100 Day Party with Doctor Who!

It seems like just yesterday that I planned our 100 Day Party for Abby.  How is it that 100 Days of Kindergarten has finally arrived for Caedmon?  Slow down, my kids.  Slow down!

Caedmon and my husband are slightly obsessed with Doctor Who...so what better way to celebrate 100 Days of School than with a Time Lord? :)

Here is how we celebrated our 100th Day of School.  (Abby is so excited to be the oldest because, as she stated, "I get to do the 100th day of Kindergarten 2 more times!")

100 Day Pancakes!

The Kindergarten boy version!

The 2nd grade girl version

The 2 year old "I ate all of my chocolate chips instead of decorating my pancakes" version

Filling in the 100th day of on the chart!

I love seeing the progress.  He hated even holding a pencil at the beginning of the year.  Such improvement!

They have been collecting one Lego a day, building up to a surprise Lego set at the end.

My favorite part was watching what they built all along the way before they even had instructions.

The TARDIS from Doctor Who. My husband made this from a large refrigerator box from Lowe's, 3 blue plastic table cloths, printed up details from the internet, and 2 wall mounted night lights from Wal-mart.  Total project was less than $10! Then we filled it with 100 balloons!

Yep.  My 5 year old is dressed as the Doctor (complete with bow-tie) and is pointing his Sonic Screwdriver at me.

There was a lot of screaming, jumping, and excitement when they walked into the living room to find a balloon-filled TARDIS!

 

Math included sorting and counting the balloons by color.  First, though, they predicted which color would be the most abundant.  They both predicted red.

 

They then created a bar graph of the colors.

And red won!  This was a great exercise in regrouping for my 2nd grader as I had her add all the numbers to double check that we had 100.  We were originally missing 3 colors, so we had to go back and recount them. (That was not a popular idea, but the OCD in my could not rest without knowing for sure!)  

We had such a fun day and made many wonderful memories!

In Memory of a Wonderful Valentine

I LOVE Valentine's Day.  There I said it.  I love going into stores and seeing shelves covered in pinks, reds and purples.  I love all the hearts.  I love the stuffed animals.  I love the chocolates.  It all makes me feel warm and fuzzy and happy. I don't even care if it is a manufactured holiday wrapped up in commercialism.  I love the day.

Yesterday, my kids celebrated Valentine's Day at our homeschool co-op.  It was great fun...a little chaotic...but full of good memories. Last week, each kid decorated a paper Valentine bag with stickers.  This week, the bags were set up and the kids filled them with goodies for each other...well, I think mostly the parents filled the bags, but the kids loved getting the bags with all the candies, cards, pencils and stickers. It was fun to sit back and watch  kids of all ages rush in at lunchtime, eager to see what awaited them.

I get happy memories just by holding the little sticker-covered paper bags....the excitement of seeing which  friends gave the cutest valentine, or the best candy.  Watching my kids dig through the bags after school was a deeper level of joy for me as the parent.  Who doesn't love to be loved?  It feels good to be known.  It brings pleasure to our hearts to celebrate friendships.  We find rest when we are loved.

This little Valentine exchange also brought me back to another Valentine's Day that didn't feel quite so restful and pleasure-filled...at least not at first.  The setting was a high school cafeteria.  I was eating my lunch from a paper bag.  My hair was a big, curly 90's style. I was probably donning a silk shirt and vest. I was surrounded by a few close girlfriends and filled with lots of insecurities.  A guy friend (of a friend, of a friend) came by our circle on that fateful day and handed every girl a red, heart-shaped sucker...every girl, that is, except me. Yep.  There in a circle of about 5 girls, I was deliberately left out. Forsaken. Embarrassingly set apart. I was crushed.  My day was ruined.

I came home that afternoon and sobbed my eyes out.  I was too embarrassed to ever return to school.  I had no idea, at the time, about homeschooling, but if I had known, I'm sure I would have begged my mom to keep me home. My shallow semblance of  any kind of confidence was shattered forever.  Life. Was. Over.

Until my dad came home from work.  After I told him what happened, he loaded us all up into the car and we went out for dinner.  After dinner, Dad stopped for a final errand at a store and returned to our car carrying a big box of chocolate candy. Just. For. Me.  I don't remember exactly what he said, but I know it was something witty about chocolates being way better than a sucker anyway.

My dad loved to love me.  He knew me.  He celebrated my value as his daughter. He brought rest to my soul and healing to my heart by purposefully showing me his love. My Dad loved me well that day, and I am thankful for the memory of it.

 That afternoon in high school, I remember feeling unloved, broken, insecure.  But  my dad reminded me that he fully accepted me simply because I was his daughter.  I did not have to prove to him that I was worthy of  his love.  His simple act of cherishing me has helped me to be purposeful in loving others well.

My dad's gift that Valentine's night was more than just a box of chocolates.  His gift is a beautiful picture of  a deeper truth of my Heavenly Father's love for me.  It was His gift to me, not a thing I have had to earn.  Jesus' love brings rest to my soul and healing to my heart. In Him, I am fully known, fully loved, and fully accepted. Jesus loves me this I know...and I can love because He first loved me. (1 John 4:19)
 

Happy Valentine's Day, Dad. Thank you for loving me so well. I love you, too.