American history....through the eyes of my nine year old!

Every week, Kellan comes home from school with test and assignments that he's completed. Yesterday he came home with a few more. As I usually do upon receiving these tests, I scanned through them. I either congratulate him on tests that he scored well on, or leave out the ones where he didn't do so well, in order to work through them with him, during that week.

I noticed a test that didn't have such a great mark, and proceeded to look through it.

These are two questions he got wrong......

The first involved a time line showing some important events in American History.

This was the question & his answer....

Yeah...that's my son!!!  And the piece de resistance was the next question.....

By this time, I was trying not to crack up laughing, while maintaining the stoic, poker-face of a mother who is about to give the serious 'benefits-of-getting-good-grades' lecture!

In the end, AFTER I had given the good grade lecture and we had corrected the questions, we both proceeded to have a good giggle at the silly answers he had given. After all....you've gotta keep your sense of humour, right?

Celebrations

It's celebration time in the Hersey household again. This time in the form of Kellan's 9th birthday. Due to his birthday falling on a week day, we decided to celebrate on Sunday.

He chose to go to Incredible Pizza, we all had a great time. And today I made Chocolate Chip cookie dough cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache icing (yeah, I know it sounds fancy schmancy and all, but it was easy peasy!), and dropped them off at school. I had planned to join Kellan at school for lunch, with a surprise of Chick-Fil-A, but was told when I got there that parents weren't allowed to do that today due to certain Grades writing TAKS tests. I was a bit dissappointed, but managed to get Kellan's food to him anyway.
Tonight we have a small Baskin Robbins ice-cream cake for dessert.

Here are a few pics of the celebrations so far.....

As you can see, Star Wars seems to be a recurring theme here!!

Assembling all the Lego models was quite the task, and warm memories kept coming back to me about my own childhood, building houses with some friends' Lego sets.

Only the Lego sets nowadays are HUGELY high-tech!! One needs a degree in engineering to cope with some of these toys, I'll tell ya!

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcakes..........

 

And lastly, we sang and blew out the candles. All nine of them!! Happy Birthday my boy!!

Food Revolution....Yeah!!!!!

Image by marymaddux6272 via Flickr

 So, I am TOTALLY hooked on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution showing here on TV at the moment. I have been a fan of Jamie's cooking shows and recipes for years now. (His Yorkshire Pudding recipe rocks!)
And I have heard of the good influence he has had in the UK school system.

Kudos to Jamie for coming to America! As far as I have heard, a lot of the food served in schools here (including my own kids elementary school) are fast foods. Yes, I will also say that a healthy alternative is given at some schools - it is at my kids' school anyway. But I am pretty sure that it isn't the case everywhere.

Yes, I am the mother of a very picky 6 year old, who would much rather be eating cookies, candy and ice-cream. And that's all the more reason why I think this programme is so important! The last few weeks in our home come dinner time, has been one of constant negotiations to get him to eat his veggies. I am not one of those mom's who'll cook 3 different meals every night, in order for every family member to eat and be happy. Agree, or disagree with me, but I just won't do it.

Jamie said it perfectly on the show, when he said the kids might not want to drink the natural milk, over the sugar loaded chocolate and strawberry milk. But take the bad options away, and keep giving them the healthy alternative, and they'll get used to it!

Call me the eternal optimist, but I have always dished up mashed potatoes to my 6 year old......
He. HATES. Mashed. Potatoes!
Can that be normal, I ask myself ???? He hates it probably as much as I hate green beans....and that's a LOT!!! But there is a persistent, nagging, motherly trait, deep, deep, inside of me, that believes.....truly believes....that my son will one day wolf down his mashed potatoes with gusto! (It's my dream, and I'm sticking with it!)

So go on people, have a look for the Food Revolution badge on the right of the screen, and click on it to sign the petition to help Jamie make a difference.....you know you want to!

I'm Sorry!!

Yeah, that's me......I'm truly sorry for my extended absence. That thing called life has kept me busy, and the first thing to bear the brunt of this was my blog.

Never fear however, I am BACK!!

It's been a busy few months. Spring has truly sprung here in The Woodlands, Tx, and Easter has come and gone in a flurry of eggs and chocolate. We however, spent the weekend in San Antonio, but that's a post for another day, and you can be sure I'll post lots of photos.

The kids have been busy at school, and I cannot believe there are only 6 weeks of the school year left, and the LONG Summer holiday begins. So, I have been busy helping them with school stuff, and we are attending a Grade 2 musical tonight at Kellan's school, that should be fun!

I'm happy to report that the weather is wonderful, although I believe the dreaded humidity is lurking in the not too distant future. The Woodlands, and the Hill country in Texas are truly beautiful in Spring. With the wildflowers painting the highways and byways in stunning colours of blue (from the Texas state flower Bluebonnet) and other bright colours. I took the following photos on the return trip from San Antonio, after much cajoling on my part in getting the kids to sit amongst the Blue Bonnets, and smile on top of that!

  

I got a few smiles out of them finally.  The wildflowers are a wonderful thing to see, and admire. After the dreary months of Winter, the earth is putting on a glorious display and I just LOVE it!!