I shouldn't be laughing.

I started telling Don about my day today. As the stories kept coming to me I was laughing so hysterically that I couldn't even tell the stories. Kids are so funny.

We are talking about immigration in our second grade class. I gave my class the assignment of researching their ancestors and telling our class about one of them. I gave the class the example of my great-great Grandpa, John Devey, that built the first car in the west. They all thought that was very cool.

So today I had a child stand up and say that his family invented pink lemonade. Yes, pink lemonade. I asked him what the secret recipe was and he said that they add food coloring. I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. I mean, it's possible. It made me so curious that I started searching the Internet for pink lemonade recipes. Amazingly enough, none of them call for food coloring.

Another student, not to be outdone, stood up and said that his grandma made the first watch. "Is she still alive?" I asked. He answered in the affirmative. "Hmm," I said, "Watches have been around for quite a long time. Are you sure it wasn't a great-great grandma?" "Oh yeah, he said. "It was my great-great grandma."

I was amazing how much more realistic the stories were once I clarified that the class needed to share real stories that they had found out about their ancestors. I had descendants from Brigham Young, the person that shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln, and war veterans. There were some really great stories.

After each presentation I opened it up to the class for questions. Without fail, a student always asked, "How old were they?" You would think that the question was always coming from the same student. I wasn't. It didn't matter if the presenter said their age in their presentation. It didn't matter if someone else had asked already. It seemed to be the popular question. I even stopped them at one point and said, "You can't ask them how old they were." Guess what the next question was?

The topper was the part of the day when one of my students choked on a piece of candy. This student actually isn't allowed to have sugar. I can only imagine the candy deal going on outside at recess. "I'll give you four pencils for that peppermint candy." "No way!" "Okay. Four pencils and TWO erasers." "Deal!" Anyways he managed some how to get a small round peppermint candy.

We were right in the middle of learning about friction, when he started screaming, "I'm choking!" His face turned red and the whole class looked in horror. I ran over to his side to assess the situation. I mean his face was red. But he was able to yell to the whole class that he was choking. Doesn't that mean that he was getting air? I sent another student to get a cup of water. I knelt by the student's side and watched as he started to gag. One gag, two gags, one great big gag and then the small candy came flying out and onto the floor. I grabbed it quickly with a Kleenex and threw it away before the class could see. Crazy. He was okay. I sent him to go get a drink from the water fountain so he could compose himself.

You would think I would have told his mom seeings how she works at the school. I totally forgot until she asked me about it during lunch. The hard part was trying to tell her the story without cracking a grin. I mean, he wasn't supposed to have candy in the first place.