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More St. Patrick's Day Fun!

St. Patrick's Day was really fun this year! It started off with Zane and I getting decked out in our green, and then I got to volunteer in his class all day! I have been wanting to volunteer all year, but my school schedule made it pretty much impossible! One good thing about our random Spring Break!

It was so fun to see Zane in his environment! He is such a good kid! I can see why Mrs. Starkey (his teacher) always compliments him! Some of the kids in his class were not the best listeners. Zane really loves to learn so no matter what the activity is, he always is fully focused on whatever the teacher is saying.

Mrs. Starkey told this really great story about Leprechauns. She explained to the children that if you can catch a leprechaun you get three wishes. She told the story of a man who caught a Leprechaun and was given three wishes. For his first wish he wished he had some sausages. Then he changed his mind and wished he had never made that wish! His sausages disappeared and he had already wasted two wishes. For his third and final wish, he wished for a pot-of-gold to appear under the tree they were standing next to. That tricky leprechaun did make a pot of gold appear, but he made it appear UNDER the tree, buried deep. The man needed a shovel to dig it out, so he tied a scarf around the tree (so he would know what tree his gold was buried under) and walked home to get his shovel. When he returned to the forest, he was stunned to find that the tricky leprechaun had tied a scarf around EVERY tree in the forest. The man began digging, but he never did find which tree his gold was buried under. Legend has it that there is still a pot of gold buried under a tree in Ireland today!

Zane loved that story! When he got home he decided to set a trap to catch a leprechaun! He found a box and proped it up with a paper towel roll. Then he put some of his money from his wallet under the trap to attract the leprechaun. Then he closed his bedroom door and pretty much forgot about it! Later that evening I told him to get his shoes on, and he went into his room and I heard this really long pause.Then he comes running down the hall laughing and saying "oh my gosh, you have to see my room!" Now his room was spotless when he set the trap, but this is what it looked like when we went in there:




Zane was so scared to life the trap and see what was caught! He could not stop laughing, especially when he saw the leprechaun hat hanging from the fan on his ceiling! When he lifted the trap he found lots of chocolate gold coins and a green barrel of monkeys game! He was so excited! He is convinced that he must of scared the leprechaun when he opened the door and that is why it ran away so fast that it left its hat! It was a very fun day!!

Spring Break!

So this week is everyones Spring Break, EXCEPT Zanes! I was really hoping we would be able to go out of town for a couple days, but I really don't want to have Zane miss any days of school! He is doing so good! We just got his second report card, and he got all E's and E+'s! (the grading system is so weird...) He also got a special Citizenship award! It is such a neat thing to see him thriving in Kindergarten! We are really trying to read as much as possible lately, if he gets to 5000 minutes he gets a special lunch with his teacher, Mrs. Starkey. He only needs 1500 more before the end of school! He has the most minutes in his class, and he gets so competitive when someone else gets close to him! It is so funny, because that is exactly how Ian and I are! We both figure if you are going to do something, you might as well be the best at it! We try not to push that onto Zane, but apparently he has inherited it atleast a little bit!

I am looking forward to working in Zane's classroom this week. Usually with my school schedule I never get to volunteer, but this week I am really looking forward to spending two days in Zane's world! He is so excited to have me there, he already said he is going to introduce me to all his friends! He did warn me that I shouldn't be offended if they forget my name, since they did just meet me! He is so funny!

I am hoping to use this week to get caught up with some projects around the house, and I have some paintings I am wanting to get started on. I am looking forward to Ian getting home at 5 everyday this week! It gives me a glimpse of what life is going to be after Ian graduates in May, I cannot wait!

Here's to a productive week!

Shamrock Shuffle!

Today we all participated in the Shamrock Shuffle! The Shamrock Shuffle is a fun walk/run around Chico State Campus to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in a non-alcohol related way! St. Patrick's Day usually gets pretty crazy here in Chico, so this is a fun way to celebrate as a family without having to go downtown and brave all the craziness! Also, this is the holiday were I celebrate my being 1/16th Irish. My Mom's father, who died when she was 17, was half Irish, and silly as it sounds, the last couple years I have really enjoyed celebrating a tiny bit of my heritage on this day and the grandfather I never got to meet!

