Favorite Books Linky Party

Runde's Room is having a linky party. "Favorite Books!" I just found her blog today and plan on visting it more this summer. This is only the second time I have link to another website. I really don't have time for my blog during the school year, so during the summer I have to relearn everything.

Classroom Favorites- This year I set a goal to read only new read alouds to my 4th grade students. (new to them and me too) I really enjoyed all of the books we selected this year and plan on trying to read a few of these next year too.

Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel I also read the 2nd book in the series Sunwing. I had many students in my class who then finished reading the entire series.

Ragweed by Avi We also read the 2nd book in the series Poppy. This is an older series but now is one of my favorites.

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett A wonderful series we read all three books. I started the year with this series and my 4th graders loved the story and adventures.

A Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup My class LOVED the WHOLE story. We even started reading the 2nd book Another Whole Nother Story. However we didn't have time to finish before the school year was over.

These were just a few of the read alouds I read this year to my kiddos.

Pacific Beach- Spring Break

Cooper's Birthday!

This year Cooper had his birthday party at a local gymnastics center. He invited 10 of his good friends from school. They had a great time playing on the equipment and then opening presents and enjoying cake. As you can tell from the pictures he had Batman everything.

Cooper's Spring Concert

Every spring Cooper's school has a small concert. This year they made little hats to wear during a few of the songs. Cooper was a chicken. Aunt Maurine also came to see his concert. We had a great time watching Cooper sing. (This was also his 5th birthday)

Snow Days!

I can't believe that I haven't posted since Christmas. My plans were to post at least once a week... I never realized how busy our lives our. Anyway I'm going to do a few posts just get some pictures and memories on paper. My hope for this blog was to capture moments in our lives that I want to remember. So I will start with this winter and our snow days! I think we missed a total of 5 school days. A few for snow, wind storm, and no power. We didn't get to spend too much time in the snow it was so cold. But I was able to take a few pictures before the cold got to us.

This will be the last year for those snow suits. Avery's was way to short on her and Cooper's was snug on the shoulders. We got two years out of them. I will just keep Mackezie's for Avery next year the other two will go to Goodwill.

Christmas 2010

Last night we stood in line for almost an hour to see Santa. This is the first year all three kids sat on his lap without any tears. I was happy to get a happy picture of all three. What a great Santa too. The kids had a good time and they each got to tell him what they would like for Christmas. Cooper wants a Pillow Pet, Avery would like a Baby Doll that crys and wets, and Mackenzie wants a certain DS game. He told all of them he would do his best.

Nutcracker 2010

Nutcracker 2010

Mackenzie getting her makeup on.

Makeup all done.

One of her many friends.

Almost ready for closing night.

Mackenzie with Spanish Princess

Mackenzie with Clara

Mouse & Soldier

Friends

I hope to have a few more posts these coming weeks when I have a little time off from work. I will start with the most current activity... Nutcracker. Earlier in the year Mackenzie started taking ballet lessons. Well those lessons lead to a beginning role in this years Nutcracker. She really wanted to be a soldier and NOT a mouse. Mike and I thought this would be a great opportunity for her and it really turned out to be a fun experience for all of us. However, it was very time consuming both for her and our entire family. She had 8 shows over the last two weeks with many practices before the live shows. Lets just say it took a large amount of our time in November and December. These are a few pictures from the last show on Sunday.