Ashley Class Christmas Party

 Ashley's class is SUCH a sweet group of 2nd graders!  Their Christmas party was great fun!  I had made gingerbread men and the kids decorated and ate them. 

 They had a photo booth!

 and lots of Christmas crafts to make and take home and more snacks to eat!

Chattanooga Nutcracker

 One weekend in early December (while Greg was on a business trip) we drove many miles, had a ton of fun with cousins, and 4 grandmothers, 3 moms, and 6 girl cousins had a blast watching the Nutcracker-I think there could be a Christmas song in there somewhere-am sure Grammy could come up with something!

Kids and I drove to Atlanta on Saturday, spent a night a Grammy's house, and we drove to Chattanooga on Sunday.

 In Jake and Emily's special tree in the front yard!  Ashley and Abby Jane above and Blythe below.

 Now we are at Jodi's house!

 We tried to get a picture of Grammy with all 9 grands but there always seems to be someone who is not in the mood to be in a picture.

 Kids had to run out to the back yard to say hi to Daisy-their chocolate lab who we call Max's dog cousin.

 On the way to the theater

 Ashley-7, Katie-12, Abby Jane-7, Blythe, Joy-6, and Maggie-5

 Em and her girls

 Ashley and me

 Jodi and her girls

 the tradition is to go to Starbucks for hot chocolate afterwards!

 Us 3 moms together-we rarely get to be in pictures-I love being a mom of cousins with these 2!  It was hard getting everyone out of bed Monday morning for school but it was a fun trip.  The boys went with Uncle Chris, Ian, and Daisy on a hike and had a great time.  Ryan fell off a rock and bruised his arm and Scott had filthy jeans-so I knew they'd had fun!

5th Grade Immigration Day

 This was the culminating activity of a LONG Social Studies Unit about immigration.  Each child had to create a passport for themselves and family background.  They had to take a citizenship test, agility test, write a letter to someone, make a quilt with paper squares, and visit the tasting room.  I thought it was a great day of hands on learning.

 Leaving the classrooms to board the ship which was on the cafeteria stage

 The kids did a great job with their costumes.  Nathanael, above, went to preschool with Ryan-cool to re-connect with him when we came back from Manila.

 On the ship-just a few from each class were chosen to be in 1st or 2nd class but most were in steerage.  The 1st and 2nd class passengers got seats on the ship.

 Coming in to NY harbor-they saw the Statue of Liberty!

 The ship got closer to the Statue

 Everyone is waiting in line to have their passports checked-Ryan was lucky and got near the front of the line-it was VERY long!

 He had to prove that he could read and do some math problems

 in the tasting room-we had spaghetti, German potato salad, Irish soda bread-by far the most popular with the kids, and split pea soup-least popular (though some really enjoyed it!)