Zane invited his best neighbor friend Carys to go with us, and they had a blast! Here is Zane before we left for the race:

Here is all of us right before we started lining up for the race:

Carys and Zane listening to the race instructions:

Now, you are probably wondering why I have no pictures of Zane or Ian during the race. Right after they shot the gun for the race to begin, Zane took off speeding through the crowd. He was running so fast Ian had to run ahead to catch up to him. He really wanted to win, and they had hid shamrocks along the way and he really wanted to find one and get a prize! They ran so fast Carys and I could not keep up! Here is a picture of Carys during the race:

We finally did catch up with Zane and Ian right before the finish line, here they are celebrating their victory:

We had so much fun! Then afterwards they served us a big pancake breakfast with lots of pancakes, 

sausage and juice! Here is everyone enjoying the breakfast:

We had so much fun we are already talking about doing it again next year!!

Then this evening, Carys invited Zane to his first slumber party!! He is so excited! 

We just walked him next door and he could not stop grinning! My little baby is 

turning into such a big kid!

Happenings 2/24/2009

Things are good here in Chico!
Ian is doing great at his job, he has his first review coming up, and he got the Einstein Award! The Einstein Award is an Einstein troll doll that is passed around the design department to someone who is doing a really great job, and he got it! He is also finishing up his last semester at Chico State, and cannot wait to be done! Party at our house at the end of May! Between work, Team Graham and school Ian is pretty busy!
I am loving my classes this semester! I am learning German, studying gender and taking two art history classes! Its a full but really rewarding schedule! The daycare is really busy, we shortened our hours, but added more full time daytime kids, and things are running a lot better! Rachel is only going to be working there until the end of this semester, and then I will be all alone! We feel really lucky that while so many people are struggling in this economy we are able to have such great jobs. It is a blessing that we do not take lightly. Ian and I are currently really focused on getting our finances in a really good place. I am reading this great book, Total Money Makeover, that I recommend to anyone that is looking for a plan to getting debt free, and feeling secure. Also, I have been really focusing on learning to cook, so you all need to come visit us so I can make you yummy food! This weekend I made snickers bars! I can make healthy stuff too! :P
Zane is awesome!. He starts Gymnastics today and is so excited. I convinced them to put him in the 6+ class since the younger class was way to babyish for him. I think it was his headstand that won them over! We are pretty sure we will be moving to China soon so he can train for the 2016 olympics. We will miss you all!
Zane is loving school, even though he says his class is too easy. They are doing a reading contest and he is really working to read 2000 minutes in 5 weeks!
I am our of space! Hope everyone is well, I love reading what everyone is up to!

Graham Happenings! 1/21/2009

Graham Happenings! 

Things are going so good for us here in Chico! Ian is loving his job, it is so weird to see him get up every morning and put on his dress shirt and go to the office. I never thought that would happen! It is such a weird mix of roles for us, with Ian graduating and working full-time and me going to school! It has really changed the dynamic of our family, and it is a really nice thing!

Our car stuff is getting all figured out, the insurance company did their payout already and we are just waiting on the GAP insurance and then we can get our new car! Hopefully this will all end up working out nicely and we can get a car with a lower car payment than we had before! Those cows could turn out to be a blessing in disguise!

Zane is happy as usual. He has his first play date tomorrow with a friend from school and he is really excited! He says he is going to teach her to play the wii, but if you saw Zane "teach" people to play the Wii at his birthday party, that might not be such a good idea! He is really working on building up his sight words right now, they just moved some kids in his class into a higher reading group and is really excited to have some more challenging books to read! He is also excited for his 100 days of school party, and has decided to bring 100 marshmallows! 

We are super excited for all the birthday parties over the next couple weekends! Cannot wait to see everyone!!