Ice Cream Maker

I had a couple American Express giftcards I got for my birthday, so I decided to buy myself an ice cream maker for the summer! I took a trip to Sur La Table because I saw their ad that they had colorful Cuisinart ice cream makers, rather than just the normal white. When I got there I found out that they had a special going on, and if you bought the ice cream maker, you got a $15 gift card. Score! I ended up with all kinds of fun goodies! A turquoise ice cream maker, a matching ice cream scoop, an ice cream sandwich cookie pan, some cute red french fry baskets (we've been making a lot of homemade baked french fries lately), and some whiskey stones for Tony (since he had found them online and wanted them but we hadn't seen them in any stores). With my birthday money, and the free gift card, I spent under $20 for everything. So exciting!

I couldn't wait to use my ice cream maker yesterday after letting the barrel piece freeze overnight! Tony requested chocolate ice cream, since that's his favorite, and I figured if I make something he will eat then I won't have to be a fatty and eat the entire batch every time haha. So, milk chocolate it was! I researched recipes online and ended up finding a good one from a baking blog I read.

Let me just tell you, the ice cream turned out SO rich and creamy! I am in LOVE! It has such a yummy chocolatey flavor, but you can only eat a little because it is so rich. There is nothing about this ice cream I don't love. Tony had been joking with me all day that "it better be as good as Blue Bell, because that's the only ice cream I eat". I served him up a bowl to let him try it. His response? "Wow, this is bluebell quality". YAY! Ice cream success!

If you have an ice cream maker and are interested in the recipe you can find it here at this great baking blog: Brown Eyed Baker

I've already bookmarked TONS of ice cream recipes I cannot wait to try! What a fun summer treat!! :)

Grand Theft Auto

I keep saying they can't do anything else that will surprise me, and yet, shit like this keeps happening:

After school today I was walking by the nurse's office when a group of teachers stopped me.

T: Hey, you have J in your class right?

me: yeah, why

T: do you happen to know if he has a motorized scooter?

me: as far as I know, no he does not

T: do you happen to know if he rode one to school today?

me: no, he definitely didn't. He was tardy because his mom brought him and then stayed for the awards ceremony at 8:30

T: oh, well we think he stole one then ...

Tracy then goes on to tell me that J has apparently stolen an older student's motorized scooter and rode it home. They got outside with the walkers and this one older kid was a little late. When she got out there she saw her scooter was gone. They looked down the road and could see J riding it way down the street. They were calling his parents to try and confirm that it was in fact stolen, and not actually his.

Um, can you say first grade grand theft auto?!?! HE FREAKING STOLE A MOTORIZED SCOOTER! Who does that?!?! I have to admit, this one actually left me in a state of complete shock. There isn't a lot that actually surprises me anymore, but this just takes the cake. I'm interested to hear tomorrow how it all turned out. I know that some teachers were suggesting we actually call the police and have them go teach him a lesson about theft, but I don't know how it all ended up playing out because I had to leave.

This is complete INSANITY I tell you. INSANITY!!!

spit

Yesterday I was sitting at my guided reading table organizing a few things while the kids worked. One little boy came up to me and reported that his neighbor had spit on him. He held up his arm, and sure enough, there was a large puddle of spit right there. So I call the neighbor up to chat:

Me: Did you spit on C?

A: *shakes head no*

Me: I'm going to ask again, did you spit on C?

A: *shakes head no*

Me: this is your last chance before I go check the cameras to see if you're lying. Did you spit on C?

A: *looks down* yeah

Me: *getting angry* why in the world would you spit on someone?!?!

A: I dunno, I just wanted to

WTF kind of kid turns to his neighbor and thinks "hey, it might be fun to spit on you right now" and then does it in the middle of class?!? OMG. Every day is something new ...

Field Day

For the past three years, field day has been one of my favorite days of the year at school. This year however, for reasons which I think have been made clear already, I was NOT looking forward to it. All in all the day turned out fine, and the kids were no more bad than normal, because at least were allowed to scream like crazies all day. There were some VERY memorable moments though:

On the way out to the "opening ceremony" for field day I was walking next to a student in Michelle's class. Out of nowhere he busts out with this awesome quote of the day: "Ms. McCormack, there is nothing that could make this day any better! Well, except if there were girls in bikinis everywhere and we were running around like horses" hahahahahaha

After everything that happened with poison control yesterday you would not believe this next story. All the kids start telling on a boy in my class saying he has candy in his pocket. Upon further inspection we find that he has pills in his pocket! He said he found them on the floor at home and thought he would bring them to school. Um he actually brought drugs to school! Keep in mind what happened yesterday ... omg crazy!

