Lots of fun

After school today we came home for a snack. Nate had some yummy sliced strawberries and then we worked on some word work. Today we focused on the words cat and pig. First, he matched the letters to make the words. He then traced the words that I had written in dotted letters. Finally, he drew a picture of a cat and pig. I was especially proud of how well he traced the letters of the words. He was really concentrating for the most part.

My favorite part of spending time with Nate is his random conversations. He told me today that he was wearing a polo shirt and it had a collar, it did! I had NO CLUE he knew what a collar or a polo shirt was! 

While playing outside this afternoon we spotted movement across the street. Our neighbors are awesome. Julia and Brian live across from Julia and Nate and are so sweet. They have two precious daughters(16 months and 5 years) that play so well with Nate.  Plus, julie used to be a special ed teacher so we ALWAYS have something to talk about. We traipsed over to see what they were up to. Rebecca, the oldest of the two had spend last night with her grandma and they made the three of us cupcakes. It was so sweet! Julia made some sidewalk chalk paint and we had a blast! I definitely suggest making some!!

Recipe: equal parts water and cornstarch and food coloring. Easy peasy. She put ours in a muffin tin and it worked great!

Made it!

I made it to Marietta and got settled in. I am tickled at how much Nate has grown since I have last seen him and how he's matured and his speech has developed! Ready for a busy day tomorrow as I learn his routine. Here are some snapshots from the day.

Quick Catch Up!

Well it probably won’t be so quick.

In December I finished up my final semester in classes at VSu leaving student teaching between me and that diploma!

Here are some of my fellow future educator friends at The Mix. It’s a frozen yogurt shop and if you are ever in Valdosta I’d HIGHLY recommend it! We are regulars there!!

Here is the rest of our class with our favorite teacher, Dr. Hedgy. His real name is Dr. Hedgepeth.

Two more of my lovelies are Maggie and Emma. This was at a baby shower hosted by our class for Maggie on our last week of school. Isn’t she GLOWING!?

After third block I got to spend some time in Ashburn before heading back south to start student teaching. January was a whirlwind month with student teaching orientation, my GACE(which is a fancy way of saying my Georgia teacher certification test), and starting student teaching.

I PASSED MY GACE!

I got the privilege of being a Cook County Hornet during student teaching. I was placed at Cook Elementary in Sparks in a 5th grade Social Studies classroom with 5 AMAZING teachers and 110 wonderful students. I had a GREAT experience and will forever cherish our memories. My final day was very bittersweet. I was so glad to be done because that meant I was one step closer to graduation and getting my own classroom, but I hated to leave my darlings.

Whew! It’s be a long time coming but I am proud to say as of Saturday, May 5, 2012 I am FINALLY an alumni of Valdosta State University! Here are some pictures commemorating that day!

My sweet family! (L-R) Wyatt(more on him to come), Justin, Sarah, Mama, Me, Sami, and Daddy

Meet David, the new beau. I cannot mention him without introducing you to his sweet son, Liam. He has won over my heart so quickly! Liam wasn’t able to come to my graduation but here are some pictures of us.

This is one of my very best friends, Tammy. We have been through a lot together at VSU and I am so thankful to have met her!

My roommate, Ashlyn, also graduated with her Bachelors in CSD. She had a less than a weeks break and jumped right back into grad school the following Wednesday. She will be graduated for good December 2013!

Aunt Terri and Uncle Louie came to support me as well as Uncle Vic(not pictured).

My pride and joy came to see his favorite aunt graduate! You might remember this little cutie from this post many, many moons ago(He was 6 weeks old then!).

After graduation we held a joint party in honor of my graduation but mostly in honor of Wyatt’s FIRST (yes, you read that right!) birthday! Below are some pictures of that sweet boy and some candids from his party.

He liked the icing! His Aunt Amanda made his cake for him and the theme was Radio Flyer wagons. My little sister, Sami, restored a vintage Radio Flyer for Wyatt for Christmas and she did a great job!

(There’s our elf in his restored wagon!)

I have applied to several jobs and heard nothing back yet. I am sticking to my thought that it is still a little early for them to hire, although most places in South Georgia are doing cutbacks rather than hiring. I am trying to stay positive and in the mean time I have decided to take my GACE in Middle Grades Education Math and Science. I’m hoping this provides more job opportunities and to be honest, I am hoping that this is where I get my job. Don’t get me wrong, stick me in a classroom with any students and I would be more than happy to teach them, but I like the older kids especially after student teaching.

