Sunday, August 31, 2008

My First Day of School

The same day that the kids started school, I had my first "official" day back to school. Needless to say I have been working on my classroom for two weeks prior to our "official" day back. I was given a wonderful opportunity to move up to the fours when Ms. Denise decided to go back to school and step down to an assistant position. I was very excited to move up, I have wanted to for a couple of months now. Well because of this move, I had to move all my stuff from a threes class cabinet to my new class cabinet. I also had to rearrange the classroom so it would work for my style of teaching. I think it looks wonderful and welcoming.
Here is some video of my classroom, you can decide for yourself whether you think it is welcoming.

I have a great group of boys and girls. I have 6 children right now, four boys and two girls. I am sure that the class size will grow, since I am the smallest class, I will get any new students till I catch up with the other classes. But for now I am praising God for a great size class. We will be able to do so much more with just 6.

I have had my first day of school and it was great. Things went very smooth.

I just love the kids, already. I love teaching and I am so happy to be back. I am a little overwhelmed with the difference in the 4k standards, but I am excited for the challenge. Thank goodness I am working with 2 wonderful women Monday thru Friday who will show me the ropes.
This post is a work in progress. It is now September 11th and I have added one student. I now have 5 boys and 2 girls. (September 15th) I rearranged my room a bit today, I took down a big mural that was on the wall and added an area for us to hang our wet artwork. I also moved my shapes posters to the same wall so it would look better.
Hope you have a great day.
Barb

The Kid's First Day of School... Yeah!!!

Our morning started off very early. Unlike most mothers on the West side of town my children ride the BUS... yes I just said the Bus.... I know most people don't believe in letting their precious children go off on the bus, but for now it works for us. Our bus driver is very nice! The kids wake up at 5:50am or 6:00am. They rush around and get ready and have breakfast and are supposed to be outside by 6:50 for the bus. Because we were the first family in our neighborhood that used the bus when we moved in. (We were one of the original 4 houses built in our neighborhood, the first contract on a house in here.) That said, when we arranged for the bus when we moved in they came up to our culdesac and stopped right in front of our house, since I told transportation that there was NO WAY I was letting Jonathan who was in kindergarten at the time walk to the front of the neighborhood, since there were only 4 houses and lots of construction. They said they would bring the bus in and see where we lived and then go from there. Well needless to say it was a good thing, and we don't want to lose it, because they still come up our hill and stop right in front of our house. We even have some what of a signal with the driver that if our porch light is not on, she doesn't come up the hill. We don't ever want to give up on the bus in the morning... If we could figure out how the bus would work for the older girls in the afternoons we would probably use it if we knew about it. As it stands right now I go to 3 different schools and sit for almost an hour and a half. I would love to not spend an hour and a half in the car in carpool in the afternoon. We may try to figure out the afternoon bus from the middle school and high school and see how scary it is. I am thinking it may be worth it to look into.
Abigail is ready for 9th grade at the Dorman Freshman campus, I'm not sure we are ready for her to be in high school. :-)
Hannah is ready for 7th grade at Dawkins. This will be the first time ever that Hannah has been at a school by herself.
Jonathan is ready for the 4th grade at Westview Elementary.
Sarah is ready for the 1st grade at Westview Elementary.
Here they are lined up by age.
Abigail, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah.
Hope you enjoyed... stay tuned for more...
Barb

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Back to School Fashion Show

Three of my children did a back to school fashion show for Dillards on Saturday, August 16th, YES I am very late in posting this... I am trying to catch up since school started. Jonathan was asked based on his photo shoot he did at Dillards the Saturday before. When they found out I had four children they said that all 4 could participate, but Abigail did not want to. They got to pick out their outfits and then they could get a discount on the outfit, or in Hannah's case she got a pair of NEW Rainbows for 20% off. We did buy Jonathan the green shirt and pants also. Sarah needs no more dresses, and Hannah wanted the Rainbows instead of the outfit. Here are some pictures from the day and a video of them... Sorry it is not clearer and closer.
Here they are in line waiting to go on and posing afterwards.

Hope you enjoyed... I have a lot more to catch up on, so keep checking back.

Barb

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Registration Day

We had a great day yesterday, so today was a little long with having to go to 3 schools. We started off taking a group picture, since they all looked nice. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Friday.




