thesellers.net

"The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book." -Anonymous

This week is Teacher Appreciation week. As part of the class gift, I was asked to interview Molly about what she loves best about school, Miss Carol, and Miss Jodi and have her draw or paint a picture. The kids responses were then compiled into albums to present to the teachers today. Molly's responses were quite amusing, so I thought I'd share them with you.

What do you love most about school?
I love playing with Taryn

What do you love most about Miss Carol?
Drawing my foot with her

What do you love most about Miss Jodi?
Making a hat for Mommy on Mommy's Day

What are you thankful for about school, Miss Carol and Miss Jodi?
The stories

What's the funniest thing that ever happened at school?
Playing with Taryn

What do you think Miss Carol's favorite thing about school is?
Eating snacks

What do you think Miss Jodi's favorite thing is?
Eating snacks

What is your picture about?

Miss Carol telling me, Jake, Jenna and Jeremiah not to bonk each other. We are in the classroom inside the school. Miss Carol is purple and Miss Jodi is blue.

That's me and Jake inside his house. Jake is on stilts. I am reaching for his hand. That is a giraffe because it has spots. It's reaching for an apple.

As you may have seen, Molly's first soccer game did not go well. The second one went much better. Here's a highlight reel of some of the best moments. Molly did great. She went into the game every time the coach told her to, and participated the entire time. After spending much of the last game on the sideline, that was a huge improvement.

As Jen mentioned, Uncle J organized an Easter egg hunt in their backyard for the little girls. Here's a little bit of footage from it.

We traveled down to Birmingham (in "Alabana" as Molly likes to say) to spend Easter with my family.

It didn't take long for the girls to get started on some cousin play. We spent lots of time playing on the back porch.

On Saturday morning, we all went to a nearby playground for some fun.

Making oatmeal cookies was a must-do for Saturday evening.

And the Easter Bunny did manage to find us in Alabama.

After church, Uncle J organized an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard.

It was busy day, but Leah found a great spot to relax and listen to Uncle J's music.

This is a taste of a regular day around here. One of Molly and Leah's favorite activities is playing music in Molly's room and dancing around. So, here's a bit of them dancing.

A bit of fun from the field trip to the zoo. They actually did their power walking for several minutes, but it didn't last very long once I got in front of them to take the video. They seemed to think I was a great target for attacking.

The big field trip of the year happened this week - the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. I got to go as a chaperone along with many other parents. One of the highlights of the trip was that we rode in a school bus there and back. Here's Molly gazing at school as we pull away.

Once we got to the zoo, the kids were excited to see some animals. I believe Molly and Taryn are looking at some cranes here.

Here are Cole, Indraja, Jenna, and Molly watching the ducks in the African Aviary.

We saw lots of big animals as well, like rhinoceroses, leopards, lions, chimpanzees, and more. This cheetah was sleeping pretty close to the glass, so the kids decided it needed to wake up. They proceeded to shout "wake up" over and over at it. It didn't work, as the cheetah merely opened its eyes slightly for a second before closing them back.

The kids even got to feed a giraffe. Here's Molly placing her leaves on its very long tongue. I'm surprised she was brave enough to do this. She's usually scared of animals, and this was a pretty big one.

I think he likes it. And don't worry, Taryn and Ava already had their turn feeding it.

After feeding the giraffe, the kids got to wash their hands in this big basin with shower heads. They all got a kick out of it, especially Molly.

All the kids climbed up to see the elephants. This picture is typical of most of what I saw all day - the backs of the kids as they looked at the animals.

We tried to take a picture of the six girls that stuck together throughout the trip with the giraffe in the background (to go with their shirts), but posing six 3-4 year olds can be challenging. This is the best I got.

We had to book it to get back to the bus on time, as no one wanted to leave. Fortunately, more fun was still in store for us - a bus ride home. Here, Molly and Jenna are having fun with the wind blowing in their hair on the bus ride home for a few seconds before being told to sit down.

It was a great trip, and the kids in our group had a great time. I'm very glad I got to go with them. There are a bunch more pictures on Flickr starting here.

The girls and I headed to Port Discovery Children's Museum with our playgroup this week. Leah loved playing in the Wonders of Water room.

Molly and Simon had fun filling this cylinder causing it to spin due to the power of water.

A couple of our playgroup dad's came along for the fun too. Zach is doing a great job overseeing the boat building.

The museum has three floors of exhibits for the kids to discover. Any kind of "shopping" area was a hit!

While the big kids played in the three story tree house, the toddlers checked out the new Tot Trails exhibit. Leah liked making these pegs light up.

And she thought it was fun to sit in these seats that looked a lot like turtle shells.

What happened to waiting until 16 before she got behind the wheel?

The Music Studio was great. They loved playing with the Boomwhackers and the big drum.

Queen for a day...or may be just a moment!

Before we left, the kids requested to play in the Wonders of Water room again. Standing inside the big bubble was a must-do since you've already seen that Molly loves bubbles!

The girls and I went to Toys R Us armed with a gift card from Molly's birthday. We returned with bubbles, including this bubble gun.

Do you think she likes it?

When was the last time you frolicked with bubbles?

And I may have got in a little bubble gun action too!

We've already had to replace the bubble solution and the batteries. The girl loves her bubbles!

It's time for soccer again. This year, Molly's not just doing clinics. She's on a team with practices and games. These are some shots from her first practice.

She's ready to go!

Excuse me, Ava.

Molly and Simon are having fun trying to chase Coach Joe to get the ball away from him.