May Was a Whirlwind!

Hello friends! I am happy to report I am finally coming up for air...lol!

I always forget how busy the end of the school year is and this year was a little more busy than normal as will be explained in this post. So, stick around and see what I have been up to these past few weeks. Here's a little teacher humor to get started!

Seriously though...I love my job and I am not complaining, but there truly is no tired like end of the year teacher tired. :)

I decided to look through the photos on my phone and pick out a few highlights from the past month. Let's start with Field Day with the kinders. Here they are being silly!

The second Saturday in May I helped my sister throw a baby shower/gender reveal party for one of her sons and his wife. We did a bee theme and it turned out so cute! As usual, I used a lot of my own decor. Here's a few of my milk glass pieces filled with toppings for the ice cream bar which was requested by the daddy to be.

I made the banners and we ordered the balloon kit from Amazon. So cute!

He or She...What Will It Bee? This was my first gender reveal party and it was so fun!

Isn't this little crocheted bee hive and bees just adorable?

The little honey jars and dippers were cute little gifts for the guests.

And...it's a girl! My prediction was correct!

The following day was Mother's Day and my kids treated me to lunch and a movie. I picked Chuy's (Mexican food) and the movie Gifted. It was so good...we all loved it!

We went to one of the recently renovated theaters and it now has reclining seats...so cool! Here's a picture of my feet! Let me just say I am loving the shoes I am wearing here. So much so, that I now have three pairs in different colors. They are Bob's by Skechers. They are called Flexpadrilles and are made from neoprene which is what diving suits are made from. They have memory foam in them and are amazingly comfy! I have a lot of pain in my feet due to arthritis and I have wide feet as well and these shoes are so perfect for me. I have them in khaki, navy, and black.

So...the Monday after Mother's Day, I had a training at school and was out of the classroom for the day. My principal comes in and asks me to step outside with her for a minute. I was like...uh oh...what did I do! You former teachers know the feeling...lol! Anywho, turns out, she just wanted to ask me if I wanted to move to first grade since a position was opening. I had recently told her I would like to move up to second grade if something opened so she knew I might want this position...especially since one of my partner teachers was moving up to first grade too. Kaycee and I work really well together and my principal knew I might want this position so I could continue working with her. So...I pondered on it for a bit and accepted the position. 

I am moving back to first grade. I taught first for 6 years but it has been several years since I left. I am super excited and this is one of the biggest reasons I have been more exhausted than usual...moving ALL my stuff! The best part is, I asked her if I could have my kiddos I had this year and she said yes, as long as their parents were OK with it. All my parents were thrilled and so am I!

I love my kids so much...look what one of my little sweeties wrote for me. I love how she put my signature smiley face "Y" on my name. I always sign my name like this at school and if I occasionally forget, the kids remind me quickly. 

I made sunshine gift bags for my team and the librarian. They turned out super cute.

Sweet little bouquet from another one of my kinders.

I gave my kiddos bubble wands again this year.

And ring pops...:)

I also made them a DVD slide show of photos from the year which is very time consuming, but oh so worth it!

Last week was the kiddos last week at school. Thursday morning one of my little sweeties brought me roses. Her mom thanked me for everything and told me how happy she is that I get her little girl again next year. She was crying as she was talking to me which made me want to cry too. I'm so thankful to do what I do and hearing these kind words from a parent just reassures me I am doing what I am meant to do. 

We have water slides on the day before the last day of school every year. The kids love it! The last day is an early release day and the kids don't have to come. I had three show up and they just played and helped me finish up a few things. It was a great year and I can't believe it is over!

By Friday afternoon, exhaustion had truly set in and I spent that evening doing NOTHING! I think I was asleep before 8:30. The next morning, I got up and cleaned my house which had been neglected terribly in the weeks prior. Sunday, the hubby and I ran errands. I went to Michael's to look for a few things and bought this pretty washi while I was there. Love the tropical vibe. I bought some other things as well which I will share soon.

I used it for this week's spread in my planner.

Monday (Memorial Day) we went to visit Joey's mom and then came home and ate supper at my parent's house. I got some plants from my mother-in-law. She is gone a lot and doesn't have time to care for them and keep the squirrels out of them so she gave them to me.

I also added this shelf to the porch. It was in my classroom and I don't need it in my new room so I brought it back home.

Tuesday was my last day of work. We have a district luncheon each year to end the year and honor the retirees and those celebrating years of service milestones. Next year I will get a 15 year pin. After the luncheon, I dropped off some clothes at consignment. I cleaned out my closet Saturday and had a bag stuffed full to sell! Yesterday I stayed home all day...well, Mama invited us down to eat leftovers for supper, so of course we went. She lives close though so I don't consider that leaving home. Anywho, I played in my craft room most of the day. I made a rag garland for my new classroom to use up some fabric scraps and remnants I had stashed. I also printed and laminated a ton of resources and things for first grade as well. I finally found a good use for my light box I bought last year as well and am excited about that.

