Thirteen in '13

  

I'm linking up with some of my blogging friends to bring you my....

What a fun-filled... and FAST year it has been!   I think I could list 1300 things that happened in 2013 if I had time...but "time" is definitely one of those things that I'm ALWAYS short on.... so I'll stick to the first 13 that pop into my head!  In no particular order, here they are...

#1  Being Awarded "Lutheran Teacher of the Year!"

So humbled and honored to have been presented this award.  I LOVE my job!  I feel so very blessed to have the opportunity to work with these little ones each day and share the love of Jesus with them all! I also loved that my family was able to join me in Wisconsin at the National LEA convention to be with me when receiving the award.  {After the convention, we celebrated by spending the rest of the weekend in Wisconsin Dells with some of our best friends.  So fun!}

#2  "I Teach K" in Vegas

How can I even put this experience into words?!  UN-BE-LIEVE-ABLE!  The professional development was great...but the friendship building was AMAZING!  Already planning my 2014 trip!

#3  Family Vacation:  Washington D.C.

We packed up and headed out on an awesome road trip to D.C. with our best friends.  My kids were the perfect age to visit D.C., having just learned all about American history.  And to my surprise, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I had my own "celebrity sighting!"  THE Kim Adsit! LOL!   I kid you not... Kim just happened to be visiting at the same place/time I was!   So weird!  We now laugh about me being her stalker-fan!

#4  Summer!!!  

Ahhh.. Nothing "special" to note on this one, just time to relax with the family.  I love spending time with my kiddos.  Love having the opportunity to be a full-time "Mommy" each summer.  We fill our days with CrAzY adventures! 

#5  Watching my kiddos grow up...{Bittersweet!}

 My twins turned 12. (Alexa and Hunter are the twins.)  My "baby" Colton turned 9.  My nephew (semi-adopted "son") went off to college. (Thank goodness it's not too far away! We suffer withdraw weekly, even though he comes "home" to us almost every weekend!)  My niece, 20, also regularly a staple in our home, has been ultra busy this year with college, then working 2 jobs!  I gotta make that girl slow down and spend more time with us!

(Yes... Garrett is making a goofy face!  That's how we roll!)

#6  Blogging Buddies

Oh, how blogging has changed my life... and teaching!  I have met the BEST friends through blogging.  Friends who are "in the trenches" just like me!  I LOVE having kinder-blogging-buddies to share ideas with and bounce ideas around with! Blogging Meet-Ups have been so much fun too!  Meeting up with the ladies (and gents) that challenge me to be a better teacher is just THE BEST!

#7  Kings Island with our "Best-ies"

For my twins' birthday, we invited all of our best friends to make the road trip to Kings Island with us!  It was so much fun!  We spent the day making some incredible memories!  Love these people!!!

#8 Kindergarten Art Show

 At the end of the 2012-2013 school year my K-Team held our own "Kinder-Gallery" Art Show. It was our year-end celebration of our self-made "Artist of the Month" program.  It was awesome.  The kiddos each chose their favorite artist from the year and in small groups made their own artist mini-movies on the iPads. Take a peek HERE.  We served grapes, cheese and sparkling grape juice in "fancy" glasses.  We invited friends, family, and upper-classmen (our school goes to 8th grade) to view our artist mini-movies, then our k kiddos hosted tours of all the master artist inspired art.  What an experience for the kiddos!  {And me too! A local philanthropic organization is currently considering funding an all expense paid trip for me to go to Paris this summer with my instructional assistant to learn more about the master artists...and therefore improve our program!  Wish me luck!!!)

#9 Under Construction: Prepping my classroom in 24 hours!  Ugh!

 Our school was undergoing a renovation project this summer, and let's just say things "got delayed."  I ended up having about 24 hours to prep my room for parent/child visitation visits.  Talk about an all-nighter.  When my co-workers and I ordered pizza and had it delivered to our classroom window, the pizza man said it was the strangest delivery he had ever made!  LOL!  But God is good!  We finished "enough" to welcome the kiddos!  Did I mention I have 37 little kinders this year?!

