Cherry Blossom Festival Part 3

I realized it's been a month and a half and I still haven't finished my posts about my trip to DC.  There are just two more, the Smithsonian museums and the Arlington National Cemetary.

We only went in a few of the Smithsonians and didn't spend a lot of time in any of them.  I'd like to go back at a less busy time of the year and spend much more time.  The first day of the trip, we went into the American History museum.  The second day we ended up in the Air and Space museum in order to stay dry.  We also checked out the Natural History museum so that I could get a few pictures for my students and then took some pictures outside The Castle.  With the all the crowds in town for the Cherry Blossom Festival it was packed to the point of not being enjoyable.  Here are a few (very random) pictures through the museums.

American History Museum

First Dumbo ride for Disney 

 George Washington statue that was basically rejected by citizens.

Air and Space Museum

Natural Science Museum

The Castle

My favorite was American History museum.  I'd love to go back and just spend hours looking around, especially without rude and rowdy children all around!  If you've been to the Smithsonians, what was your favorite?

Field Trips

I may have said this before, but I am terrified of field trips.  The classroom is a safe place where it is unlikely that you will lose a child.  The zoo or the farm or the park, not so much.  Those places have no structure, no lines you have to walk in, no being quite, lots of wide open space to be kids.  If you follow the news, you may have heard of the first grader that climbed over the fence and was malled on a first grade field trip.  That's my worst nightmare!

Today was our big zoo field trip.  I was dealing with anxiety all morning.  Finally, we loaded the bus and set out for the zoo around 9.  We got into the zoo and I sent a few kids with parents and kept 8 boys.  The first thing you see inside the zoo is an alligator and then the flamingos.  As we stood and stared at the flamigos all of my anxiety melted away.  The students loved just watching the animals.  We only saw a handful of animals due to the bus not arriving on time and bad weather, but not one student complained.  They were so happy to have spent 30 minutes inside the zoo. 

Since we didn't spend much time there, I didn't get many pictures.  However, I was able to capture a few of my favorite moments.

Not sure what happened, but these guys all started squaking and then they fluffed up their feathers and started fighting.  So funny!

We stood and watched this guy for over 5 minutes.  He would strut around his little area, let out a loud noise to get your attention and then spread his feathers and strut around like he was a model.  The kids were just amazed.

These nice tall fences made me feel much better about my children staying safe!

It was this guy's first trip to the zoo.  He was so amazed by everything.  I hated that he didn't get to spend more time there and see more animals.

This was my favorite part of the field trip.  All of the students up against the glass in awe.  It's such a special gift to share the wonders of the zoo with these children.  Have I mentioned how much I love my job?

What I Couldn't Live Without (in the Classroom)

I only have 17 more days of school with the kids.  I can't believe it.  I also only have 3 more days left with a student teacher in my room.  When I student taught, both of my mentor teachers gave me graduation gifts and that was always special to me.  For that reason, when I have a student teacher, I always strive to show her that I appreciated her with a graduation gift.  I've been working on putting together a basket of things for her to use when she has a classroom, mostly a lot of things I could not live without.  I thought about sharing my favorite classroom things, but I am sure you know that I love post it notes and Sharpie markers.  Instead, I thought I'd share a few of my nontraditional favorite things in my classroom that I couldn't live without.

1.   A digital timer.  This is the first year I've used one and this guy is my new best friend.  I have one student (who also hated my clouds and couldn't speak to me because I was a stranger) who will get angry and sit in the corner.  I've found I can set the timer for 2 minutes and when it beeps, he is good to go as if nothing has happened.



2. Cheez-Its and Dr. Pepper.  This is my every day snack at 10:00.  This is something I've done for years and I still haven't gotten tired of it.  I don't know what it is, but every day at 10 I am starving and shaky and this does the trick!

3.  Scotch Packing Tape.  This tape will hold anything together.  It holds papers on the wall, even with 30 mph winds.  It repairs books.  Holds up bulletin boards.  It's great. 





4.  Scentsy Warmer and bars.  This thing is wonderful at covering up the smell of sweaty children and soured milk that was left in a cubby over the weekend.  I like to stick with lighter, fresh scents. 

What are some unusual things that you couldn't live without at work?

Finally

I'm posting...finally.  Anthony asked if I was already done blogging (as I tend to never follow through with things).  I'm not done, I just haven't really had the energy to blog lately. 

I still have two posts left on my trip to DC and one day I will get them finished.  My birthday was last weekend and I never blogged about that.  It was a wonderful birthday.  My students were great the day before my birthday.  After work, some of my friends and I went for pedicures and dinner.  Anthony surprised me Saturday with breakfast in bed and we went to dinner Saturday night for my birthday.  Nothing amazing, but a wonderful birthday that left me feeling loved.

This weekend was another pretty good weekend.  Easter morning we got up and went to the late service.  We had a wonderful Easter lunch of McDonalds (I completely for  got about buying things for an Easter meal until late in the week).  We saw our first rain in a couple months.  Then we had a huge hail storm and several tornado warnings.  I was terrified and spent most of the late afternoon sitting in the tornado closet watching the news from the doorway.  There were several reported tornados, all atleast 10 miles from where we live.  The hail, on the other hand, hit us hard.  We had atleast baseball hail, possibly softball size hail.  This picture doesn't do the hail justice, but I wasn't taking my camera, or my body, out into the weather to get better/more pictures.  You can see from this picture that there was lots of it.  It would stop and then start back up again.  Did this two or three times!