After visiting with some of the kid's previous teachers we got busy with the work at hand. We went to Jonathan's class first. Jonathan got Mrs. Arrowsmith. This is her first year back at Westview. She moved from Anderson Mill Elementary. We are very blessed to have her and have heard wonderful things about how her classroom is run.


Here is a picture of Jonathan with his teacher Mrs. Arrowsmith.


Next, we went to Sarah's class. She got Mrs. Ayers for first grade. We have heard great things about Mrs. Ayers also. She has been teaching for 18 years I believe, so I am sure she is very experienced.


Here is a picture of Sarah with Mrs. Ayers.




After leaving Westview we quickly headed to Dawkins Middle School for Hannah. We had to make it before they closed at 1:00 for the day. We got a chance to meet all her teachers and put some things in her new locker.


She is going to have a great year!


I didn't take any pictures of Hannah and her teachers, as so not to embarrass her.


Hannah decided today to wear bows on her t-shirt to tie up the sleeves and a ribbon in her hair. I was so proud of how cute she looked! Even her friends commented that she looked more "girly".


Here's a close up in case you missed it in the above pictures.

After we finished at Dawkins we headed to the Church so I could put away a few things for Sunday morning. Then we headed to lunch at Subway. After Subway we made the long trek down 26 to go to the Dorman Freshman Campus for Abigail. The next 2 - 2 1/2 hours were spent at Dorman waiting in line or waiting for Abigail who was waiting in line. We again didn't take pictures of Abigail with her teachers so we wouldn't embarrass her. She did have her yearbook picture and student id made. Once she was done with having that done we walked to all her classes to see if any of her teachers were there, but they had all left. It was almost 5:30 when we left.

All in all it was a great day.

We are looking forward to the start of another GREAT year!

Monday, August 18, 2008

A Day at the park

Thursday was a special day for our family. Tyler and I took the day off of work and we spent the day going to several different parks all day. The first park we went to was Cleveland Park in Greenville. They have some new playground equipment that is very cool. The kids just loved checking it out. Our plan was to only stay there for about 30 minutes. We ended up staying about 45 minutes before we moved on to the next park. Here are some of my favorite shots of the kids from our first stop





They had this very awesome ramp you could get on. Well, rather than explain it, watch the video, it is really cool!



This was fun equipment also!


After we left Cleveland Park we headed to the ball park to buy our tickets for the game we were going to that evening. Next we headed to Falls Park. We had a picnic and walked around by the river. After some fun in the park, we walked over the suspension bridge and went to the Lazy Goat and got some gellato, it was so gooooooooooood!


Here are some of my favorite pictures from today!
















After we left Falls Park, we went to park our car for the baseball game and get dinner. We ate at the Mellow Mushroom down by Flour Field. It was really good, I love their calazones! We got done and walked down to the ball field. It was a really fun time! The kids got to play on the grassy area while we watched the game. They were really wanting to catch a ball, they really watched the game too, so they would know when to run to try and catch the balls. Jonathan ended up with a ball that an older gentleman gave him. We had so much fun, we will have to make sure that next summer we go to a couple of games, it was very reasonable for us to go, $30.00 for all our tickets.

We had a great day and enjoyed spending time with our kids before they go back to school. Tomorrow is meet the teacher/Registration Day. I will post pictures of them tomorrow with their teachers.
Till next time,
Barb