#10 Sponsoring Adonis

As my son said in our family Christmas letter, we don't have everything we "WANT"...but we have everything we "NEED."  For that, I am so very thankful.  God has given us enough to help others as well, and my family receives so much joy from being able to sponsor our sweet Adonis who lives in the Dominican Republic.  For $35/month, we are able to provide Adonis with the opportunity to go to school, have food to eat, receive medical care, and most importantly learn about God.  If you want to help your children understand how blessed they truly are and want them to learn how NOT to take what they have for granted, considering sponsoring a child through Compassion International.  We exchange letters and photos regularly and now can even email Adonis whenever we want.  It is a life-changing experience.  Check out the video below, made by Christian musician, Jeremy Camp.

Jeremy Camp & Compassion International Sponsor a Child! from Compassion International on Vimeo.

#11 Knowing Evil Didn't Win

My twins, who are 12, wrote to some of the families who lost children in the Sandy Hook school shootings last year.  They sent them pictures they had drawn and also wrote to tell them that our family, our school, and our church were all praying for them.  Hunter received a letter back from one of the victim's family. Such a life changing experience for us, reminding us how important our faith is to us...and reminding us of the power of God's love and prayer.  There is much evil in the world, it's true.  But if we keep God first in our lives, and share His love... Evil DOES NOT win.

#12  What does the fox say??  

Ok... Everyone knows this song, right?  Well... this year I have had the opportunity to watch my daughter further develop her hobby of movie making.  Check out my favorite of the year!  (She is 12...and made this absolutely completely on her own.)  Cracks. Me. Up.

What does the fox say? By Lexi from holly ehle on Vimeo.

#13  Christmas "Jay All Day" Day

 

This year we invited my family over on Christmas morning for our family get-together.  It was at my house...so I made the rules.  The rules were...you MUST wear FOOTED pajamas... and bring food.  LOL! {Ok.. In all honesty, the PJs were my sister's idea!} After we made it over the hurdle of finding enough adult footed PJs, the rest was cake!  We had a great time! Every one was happy, festive...and COMFORTABLE!  I LOVE "Jay All Day" Christmas Day! It's my new tradition!   {The pics above are my 3 kiddos...then me, hubby, Garrett & Erin (my niece and nephew), and my kiddos.}

Whew!  What a whirlwind year!  

I'm sooo looking forward to finding out what 

adventures 2014 will bring!  

I'd love to know what your 2013 was like....so "link up" using the "Thirteen in '13" logo at the top of the post!

Merry Christmas from "Mrs. Ehle's Kindergarten Connections"... and Family!

For years, it's been a tradition for me to invite one of my children to write our family Christmas letter.   Yes.  I do still send out Christmas cards, even the old-fashion "snail-mail" paper ones!  LOL   I know it takes time (which I'm eternally short on!)... but it is something that I value so much.  Christmas is an incredible time of year.  Not just because I get a two week break from work and get to spend that time with my dear family.... But because I value the fact that God loved us enough to send His son to earth, to die for OUR sins... and gift us with eternal life.  Christmas is a such a great opportunity to share this "Good News" with others... or maybe simply remind them of the reason for the season.   So, on that note, dear blogging friends... I am sending YOU our family Christmas card and letter, written this year by my son, Hunter.  I am truly wishing God's richest blessings to you and your family for a happy and healthy 2014. 

 

Merry Christmas!

