April Fool's Day in Kindergarten

It's April Fool's Day.

Today is one of two days that all educators across the country dread. The first being the day after Halloween when kids are recovering from a sugar-induced coma and are worthless to instruct. The second being today. If either holiday lands on a Saturday or a Sunday (better yet, Fall break) I find this similar to a "bonus" that other employed individuals get. I'm almost 100% positive that other teachers share my feelings on this one.

The day started off pretty much like I thought.

"Mrs. Broeker, I have a joke for you. Your eyes are blue." Which they aren't, but that is almost too much to bear for a 5 year old joke teller.

"There's a bug on your shirt." (This one is a classic, so it's repeated about two dozen times.)

"Your shoe's untied." (Probably their second favorite)

Or my personal favorite that I haven't heard until this year...

"Mrs. Broeker, are you wearing any underwear?" (snicker, snicker)

I really try my best to play along for about the first hour. I say things like, "Oh, you got me!" "What do you know...It's April Fool's Day?" or "You've got to be kidding!"

I also got a "Mrs. Broeker, I think I'm going to throw up!" Lucky for me, I took her seriously and I found out by mid-afternoon that she wasn't kidding. Lucky for the custodian, she had a really good aim for the trash can.

I met my quota of April Fool's jokes at about 10:30 and I responded with this statement..."Yes, I know it's April Fool's Day, but you need to get busy or we won't have time for recess." That seemed to do the job since we had a beautiful, 80+ degree day.

Last night, I started to think about how April Fool's Day was going to feel like a longer than any normal day. Listening to jokes by Kindergartner students can be draining to say the least. So, I decided that this year I deserved to get those little pranksters back. I came up with a clever, entertaining, yet appropriate game plan with kindergartners in mind.

Every day I serve a snack to my kids right after Specials (P.E., Computer, Art, Science or Music) at about 2:45. The snack is something small like animal crackers, Cheese-Its or Vanilla Wafers (whatever parents decide to donate). When kids don't get their daily snack they feel slighted. Rarely does this happen because they can forget a backpack at home day after day, but snack never! Snack is truly a fourth meal for five year olds or so it seems.

I thought it would be so funny to purchase raw broccoli and break off pieces and tell them that we are now going to have a healthy snack like this one on a daily basis. No more crackers, cookies or trail mix. Raw vegetables from this point forward!

So, that's exactly what I did. We have a small refrigerator to store the broccoli in our kindergarten-wing, which helped with the plan. I then retrieved the broccoli right before picking the kids up from Specials.

I instructed my "helper of the day" to dish out the hand sanitizer while I gave my healthy eating speech. To my surprise, I got nothing but silence. Carefully, I then pulled out the broccoli and heard a few moans, but they were quickly overpowered by Hoorays!! What? I could not believe my ears! I would say that about 2/3rds of my class were excited to okay with the thought of eating cold, raw broccoli for snack. One student was a bit disappointed that I didn't make some accommodations by bring the Ranch dressing. Silly me!

Happy for me, there were five children who were thoroughly disgusted by the thought.

One of them being "Miss L" whose mother gave me permission to use her photo on my blog. At least she lived up to my April Fool's expectations!

You'd think with those rabbit ears she was wearing, that eating broccoli would naturally be her thing?!

It's safe to say that the Kindergartners got the last laugh. The joke's on me.

Happy April Fool's Day!

I'll try harder next year.

Spring Break Draws to a Close

Spring Break is just about over.....sigh! Tomorrow it's back to work, back to school and a crazy week ahead of me filled with volleyball, softball, soccer and baseball practice. The good news, it's a shortened week. We have this Friday off due to the Easter holiday. I can't beat that!

Well...here are a few random pictures of our nine day of festivities that I haven't blogged yet.

Madison had one sleepover and several play dates with her girlfriends (Emmie, Kate, Jessi, Clare and Aleni). I can't say I've ever had this many of Madison's friends over before in a week's time, but I wanted it to be a fun week for my kids as well as myself.

Tyler spent the majority of his week hanging out with his buddy Seth. They were together, I believe, 7 out of the 9 days. I'd think they would have been grown tired of one another. Guess not.

After taking this photo, I noticed a rogue snowman hanging around. I quickly removed him. No more signs of winter anywhere!

Then I worked on finishing my Spring Break To-Do list. Today I looked at last year's list and realized they were ironically pretty much the same. Unfortunately, I still did not get the painting done, which I now listed two years in a row. I did get all the rest on the list accomplished AND I did do my fair share of scrapbooking, book reading and movie watching! Really...that's what a break is all about anyway!
This is a quick picture of my co-workers (Kristi, Kathy & Sherri) in a parking garage. I forgot to take a picture earlier of us eating at Panera Bread or at the theater before the movie. They were really glad that I didn't forget altogether! :)

Did I also mention that I watched the Moon over break again and again? I'm definitely a "Twilight Mom"!

Saturday for Grant

It was a sunless Saturday. It was incredibly dreary and rainy today, but isn't this a beautiful sight? A family (Larry and Ruth Ann Bartels) in our church donated this incredible bronze statue to St. Mark's and it will be dedicated this weekend. I heard it was created somewhere in Colorado and it traveled to Lincoln via Interstate I-80 uncovered. I think I would have kept pace driving alongside with Jesus knowing it would be a guaranteed safe trip!

We had a "Grant" day today. Often I feel like he's left out on activities that are just suited for him. We often drag him to all of Tyler and Madison's ballgames and require him to sit and be good. So, today we had fun doing things Grant enjoys...

Like meeting the "Hamster Bunny" at our church's annual Easter Egg Hunt. We're not quite sure why he doesn't say "Easter Bunny". It's just one of those Grant things.