Deal of the Day

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I LOVE to yard sale. I have not always loved it, but since I started going here with my best friend I have loved it. When we lived in Atlanta consignment sales were really big and tons of people had them. Lots of swim/tennis neighborhoods would have them at their club house and just about every private preschool connected with a Methodist or Lutheran church would have one. So needless to say my love of shopping in general was fulfilled, along with trying to clothe 4 children in the overpriced boutique clothes that I love, was made possible. When we moved here, to say I was disappointed in the shopping in Spartanburg would be an understatement. I was especially disappointed in the consignment sales. In Atlanta I would go to 3 or 4 consignment sales a day on the last part of the week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) for about 4 weeks solid sometimes 6 weeks depending on when the season started and which sales overlapped. My best friend here invited me to go out with her VERY EARLY one Saturday morning and we had the best time and got the best bargains. I WAS HOOKED! It has become a time of fun and girl time that I wouldn't trade. We have so much fun, even when she sings loud and off key, Love you Heather.:-} So now you will find us every opportunity we get leaving our houses around 6am on Saturdays to be the first to get there and get the good stuff. We usually get breakfast somewhere good and quick, We really like Bojangles cinnamon biscuits! We try not to go too much out of our way to get them, we have been known to alter which sales we go to first based on how close they are to Bojangles. Well I digress... the whole point of this blog was to show you the deal of the day from 2 Saturdays ago.
These shoes were my deal of the day. I went to a yard sale in Sedgefield and just happened upon these 2 pairs of Rainbows, yes I said Rainbows. Well I was prepared to pay maybe 10 for the adult pair and maybe 5 for the kids pair. Well I was shocked when I asked how much she wanted for them and she said .50 cents each. Can you believe it! They were not that worn at all. Jonathan had a pair that I bought new 2 years ago that he had outgrown and worn the bottoms almost off, so he needed them bad, and they were his size. They are the best flip flops, they last so well. I also got the other pair for me so I can have a spare pair. I wear mine almost every day too, so it will be good to have another pair. Heather had bought a brand new pair earlier that day for $20.00 that were blue which was a good deal also but not .50 cents good.
Till next time
Barb

Sarah Katherine Hoffman

Sarah Katherine Hoffman
February 21, 2002

Sarah is our third daughter, fourth child and our "second last child". She is full of spunk and smiles. She was just born with a good personality! Sarah was born on February 21, 2002 at Gwinnett Medical Center in Georgia also. Tyler kept telling me I should wait to be induced till the 22nd so she would have a cooler birth date, 2/22/02, I told him that my body would be happy with 2/21/02. Sarah's name came out of Genesis, we couldn't find any that we liked in 1st Samuel. We knew we wanted her name to be a letter after j since we had gone through the alphabet in order A,H,J then S. I can't remember ever thinking seriously about any names for her other than Sarah. We went round and round about her middle name, and how to spell it, whether with a C or a K. I am sure if I had kept a baby book for her I would remember. I didn't but I have plenty of pictures of her to put in one if I ever get one. *My pregnancy with Sarah was pretty easy. I worked at Chili's up until the week before I delivered her. It did help with getting good tips. Most people didn't realize that I was even pregnant until they saw me from the side without my apron on.

*Sarah was the first baby that Abigail and Hannah saw being born. They were in the delivery room with me for about an hour until I had Sarah. They colored in a coloring book and occasionally they would come over and look to see how far along I was. Hannah's eyes were as big as saucers when Sarah finally started coming out.

*Sarah had a pacifier that she sucked till about one and a half, and a blanket that a friend in Atlanta had made her. She never really got attached to the blanket until she was about one and always had to have the blanket to suck on. She sucked on the blanket just as she would have had it been a pacifier. When she turned 2 and was still carrying around a large crib sized blanket every where I took desperate measures and had a kind woman from our new church in Spartanburg to try and duplicate the pattern with similar yarn. It was a success. She made 5 hand towel sized blankets that Sarah could easily carry and take every where with her and that I could wash and still have a spare.

*Sarah loves the camera, she came out smiling. She has done several catalog photo shoots for Millie Lewis. The main one she has done was for Smile Makers catalog. *Sarah is all girl she loves dress up and most times you see her she is already dressed up or is asking if she can go put on her dress up clothes. She loves anything pink and girly.

She loves going to school. She has always wanted to go with me when she was in preschool and go to "her class" right away in the mornings and not wait for her class to start. She started reading very early. Well memorizing, she could "read" us her first book when she was in Ms. Karen's 4K class. She read me Biscuit and I just was so proud. She has been officially reading since being in Ms Hanna's kindergarten class. She was able to read most short books about Christmas time last year. Now she reads everything.

*I am so proud of the young lady she is growing into. I can't wait to see what God is going to do with her life. She is our last and the child that helped us to be so thankful for extra blessings. I don't know what life would have been like without her.

Till next time,

Barb

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Jonathan Tyler Hoffman

Jonathan Tyler Hoffman
May 9, 1999
Jonathan is our first BOY and our third child, he was to be our last, since we finally had our boy. He is so full of fun and love. We were so excited to be having a boy. He was born on May 9, 1999 at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Some of the names we were thinking for him were Asher, Jonathan Pierce, and Samuel. In the end Jonathan Tyler won out. We are so lucky to have a wonderful name and also to have his middle name honor his Dad.

