Hello Holidays!!

Hi! Long time no see, right? I am so crazy busy this holiday season with teaching and photography sessions! I thought I'd take a little break to update the blog.

This little boy...

finally decided last month to use the toilet with the condition we could visit Disneyland. So with every deposit he reminded Grammy and I of our promise. So we took this kid along...

and left everyone else at home so we could visit "The Mouse". We made it a point to do all the little kid things that the big boys would have HATED to do (i.e. Small World, Fantasy Land, a few characters...).

We even got to see this guy...

and tell him what was wanted for Christmas (darn it, I forgot to tell him to bring the Hubs a job. That's all I want for Xmas! I've been a really good girl! Yep, he's still looking).

So I am thinking seeing Santa at Disneyland means we don't have to go and see Mall Santa!!!

Toon Town was a big hit for these guys!

Last but not least, we had to visit a character that Oli needed in her autograph book.

A whirlwind of a trip for sure!  We got home on Thanksgiving Day just in time for turkey dinner (Yay Daddy! The turkey rocked)! The best news of the trip...No accidents!

Goodbye Summer Vacation

Sniffle! Summer vacation is over. Although, here it does feel like summer until mid-October. The weather here makes school clothes shopping interesting as all the fall clothes are in the stores and it's too dang hot to them buy!

Taking a quick break to post to the blog before heading off to my classroom. I need to put the finishing touches on my room and finish lesson plans for my new group of kindy babies. Leaving you with one last summer photo before the school year starts. Wish we could have spent more time at the beach.

No, we do not have a new dog. Kids made friends with a show dog and his owners at the beach.

4th of July

Our morning started off with a pancake breakfast at the church. No pictures peeps! I wasn't in the mood. We spent the evening with the Nelson's, Taylor's, and the Krumm's this year. It was nice that we didn't have to buy a ton of fireworks. Leave it to the Taylor's and the Nelson's neighbors to have quite the contraband stash of "out of state" fireworks to keep the man-kiddies (and their children) entertained for a long time. I swear we all smell like sulphur still!

It was also nice not to be the mamarazzi. A few snapshots and it was good for me. Until I realized that yet again, there were no photos of mommy. I promise I was there! We'll try again next year. Honestly, it was nice to just enjoy the day and not worry about a photo-journalistic play by play. Good food, great friends, pool time, and fireworks make for a great 4th!!!

I finally told Jared what he used to call fireworks when he was two. Hehehe!

I am so thankful we live in this country and for the freedoms we have!!!! Woot!

One! Singular Sensation...

Yesiree!! It's that most wonderful time of year again where little girls dress up like hoochie mamas and wear streetwalker make-up. No not Prom, but dance recital time!!!

A few thoughts:

I have one cute little mama here!

Make-up application...much easier this year!

Outfit...I must admit it is pretty cute!

Money spent...ouch!

Outfit doubles as reflector, assistant not necessary. Look at that warm glow on her skin!

Family at home with flu...check!

Has Oli gotten the flu yet?? Of course not!

Please pray for us that this little girl can make it to her recital this weekend! Otherwise we will have one heartbroken little girl and one disappointed mommy!

Dress rehearsal down, two performances to go!

Six year olds shouldn't look like this! Correction, my six year old shouldn't look like this!

Father's Day and the Cool Gift

We had a quite and relaxing day/weekend! My Aunt stayed with us for the weekend and she treated us all to John's Incredible Pizza Saturday night (thanks Aunt Patsy!)! Jack kept calling her Grandma, then she became Grandma Aunt.

I was sick ;0( with the flu! It was gross!!! I tried to go to church and pop by my dad's. Wasn't going to happen.

I saw a really cute idea on a designer's blog about creating an album for dad. So I took that idea and made it my own. Her's was a template album and I wasn't going to pay for it when I have my own digi skillz (although I ended up not going fancy with it). Here is the great part, Shutterfly had sent me a coupon for a free 8X8 hard cover album. Not that I wanted to be cheap, we just are really trying to watch our money. All I had to pay for was shipping.

Each kiddo got 1-2 personal pages with a picture and a question or statement they needed to finish. The kids used a fine point sharpie to write their thoughts/statements about their dear old dad in the album. Here are a few of the pages:



















































































































































































Sorry the pics aren't the greatest, but I really wanted to get this post up before July. Baby girl wanted to show you all the book. She was really quite insistent.

The hubs seriously got teary eyed when he opened and read it. Really, he did. Yay us!!! We rocked the gift this year!

For dessert we made fresh hot brownies topped with Dewar's peppermint ice cream and hot fudge. We also got some lemon flake ice cream for another night. YUM!

Now to figure out how to top this gift next year!??

Kindergarten Celebration

I, being a kindergarten teacher, have a hard time with the idea of a Kindergarten Graduation. They are just starting a lifetime of education. ALSO, there are a few kiddos that are retained so why would we have them graduate, right? So instead, we have a "Celebration" to recognize the hard work all of our kindy babies have made. We still do a cap and gown picture for those that must have them (and yes, I did order some anyway), but doesn't a "Celebration" sound like more fun? It is!!!

I CANNOT believe how fast this year has went by! I get a little teary eyed thinking about what a privilege it has been to have my own baby girl in my class and to watch all of the leaps and bounds she has made!! I will forever treasure this time with her and sad that it is over (really!). I also get to take all the credit for teaching her how to read (in fact all but one of my kiddos is reading beautifully-WOOHOO!). I hope that as an adult she can look back and have some wonderful memories of this time we have spent together!

She is in the front row because she is a shorty, not because she is my baby! Do you think I play favorites????



This year, I introduced the class to Mr. Harry's Kindergarten Channel. He has tons on music videos geared towards the kindergarten standards that my class fell in love with. So of course we had to add the music and videos to the program. We sang "The President", "The Number Rock", and "The Days of the Week" TV style. Lots of giggle from the parents when the kiddies would bust a move (yes, we danced too)!

Oli and her bestie


She's moving on to 1st grade! I am so proud of my girl!

Olivia's Alice in Wonderland Birthday Party

Another epic birthday party for one of the Wolff kids! I don't know who had more fun, me or the kids? Olivia's request this year was a tea party. Since we don't drink (or care for) tea, we went for a Wonderland theme. This was months in the planning!!!

The details:









The "Out of the Box Photo Booth" included costumes for the kiddies to dress up in. Most of the girls wanted to be the Queen of Hearts??? Maybe they didn't realize she was the bad guy?












Olivia contends that this was the best birthday party ever!!! She is currently planning her 8th birthday party as she already has her 6th and 7th planned.

Thanks to everyone that made her birthday so special!