This year I, Hunter, will be writing the Christmas letter!  I’m 12 years old and am in sixth grade.  Sixth grade is technically “middle school,” so we get to trade classes and teachers for different subjects this year.  I like school because I have a lot of great friends whom I get to talk with and hang out with there.  I get pretty good grades, so I don’t mind the classes either!  I stay pretty busy playing sports.  I played varsity soccer this fall, and I’m playing basketball and indoor tennis right now.  In the spring, I plan to play baseball again.  I also play tennis in the summer, too.  At home, I like to work on my computer. I have a few favorite on-line adventure games I like to play.  It’s neat because I can play and “meet up” with Garrett, my cousin, on-line even when he is at college.  When I grow up I’d like to be a computer engineer. 

Now on to Dad. He loves sports, and his favorite teams are Purdue, the Yankees, Colts, and the Pacers.  One thing he especially loves to do is play Fantasy Football. All of us in the family play in a league together, and we have a lot of fun doing it.  Dad loves to make jokes. He also loves to go fishing, play football, and do other things with us.  Dad still works at SDI, and he recently got a new office. Sometimes we get to visit him at work! He’s always really busy at work, but he was able to get away on our spring break so we could visit Washington, DC…that was a really fun!

Next, I'll talk about Mom. She brings us everywhere for all our sports, and she's awesome. She still is a kindergarten teacher at St. Peter’s.  It's great having Mom at our school because she's always there for us.  My sixth grade class is the “Big Buddy” class for kindergarten this year.  My class gets to help the kindergartners do special projects and other fun things, so I get to see mom even more this year! Something else exciting happened to Mom this year.  She was awarded the Arthur Amt “Lutheran Teacher of the Year” award this year!  She always works extra hard to be a good teacher, and she goes above and beyond what she has to do.  We got to drive up to Wisconsin to see her get presented the award, and we even went to Wisconsin Dells while we were up there!

Now, I'll talk about Lexi, my twin.  We get along great, and we hardly ever fight.  This was the first year she tried volleyball, and she did great!  She was really glad she played! She also does gymnastics, plays spring soccer, and plays winter tennis with me. Lexi also really likes to read, and she does it all the time.  She even does it really late at night, and my parents have to make her stop and go to sleep!  Lexi is really good at drawing.  She always amazes us with her artistic talent.  Another talent she has is movie making.  She is constantly making videos for school projects or just for fun.  They are really great.

Next, I'll talk about Colton, my little brother.  Everybody in my family still calls him Bubba!  He turns nine on December 23rd.  He loves to build things, and he is very creative.  He even has a real tree house inside his room! He loves to play in his room, and also loves playing outside, on the Wii, iPad, and computer.  He plays soccer at St. Joe and Wildcat baseball, and he wants to play football soon. He has a really big heart and cares a lot about people.  One day he heard about soldiers coming back from war who were missing legs and arms.  He decided that when he grows up he wants to be an inventor or engineer who makes robotic limbs for people who need them.  He is always looking for ways to help people.

I'm gonna talk about Erin and Garrett next!  They are my cousins.  We are really close with them.  Erin isn't around as much this year because she's busy with work, but she comes over to our house sometimes! She’s like an adult now, but still gives us hugs and often brings us special surprises.  Garrett goes to college at Trine University this year.  However, Trine is pretty close to us, and he comes back almost every weekend to our house.  Garrett loves to play video games with us, and he loves to make jokes. He is also awesome at playing “ultimate frisbee.”  He is just like our big brother.  We are very lucky to have Erin and Garrett in our lives.

Writing this letter really reminded me of how blessed I am.  My life isn’t perfect, but I have a great family, great friends, and an awesome church and school.  I may not have everything I WANT, but I do have everything I NEED.  We even are able to help provide for Adonis, a boy my age who we sponsor through Compassion International.  We make sure he can go to school, get medical care, and most importantly, learn about Jesus.  I feel pretty blessed, especially this year when there have been many natural disasters and other tragic events.   After the Sandy Hook school shootings, Lexi and I wrote to some of the parents of the victims. One little girl’s (Olivia) parents wrote back to me.  They thanked me for praying for them and said the picture I made for them made them smile.  That helped me remember how important my faith really is.  This Christmas I hope, that while presents are fun to get, everyone remembers that Jesus is the REAL reason for the season.