*Jonathan was an extra special gift for this mother because he was born on Mother's Day! What a wonderful gift!
*Jonathan was always active in the womb, but he came out running and hasn't stopped. If anyone has met him they know he is full of fun.
*Jonathan slept with a floppy dog that was blue and had long ears. He would suck on his pacifier and rub the puppy's ear across his lips. It was so cute! He still has the puppy on his bed in a place of honor. He gave up the paci when he was 2 1/2.
*Jonathan is all boy. He loves every sport out there. He has played baseball several seasons. He may do football this year if this momma can let her baby boy do it. :-{
*He especially loves cars and big trucks. He has been to the monster truck show before and talked about it for months.
*Jonathan is our very animated child. He has been in several plays at church and loves being on the stage. He has an amazing mind and can memorize the lines very easily. It was said he knew all the other members lines from just hearing it.
*Jonathan will be an amazing man after God's heart as he grows into a young man. He loves Jesus and shows the love of Christ to those around him. Well, others not always his sisters.
*Jonathan's first concert was Third Day at Centennial Park in Atlanta when he was 4 weeks old. He has been to many since then. I think his favorite recently was winter jam at the BiLo Center. They were on the floor in the back and he got down on the floor and was break dancing for all the big kids.
*Jonathan, as our third child, helped us to learn the zone defense part of our parenting.
*I am so proud of the young man he is becoming.
Tune in for hearing about Sarah next and then I will update you on all the fun we have been having and all about school.
Till next time.
Barb

Monday, August 11, 2008

Hannah Leigh Hoffman

Hannah Leigh Hoffman
May 31, 1996
Hannah is our second daughter. She is full of life and living it to the fullest.
She was born on May 31, 1996 at Bristol Hospital also. My pregnancy with her was much easier. With Abigail I was sick for about 7 months. With Hannah I was only sick for about 4 months. I knew what to expect this time, and it made life much easier. Hannah's name came out of 1st Samuel also. The other names that we were thinking of for her were Haley Ann if she was a girl and Brady Alexander if she was a boy.
*Since Abigail nursed for almost 12 months straight... we decided to give Hannah a bottle at 2 weeks so she would take it if we ever needed her to. She loved it! She was our paci sucking, bottle drinking second child. Hannah weened herself from nursing by 6 months. I cried!
*Hannah has slept with her blanket since day one. I think if you looked on her bed somewhere on it you would find her blanket. She loved it. It is a blue Gymboree blanket with small red apples on it. It has survived pretty well over the years. It was the blanket that I brought her home in and matched her outfit and Abigail's outfit.
*She is a tomboy at heart. She has tried just about every sport out there. When she was younger she did Gymnastics and Ballet. Since we moved to South Carolina, she has tried Baseball (she played on an all boys team and won first place for her division), and last summer she played on a girls basketball league. We are not sure what she will try next.
*Hannah is my musical child. She has taken guitar lessons and loved it. We stopped because her teacher was no longer doing it. Hannah is in Honors Chorus at Dawkins. She has a beautiful voice!
*Hannah is the child that helped us to realize how we could love another child the same as our first. When she was born we went to man on man defense.
*Hannah is my approval girl. She loves to get affirmation for her hard work. I love to give it to her!

*I am so proud of her and the young woman she is becoming.
*She is my second and taught me how to be a Mommy to two girls.
Next time I will tell you about my Jonathan.
Till next time,
Barb

