The Home Visit

        One of my favorite things about the Vail School District, is the teacher home visit.  The teacher sets up a time to come spend an hour or so with the child at their home.  The child gets to set the agenda.  Over the years, I have seen the bambini's teachers ride Power Wheels Harley Davidsons (Ami Bunch!), have a full course meal with our family (Mary Montes), play pinball (multiple), soccer (Ami again), go to movies (Casey Rudzena), but mostly hang out and play board games with the kids while Kim whipped up some fantastical snack for them to enjoy. 

      The thing I love about this program, is, the child gets to interact with their teacher in their own home, a comfortable setting.  I feel it helps build a bond and gives the teacher more insight on how to teach our children, a better understanding of them and what makes them tick.  Also, how fun for the child to get to dictate what games or activities they get to do with their teacher!  And, what snack Kim would create for them...

       Cody would normally have her make her famous cheese cake brownies.  She as made profiteroles (Italian cream puffs drizzled with dark chocolate).  Limoncello bars. Cakes.  And many other exotic dishes.
      

        Today, we had the pleasure of having Tonio's teacher, Jenny Rienstra, over to our house.  Jenny's countdown continues - 10 mores days until her due date and she is doing great!  Still possessing a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and energy!  She had been to our house once before, when Autumn had her for a teacher. 

        I decided it would be best to ask her what she'd like for a snack.  Being pregnant and all, I thought there may be food she's avoiding (indigestion) and perhaps foods that she is craving.  I feel like she let me off easy - 'fruit salad'.

                                            I did my best to at least Kim it up a bit!  Raspberries, blueberries, grapes, water melon balls (Jenny noticed that I used the melon baller tool thingy!), honey dew and peaches (from Colorado!  They are so good!!  Thanks Angie!).

             Tonio was so excited to have Jenny over, he could barely contain himself!  'When is she coming?  How much longer?'  He was also excited because he had another great day in school!  Jenny has him so pumped up and feeling proud of himself - he loves to tell me about his day, now.

             Tonio decided to play Kerplunk with Jenny.  They played multiple games - Tonio thoroughly enjoying himself.  He showed her his Lego creations (especially proud of the Space Shuttle that Janene gave to him for his birthday).  Then, it was snack time.  Tonio put mounds of whipped cream on top of his fruit salad!!

                                 Tonio's pretty much hogging the whole container of whipped cream!

                 And, when it was time for her to go, I packed up a container of freshly made marinara (yes, Kim's recipe!), some angel hair pasta, salad (in a bag) and a big loaf of bread from Viro's.  Jenny fondly remembered when Kimmy had made her a dinner to take home with her when Aut was in third grade - chicken piccata.  Kim would say, 'these teachers work hard all day.  It's a long enough day as it is, and here they are doing home visits (Jenny had three today) and then they have to go home and cook dinner?  No.'  So she would make the piccata.  Or the marsala.  Or the vodka or bolognese sauce.  Or the marinara, which I decided to make for Jenny and her husband Nick.

   

                Antonio had a great visit!!  Thanks Jenny!!  He even got his homework done quickly for me because he was so excited for his visit and didn't want to have to do it later after Jenny had left.  Now, he is reading the newest 'Magic Treehouse' book to me - Jenny complimented him on being able to take the accelerated reading tests now that he has more time to read - since she helped him catch up on all of his school work.  He is motivated!!

             Love,

                    Dave

Random Bits:

                We went outside to say goodnight to Kim and found this hairy guy was crawling up the wall on the back porch next to our back door!!

 

               Bella takes herself for a walk in our living room!  Kim sure knew what she was doing when she picked us out this girl!  She is high spirited, high energy and keeps us all laughing.  She loves her kids so much, too!