Weekend at the Lake

Every summer of my husband's life he has gone to the same camping park on Lake Tawakoni. We have stayed in tents and screen shelters, and ever since our children were born we have stayed in the rustic cabins. This past weekend was time for this summer's trip. His brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came and stayed in the cabin next to us. His mom also came, but she opted for a screen shelter right on the water. We didn't get to stay very long this year because of busy schedules, but we had fun while we were there.

The family hanging out between the two cabins.

She is really getting better at catching the Frisbee.

Even levitating off the ground to catch it.

Having fun playing Frisbee. 

The girls had fun telling stories of Big Foot. Then they took turns coming up with plans to catch him.

Cori's plan was to take a magic stick wand and use it to turn Big Foot into a statue. 

Crissa's plan was more involved. It took written plans. I don't know what all it was, but it included her cousin hitting Big Foot with his bike and knocking him into the fire. 

Here is her plan.

They got called princess by some of the kids in other cabins. That's okay because as far as I am concerned they are princesses. 

She caught a fish the first night there. 

And one the next day.

Hanging out while mom and dad pack up to go home.

It was a short trip, but it was fun and relaxing. 

Diving Board

Today was a really awesome day for Cristina. She has had issues with water since she was born. The first time we gave her a bath in a bathtub she screamed the entire time. When she was 4 or 5 months old we took her to her first swimming pool. When I put her feet in the water, she kept lifting her feet up as high as she could to get out of the water. She ended up lounging on the pool chairs instead of playing in the water. As she got older we continued to have problems with bath time. She could not stand having water on her face. Washing her hair was a huge struggle. As she got older she become more comfortable in the water as long as her face stayed dry. When her little sister came along she was completely different. She was 2 the first time we took her to a pool. It was at my mom's cousin's house. We walked into the backyard and Victoria just ran and jumped in. She scared us to death. We grabbed her, and all she wanted to do was jump in again. I spent most of the time there getting splashed in the face as she jumped in. We decided to immediately put her in swim lessons. She goes to a place with an indoor pool. This means she takes lessons once a week year round. Now having a little sister show you up in such a big way  is bigger motivator than anything we had every tried before. Cristina made it her goal to learn to go underwater. We got her some goggles, and she began working on it. Several weeks ago my mom took the girls to a friend's house who has a pool. Her daughter was there, and she is a former life guard. Whatever she did with Cristina that day made Cristina decide that she loves going underwater and swimming. We signed her up for a two week swim lesson session at a local pool. Today was her third day. And the whole point of this story is that she jumped off the diving board into 17 feet of water. Her swim teacher was there to catch her. There was a point that I thought I would never see that. I was so proud and so happy when I saw her jumping off that board.

Ready . . .

Set . . .

Splash!!!

She did it!!!

Yonanas! Frozen Banana Ice Cream

Tonight we tried something new. Several months ago I saw on Pinterest a way to make ice cream out of frozen bananas. My husband and I made it mixed with chopped up peanut butter cups for our Sunday Night Dinner (when my family comes over for dinner). My sister-in-law was thinking about this when she bought my birthday present a few weeks later. She found a machine called Yonanas that makes ice cream out of frozen fruit. I put it up, planning to use this summer. Well, tonight was the night. We made delicious ice cream completely out of frozen fruit.

Here we have everything ready to make mixed berry banana ice cream.

Doesn't that look yummy and healthy?

Here it is starting to come out.

This is the mixed berry.

I prefer pineapple to frozen berries, so this is mine. 

This could not have been easier. A few days ago we bought some frozen fruit and the bananas and threw them in the freezer. Tonight all we had to do was turn the machine on, put the fruit in, and push down on the plunger. Out came the ice cream. A quick rinse in the sink and I was ready for a different flavor. I think I have a new favorite summer treat! 

Introducing Sunshine and Giggles In Second Grade

Hi! Welcome to my blog! I am so excited to finally be doing this. I have been writing blog posts in my head for months now. Now that it is summer I actually have time to sit down and figure all this stuff out.

First, let me tell you about myself. I am a second grade teacher, mother of two, and wife of an 8th grade teacher. My mother is a retired teacher. As you can see, education is a major part of our life. I thought about having a school blog and a family blog, but the lines are so often blurred I decided to just make one combined blog about our life.

Next, I want to explain the name of this blog and why and I doing it. A few years ago I got a new principal. It was a difficult transition for the whole school, and a very stressful time. A collegue friend of mine and I went to a training. The trainer was a reading coach at a nearby school. She was also having a stressful year. She told us that her motto for the year was sunshine and giggles. We adopted that motto and is a favorite saying of ours. I want this blog to be my opportunity to focus on the sunshine and giggles in my life. I want to focus on the posititives at school because there are so many. I want to record the positives at home because they go by so fast.

So here is the beginning of my blog. I hope it helps all of us to focus on the sunshine and giggles in our life.

Let me leave with some pictures introducing everybody.

These are my girls. Cristina is seven and Victoria is 3. This is at the San Diego zoo this summer. It is an amazing place.

This is the girls looking at the fish tanks at Bass Pro Shop. I love how they each had their own bubble to look in and I could get them both in the same picture.

Following are some pictures of my classroom from this past school year. I love getting the students up and working together.