God’s Blessings,

Hunter

(And the rest of the Ehle Family!)

(The above pic is a little blurry...but YES. 

Yes, we are making goofy faces and gestures!  Gotta' keep it real!)

 

Minecraft -- Birthday Edition!

Well... my sweet baby, Colton, turns 9 this week.  Where, O, Where does the time go?  {Mental flashbacks of me going into labor during a snow storm and fearing giving birth on the highway! Lol} Apparently, my wishes of him staying tiny and squeezable just aren't going to come true... and he continues to grow up. * *Whimper...Whimper * *  

So.. I guess I have decided to help him celebrate in style, instead!   The baby-child has been begging me for the last 3 months to have a "home party."  Ya' see,  my twins have a summer birthday and I gotta' be honest... we've thrown some epic summer birthday parties (horse riding party, carnival party, jungle safari, etc.).  Now, I did throw a "Toy Story" party here at home for Colton when he was 4.  However, typically I just "talk" Colton into having his parties at other locations (like our local "Science Central" or other kid party spot).  {If you are a teacher, I know you understand.... I'm just wiped out from school program practices, class parties, and just Christmas chaos in general!?  Ugh! }  But this year, I knew I had to do it!  I had to host a "home party" for him!  Oh... Did I mention he HAD TO HAVE a Minecraft theme???  Well folks,  I DID IT!   And I kid you not.... I pulled this off in 24 hours of prep!  Woo-Hoo!  Oh, how a teacher has mad planning skills! 

Check. It. Out.  

First of all, an old friend from high school offered to make Colton's cake... and I snapped up that offer ASAP!  I had NEVER seen a cake that she had made.... and honestly had no idea she even baked!  But I knew I didn't have time to make a cake... so I said YES!  Can you believe it?!  It's INCREDIBLE!  Seriously!  She even personalized it with his nickname, "Bubba!"  People, if you live in Indiana... and want an epic cake... email me!  This little cake-making friend ROCKS... and is just opening her own business.  LOVE!  THIS! CAKE!  When I saw it, I almost decided to forget planning games.... so we could all just sit around the table and stare at the cake during the whole party!  LOL!   Ok... I guess 9 year old boys do need something else to do.  We carry on....

The party was from 1:00-3:00... so I didn't really NEED to serve a "meal," but I wanted to have some snack-y foods.  {After all, we were hosting ten 9 year old boys!}  So, here are a few peeks at our "Minecraft" snacks and "sippies."  All the snacks come directly from the game, with my "creative interpretation" on some, of course.
 



 
 

We came up with some neat Minecraft games too!  For the first game, we covered some square boxes, which I bought at Office Depot for a few bucks, with Minecraft wrapping paper.  (I just covered a few sides of the boxes to make the paper go farther.)  I taped Creeper faces onto upside-down green Solo cups.  Then we built a random structure to bow shoot the creepers off of.  <-- Yes, I did just end a sentence with "of" and I am a teacher.  BOO-YAH!

 

** Style Disclaimer:  YES!  The furniture is from 1999! {Check out that mad-plaid couch in the forefront! Woo-Wee!} This is  my basement, people.  I have small-ish children and plead the "waiting til they get older" excuse to buy new basement furniture! **

Next, we decided to "mine" for gems.  We filled a big tub with gravel and mixed in some of those fake colored gems.  Each kiddo had to find 2 dark blue (Lapis Lazuli ), 2 light blue gems (Diamond), 2 red gems (Redstone), and 2 green gems (Emeralds).  When they found the gems, they exchanged them for goodies.  {Light blue = Razzle candy *  Dark blue = giant blue gum balls  *  Green = green rock candy suckers  *  Red = red Pop Rock candy}
 

Then we moved on to the scavenger hunts.   In the real Minecraft game, you have to search for single items and then take your collection to the "crafting table" to "make/craft" another item/tool.   So, of course we did the same.  We had 3 mini scavenger hunts, each in a different room of our home.   When the kiddos found all of the items for hunt #1, they ran to the crafting table to exchange them for a sword.  Hunt #2 led to crafting a pick-axe.  Hunt #3 led to crafting a torch.  The boys LOVED it! 