Today I had a training and tomorrow I have a chiropractor appointment followed by a one hour massage (early birthday gift to myself) and then I have to do a little shopping for a trip I am taking next week. I'll share more soon! Sorry this was such a loooong post. If you stayed until the end...thank you. I appreciate your visits and hope to find some time to visit each of you very soon.

Until next time.....

Heart Smiles

Hello friends! Once again, it's been a couple weeks since my last post. I just don't have much going on lately. Well, not really blog worthy happenings I should say. But this blog is about what is currently going on in my life, be it big or small, so I'm sharing. The little things bring so many heart smiles to my days and really are what life is all about anyway. :)

A couple weeks ago, Sadie and Rooster had vet appointments. Sadie for her yearly check-up and Rooster for his first visit. They had a great visit  with their new Dr. (out former vet retired) and they enjoyed their car ride over and back. On the way, the hubby held Rooster so he wouldn't be bouncing all over the car, but on the way home, he let him sit in the back with Sadie and he did great. Here's a picture of them, and yes, Rooster is being a copy cat or should I say dog, again. 

The wildflowers are in full bloom and so beautiful right now. I love these little wild phlox and have since childhood. Some of my sweet students picked these for me last week at PE time. So sweet!

I finished my cookbook project a couple weeks ago and am so happy with my binder. It is packed so I made need to start volume 2.

I designated a few pages to Christmas cookie recipes from my friend, Jeana's annual cookie party she used to host. It was such fun and I always enjoyed trying to come up with something clever and creative. The second from the left, is a recipe card I made into a bookmark. The cookies were displayed in a book shaped tin. The one with Santa on it was called Santa's buttons and the cookies looked like buttons and were displayed in my sewing basket. The snowball cookie recipe card was glittered white and made to look like a snowball. The orange one was made to look like a creamsicle because that was the name of the cookies. Such fun! I won one of the prizes many years.

When she was old enough, Miranda was able to attend the party. Her recipe "card" for one of the years is below...be sure to read it. Coffee stained and written on crumpled notebook paper...too funny! We had to make enough cards for every lady, so she hand wrote around 20 of these. Good memories!

This was such a fun project to put together!

We studied butterflies in kindergarten...well, life cycles. We had two painted lady chrysalises but one did not make it. This little beauty did though and the kids were so excited to release it.

One of my students whom I love dearly, left this on my desk after work one day. His mom works in pre-k so he was able to slip in while I was waiting for my other students to get picked up. I had done something special for him (he was recently hospitalized with his asthma) so he told his mom he wanted to give me the turtle he made in her classroom. She told him he could make me another one but he told her he wanted to give me that one because I do so much for him and the other students, so he wanted to do something nice for me. It brought tears to my eyes and made my heart smile. This kid is precious and I pray if I am ever blessed with grandchildren, they are as sweet as him.

We celebrated Earth Day in kinder. We painted and wrote our promises to help take care of the Earth. This student did a great job on her painting and writing. If you aren't able to read invented spelling, it says.....

I promise to recycle every day and leave the water off when I brush my teeth. So cute!

We made an anchor chart of ways to love the Earth.

My higher level students practiced alphabetical order and did an amazing job!

They make me sweet pictures all the time and I bring the really special ones home to hang on my fridge for a few days.

They made monsters in art class! So fun!

And, speaking of art, I hit Tuesday Morning, Target, and Hobby Lobby last weekend and bought some fun stuff! This stack makes me happy!

I went shopping and out to lunch with my sister, Nancy and our friend, Jeana to celebrate Jeana's birthday. We had yummy burgers at Square 1. I had sweet potato fries with cinnamon sugar on them with my burger. So yummy! 

We shopped a while and went for dessert before heading home. We had yummy pizookies at BJ's. Mine was lemon blueberry...wish I had another one now. Jeana had the monkey bread and Nancy has salted caramel. Theirs were good too but I liked mine the best.

Yesterday, the hubby and I went grocery shopping and out to lunch. Nothing too exciting, but I did pick up the supplies to start my new teacher planner I am creating for next year. I will share details soon. I have had such fun creating the pages for it. It is going to be a disc bound system. I can't wait to get it finished and put together. I found a few fun things at Dollar Tree, including these adorable washi tapes.

After we got home and I put things away, I tackled my bedroom closet. Oh my...what a job! It had not had a good clean out in quite some time. I was exhausted when I finished, but I am happy to say I got rid of more stuff than I kept. Clothes, shoes, purses, jewelry, scarves, and more! It felt so good to purge so much stuff. I also cleared out our winter clothes until we need them again. I am excited to remodel the closet when we start on out room in June. It will be much easier now that I have cleaned it out. 

And, that brings me to now. I have just been piddling today and taking it easy. This week will be a busy one. My kinders will be taking the Stanford 10 test which will tell if they are ready to move on to first grade in the fall. I pray my kiddos do as well as I think they will. I have such a great group this year and will be so sad to see them leave me. I will enjoy the time I have left with them though and am so proud of the growth I have seen in them over the course of the year. Hope you have enjoyed a wonderful weekend. Prayers for a beautiful week.

Until next time.....