) Libby had a Valentine's celebration in school and then she had another one at her afterschool. Ryan went to work and passed out little bags of candy to his co-workers. Me...I wore red. :-) When we got home after work Ryan surprised me with roses and then cooked dinner (mussels and scallops over pasta) and Ryan gave Libby her Valentine's present - a big stuffed bear that is nearly as big as she is! :-) Libby gave her present to Ryan that she picked out...a stuffed dog. Libby and I read some Valentine's books before she went to bed and once she was asleep Ryan and I watched The Strangers again. Since it was Friday the 13th we wanted something scary - and that movie is about as messed up as you can get!

This morning Ryan had to work and when he got home we had planned on having a picnic but it was raining so we had an indoor picnic. For dinner tonight Ryan is cooking salmon with spinach and mushrooms per my request. For dinner we are having the brownies that Libby and I baked earlier and cut into heart shapes. :-)

I hope that everyone has had as wonderful of a Valentine's Day as we've had!

Sitting in the principal's office...

Libby and I were in the principal's office today. That was my first time ever being in a principal's office in my life! Those of you who are freaking out should just calm down...it wasn't a bad thing! :-) Libby's teacher has been out since Tuesday of last week. She was scheduled to be out last week and return this week on Wednesday but she emailed me on Tuesday that on her way back to Florida she ate at a Quiznos in an airport in Kentucky and got food poisioning! She went to the doctor on Wednesday and got medicine and was hoping to return to work soon. Well, the time that she was scheduled in advance to be out they had one substitute in the classroom for those five days. It turned out that the sub yelled at the children in class constantly. Libby (who loves school) dreaded going to school each morning. I knew that Libby was unhappy with the sub and then Conrad (one of Libby's classmates) said something to his dad about how much he disliked the sub, too. Conrad's dad then spoke to me about it as we were leaving class after dropping off Conrad and Libby. Two good kids in class with the exact same complaints about the sub. One other mom also mentioned to me that her daughter had said the same thing so I emailed the teacher to let her know what was going on with the sub in her class. The teacher told me that with a concern like that she wanted me to let the principal know so I emailed the principal. The principal emailed me back that night that she would look into it the very next morning (Wednesday morning). The principal called the sub at home on Wednesday morning and the sub finally called her back Wednesday afternoon. The principal informed her of the complaints from the class and of course the sub denied yelling at the children (right, like she'd actually admit it!). So, the principal called me yesterday at 5:00 to tell me that she had just talked with the sub and she (the principal) wanted to know if it would be okay if she spoke with Libby privately on Thursday during class. I told her it wouldn't be any problem at all...she should definitely speak to Libby and hear Libby tell her in her own words how the sub treated the children. Meanwhile, this morning when I was taking Libby to school we were getting out of our car at the same time as another 1st grader in another class. As we were all getting out of our cars a mom from Libby's class was getting in to her car from dropping off her daughter and she said, "There's a sub for one more day in class today." Libby asked me if it would be that sub that I had been speaking to the principal about and I told her that while the principal was looking into the situation that she definitely wouldn't put her back into the classroom so Libby didn't have anything to worry about. The other mom who was getting out of her car at the same time asked me, "Having trouble with a sub?" and I told her that yes, there had been several complaints. The other little girl (who is in another 1st grade class) looked at Libby and said, "Was it Mrs. B?" and Libby told her that was who we were talking about. That little girl's mom asked her how she knew and the little girl said because that was her sub a few weeks ago and she yelled at the children a lot. Hmm, so, not only is the story from several different children in Libby's class but it is now also coming from another class. Soooo, the principal did pull Libby out of class for a little while today and spoke to her about the situtation. Then this afternoon the principal called me to update me on the situation. She called at 4:00pm just as Libby and I were leaving Libby's art lesson (which takes place at Libby's school). As I was talking to the principal on the phone Libby and I were walking across campus and we were walking near the principal's office and the principal said, "Oh, I see you walking by now. Why don't you just come in and we can finish discussing this." So, that's how Libby and I ended up in the principal's office today! :-) The mom of the little girl in the other 1st grade class gave me permission to use her daugther's name when speaking to the principal about the sub so I did mention what happened this morning before school and that the little girl knew exactly who we were speaking about when we said that we had a problem with the sub. The principal wasn't happy to hear that - especially after everything that the children in Libby's class had said so she said that she can guarantee that the sub won't sub in Libby's class again. Whew! I know that was a crazy long story but that's what we've been working on the last few days. :-)