Easter Egg Balance

Today was such a beautiful day outside! I taught my class the letter E. We had a day full of EGGS! We decorated eggs, read an egg hunt book, and then played Egg Balance. Look how cute this egg set is! When the plastic egg falls, it cracks in half and a bean bag yolk comes out!! So stinkin cute. My room mom last year gave them to me. They are by Play Wonder and I think she got them at Target after Easter on clearance. But, they would be super easy to make too! Love them! The kids did too!

My Colors Quiet Book

Yay! I finished the My Colors Quiet Book this past weekend! They turned out really cute! They definitely have their imperfections, but I guess that gives it character?? I realized that I am horrible at cutting (and measuring) straight!!! I am not sure what my problem is??? So this weekend, Chad helped me pick out a rotary cutting set. Hopefully this week, I will be able to try it out. Here are the pictures of the My Colors Quiet Book. I think blue is my favorite page and I love all the taggies on the front cover!

Spring has Sprung!

I am loving the Spring! Yesterday, Chad and I went for a nice long walk with the dogs. I took my camera along to take some snapshots of the pretty trees. Love them! We also went to the UVA Lacrosse game against John Hopkins. UVA won! Go Hoos! I am having a hard time getting anything accomplished today. I stayed in bed until almost noon! It is 4pm and I still need to do laundry, walk the dogs, prepare for parent teacher conferences, clean the house, plan for the school week.... NO WAY will I get all this done by bedtime. All I want to do is finish the felt books I have been working on and play with my new rotary cutter! Ugh.

Cookies, Cakes, and Doughnuts! Oh my!

Today, I turned the drama center in my classroom into a bakery. The kids absolutely had a ball! I baked salt dough cookies and doughnuts last week while Chad was in Argentina. Then, the children painted them when they got to school yesterday and this morning. Last night, I made some delicious smelling cinnamon playdough for them to play with while in the bakery too. I had to remind a little stinker not to nibble on the dough though. It doesn’t taste as good as it smells! Ha ha. I also made a cardboard felt cake and added ribbon, felt shapes, and buttons for them to decorate the cake. So cute!

Mr. Golden Sun...

The weather was a bit wacky today. Sun. Rain. Sun. Rain....
Thank goodness I was able to take my class out today. They SO needed it!

Happy Spring!

Happy 1st Day of Spring!

What a beautiful day!

Dinner with the Dogs

Chad, the pups, and I walked to a nearby pizza place for dinner tonight. The dogs did a great job! It was the first time we took them with us to eat dinner at an outdoor restaurant. It was a little annoying at first since all they wanted was the food that we were eating. But, we eventually learned to ignore them and enjoy our meal and beautiful weather!

Art Show today!

I have been teaching my class about famous artists around the world these past few weeks. After giving them some background about the artist, we replicated their work/art style in some sort of way. Today, we had a class art show and invited the children's parents in to join us. It went really well. After the show, the children had a picnic lunch outside with their family. What a nice day.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!
Today was a fun-filled day full of leprechaun surprises! Yesterday, the kiddos and I wrote a letter to the leprechaun asking him to please leave us a treat. Sure enough he did! ;) We went on a little treasure hunt. A yummy surprise was waiting for us at the end! Lenny the Leprechaun was pretty sneaky!

Colors Quiet Book

I LOVE this time change! I can already tell that I will be a lot more productive after work each night! I am used to coming home, walking the dogs, eating dinner, and falling asleep on the couch. Tonight, I ran a few errands after work, walked the dogs, made dinner, did a few loads of laundry, and worked on the quiet books I started yesterday. LeAnne from Everyday Creations posted directions on her Colored Fabric Book. As soon as I saw it, I knew this is what I wanted to make for a few of my family/friends who are having babies in the near future! I am making two books at once. If they turn out nice, I will need to make 2 more. What I love about this craft is that it does not have to look perfect. I can use a lot of my fabric and ribbon scraps. So much for my craft room being tidy. That lasted about 2 days.

