the oscars, 2013 edition

Last year I had my first official Oscars party. I made a ton of food, won a bunch of money, and had a great time. This year the new tradition continued. Usually I see most of the movies up for best picture, but this year the only movies I saw were Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman. Not a good showing for me. I think that helped though. I typically will do my research and then change things based on the movies I saw because I really liked one, or the acting, etc. Because I hadn't seen anything, my emotions and usual switching didn't happen. The outcome? I did the best I ever have! I only missed 2! That will probably never happen again, so I'm basking in the glow of my incredible ass kicking. Anyways, on to the food!

All of my food labels and decorations laid out.

The betting station. For those of you (ahem, Rebecca) who are protesting my win, you can clearly see from the ballot I filled out before everyone arrived that I dominated.

Antipasto plate, freshly popped popcorn, and bipolar hummus (Silver Linings Playbook). I made regular hummus and then my sun dried tomato hummus and put them side by side.

Most of the food was based around the 2 movies set in the Middle East (Argo, Zero Dark Thirty) and the 2 set in the south (Django Unchained, Beasts of the Southern Wild). I made fattoush and kaftas (kabobs) with a yogurt dipping sauce which I called Frankenkaftas, since I made them smaller and Franken"weenie" like. I also made djambalaya and Beasts of the Southern Wild Rice. There were also loaves of stolen bread from Les Mis, and poisoned apples from Snow White.

I made Zero Dark Chocolate Pi (Zero Dark Thirty, and Life of Pi), and there were love and devotion bites for Amour.

It was a great night with friends, fun, and lots of food. Luckily most of it was eaten. I think I would have gotten sick of eating those leftovers forever. 

Cheers! Can't wait for next year!

i feel old

I saw this on facebook yesterday...

oh boy....

On Fridays we have our spelling test, and they are supposed to write 2 sentences using some of their spelling words. Here is what I got on Friday. I could not stop laughing!

I showed it to his mom at parent teacher conferences yesterday and she started laughing and said, "I don't know where that came from. We don't say things like that at home, I promise he doesn't know what he wrote!"

fat and diamonds

The kids were handing papers in to me today:

Kid: Here you go elephant. (This kid is super cute, and he's giggling)

Me: Are you calling me fat?

Kid: (giggling more) NO!

Me: You can't call ladies elephants. It'll make them think they're fat and they'll get a complex.

Kid: Ok. (Still giggling) Here you go skinny elephant. 

At Young Guns:

Amy: So what are you wanting for your birthday?

Kid: Money. 

Us: Money?

Amy: When I was your age I wanted a Barbie Dream House!

Kid: But everyone already has those!

Me: Yeah Amy, everyone already has those. So what will you buy with the money?

Kid: Diamonds. You won't be able to buy any though. You're just a teacher.

rock holding vultures

When I walked into my classroom Friday, I was shocked as to how cold the room was, and then that it was windy. Inside. It took me a minute to realize why:

Right before the kids came in I found the rock in question. It was huge!

Marco, our head custodian came down and started helping me clean. Because the window is fiberglass it broke into about a million pieces which scattered over the ENTIRE room. It took Marco and I over 40 minutes to clean it all up. There's no way I would have cleaned it all before the kids walked in if it weren't for him. Even after all that, the kids were still finding glass all day long that we missed.

When we went to recess one of the girls and I were talking about what happened. (We had already talked about it as a class.)

Kid: You know I don't think it was a rock that broke the window.

Me: Oh yeah?

Kid: Yeah, I think it was a bird. A bird flew into our window before. I bet that's what happened.

Me: That would have to be one big bird! Like a vulture. Flying at high speed. 

Kid: NO! I know what it was! It was a vulture, flying at high speed, holding a rock. That's probably what happened. You should tell the principal.

george, george, george

I was teaching a minilesson on quotation marks and one of the people talking in my pretend story was named George. One of the students kept fixating on the name and kept telling me I needed to stop using that name and get rid of it. I was about to send them off and asked if anyone had questions and he rose his hand.

Me: Does this have to do with George, or do you have a question about what you will do at your desk?

Kid: George has an uppercase g and lowercase g. You should fix that.

Me: But that's how you spell George. It's the way it should be.

Kid: Oh. (raises his hand again)

Me: Is this about George?

Kid: Um....no. But I have 2 questions. I love you, and you're my friend.

I'll take it.

im always right

While walking to Spanish a student and I were talking about the type of granite the Capitol is made of and I said I thought it was pink granite and he said that it was red. I told him I could be wrong but I thought it was pink, and he kept trying to argue with me even though I told him I didn't know for a fact. Then up comes another student...

Kid: Stop arguing with the teacher. She's probably right anyway.

True story. Even when I'm wrong, I'm right.

princess

Kid: Do you know why I'm so interested in Pocahontas?

Me: Why?

Kid: Because my great great grandma was a Native American Princess! Her dad was a very important chief. Like Pocahontas' dad.

Me: Is that so?

Kid: Yeah! It's true. 

superwoman

Kid: Ms. Ewing, .... needs you on the swings.

Me: What? Why?

Kid: He said he wants to go high and only you can do it.

Me: (after walking over) What's up?

Kid 2: I want to go high!

Me: OK fine. But why me?

Kid 2: Because you're strong. You're like a superhero! 

Me: I'm strong like a superhero?

Kid 2: Yeah! Now push me!

pockets

Me: What's something you observed with your seeds?

Kid: My baby plant thing is coming out of the mom's pocket.

cruising into 2013: the end

We all woke up, got in our bathing suits and headed to the highest point on the boat where we always laid out. However, we didn't get past the doors because it was raining outside! Worst. Day. Ever. Especially because I planned on getting SUPER tan to make everyone jealous. Oh well. We decided to go into the sauna, hang out in the hot tub, play cards, and be annoyed at the stupid weather.

Before dinner since we couldn't listen to music we had celebratory/sad that the trip is over drinks.

At dinner they had a special goodbye song for us, complete with dancing, towel waving, and wigs. 

 Cheers to an awesome trip!

 Buggy our super awesome waiter.

At the piano bar one last time.

Ummm....?

It was an AMAZING trip! I love that Katie and Derrick got us all to join them. I can't wait to go back to Belize and Cozumel and see more of the city!