Grant also played games like Bowling Bunnies.

The weather was so cold, wet and yucky that this year's egg hunt was relocated to the Family Life Center (gym) instead of outside.

It should have been called an Egg Scramble or Scrambled Eggs instead of an Egg Hunt.

Later, after picking Madison up from indoor softball practice we went and ate at Cici's Pizza. It's not my favorite place to dine, but it sure is Grant's!

Grant is having his favorite pizza called "Cheese with Circles".

Once again...Grant lingo.

And who couldn't resist having Pop with your pizza?!

Window Washing = Wimpy Kid

Spring cleaning is still going on at the Broeker household today. The house is almost spotless, but Grant is on a mission. Anything that's clean only lasts for a few minutes with this active three year old around. You'll see what I mean as you scroll down.

Tyler and Madison had several jobs today...including washing windows. I chose not to take pics of them picking up after Ranger in the backyard. Ick!

Madison is looking at me and wanting to say..."I don't do windows!"

Oh, but she does.

I thought that this cleaning deserved a reward, so I took the older two to the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It was so cute that I think I'll even read the books. I would highly recommend it!

We purchased the large popcorn and soda, so we could get free refills. Unfortunately, we decided to be kind and bring back some popcorn for Grant.

What was I thinking?

Thoroughly Tired Thursday

I am thoroughly using the most of my time during my Spring Break, which is making me thoroughly exhausted. Truly, I'm loving it and am getting tons of work and fun projects accomplished. When I know I only have only one week to devote to getting stuff done, I run like a mad woman! Totally mad! I would be so unproductive if I were a *stay-at-home mom. It's a good thing I work outside the home because I'd turn into one lazy bum (with less money, too).

* Note: Stay-at-home moms, please don't take offense. I'm not saying you're lazy, just me. It takes more willpower to stay motivated than any other occupation to do that job well (in my book).

Madison had her first soccer game of the season. Oh, I love soccer and I love watching her play. She has so much spirit, focus and determination for the sport.

She's passing the ball to her teammate Cassie. Madison has great ball controlling skills. She just needs to get a little more power behind her leg. I'm always yelling "Big Foot, Madison", which I am sure is helping her improve her game.

So close, but not a goal this time. Madison did have an assist on goal with Megan tonight. Madison is a wonderful team player, which makes me very proud!
Tyler received some good news today. He applied to work as a member of the Zoo Crew at the Lincoln Children's Zoo and was accepted. It's a volunteer program where he'll either help give pony rides or work at the Critter Counter and show off small animals to zoo guests.

I thought this would be a worthwhile experience for him while keeping him busy over the summer. Tyler will have baseball and the zoo, so this should fill his summer schedule! None of this...."I'm bored" anymore.
Tyler and I also had a nice lunch together at The Great Wall. It was just the two of us, which doesn't happen often. I think we bonded.

My before and after pictures of my bathroom were such a huge hit yesterday, that I must show you some more. Here's a before and after of our dog, a Miniature Schnauzer, named Ranger. I took him into Suds 'n Scissors today for one long, overdue grooming. I can't take any credit for the magic they did on him, but he looks marvelous!

Before

After

Wild, Weird, Wonderful Wednesday

I must admit that today wasn't wild or even weird. However, it was wonderful when it's Spring Break! Woo hoo! Besides, what blog title could possibly follow Totally, Terrific Tuesday anyway?

Today I wasn't as productive as I was yesterday with housework. I did get a little cleaning done before hanging out with my co-workers this afternoon. I thought you should see the before and after pictures to see how much work I put into my house cleaning project.

Before

After

Amazing, huh? I thought you'd be surprised with what I could do in just a few short hours!

I did enjoy my afternoon (kid-free) with my co-workers (Lisa, Kristi, Kathy and Sherri). We went and saw this:

It was a very cute movie!

And ate here:

Delicious! Their Sierra Turkey sandwiches are the best!

Totally, Terrific Tuesday!

Fed Ex stopped by and delivered these...

New Cricut cartridges! Yay! I saved up my points from Christmas and waited until they had a sale on their cartridges before redeeming them at Cricut.com. I'm very excited about using the "Give a Hoot" one. I think their whimsical animals are darling. I'll have to create a layout with it and post later.

Now that I have a little time on my hands this week, I'm going to make this dish. It's Tyler's favorite. It's very good, but it doesn't seem to reheat well. Hope everyone is hungry tonight! I got it off of Becky Higgin's blog a few years ago. Delicious!

Garlic Chicken Fairfalle

16 oz. Farfalle pasta

1 cup heavy whipping cream

3-4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)

2 to 3 cloves of garlic, crushed or garlic salt

1 Tbsp. pepper*

1/2 cup butter

1 lb. bacon, crumpled

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 (12 oz) bottle of Lawry's Mesquite marinade with lime juice

*Seems like a lot of pepper, but it has a wonderful flavor when everything mixes together. If you're apprehensive, do less pepper. You can always add more.

Crock pot chicken and bottle of marinade on low for 6 hours. Pull marinated chicken out of the juices, allow to cool a bit, and shred (I pull it apart). Set this aside. About a half-hour before serving, boil the pasta. In a small saucepan, melt butter, add garlic, whipping cream, pepper, parmesan cheese and crumpled bacon. Whisk together on low heat for 3-4 minutes. In a large bowl, pour over cooked, drained pasta, add chicken and stir through. Sprinkle a little bit more shredded parmesan cheese on top.

That's about all for a Totally, Terrific, Tuesday....I'm off to go to the Children's Museum today with Mr. Grant!