Anthony's car is beat up all over, though the glass is not broken, thankfully!  My new car got several dings.  It was under a covered parking, but my spot is on the end.  The one exposed side got quite a few hits and Im so disappointed.  I'm just ready to be done dealling with insurance and having to pay money for all these unexpected things! 

I've got my big girl panties on now and I'm moving on.  I'm grateful for the rain.  I'm grateful that we are all safe.

On to a new week! 

Cherry Blossom Festival-Part 2

We couldn't go to Washington, DC without seeing the monuments.  When told my students where I was going (and begged that they be on their best behavior while I was gone), they told me to take pictures and insisted that I go see Abraham Lincoln. 

The first day we were there, Friday, we only made it to the Capital Building and around the Capital Building.  I'm not sure we picked the best Metro station to get off at.  We did go to the Museum of American History and spent a good bit of time there (the museum pictures will follow in part 3...get excited!). 

Saturday, we started out for the Washington and Lincoln memorials and the Museum of Natural Science.  Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans.   After walking a couple blocks from the Metro station, Mom said, "I think we should just go in here (Aerospace Museum) because it looks like it's about to rain.  She was right on.  Thirty seconds later...sprinkles.  Those were followed by pouring rain.  We found protection in a little opening in the building that covered.  There were like 8 of us squished in this little 3 by 3 area.  But atleast we stayed dry!  The rain let up a bit and we did the museum thing.  Then, we headed to the monuments again.  When we started that way, more dark clouds.  We didn't make it to the Metro before it started pouring rain and hailing.  Thankfully it let up and we were able to take to the Metro to Union Station for cupcakes.   We were able to make it out for a little more walking before we called it a day.

Storm clouds coming in

Crumbs Cupcake-Chocolate Covered Strawberry

After the storm.

The sky was so pretty.

Sunday, we walked from the Washington Monument around the basin to the Jefferson Memorial and then the Lincoln Memorial. 

Mr. Lincoln and I





After leaving the Lincoln memorial, we decided to walk to the Arlington National Cemetary.  It was much further than it looked, but we made it.  I'm going to let that be a post of its own, as it was the most moving part of our trip. 

Cherry Blossom Festival-Part 1

About this time last year my brother moved up to Washington, DC and Mom read about the Cherry Blossom Festival.  Since my birthday is in April, she asked if I'd like to go for my birthday.  How could I turn that down?  So, on March 31 (sorry it has taken me almost two weeks to post) Mom and I headed to DC.

We weren't sure what to expect weather wise.  It seemed that every day we checked, we saw something different.  There was even snow forecasted for our trip.  The weather ended up being nice most of the weekend.  Though it was very chilly, there was no snow, only a few short showers and a bit of hail. 

The trip was wonderful and the cherry blossoms were BEAUTIFUL.  We spent the weekend at my brother's apartment.  We had three full days there and while we had a lot to do, we didn't have to rush.  We got moving slowly most mornings and then headed out to see sights.  In the evenings, we met up with my brother for dinner and just hung out the rest of the evening.  Spending that time with my mom and brother was great!

The blooming trees and sights gave me a great chance to really get to use my new camera.  I had so much fun playing around with it and can't wait to continue learning.  

Everywhere we went, there were cherry blossoms.  They were outside my brother's apartment, at the airport, and around all the monuments.  Each weekend they had many events planned with the festival.  We didn't participate in the events, but just seeing all the beautiful trees was worth it!



It was truly amazing how the cherry trees lined the basin.  The pictures just don't do it justice.

I loved the baby tree!

Later this week I hope to post about some of the monuments and sights that we visited and the cupcakes we ate!  

Military Life from Alpha To Zulu

Last Monday, Wife on a Roller Coaster came up with this great idea.  It looked like fun and I had some free time, so I got started on it.  Unfortunately, no matter how hard I thought (which there's not a lot of brain energy left in the evening)  some are an extreme stretch.  But anyway, here it goes...Military Life from Alpha To Zulu!

(A)lpha-Air Force
(B)ravo-Brave
(C)harlie-Change
(D)elta-Deployments
(E)cho-Exercises
(F)oxtrot-Friendship
(G)olf-Goodbyes
(H)otel-Housing allowance
(I)ndia-Independent
(J)uliet-Jargon
(K)ilo-Kiss (as in alwasys kiss goodbye)
(L)ima-Life-changing
(M)ike-Moving
(N)ovember-New
(O)scar-Opportunities
(P)apa-Pride
(Q)uebec-Questions
(R)omeo-Reunions
(S)ierra-Stars and Stripes
(T)ango-Travel
(U)niform-Uniforms, and lots of them!
(V)ictor-Very different
(W)hiskey-Wild
(X)-Ray-X-citement (that's a stretch, I know)
(Y)ankee-Your life (as in military becomes your life)
(Z)ulu-Zeal