Wrinkles

In celebration of the 100th day of school, Guillermo's class was asked to bring in 100 of something. He made a ship out of 100 Legos and wowed his classmates. The rest of the day revolved around the number 100.

This was my favorite assignment of the day:

Chinese Dragons and Monkey Bread

I volunteered several times in Guillermo's class this week and today I substituted in Maya's class.

I helped the students in Guillermo's class make Chinese dragons. It was so fun to watch Guillermo with his classmates. And, he was pretty happy to see me. He came over to the table where I was working with a group of students to check on me and give me hugs several times the first day. He barely paid attention the second day I walked into the class, but came over later for a hug. The third day, it was finally his turn to make a dragon.

Today I substituted in Maya's room. I was one of four teachers (Friday is a big class because it combines the M-W-F class with the T-Th-F class). Maya was so excited for me to come and followed me around quite a bit at the start of the day until one of her best friends showed up. I didn't see much of her the rest of the morning. I had fun playing patient to about eight doctors for quite awhile. Some of the students also got to help one of the teachers make monkey bread for snack. Maya loved it. She told Will all about monkey bread at lunch today and tonight, I heard her tell Guillermo this:

"Guillermo, we made monkey bread for snack today. It is so good. It has chicken in it, no monkeys and cinnamon!"

I think we'll pass on that version.

10 Ninjas

Maya ended up in our bed the other night. I'm not sure why I didn't take her back to her room, but it was nice snuggling up with her. Unfortunately, I didn't move her to the middle of the bed and at some point, she fell off and that's a fairly decent fall, especially in the middle of the night.

We consoled her and brought her back to bed and just as she was falling asleep again she said this:

"I dreamed something before I fell after the bed."

"What did you dream," I asked.

I I dreamed 7, 10 ninjas practicing."

Will and I did a good job hiding our laughter before we all fell asleep again.

Lovebugs

We had a sweet Valentine's Day weekend. It really started Thursday, with Maya's class party and then spilled over to Friday, with Guillermo's party. On Saturday, a local Brownie troop was hosting a Valentine's Day event called "Hearts for Haiti." They charged $1 for every Valentine you made and they had a ton of supplies to make them. Georgette, the stuffed animal monkey, is visited us this weekend from Maya's preschool and we had a fun showing her around our house.

On Sunday, we had a sweet breakfast celebration: pink, heart-shaped M&M pancakes. Guillermo and Maya opened a few gifts from Ya Ya and grandpa. We gave G & M a few games and a few chocolates, including the cutest little strawberry and chocolate lovebug. Then we played. I took Guillermo to a birthday party and Will took his littlest Valentine out for lunch (at a pub).

Maya loving up her new heart blanket.

Celebrate Valentine's Day with a Ben 10 Alien Force Lego Spider Monkey.

Georgette can't take it anymore. She wants that lovebug.

"I Don't Want to See Ramses"

Maya, getting a lesson from the UNC women's tennis coach.

Guillermo with a strong forehand.

Guillermo and Ramses.

The UNC Women's Tennis team hosted the UNC faculty-staff family day on Saturday. Guillermo and Maya had never seen a real tennis match and Guillermo seemed to really get into it.

We arrived in time to watch the doubles matches first. Guillermo took a break to pose with Ramses but Maya didn't want anything to do with him.

Between the doubles and the singles matches, UNC set up prizes on one side of two courts and invited the kids to come down and play. They stood on the opposite side of the court as the prizes and hit their ball over the net. If the ball landed on a prize, they could claim it. I'm not sure either of my kids hit any prizes, but we came home with three UNC hats and two pairs of sunglasses. The head coach even helped Guillermo and Maya hit the ball over. After all of that, they even served us pizza.

The whole time, Maya was careful not to look at Ramses or go near him. "I don't want to see him," she said many times. This was the first time she said she was scared of characters. Good thing Disney isn't among our vacation plans this year.

After Guillermo showed so much interest in the game, and really paid attention to the matches, I offered to take him to play sometime. I was quickly denied. Rats.

Super Girl

Maya sang this song tonight while she danced around her room in her Supergirl pjs and cape.

"I love to dance."

"I love to fly."

"I love to fly high."

"I love to save the day."

Snow Days

Snowflakes started falling Friday and by the time we woke up Saturday the ground was covered in snow. I wish I could say we spent the entire weekend (plus two snow days) playing in the snow, but that isn't true.

Saturday was cold. Really cold. Guillermo went out shortly after 7 a.m., before we were ready to go, but he didn't last long. I was still getting my coat and gloves on when he came back in a few minutes later because it was too cold. Both kids went a few more times in the morning, but only for 10 minutes or so each time. After lunch, we tried to go sledding. I went with Guillermo but used my feet as brakes, causing snow to blow into his face the whole way down the hill. He wanted to go home right away after that.

We played outside a bit more on Sunday, but by Monday, when it was warm enough that I was fine in a light jacket and a sweater, they were ready. We built a snow fort and had a snowball fight. Yesterday, it rained most of the day and rained away a lot of the snow, but we still built a tiny snowman. The snow was pretty icy by then but we managed to stick a few chocolate chips in the snowman's head for eyes.

Today, Guillermo went back to school and by the time school finished, most of the snow was gone. Lucky for both kids, more is expected this weekend.