Gourd Vase

Look what I got last weekend when I went home to visit! A vase made out of a gourd! Love it! I bought it at a flea market from my middle school math teacher! She makes really cute things out of gourds. I bought a bud vase and an ornament too. She offers classes at her farm. Maybe I will take one over the summer!?

Antiques

Every time I come home from Maryland, I drive past a bunch of Antique stores about 25-30 minutes up the road from where I live. I never go cause I am in a hurry to get home and relax. So today was the day to check them out. I got to first antique shop right when it opened. There were really no cars around except one. I parked and went in. This play was humongous! And kind of like a haunted house!! It was filled with old junk from the floors to the ceilings. After a few minutes of being scared (cause I could not find anyone who worked there, but heard creaky noises) a few more shoppers walked in the door. Phew. I felt much better! I bought these 2 paintings and this old tin for my bathroom! Love them!

Time to get ORGANIZED!

Ugh. What is wrong with me? I cannot seem to throw ANYTHING away! I always think "What if I could use this in a project?", "Maybe my kids will use this one day.", "This would be great for a lesson!".... I think of SO many reasons why to keep things. It is ridiculous! Last night, I went to Barnes and Nobel and bought a few magazines- organization magazines. They have some really good ideas on getting yourself organized. I'd like to make a mail organizer. I usually get the mail from the mailbox, sift through it for any bills, and then lay the rest on top of a pile of mail from the day/days before! It gets to be so overwhelming to go through the huge pile so I just leave it! Ugh! I organized my craft room and threw away some things today. Mostly papers. I am just having a tough time getting rid of things. Maybe I will do a better job when I go through my closet this afternoon?? We will see...

Kandinsky

I am super excited to show you a painting my class worked on inspired by Wassilly Kandinsky! Here is his painting:

Here is our painting! Each kid painted on a square piece of cardstock. Then, I put them all together and framed it! I think it turned out looking really neat!

Play Day!

Today was a beautiful day!! I think it was around 66 degrees out! SO NICE! I decided that today would pretty much be a play day at school (since it is supposed to rain the rest of the week). I usually take my class out twice a day for about a half hour each time. We ended up playing outside for almost 2 hours today! It was awesome! It was SO nice not to have to wear a jacket and gloves. I did not even wear socks today!! It was great! After work, I came right home and made a delicious salad. Then, the dogs and I went for a nice long walk!

Well, I just finished dinner. I made some Rice Krispie Treats for dessert! Yum! I cannot seem to get myself off of this couch. I need to organize one of the places on my TO DO list! I think I may work on the kitchen cabinets. I found mouse poo today in one of the utensil drawers. Ewwwww!! The lil' stinkers are back! Guess I will be setting some traps tonight. I wish Chad was home. He usually takes care of the gross stuff!

Home

This weekend, I went home to visit my family and celebrate my mom and grandmother’s birthday!! It went by super quick! I drove home late Friday night (took an extra hour because of a car that broke down on 495) and then got back to Virginia around 5pm last night. It was so nice to see my family. We went out to eat on Saturday night. Mesa and I shared a dinner. I actually tried some of the Caesar Salad and loved it! So last night, I went grocery shopping and bought lots of stuff to make salads. I also bought lots of fresh fruit and veggies too! My friend Kristin told me that she only shops around the perimeter of the grocery store where all the fresh stuff is. She does not buy anything packaged. Well, I am going to try to take on this challenge. Not all the way though! A little at a time!

This week, I am home all by myself. Chad is in Argentina and will not be back home until Sunday night. Ugh. I already miss him. To keep myself busy at night, I am going to do some SPRING CLEANING!! Here are the areas I NEED to organize:

1) Basement

2) School Boxes

3) Craft Room

4) Bathroom Cabinets

5) Kitchen cabinets

6) Bedroom closets

I think tonight I will tackle the school boxes. This will take FOREVER! I need to put away materials that I have been teaching with these past few months. They are piled up high in my upstairs hallway. Then, I want to go through and get rid of old books and materials I do not want/use anymore. **WISH ME LUCK!**