Helping Her Mom

It's so handy having Katie at school twice a week with me. She helps me get so much prepped for my day of teaching.

My mom needed me to illustrate her book, so she could be ready for her next writing lesson. I love helping!

Time with Aunt Jennifer

Katie loves spending time with my sister. She gets most of her Jennifer time on weekends.

Aunt Jennifer and I have lots of fun together! We have a lot of common interests, and she's always so much fun!

Next to Katie

The cats always take turns sitting next to Katie. It's their favorite place to be!

Mr. Limpet's favorite thing to do is to crawl in between the layers of the blanket.

General Washington usually likes to be on top of the blanket, but on this day, he wanted to copy Mr. Limpet!

Just Relaxing

Lately this is how Katie prefers to watch TV.

I happen to find this very comfortable!

Card Games

Katie loves to play card games. She has one game called Dos, and for some reason, we have such a hard time keeping the rules straight in our heads, but we make up our own rules and still have fun!

My mom and I have lots of fun playing games!

Winning a Prize

At our school, we have a "Gotcha Drawing." Students earn Gotchas when they show behavior that is respectful, responsible, safe, and kind, and each week a Gotcha is drawn from each grade level to win a prize. Katie won the Gotcha Drawing for her class during our virtual assembly and was so excited!

I got a new sketching journal!

Hearing from a Friend

Katie was so happy to get a note and a small gift from one of her friends that she just treasures!

Thanks for the bracelet and note, Libby! I love them, but most especially the note!

Extra Work

Katie was a little confused with fractions, so my sister offered to help. Jennifer was ready to help after dinner. Katie would have preferred to wait for the next day.

I didn't feel like practicing math, but I did understand it a lot better after we practiced!

The Draw of Magnets

Katie never gets tired of playing with magnets. When she is in my classroom after school, I often find her playing with the magnets. She was so excited when I let her have two paper clips and one of my button magnets to take home and play with.

Who needs a store-bought fidget when you can make your own with simple materials?

Sketching

I've been amazed at the time and effort that Katie has been putting into her sketching.

I'm currently working on drawing hair. It's trickier than you might expect!

Welcome, Spring!

We are so excited that spring is here! We were hoping for a beautiful spring day with spring-like clothes for the first day of spring, but it was still cold and rainy. We will take it though! Right now, the trees are still pretty bare, but every day we see more buds and blossoms!

We love spring and all the new beginnings it brings!

A Constant Companion

Wherever Katie is, General Washington is usually close by.

General Washington and I get each other!

If You're Looking for Katie...

One of Katie's favorite places to read is in her loft bed. If you can't find her, always check there first!

I love to read in my bed! It's so comfortable!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We have never done a lot for St. Patrick's Day, but Katie does like to wear green. She had found a shirt with green in it for the day, but after she put her pajamas on, she realized she better find a way to keep green with her for the remainder of the day.

I didn't have green in my pajamas, so I thought it would be perfect to put this green hair band on my finger like a ring!

Opening the Box

Katie had received an Amazon gift card from my friend, Noreen, and she was so happy to go shopping with it!

I decided to buy a new book and a stylus to make sketching on the Chromebook easier. Thank you so much, Grammy Noreen!

A Twirling Chair

What's more fun than a twirling chair?

I love having this chair in my room!

It's perfect for spinning!

A Valentine's Surprise

Katie was so happy when she received a Valentine's card from my friend, Noreen!

Thank you for my stickers and Valentine wishes!

The Nickelodeon Choice Awards

Last night, the Nickelodeon Choice Awards tv show was coming on, and Katie was excited to watch the results. Then she heard that Kamala Harris would be making an appearance, and that made everything so much more exciting for her.

I can't explain how much I love having a female Vice President!

The Coin Collection

My dad used to always collect his loose change in old coffee cans. When Katie was small, he gave her one of the coffee cans. She has always loved those coins - for counting, for playing, for looking at the small details. Every now and then, she pulls out her coins, looks for new details, and then researches any questions she has about them.

I figured it would be the perfect time to look at my coins while my hair dried.

Right now, I love looking at the years coins were made and finding special coins. On this day, I found out when James Polk dollar coins were made.

Fun with Nesting Dolls

Nesting dolls can be so much fun to play with, and Katie loves hers!

There are so many pieces in such a small area.

I love to look at the differences in each of the dolls.

Time to go back together!

A Self-Portrait

Katie spends time drawing every day. The other night, she was sketching on the computer when she started laughing. She thought the self-portrait she drew was so funny!

My mom thinks it's funny when my hair hangs in my face, so I thought my self-portrait should look like this!

A Gift

My sister, Debby, surprised Katie with a gift this week.

Thank you, Aunt Debby! I can't wait to start reading this!

Goodbye, Hair!

Katie took one last photo with her hair before sending it off to Locks of Love. She was very excited that her donation could help someone else.

I've never posed with my cut off hair before.

Getting Home

When Katie got home from her haircut, I thought her hair looked so cute!

I was happy to get home and show my mom my new haircut!

The Haircut

Katie was so excited to get to Nikki's and get her hair cut off.

I had to make sure that I had at least ten inches of hair to donate.

After Nikki made the right length ponytail, she cut it off!

My hair felt so light.

Here was the hair I lost!

Then Nikki had to make the bottom of my hair look good.

It felt so good to have less hair!

I loved it!

Thank you, Nikki!

That Long Hair

Katie's hair was getting so long. In normal times, Katie gets her hair cut right after her dance recital in June and then lets it grow for the year. Last June, everything was shut down and Katie just decided to let her hair keep growing. In recent months though, she has gotten really tired of her hair - mostly because of the tangles that always got in it. She asked if she could go with my mom and Garyldine to get her hair cut. Her plan was to donate her long hair to Locks of Love. Before she left, I took one last set of pictures of her long hair.

My hair probably would have shown better with a different colored shirt on, but you can still see where it ends.

My hair had never grown to this length before!

Playing with Mickey and Minnie

As soon as Katie could, she changed Minnie's and Mickey's clothes into their Chinese New Year outfits. She was so happy!

I love that my stuffed friends have different clothes!

Valentine's Mail

 As always, Katie was happy to find mail in the mailbox with her name on it! 

I got this Valentine from my cousins, Ian and Eva!

It had stickers inside!

The card opened up so I could play Tic Tac Toe with the stickers!

Then I got another Valentine from Grammy Noreen with an Amazon gift card!

Thank you so much for my mail!

Seeing Aunt Jennifer

After being stuck at home for days, we were so excited on the first day that we could drive again. One of the first things we did was to go and see my sister. Katie was so happy to see Jennifer and was also so excited to get a Valentine's/Chinese New Year gift from her.

I was surprised to have a gift waiting for me!

How happy it was to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse!

Aunt Jennifer knows how much I have missed Disneyland!

She got me these cute Chinese New Year clothes that I could change them into. Thank you, Aunt Jennifer!

Trudging Through the Snow, Ice, and Slush

When we had our snowstorm, we were pretty much homebound for four days. In our area, none of the neighborhood streets are plowed, so when you have much snow, the roads are a giant mess. When this happens, I usually can't drive my car up the hill in our neighborhood because it's too slippery.

Since my mom lives a block or so away from us, Katie and I spent a lot of time walking between my house and her house. We were happy on the day that the tire tracks were finally cleared so we had a steady place to walk.

I was so happy when we could finally walk somewhere without sliding!

Drawing People

Katie has been working so hard lately on learning how to draw people. She practices every day.

I ran out of drawing paper, so I just used one of my journals to practice my drawing.