Uno, dos, tres "FIESTA"

Hola mis amigos! Es tiempo para una fiesta! AYE Aye Aye! The fourth graders here in California study California history and at the end of the year there is a big fiesta at Cassie's school. The kids all dress up in "fiesta" style clothes (a huge thank you to Liz for lending us Cassie's outfit) and party like it's 1845 (pre-gold rush). It is such a fun tradition and the kids all look forward to it.

They have games like hoop rolling and cattle roping and ring flicking with sticks. All sorts of 19th Century fun. One station makes Banuelos (think tortilla shaped churros) and another one (one of the favorites has eco friendly confetti eggs with torn up flower petals inside. A quick side not about the eggs. Each kid was given 8 eggs to crack, multiply that by 36 kids in a class times two classes and you've got yourself over 500 eggs that needed to be blown out, washed and carefully taken to school to be stuffed. We brought in 3 dozen ourselves and if I blow out another egg anytime soon I think I might lose my mind.Even the baby wasn't safe from a flower egg cracking. After an entire morning of fun they are served a variety of Mexican treats for lunch - tacos, taquitos, quesadillas, burritos, rice and beans. A local Mexican Restaurant caters it every year and it is super yummy.

After lunch comes the Square Dance. The kids have been practicing these calls for weeks and on Fiesta Day they show their parents. It was so cute to see them paired up in partners.

The weather was cold and overcast the whole day, but at least it wasn't blazing hot like some fiestas in the past have been. All in all it was a good day and a fun way to end their unit on California history. Next year is a walk through American history . . . anybody have a colonial dress?

Jeremy's Kindergarten Program

I truly believe that there is a special place in heaven for Kindergarten teachers (hopefully a nice quiet and calm spot). Everyone of them that I've met has a wonderful sweetness about them. This is especially true of Jeremy's teacher this year. She is everything you'd ever want for a Kindergarten teacher; patient, kind, loving, firm and truly dedicated to her kids.

I love everything about a kindergarten program - the kids are super cute and still so eager to please. Here is Jeremy (who was stoked to get assigned the letter J because there are 3 other kids in the class whose names start with "J") during a cute song called "The Kindergarten ABC's" or something like that. My new favorite kid song is the one he introduced (and not because he introduced it). It's called "I can't spell hippopotamus". It goes something like this

I can spell hat, H-A-T

I can spell mat, M-A-T

I can spell rat, R-A-T

but I can't spell hippopotamus.

H-I-P-P-O I know

Then comes P-O-T

What comes next I just don't know

and that's what worries me, GEE!

The song has another four verses of words they can spell, but not hippopotamus. Super cute!

At the end of the song they all spelled hippopotamus for their parents to show that they can spell it even if the song says they can't. I wonder if Jeremy will think of this song every time he spells hippopotamus. I know I will for a while (wink).

On a sadder note . . .

I'm not sure if our Jeremy is destined for a life of stage performance. He didn't seem all that enthusiastic about it. He sang and did what he was supposed to do, but his heart just wasn't filled with the love of performing until . . .
he found out there were popsicles, cookies and cake for refreshments.

Now that's one happy kid!