 

My kiddos made these awesome pick-axes from those melt-able bead craft thingies!  {Kept them out of my hair while I was blowing up balloons too!}

 

 

  

Found the blow up torches at a local party supply store.  You can get swords at Dollar Tree, Michael's, and/or Hobby Lobby.

Finally, we ended with Minecraft Bingo.   It was great... and easy-peasy!  Simply check out the shop "MineCraftPartyIdeas" on Etsy.com.   

Considering I pulled off the actual party prep in one Saturday, I'd say it was a success. 

 

{I DID order invitations on-line a few weeks prior.  Ebay has a great downloadable selection!}

 

Colton was SOOOO happy. 
One little dude who came said, "Mrs. Ehle, Is this Minecraft Heaven?"    Awww!  :)

 

I'd do ANYTHING for this little peanut. 

I love him with my whole heart!!! 

 

Happy Birthday, Colton! 

Hope your birthday was unforgettable!

** If you have any more questions about the details of the party (in case you are planning one yourself), just email me! 

Evil did NOT win.

Please take moment to watch this video,

in honor of the victims of Sandy Hook.

Evil did NOT win.

We serve a mighty God.

We Remember * We Heal * We Act... for Sandy Hook

As educators, we remember and honor our fallen colleagues and their students from Sandy Hook School.  We honor them each day in our classrooms in which we continue their dream of teaching our children.  We honor their memory with our service.  Join with teachers everywhere in committing random acts of kindness to show our love for Sandy Hook.

 

 

Feel free to share your act of kindness in a comment.

Ehle Family Christmas Picture!

Well... It's time for the BIG REVEAL!  

 

Ya' know that little "distraction" I spent an hour

working on last night?? 

Yes.. the one in my last post.

 

Well, here is the purpose behind the pandemonium....

 The 2013 Ehle Family Christmas Photo!

 

Oh... What I do to come up with a decent photo for our Christmas cards every year!?  LOL.  Yes... It's a pain to find time to take a photo.  No... I actually don't have time to address over 100 cards personally.  Yep!  I know that most people don't send "real" cards anymore.  But, gosh darn it!  I'm going to do it anyways!  Christmas is such an incredible holiday.  It is truly amazing to me to marvel at how much God loves us.  He sent His very own son to earth to die for us, so that we may live eternally in Heaven with Him!  Friends, if God is willing to do that..... If Jesus was willing to die on the cross for us.... I CERTAINLY can make time in my schedule to muster up some Christmas cards!   {And CHRISTmas cards they will be!  Not just "happy holidays"... I make sure every year that our family cards are also an opportunity to share the REAL reason for the season!  He loves us all, people!  Even if we don't love him back!}   I will be sure to post a copy of the completed cards when I get them all finished!   Until then... enjoy some "out-takes" and "bloopers" from the Ehle Family Christmas Card photo session!  

 

My "super" twins! {Lexi and Hunter}

 

My sweet baby, Colton.    **  My hubby {and high school sweetheart!}, Troy and me.

A classic PHOTO BOMB by our resident photographer, my nephew, Garrett!

Us, being "THAT" family.  {That's our secret nickname when we are publically being goofy.  We just know "others" are watching us saying things like, "Look at THAT family!"

A photo of the "good children."

A snapshot of the REAL children! :)

 

 

And finally.... EVERY time we take family photos, the twins request a "model shot." 

Notice them gazing off into the distance.......

Hope you enjoyed a sneak peek into the life of the Ehles today.  Now we are off to the G-rents for a belated Thanksgiving dinner!   C-Ya!