Extended weekend

Cheap fun..homemade tents!!!!

This morning, as I was getting ready for school, I heard my cell phone beep with a new text message. It was from a teacher friend of mine commenting on how we had the day off. I sent back a text asking what in the world she was talking about. Apparently, while I was in the shower, a global connect call came from school saying that we had no school today due to a power outage. You may be surprised, but my first thought was, "oh, no!" You see, we have Grandparents' Day and our Science and Art Fair on Thursday. I was needing the time today to get gifts made for grandparents and time for my science students to finish up last minute details on their project backboards so that they are ready in time for judging Wednesday morning. Now it will be a rush to get everything done, plus catch up on lessons planned for today that did not get accomplished.

Since we had the extra time today, we went to our local hospital and **finally** had Collin's lead test done. We opted for the lab versus our health dept. since the lab does the finger prick, and the HD only does the blood draw. We chose the lesser of two evils and went for the finger prick. Collin did great. He practically laughed through the entire thing. The lab tech was wonderful, explaining that he was going to "paint" the circles on the card red with his finger. He thought that was pretty cool! When he was done he asked the lab tech if he could do it again!! He chose a Cars bandaid and collected his prizes - a Tootsie Pop and an Easter egg filled with Scooby-Doo bandaids - and were on our way, only after Collin oogled at the ladies' Easter themed Christmas tree in the lab decked out with Easter eggs and spring ornaments. It even had egg garland and pastel-colored lights! I don't know where people come up with these things.

We had a treat for lunch - McDonald's - and Collin ate every bit of his cheeseburger, minus the bun, of course. He had to eat his lunch in his tent, which he calls his "house", while watching Kai-Lan. Grandma and grandpa came over for a visit and Collin showed off his crazy letter sounds and recognition skills. At least he's obsessed with something educational..and he is obsessed. Erik and I have both Leapfrog letter movies memorized, along with Collin. I'm seeing kicking k's and jumping j's in my sleep and singing the "every letter makes a sound" song over and over in my head! The plastic letters are in Collin's sight throughout the day, and if he sees us without a letter, you can bet we're going to get one. His favorite letter is W, so he will usually hand me two W's and say "Here's your wuhs, mommy. You got to keep them." We now have him saying the letter W instead of calling it by the sound it makes, although it was cute.

Time for nap!