Goodbye April

...Farewell April You have treated us well this month

Q and U get Married

ROCHESTER — From the beginning, their attraction was hard to deny. And after their first date, it was rare to see Q without U.

On Wednesday morning in Debbie Bacchiocchi's kindergarten classroom, the two letters made their love official with a simple ceremony.

"Q and U are a match made in phonics heaven," said Bacchiocchi, who presided over the festivities.

For 12 years, Bacchiocchi has orchestrated the wedding of the two letters for her students at Rochester Memorial School. Leading up to the big event, she taught her class about the letters separately while getting the kids excited about the wedding.

On the morning of the event, the wedding hall was beautifully decorated. A runway of petals lined the aisle to the alter and tulle sashes adorned the chairs of the guests.

Everyone in attendance was handsomely dressed and outfitted with pink bouquets and corsages.

After Mr. Q promised to stand by Mrs. U "forever and ever and ever and ever" and vice versa, the guests opened their gifts for the happy couple.

Q and U received a number of items from their gift registry – quarters, a uniform, quilts, utensils, a Queen CD and even a unicorn.

Bacchiocchi helped the kids spell out each item for the registry record, after which group photos were taken with the couple.

Then the real fun began with dancing at the reception, followed by cake, toasts and champagne...er lemonade.

Quinn Perry expressed her joy for the newly married letters: "I am glad you got married because I would not have my name."

The entrance to the wedding was decorated specially for Q and U.

The couple and their guests enter the wedding hall.

Madelyne Denham and Jaime Jardim lead the newly married letters to the reception

Teacher Debbie Bacchiocchi dances with the kids at the reception.

The reception had a simple cake and cupcakes for guests.

This article came off the newspapers website:

http://sippican.villagesoup.com/p/q-and-u-tie-the-knot-in-rochester-ceremony/1175490

The article that was printed in the newspaper included only one photo - the one with Jaime in it.  So my Jaime is now famous ;-)

The morning of the Q&U wedding

And we'll name her Meisie

Meet our newest member of the Jardim US clan,

This is Meisie.  

She comes from a rescue in Pennsylvania.  

Ili left Massachusetts today at 3am to drive 8 hours there and 8 hours back all for a wish Jaime made a year ago,  And well a home is not a home without a dog.

The boys did now know where Ili went, and why he went.

After a long day at school, work and karate we arrived home to Ili calling the boys into the kitchen cause of the scary moving box.

Already comfortable

And you ask why Meisie.  Various factors contributed to this name.  Firstly it was Jaime's suggestion, cause a few days prior we were learning a few words in Afrikaans, and meisie means girl.  Secondly her given name was maze.  

Now our house has a Meisie, just like in SA, and like our SA home every minute there is someone calling/screaming/talking to Meisie. (For those who dont know, Meisie has been my moms helper for many years)

Oh Mateo

Another year - Happy birthday to me

Today I turn 34, yes 34..

jaw drop

and silence...

Emotionally I still cannot deal with being 30 never mind turning 34.  

To help me deal, we celebrate!

My birthday card:

A coffee shop (cause I love coffee).  the girl in teh green skirt is me, and the blondie is Auntie Carmi ;-)

My work surprise birthday cakes..yes cakes!

And when I arrive home, my cupcakes baked by my boys!

We enjoyed a braai outside with friends..yummy ribs and good wine, yum yum yum!

 My prezzie

Dishclothes - I guess when you tun 34 needed household goods become your birthday presents

serviette holder

My weekend birthday cake from my dear friend and neighbour

Even my garden celebrates with me

It flows through our veins

April Kindergarten newsletter

April Newsletter
Spring has sprung and we are blooming in every area of the curriculum.

The children are growing so tall and academically they are all becoming
wonderful readers and writers. Their math skills and their higher level
thinking skills are amazing me daily. It is a wonderful time of year for me to
see this progress in each child. Vacation is here soon and the children really
need this time to play and rest for a while. Once we come back we still have
much more to learn. It is always hard to get back to school - work and to
keep that early bed time after April break. But please try because there is
so much more to do when we come back. I have many dates for you to
remember in the coming months. I like to give them to you early so you can
plan a head. Enjoy the rest of this month and hopefully we will be blessed
with some beautiful, warmer weather soon.