Friday, August 8, 2008

Abigail Grace Hoffman


Abigail Grace Hoffman
April 6, 1994
What can I say about our first born? What a beauty she is!
Abigail was born on April 6,1994 at Bristol Hospital in Bristol, Connecticut. My pregnancy with her was mostly uneventful. We were so excited for her to come. I had several false starts, can you say with me Braxton Hicks...I had many.
Needless to say after 5 hours of labor and 4, yes I said 4 hours of pushing she finally came into this wonderful world.
Abigail's name came out of 1st Samuel. The original runners up were Olivia Mae (Mae is my mother's middle name and Tyler's sister Angie's middle name.), Catlin Dawn, Jenna Marie, and Haley Ann (the only part of this name that had a history is that Ann is my middle name.)
* Abigail was born tongue tied (it just means the little piece of skin under the tongue is short so she can't stick her tongue out as far as other people, and she may have had trouble nursing, she did not), not that it has ever been a problem for her.
*Abigail was born with a clogged tear duct, which made her one eye water constantly and get infected easily. After consulting a Pediatric Opthamologist and hearing of the surgery she would need, it suddenly opened 2 weeks later, so needless to say no surgery. YEAH!
*She nursed for about 12 months straight, we never introduced a bottle because she was our first and we figured that it wouldn't be an issue. Obviously we were wrong, the first and only time we tried to get away with out her to go to a wedding she cried the whole time and would not take a bottle, even with my milk in it, we tried a few days before to make sure it would go well. It did not!
*She had a stuffed bunny that she slept with, stroked, sucked and carried everywhere with her. It was lost several times and one time I had to drive 30 minutes over to my sister's house at 11pm when we realized she did not have it for bed. Once "Bunny" had become to thread bare and his stuffing was coming out, his silky coat had turned from blue to a bleached out white from all its washing we finally placed him very carefully in a gallon sized quart Ziploc bag. She quickly found a "Puffalump" elephant with the same silky texture that became her new lovey. Every once in a while she will pull out the original "Bunny" and look at it fondly.
*Her looks have changed dramatically from when she was a baby. If you know Sarah or saw Sarah as a baby she looks just like Abigail as a baby and toddler.
*Abigail is a very stubborn young lady. She will go far because she know what she wants and how to get it.
*Abigail loves art and anything to do with it, she always has.
*Abigail's favorite love is a good book. She LOVES to read. As a child she wanted me to read to her constantly. We were always talking, about everything and because of this I believe its the reason she is so verbal. Abigail has read more books in her short life than I have probably read my entire life.
*Because of Abigail's birth we reevaluated our lives and got involved in our local church for the first time since our wedding, she was 6 months old.
*Abigail was saved on February 6, 2000 at 5 years old .
She was baptized on November 19, 2000 at Grace Church in Norcross, Georgia.
While in middle school, on a youth retreat she recommitted her life to Christ with a deeper understanding of what Salvation really means.
*Abigail is my nurturer. She loves to help her sisters and brother (most times) to do something or learn something new.
*I am so proud of her and the young woman she is becoming.
*She is my first and taught me how to be a Mommy.
Next time I will tell you about my Hannah.
Till next time.
Barb

Coming posts, an explanation and some recent events

I was on another blog and saw a wonderful idea. She wrote a post about all of her children and their unique qualities. (Thanks Courtney R. for the idea) I decided this would make for a great post for the next few days as I am really busy with getting my class ready for school (I will try and remember to take some pictures and post them in the next few weeks) and there is not much else going on in our lives. I will also try to fill you in on our plans for next week. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I will be busy getting my room ready. On Thursday we are taking the kids to Falls Park in Greenville for the day to show them the awesome park. We are planning on taking a picnic lunch and then spending the day at the park and the evening at a Greenville Drive game. I will post later on the fun we had here. On Friday we will be going to register all FOUR CHILDREN !!! I don't know how we will get it all done. We have to take Sarah and Jonathan to Westview to register them, then rush over to Dawkins to register Hannah before they close at noon. Then we have to run all the way down to the Dorman Freshman campus and register Abigail for High School, and from the paperwork and the
map for all the stops we need to make within the building that they sent it will be a very long process. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! I am so not ready for this new stage of our lives. Well enough of that. Tonight while I am writing we (Tyler, Barb, Jonathan and not for very long Sarah. ) are watching the Olympics.
Sarah didn't make it long, Jonathan was loving it!
Abigail and Hannah are at a back to school PJ party for the youth girls at church. Come back to see the profiles of my children . Hopefully it will interest some people other than myself.
Here is a picture of all the kids at a family reunion/pre- wedding pounding that we went to last weekend. A special thank you goes out to Wendy and Dickie for opening up their lovely home for all the crazy Mostellers. We had a wonderful time of getting up to date with wonderful family members. We also got some great ideas for plans for a new backyard with a pool, a fire pit and a gorgeous fireplace, and how wonderful it can look.