March Madness

March really has been maddening.

It's been a crazy, exciting, exhilarating, and all around fabulous month for us in the Kussee household!

First of all, JaeKaeNae was reunited on the lucky day of St. Patrick's Day! After several months of not getting together and Kae living in another state, we finally got to catch up and talk about where our futures are taking us! It's exciting that we're all headed down different roads and at different points in our lives and careers.

Oh how it's great to be with old friends!

March 19th is one of my very favorite days out of the entire year.

It's the day I was married to my best friend.

It's been 2 years since that delightful March day and I couldn't be happier with my choice in a husband.

Everyone kept telling us that the 1st year would be the hardest.

Then they changed their minds and said that the 2nd year would be the hardest.

I have yet to see how they were "hard." Of course we've had our ups and downs, but there have been an exceptional more amount of ups than the minuscule amount of downs. Forget about having hard years. Wouldn't you rather just want to know that you had loved hard? That's what we try to do here in the Kussee home!

To celebrate our special day, we went to one of our favorite Bed and Breakfasts, the "Castle Inn" in Sandy.

We love it because the rooms aren't decorated too cheesy and the service there is great!

This year, we stayed in the "Excalibur" room.

We liked it even more than last years room.

We stepped into our room and followed the path of scarlet roses around the room.

Of course we had to take a picture in the midst of the roses...

Can't let a great picture taking opportunity go to waste!

One thing we've looked forward to on our anniversary is going to one of our favorite restaurants.

The Asian Star is right around the corner from the Castle Inn and has scrumptious food and a delightful staff. Everything we've tried has been succulent and delicious.

Not to mention that the serving sizes are enormous.

We got smart this year and just ordered one entree for the both of us along with lettuce wraps.

We still had enough leftovers for another meal!

Which really is saying something because my husband sure can eat his fill at the dinner table!

As I've been teaching this year I've been really frustrated that I've had so much going on that I haven't gotten around to doing a lot of science. My schedule is packed with teaching/reteaching the English Language Learners in the 2nd grade, juggling conferences and new teacher trainings, and still trying to keep my students on a relatively consistent track in math and language arts.

Who has time for science, right?

I was already getting to school before 7 in the morning and leaving at 7 at night. I've had a rule this year to get everything done on the weekdays and have time for my family, hobbies, and church callings on the weekends.

It didn't leave a whole lot of time for family, exercising, and sometimes I put off eating!

But here's the real dilemma.

My students LOVE learning and science one of their favorite subjects.

After going to a conference in Vegas with a few coworkers and our principal, I have been determined to get on board and really work towards getting hands-on science in our classroom. It's meant working a little longer hours and doing things at home (which I really hate bringing work home).

BUT it's all been worth it! I love my job and I love getting my little monsters excited for learning.

This week, we started our Moon Unit. They did some awesome artwork with glue and watercolors to make moons and we put together these moon fact displays.

We've never had so much fun watercoloring!

(check out this student's itty bitty space ship going to the moon)

All of their very colorful moons and exceptional artwork. This class is chalk FULL of little blossoming artists!

This is our very own Monsters vs. Aliens door.

My own little monsters will be choosing to decorate an alien or a monster during their free time tomorrow and we'll put them on our door with our rocket!

The thing I'm MOST excited about for this Moon Unit is our class "Moon Log."

Each student gets to take it home one night during the next 30 days. They draw what the moon looked like on the night they took the bag home and get to read out of our special solar system book that goes home in the bag.

It's a fast and easy assignment for them to do at home, but they are so excited!

We start tomorrow!

We're also learning the phases of the moon tomorrow with one of milk's favorite cookies...

OREO's!

Any lesson involving food HAS to be good, right?

(I can't take credit for most of the ideas above. They are all mostly from this site.)

Stay tuned for our butterfly life cycle unit coming up at the end of next week! We'll be raising our own butterflies and releasing them in about a month or so.

March has been so good to us and I have so much energy to finish out this school year! There is NO way that I'm going to fizzle out at the end. We'll be sprinting to the Finish Line and learning everyday until school is officially out.

I should apologize for all of the posts about my classroom.

But I won't.

It takes up my life AND T's life is many ways!

Happy March.

P.s. T started a new blog about some interests he has. Click here to go to it!