The most exciting news of all, even after all of those things(and the reason for the longgggg blog post updating you on my life), is that I decided to use my summer off to spend some time with Nate and Julia again in Marietta! I had such a great time with them last summer and was so excited to use my blog as a portal for friends and family across the country to communicate and keep up with our fast growing little Nate. I will be headed North Sunday and cannot wait to see how much he has grown and how smart he has gotten. I know we will have a blast and learn so much from each other this summer! I am so excited about this opportunity!

Seriously, how could I turn down this face?!

That’s enough for you to digest for now. Check back soon for more updates as I get to Marietta and start making memories with Julia and Nate!

-xoxo, Suzi

Champion Kids- Tuesday Recap

Yesterday we went to Champion Kids and played our little hearts out. Champion Kids is similar to Play but has a bigger facility and more to do.  Because the camera died I wasn’t able to get any pictures. Even though, I am not sure I would have had the battery been charged! He was like a speed demon from one side of the building to the other running and playing! Here are some pictures I stole from their website to give you a better idea of the atmosphere.

The main lobby

This is the room we mainly stayed in. There are tons of cushion mats and toys to jump on. On the other side of the room by the yellow wall is a LONG trampoline and at the corner where the yellow wall and red wall meet there is a huge foam pit to land in!

The blue and yellow circle cushion toy is what Nate enjoyed most of the time! He rolled that thing all over.

The foam pit was fun! Here’s a close up

and the longggggg trampoline

There is another room connected to this that has a huge blow up slide, bouncy house, and hard toys like a wooden slide and balance beams. There is also a section in the other room for younger children and those who are crawling.

Needless to say we had one sleepy boy when we left! So we went home and napped. When we woke up we went to swim with our neighbors  Julie(mom), Rebecca, and Margaret! We had a really good time and enjoyed the cool water in the midst of this nasty summer heat!

Hope to get you some more pictures of our sweet boy tomorrow!

Suzi

Random order

Monday we packed up and headed to Imagine it! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta and had a BLAST! The museum boasts several different learning centers like a farm complete with a real John Deere Tractor, a grocery store with shopping  buggies and groceries, a delivery truck, a water play area where you can pretend fish, sports center, dress up center, moon sand tables, dance studio with a pair of tap shoes for every size foot imaginable, a play place, and a cool science center in which you can use different pulley mechanisms to raise and lower ball pit balls and move them from one place to another. I’m sure you can guess where we stayed most of the day by the million of pictures with the tractor!

Here is Nate with his new friend on the crane moving the balls from one container to another.

 

Here’s a random picture of us. I got him to sit still for one second!

Riding in the delivery truck!

Driving the truck

John Deere Tractor!

Driving a pretty little lady around

Checking out the tire

This is how he maneuvered around the museum all day! FULL SPEED AHEAD!

He got to milk the cow. It shot water in the bucket as if you were milking a real cow.

More tractor. These are not out of order…he kept going back to the tractor!

Driving the forklift and loading boxes onto the delivery truck

The kitchen is a mess! I wonder who did that?

Tapping away in his tap shoes. I think he liked the sound!

Back to the John Deere

We had a great time at the children’s museum Monday.

Monday night we ate dinner and cookie cake at Julia's friend Janie's house for her birthday. I have loved getting to know Janie throughout the summer with Julia and Nate and was excited to meet her family and spend a little bit of time with them.

I am hoping this week drags by because Friday will be my last day up here with Nate and Julia. I hate to have to leave and hate even more to have to start school on Monday but I will be done in May for good, PTL!

Up next, recap of Tuesdays events!

-Suzi

My promise to you!

I promise I have no fallen off the face of the Earth, nor have I run out of things to talk about. Those of you that know me know that is IMPOSSIBLE! :D Just busy and just too exhausted to blog lately. Don't worry though because I have lots of excitement to catch you up on, including our exciting day today! Tune in soon for LOTS of pictures(as soon as I convince my lazy butt to sit down and upload them!)

Thanks for bearing with me,
Suzi