April 29th – We will be going on a field trip to the Soule Homestead Farm in
Middleboro. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the
farm and the outdoors. They all need to bring a bag lunch for we will be
having a picnic at the farm.

April 30th-Wedding Day- We will be having a wedding. Letter U and Letter
Q will be united forever. We are asking that the children come to school
dressed for the occasion. (Sunday best) All boys will be Letter Q’s Best
Men and all girls will be Letter U’s Maids of Honor. Each child is asked to
bring a wrapped wedding gift for the happy couple. (Gifts will be returned
home later that week.) The gift needs to be something that begins either
with a q, u or qu. (Example of a gift maybe an umbrella or Q-Tips .) There
will be wedding cake, dancing and even decorations! I am looking for someone
who would be willing to make a small wedding cake for the occasion. If you
are interested please email or send in a note as soon as possible. Thank you.

May 7th- Community Helpers Field Trip. More information on a permission
slip will be coming home.

May 20th- Field Trip to Wood’s Hole Aquarium – Be on the look out for more
information.

May 21th – Family Celebration Night, 6:30 in the cafeteria. Your family is
invited to come to school to see your children’s multi-media presentation
they are working on. They will also be performing for you. An invitation will
be coming home closer to the date.

May 30th – RMS Fitness Day- More information will be coming home from
Mr. Woodward.

June 12th – Family Movie Night- staring your children – 6:30 p.m.- more
information to come.

June 18th- Last day of school. ½ Day, please make sure the children have
their backpacks because they will be bringing home lots of stuff.
Literacy- In literacy we have been working on many activities that begin
with the letters e, King Ed, x, o, and u. I will sending home new popcorn
words that the children need to add to their popcorn boxes. Writing has
become a very natural way of life in kindergarten in the past month. The
children have been writing independently in the Writing Center, Science
Center, and in the Social Studies Center. Recently they have even begun
writing poems and letter writing is in the near future. Another focus we
have been working on is vowels. The children are learning about long and
short vowels. They know all about King Ed, who changes a vowel to make a
long vowel sound. Ask them all about King Ed. All Guided Reading Groups have
recently moved up a level, oh what fun we are having. Our March author was
Dr. Seuss and our April author is Eric Carle.

Math- Our focus in math has been our geometry unit and our unit on the
Number System. Beside our 6 basic shapes, we have worked with the
rhombus, hexagon, and trapezoid. You will see many different activities
come home once they have been taken down from the hallway. After we
finished our geometry unit, the number systems unit consists of addition,
subtraction, building a strong number sense, and word problems.

Social Studies-We have been working on Community Helpers, and Me and my
place in the family structure. Our field trip to the town community buildings
will be a fun trip that shows who some of our community helpers are and
what they really do at their job sites. We will also have a community friend
come into our classroom and teach us all about 911 and when to use it.

Science-The children are learning about farm and zoo animals. They are
learning why the farm is so important to us and why the animals are so
important. They will learn about composing, recycling and many interesting
facts about some of the animals.

I know once the good weather comes and T-Ball begins it is hard to
stay on a schedule, but it is still very important for the children to read
every night and go to bed early on school nights. The days at school are
busy and we still have lots of new and important information to learn.

Thanks.

As always thank you for your support,
Debora Bacchiocchi

In the jungle, the mighty jungle..

the lion roars tonight..

April Vacation Week

Its been a full year since the Boston Marathon bombings.  A rather emotional week, watching the rebroadcasting of a year ago, people that were hurt, and hearing on the news of stupid stunts that people play, just to get a reaction.  

This pic I found on FaceBook.  The caption said a local Bostonian had made these and placed them randomly all over Boston.  I loved it, I loved the idea, the genuine emotion and this pic just captured it all.

I later learnt that the local Bostonian was Bethany Couto - my sister in law's sister. 

Now that Jaime has learnt how to read and write we now get these...

To dad I do not like this (no love) Jaime

The note was after Ili made Jaime his minestrone soup.  

We visited the zoo this week.  It was recycling and love the planet week at the zoo.

Boys playing "what can be recycled" game

The little boy with Jaime is Kobi, from Karate.  They dont do Karate together anymore.  Anway this kid is going to be the next Disney presentor, his dream job.     

Playground pics:

Some sleep overs