Top O the Morn'n

Although, there is no Irish blood running through our veins (that I know of) we decided to celebrate St. Paddy's day with a special breakfast. On the menu: rainbow pancakes, lucky charms and green milk, of course!

Even Sparky joined the festivities....top hat and all!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Over the break we had an opportunity to attend a Cubs game. I love Spring training games and have many fond memories of watching the Cubs play courtesy of both my grandpa's as they were members of the Mesa Hohokams Organization. My grandpa Pomeroy is actually still a member however he no longer volunteers at the games, and my granddad Fluhr passed away several years ago. So it was a bittersweet day as I missed seeing them in their uniforms, bolo ties and all! It was always such a treat to not only go to the game but to see my grandpa's working there! I was always so proud to be their granddaughter as there is something about being a Hoho that seems very cool to me! Fortunately, my cousin Lindsey's husband Jeremy is a member as well as some friends of my parents and grandparents, so I still recognized some of the volunteers! Jeremy was the one who got us our tickets for the game and the seats were incredible! Not only were they right behind home plate and in the shade but they were next to Lindsey and her kids! Aiden loved hanging out with his cousins and Anna and I could watch Miss B all day! Everything she does is the cutest thing ever! I love that age when every word (even the most simple or sassy thing) is hilarious!

Thursday's game was especially exciting (and confusing) because the Cubs played the Diamondbacks. I wasn't sure who to root for! Aiden chose to support both teams, making him a winner either way! Anna remained loyal to her Diamondbacks and loved rubbing it on our faces every time the D-backs made a run (which was a lot!). Even though the Cubbies lost horribly, we had such a great time (especially considering it was literally our only outing the entire week of Spring Break!).

Check out this view...it sure is nice to know people in high places!

Nana and Miss B!

Aiden and Brody

Mr. grumpy pants in the background is pouting because he has to go to baseball practice after the game....

I HEART Speech Therapy

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job! There is zero question that I was born to be a speech therapist and all my years of talking have been leading up to my career of choice! I recently saw the above poster on Pinterest and I thought...."yep, that about sums it up!". How cool is it that I get to help amazing little people express themselves?? Love it! Now that being said it is not all sunshine and roses. Working in a school environment is difficult. The paperwork is out of control and there are way to many i's to dot and t's to cross. The government (gotta love 'em) does take a little fun out of the job but at this time in my life I still think it is worth it. While I can't guarantee I will stay working in this environment for ever...I can't think of a better place to serve the majority of children who have speech and language needs. Since many families can't afford private therapy, the only opportunity most children have for intervention is at school. The diverse population I get to work with on a daily basis is pretty awesome! Most people think my job is solely to help fix a child's lisp or correct a "funny" "r" (clearly /r/ is not my area of expertise considering Anna still sounds like she is from Jersey). But really my job is far more than that! While I do work with a large group of children with articulation impairments, I also work with students who are non-verbal, have autism, down syndrome, learning disabilities, specific language impairment, CAPD, ADHD, emotional disabilities, fluency impairments (stuttering), apraxia (motor planning impairment), dysarthria (weakness)...pretty much any one who has difficulty with expressing and understanding language and it's function.  At this time in my life  and in this environment I definitely feel like a jack of all trades, master of none! There is so much to know and I learn something new on a daily basis. Thank goodness I like to learn and there are an abundant amount of resource out there!  Just today I was reading an article for class and I had a huge aha moment! Then I got bored with reading studies and started browsing Pinterest (I know, big surprise) and discovered all sorts of cool new therapy ideas! One of them included the beautiful union of a Pediastaff pin board and an app. Anytime I can use my Ipad in therapy I will do it, so this really is very cool!

Speech Room News is a great blog

 I was so excited that I literally created this entire post just to mention it! I am so grateful for technology and the information that is floating around in cyber space. The amount of time and effort it takes to create fun and engaging activities for our students is overwhelming! I am a huge advocate of not re-inventing the wheel, so I love being able to incorporate other people's ideas! I do come up with a few things on my own once in a while but for the most part I use what's out there. I am thrilled when my student's tell me they love coming to speech. I know part of it is because they like leaving their class, but I also try to make it fun and enjoyable, for their sake and mine! 

Note to self: One of these days I should start my own speech blog to compile all of these great activities into one central location....or I could just keep obsessively pinning them onto my Speech Teach board! Either way...

A Trek Back in Time

On President' Day we decided to take the kids to the Renaissance Festival since it was such a beautiful day and they had never been before. It had been years since I had been and the only thing I remembered was the giant turkey legs and crowds of people dressed in medieval attire. Well my memory was accurate and this visit was no different then the last! It was lunch time when we arrived so we started with the turkey legs (I was the only one smart enough to not have my picture taken mid bite)The kids then wanted to do every single activity which included axe throwing, ladder climbs, a cheesy horse/jousting ride, etc. I of course went solely for the food...why is "carnie" food so dang good? The people watching was pretty great too! What a freak show! Very interesting people, who were clearly born in the wrong century! One of our favorite parts of the day, was watching the heckler who makes fun of people while they throw tomatoes at him. He is really mean and it is really funny! I was a littler concerned when Aiden decided he wanted a turn as the joker did not hold back even for small children! Right away the joker says "hey man looks like you and I are having a bad hair day!" then he says "just kidding, my hair looks great!". I couldn't help but laugh because it was true! Aiden has thick crazy hair and he never wants to style it! That was the meanest thing he said so it wasn't too bad and Aiden was a great sport! All in all it was a fun day and I am glad we went, but it was crowded, exhausting and very expensive so I won't need to go back anytime soon!

hmmm....I'm thinking Jason from that bad horror film rather than knight and shining armor!

Anna's souvenir....now she really is a gypsy!

And here is the mean (but funny) joker that teased my boy! As you can see from the picture above...the bad hair comment wasn't that far off!

My Little Entrepreneur

Natalie, Mattie, Anna & Maddie

I came home from a much needed pedicure last Saturday to find my little entrepreneur, Anna, in the backyard with her girlfriends whipping up cake batter. When I asked what they were doing, Anna informed me that they were making cupcakes to sale. When I asked why they were doing it in the backyard, she told me that Trent said they were only allowed to do it if they did it in the backyard so as not to make a mess in the kitchen! What a good dad! Better yet, I found him asleep on the couch! Thank goodness Anna was using her Babycakes Cupcake Maker that her grammie gave her for Christmas instead of the oven since there was clearly no supervision! I will say for a group of 7-8 year olds they did a great job and the cupcakes were very tasty!

The girls set up shop at the corner of our street with a table and a cute table cloth. When I walked down there to check on them, I was surprised to see they were trying to charge $1.00 per cupcake! Especially since they were mini sized cupcakes! After some negotiation I was able to convince them that $0.25 was a bit more appropriate! Business was very steady and they actually had to make a second batch! I'm not sure what the total was but I know they each made a few bucks, so it was a very successful day! Anna is desperately trying to save money for a bike, so I have a feeling that this was just the first of several future bake sales!