One of my students got caught shoving another student out of line, so I calmly told her she needed to sit out a round before she would be allowed to play again. She then decided to throw a monsterous baby fit. I calmly explained to her that she had two choices: 1. stop crying, miss one round, and play again or 2. continue to throw a fit and be done for the entire day. I walked away so she could make her choice and when I looked back her mom was putting her back in the line telling her it was okay, she could play! Um, wtf?!? I'm a little scared of the mom, but I went back over and told her she had time out. She said "but my mom said I could play". Um no. I'm the teacher, you listen to me. sorry dear. Seriously, what parent does that?!?!

At the end of the games we got to have snow cones at the front of the school. The kids all got their snow cone, then sat in the shade to eat and rest for 15 minutes. While they were sitting we look up and notice that a number of kids are holding packages of gushers, and lots of kids start to complain. Turns out one of my kids' parent had brought 18 packages of gushers and was letting her child choose his favorite people in first grade to give them to just then. Um, number one WE DON'T TAKE FOOD FROM STRANGERS (do we remember the drug talk yesterday?!?) and number two why would someone hand out treats to some but not all. Oh geez!

And to end the day we had to have one more drama moment. 5 kids in my class had picked up their yearbook today. They left them in the room while we went to Michelle's room to watch the movie. When we came back they had 15 minutes they were allowed to go to the other first grade classes to get kids to sign it if they wanted. Well, one of their yearbooks was gone. We searched her desk, searched her backpack, and I asked at least 3 times if anyone knew where it was. Of course no one said anything. I finally tell them all to open their backpacks as I am going to have to search them since someone has clearly stolen it. Sure enough, one little girl comes over with it just then and says "um, I was just looking at it" um no, you were not just looking at it. You just pulled it out of your backpack because you freaking STOLE it. oh my god. these kids are completely nuts!

Every day you think nothing could surprise you more, then something happens like a kid brings drugs to school haha. Wonder what Monday has in store ...

art bullies

I haven't been very good about blogging this year, and this group of kids has been so crazy the only thing you can do is laugh (now that it's almost over that is; before that all you could do was cry) so I think I need to go back and tell some of these crazy stories, just for memory sake. You may see a number of entries in a row with some crazy stories, so go ahead and laugh, and then thank your lucky stars this hasn't been your year!

Let's start with the art room story. The art room in our school is off a main hallway, which you have to walk by on the way to and back from lunch. Every day when our first graders are coming back from lunch the third graders are in outclass. One day we noticed that the art teacher had put paper up in all the windows next to the door, but only to about a first grader's height. Upon further investigation we found out that every day when the first grade crazies were walking back from lunch they were making faces at the third graders and "bullying" them through the glass. It got so bad none of the third graders could get work done, and were all complaining about how mean the first graders were, so the teacher had to put up paper so the little ones could no longer see in the windows. First graders bullying third graders. Um, that's just not right.

To go along with this, when we found out they had been bullying the third graders some fourth graders started coming out saying that they didn't want to sit by the first graders on the bus because they were too mean to them. We don't just bully each other in first grade, we bully older kids too! Now, a teacher has to ride the bus every day after school to control them. Dear lord!

poison control

Every day I go to work I say nothing else can possibly surprise me at this point ... and yet, every day these kids manage to do something idiotic that surprises me!

Today, it was poison. Yeah, they ate poison at recess. Just let that sink in for a second and start to understand what exactly we are dealing with in first grade this year!

So, the kids went out for recess today and as they are coming back in Coleen was totally freaking out. Apparently, on a dare, a number of kids chose to eat some random seed pods they found on the ground at recess. Not knowing what these things were, she dragged them down to the nurse to have her check on it. They ended up having to call poison control. You heard me, POISON CONTROL. (wtf?!?) Turns out, the seed pods they ate are only poisonous to cattle, BUT they do have a narcotic effect if eaten, AND, had the kids eaten the plant instead of just the seeds, THEY COULD HAVE DIED! I wish I was kidding. Do these kids think anything of this event? Of course not. It's just another typical day in first grade this year.

I swear, what else could they do at this point that would surprise me?!? Just wait until tomorrow, I'm sure there will be something new...

Tomorrow is field day. God help us all!

Marriage Advice

I have a million and one crazy stories from this year and I've done a lot of complaining about the kids so I thought I would share a cute story (there aren't too many of these unfortunately haha, but this one is pretty darn good):

J: Ms. McCormack, did you get married yet?

Me: no, not yet

J: gosh, just pick someone already!

Me: Well, I can't just pick anyone now can I? I have to pick someone good!

J: hm, yeah, okay, that's true

S: (Dead serious) Don't pick anyone that does this (pretends to pick her nose while I start laughing hysterically!) I'm serious! They will put it on you Ms. McCormack!

hahahahahaha

so there you have it ... quality marriage advice from a 7 year old. Don't marry a nose picker because if you do, they will wipe it on you. hahaha I'm still laughing at this one!