The Chef and the Artist

I'm doing a couple of projects for school to raise money for our big auction. It originally started when Jake was in Kindergarten; his class did an original piece of artwork that sold for hundreds of dollars. The following year, we did another canvas painting for Maggie's class.

For first grade last year, I used Shutterfly and published a book of photography, titled "God's World Through First Grade Eyes." Each student had their own page of pictures they took, with a little profile of what they like. (Example: Jake Abrams..Favorite color: red, Favorite food: pudding, Favorite thing in nature: reptiles. When I grow up, I want to be an explorer. My favorite place to visit is the ocean and I wish I never had to eat salad.) The idea was to auction one off, but so many people wanted a copy that we sold them (adding fifty bucks a book to what printing costs were) and we made a thousand dollars for the auction. The first graders ended up being a "Corporate Sponsor," which they thought was pretty darn cool. (By the way, I don't think I've ever made Jake eat salad.)

This year's first graders are doing a book of original artwork. (This is a picture of one of the "artists"...isn't she darling?)
And her original artwork...
The second graders are publishing a cookbook - "What's Cooking? 30 days of dinners." (There are 30 second graders, so it works out perfectly.) They're all quite the little chefs.Each second grader chose an appetizer, main dish and dessert to publish - Jake's are "Fried Zucchini" (appetizer), Chicken Bundles (main dish), and Coca-Cola Cake (dessert). All very yummy and not very healthy.

And now I am realizing that I've created a monster. People are starting to expect a big project every year and while I thought of a couple decent ideas this year, I am fresh out and already fretting about next year. If you have any ideas for me, I'd greatly appreciate it...

Jokes

Maggie had to have a joke or riddle to tell at school for show-and-tell last week. We had a great time trying to think of something for her to use. The following are several things we came up with, and some jokes her classmates shared...I love 1st grade humor!

Q. What did the zero say to the eight?
A. Nice belt.

Q. What did the frog order in the drive-thru?
A. French flies and a diet croak.

Q. What's blue and smells like red paint?
A. Blue paint.

Q. Why is Cinderella bad at sports?
A. Her coach is a pumpkin and she ran away from the ball.

Q. What do you do to a naughty pig?
A. Put him in hamcuffs.

Q. What do pigs celebrate on the 4th of July?
A. In-the-pen-dance day.

Q. What part of the watch plays music?
A. The band.

The following two are from Grandpa...we didn't think maybe they were the best to share at school, but funny none-the-less.

Q. What's God's name?
A. Andy. "Andy walks with me...Andy talks with me..."

Mary had a little lamb...and the doctor fainted.

And Scott's all-time favorite joke from childhood, which we did not share with the kids...

Q. What do guys get when they wear purple underwear?
A. Grape nuts.

(Sorry about that one!!!)

Goodbye

It's been a tough week in our household. Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to our cat, Patches. It's hard to watch your kids learn one more thing about reality, to watch them realize that life does not go on forever. I wish I could raise them in a bubble, but I know that in the long run, I wouldn't be doing them any favors.

So, after a long night of tears, we remember the fun we had with "Joe Meower" (one of her many nicknames), and how she was the "funnest pet ever."

A Cute and Crafty Equation

Start with two cute girls...


add 6 sheets of fun scrapbook paper...


plus one wooden frame...


times two...


add generous amounts of mod-podge...


and you get one fun craft!

Celebrity

Got the paper a week or so ago and this was half of the front page (much to Scott's mortification):

Many text messages later, my favorite is still: You could quit your job and just model scrubs...

There was a newspaper article that accompanied, but the photo was my favorite part.