Mrs. Moss's Mini Mall

Campbell's class has been studying economics for the past few weeks. This has been an intense but fun unit. The teachers use a very hands on approach to this unit. Each of the three classes creates its own "mini society". They have to name their society. Campbell's was Mrs. Moss's Mini Mall. They had to creat a flag and money for their society. They had to create rules for the society (i.e. how to earn money, behaviors). To earn money they all had to apply for different jobs. They had to fill out actualy job applications and be interviewed by the teacher. Campbell was a money cutter as well as the banker.

Each student also had to come up with a product to produce. The supplies for the project could not cost more than $12.00. Campbell made woven loop potholders. Aaron actually though of this project. I will never follow his lead again. The potholders required a lot of my time. I'm glad to help my kid but staying up till one in the morning to make sure she had enough made is not my idea of fun. They did have to pay parents for their help. The student could choose to pay in chores or money. Campbell paid me in both chores and money.

Once all their product was completed the teacher helped them determine the best price to sell the product at so they could make money on them. Campbell's potholders were priced at $14 each. They had to purchase their sale lot in the gym. Campbell paid $50 for hers. Yesterday they got to sell their products.

Each child set up a table in the gym. They had to have a store front (sign) for their table. Each child was assigned a selling session. (There were 3 selling sessions.) When they weren't selling they could buy from their classmates. I arrived at 1:30 for Campbell's selling session. Caleb and I had a lot of fun shopping for these products. It's even more fun knowing that it's not real money that your shopping with. Campbell did a great job and sold 36 of her 41 potholders.

Today the kids are doing an auction to sell any leftover products. This whole project was a ton of fun, but I am so glad to be done making potholders!

CERTIFIED

Aaron has been studying everynight for the last month. He was preparing for a professional certification. The name of the certification is the Certified Assoicate Project Manager (CAPM). Being in a Project Management position allows him to take this test. It was one step closer to the big certification which is the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.

He took the test bright and early this morning. It started at 8 am. He called me at 9:30 to let me know that he passed the test! He is very excited to have this step done and over with. It's just one more thing to add to that resume. (Also, because he passed his work will reimburse him the cost of the test.) Now he has to start preparing for the PMP.

One Week Down

Caleb has now gone an entire week without his beloved Night Nights. The week has gone better than expected. Each time I put him down for a nap or for the night he asks, "Find my night night?" I just tell him that I will try to find it. I then give him kisses tell him I love him and leave the room closing the door on my way out. He then lays in his bed and talk to his toys or sings a song then goes to sleep.

The first 3 nights he was waking up several times during the night I think looking for the pacifier. The last few nights, though, he has slept through. I think it is now safe to say that we have left yet one more baby thing behind us. He is growing up way to fast!

Weekend Parade

This last weekend was nice relaxing weekend for us. It started on Friday night with Campbell staying over night with her friend Allysa. Caleb was not happy to see his sister go to "yissa" house, but Campbell was thrilled, as always, to have a sleepover. After dropping off Campbell the rest of us headed to the sporting goods store. We purchased some fishing poles and gear for our trip next week.

Saturday morning we picked up Campbell and headed downtown for the annual St. Patty's Day Parade. We rode the train downtown, which Caleb always loves. When we got downtown we headed to get some coffee and breakfast. We finished all that and headed to the parade route to find a good location. We found a spot that was in about the middle of the parade. We were lucky to find a spot that was still in the sun. It wasn't too cold down there but it was definitely warmer to be standing in the sun.

The kids loved seeing all the parade floats, dancer, bands, etc. They had a lot of bagpipes and dancers in this parade. It was fun though. Campbell enjoyed that at this parade they actually threw beads and candy to the spectators. She was disappointed at the Christmas parade because they didn't do this. I was not thrilled with the untethered long horn steers in the street. That gave me visions of children being trampled and stabbed. Caleb go to see his beloved Ronald McDonald. Honestly, we rarely go to McDonald's but apparently this guy has made a huge impact on this 2 year old.

We decided to leave before the end of the parade so that we could get a better seat on the train. Even though we didn't see the entire parade we all had a great time.

Operation Bye Bye Night Night

This week we made the decision that Caleb no longer needs his pacifier. Honestly he probably hasn't needed it for the past year, but with the move we let the parent guilt kick in and well...here we are a year later. We discussed several different methods of the pacifiers "going away". We talked about giving them all to our friend's new baby, Rosa. It quickly became clear that if we did that, Caleb would never forgive Rosa and in college he would surely do something mean to her to get back at her for taking his night nights. We finally decided that they would just disappear and he would no longer get them.

Wednesday night was the first night we attempted this. He did great! He did fine Thursday at nap time. Thursday night did not go so well. He cried for hours asking someone, anyone, to find his night night. I sure do hope tonight goes better. He seems to be fine during the day. It's the night time that he is apparently going to have issues.

A Conference and A Museum

Campbell had a 4 day weekend this last weekend. On Thursday I had to go in for a Parent/Teacher Conference to find out how she is doing. Her report card had improved so much that I wasn't worried about the conference. I was right to not be worried. Her teacher said that Campbell is doing so much better than she was at the beginning of the year, not that she was doing poorly at the beginning of the year, just bad habits. She is no longer sneaking in her reading. She is also participating in the class. She has apparently figured out that she does indeed need to work at this school thing now.

Friday I took her to the US Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame down in Colorado Springs. This is a place that Aaron wasn't too thrilled about visiting this museum so we did it while he was at work. Campbell had a great time. She loved seeing all the skating costumes and trophies that they had on display. She also liked seeing all the different blades and skates from many years ago. The oldest ones we saw were from 1890. It only took about an hour to get through, but we had a good time just walking through the museum and looking at all things ice skating.

Catchup

I am a bit behind again. This last week just got away from me. So, let's do a quick briefing.

Last Saturday started with Aaron going to Boulder to pick up some medicine balls that he purchased off Craigs List. He took Caleb with him and the two of them had a terrific boys time. Campbell had her friend Page sleep over Friday night so us girls got up and went to breakfast. After breakfast we took Page home then we met up with Aaron and Caleb.

We took Campbell to Galaxy Golf. She had done really well on her report card this period so we were treating her. On her first report card she had mostly 3's a couple 4's and even a couple of 2's. Yes, the grading is odd here. They don't do A, B, C, D and F. They base it on numbers. 4 means they are above grade level. 3 means they are at grade level. 2 means they are working towards grade level. 1 means they are way below grade level and need some serious work. This reporting period, (3 periods in a school year) she got an equal number of 3's and 4's and only one 2. The 2 was geometry which they had just started so that was expected. Her behaviors also increased from "Consistently Displays" to "Always Displays". We were very pleased with her improvement. It took a lot of tears but we got her there. She is the type of kid that needs to be brought to tears to get her to do what we need her to.

After golfing we went to the park for a fun family day. We had a great time throwing the frisbee and playing with the foam rocket. It was a beautiful day that day. The temperature was up in the 70's. That evening we had M and T over for dinner. Aaron grilled some very yummy chicken. After dinner we ordered some fight thing on the pay per view. The boys really wanted to watch it. Us girls were just there.

Sunday was really too snowy and cold for anything. Yes, Saturday it was 70 degrees and Sunday we had blizzard conditions with blowing snow. This weather here is very odd.

Anyway, that was last weekend.