Sports Party

Last night our friends Kelli and Vince hosted a sports-themed birthday party for Kelli. It was a great time with friends, not to mention a good excuse to dress up. Nick and I were such nerds and got so excited to dress up. We kept laughing that it was just like getting ready for a date party in our sorority/fraternity days!

Before we went to the party we dropped our sweet boy off at his Mimi and Paka's house for a sleepover. How adorable is he with his backpack?

Nick and I decided to dress up as golfers for the party.

Here is what we came up with:

The party was super cute.

Kelli had "consession stand food" including natchos, soft preztels, hot dogs, cracker jacks, popcorn, and cotton candy.

She also had everyone pose in their best heisman pose:

Vince and Kelli

Travis and Rachel

Nick and I (obvi)

We had so much fun playing "Minute to Win It" games!

Here are some of the funny pics:

(The score board)

We had a great time. Happy Birthday Kelli!

Isnt it the best ......

Isnt it the best when your co-workers are also great friends?

Last night was our school district's happy-hour challenge. They had a tally board to document how many people were there from each school. I was so proud! Our school totally "brought it" and had over 30 people there! We got second place and didnt lose by very much!

Here are some pics from the night!!

And today I was visited by one of my best high school and college friends Kristin! She now lives in California but still comes home to visit her parents. So glad she was able to visit today. We have so many fun memories and totally wish she still lived here!
(Dont mind my grubby look- I may or may not have been a little worn out from the night before!)

Thursday Quiz

I just saw this quiz on Babbling Abby and thought it was fun... so here ya go!

Outside my window.. Dark and hot...
The time is.. 8:00pm... Seems like it shouldnt be this late.. I still have so much to do tonight!
Today I feel.. like one exhausted teacher and mommy! It was such a day!! Between another heat advisory day, another biting incident in my class, a forever long lockdown which happend during my specials (so no break for me), and my baby tripping and hitting his head soooo hard on the tile- I feel a little overwhelmed!

Here is a pic of Reagan and his shiner :( Tear

I am thinking.. about how good Big Brother is this season! (We are watching it now)

At the moment, I am thankful.. for my amazing family. Simple as that!
I am going.. to have a MUCH BETTER FRIDAY! It can only get better than today!
I am wearing.. a grey tee shirt and pink pj shorts... clearly ready for bed !
I am reading.. Chasing Fire (number 2 in the hunger games series)
I am working on.. nada... should be ironing names on shirts for tomorrow's happy hour!
I am hoping.. that Reagan's goose egg goes down tonight and it doesnt look so rough tomorrow
I am hearing.. Big Brother in the background... Julie is interviewing Matt
I bet you didn't know.. that I ate a Chilie's soup and salad tonight
One of my favorite…kids books is Skippy Jon Jones... Just read it again today so its fresh in my mind

My weekend plans include.. A work happy hour, visiting old friends, a birthday party, and hopefully some cuddles with my boys! Super excited for this weekend!!

Monsoon Madness!

Well, as many of you know, August in Arizona = Monsoon season!

Monsoons are basically just crazy storms combined with our intense heat. This weekend we had a biggie. One of our big trees in the backyard completely split in half and fell. Tear.

Here are some pics after my Mom's yard guys came to help us clean it up. We still have to call and have someone come and remove the roots. It's so sad! I actually really liked this tree!

"What happend?"

This picture really had nothing to do with the tree...but I took it tonight and it seemed appropriate! Haha..

Monday, Monday....

I cant believe its Monday night already?!

This weekend flew by. Probably due to the fact that I was sick in bed all weekend long!

I started feeling icky Thursday but just thought it was no biggie. By Friday night I was out for the count with a stomach bug. Thank goodness my husband is AMAZING and was on complete daddy duty! He let me sleep it off!

Sunday afternoon my FIL Bruce, MIL Lisa, and baby brother in law Cooper came over for a visit... I was pretty out of it but it was nice to let the babies play. Reagan defnately showed us that he needs to have more play dates at our house because he was not very good at sharing his toys with Cooper! We will be needing some practice with that! (Again- clearly I was sick because I didnt take a single picture!)

Today I started feeling better and by tonight was feeling great. So good in fact that we went out to dinner-- yes, I was craving food! We went to Red Robin and Reagan was so good. (Let me tell you it has been awhile since he has been well behaved at a restraunt!) After a good dinner we made a quick Target run to return something and ended up getting Reagan a new Cardinal jersey.. How cute is he?

Lastly, Im super excited because I won a giveaway at Teachingheart.net!! Thanks so much!

Weekend Recap

I hope that you all had great weekends!

Friday night after work we went to the mall to eat dinner and walk around. It was a fun and relaxing night with my boys. It's so hard looking at all the clothes right now. Everyone has fall clothing but its soooo hard to imagine that in AZ right now when its still 110 degrees!

Saturday morning was busy. We took Nick's car into the shop to have his brakes worked on, the exteriminator came, and we got ready for an afternoon party. My school's back to school party was that day and we had lots of fun visiting and celebrating being done with the first week back! Here are some pictures:

Two of my team mates and great friends (Lisa and Kelli).A bunch of our staff and friends.
Reagan reading while the girls all chatted.
Our fabulous hostess Kate and our son's.

Holly and Reagan

Reagan and Nick

Today I slept in, played with Reagan, and ran some errands. I also had a movie date with my mom and sister to see Eat, Pray, Love. I really enjoyed it. The book was a really hard read for me (very slow!) but the movie was much better. It totally makes me want to go on vacation!

Teacher Swap

Today I decided to join Following the Footsteps Teacher Swap.

She asked us to share our favorite back to school children's books.

Here are my first week must-reads to my first graders:

I love, love, love children's literature. Probably one of my favorite things ever!

What are your favorite back to school books?

What I'm Loving....

School started on Tuesday this week and I have been so busy and tired that I've been reading your blogs but not really writing. Sorry friends! But my friend Jamie at This Kind of Love is doing her What I'm Loving Wednesday so I thought I'd do a quick post!

I am LOVING my new class! I have 19 kiddos in my first grade class and they are so sweet. The past couple of days have been procedures, procedures, procedures --- not to mention testing! I am super excited to watch these kiddos grow over the year. While this week is sooo exhausting it is certainly worth it.
I am loving my amazing mom! Not only does she watch Reagan on Mondays and Tuesdays while we are at work, she volunteers in my classroom every Wednesday. Oh ya... and as if she could get any more amazing.... I came home from picking up Reagan at daycare to find that she brought over a surprise dinner. LOVE HER!

(My mom and I at Reagan's first birthday party)

And lastly I am loving my wonderful hubby Nick. He is such a good husband and dad. I just caught him and Reagan during bath time. How stinkin cute is this picture? They are both reading! Haha!



*On a side note- what I am soooooooooooo not loving: Teething! Reagan is currently getting a couple of his molars in.... poor guy is not a happy camper most of the time! :(

Meet the Teacher!

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. I have been super busy setting up my classroom. Last night was "Meet the Teacher" night so I needed everything to be perfect. Here are some pictures. Remember a couple of months ago I told you I was thinking about changing my theme? Well, I did! I did an apple theme and I think it turned out pretty cute. What are your throughts?

The bb in the hallway outside my classroom.

a view of my room

front of the room

(computer stations, library, bookshelves, etc)

my pencil jars

student work board on top and stations/behavior chart on bottom

literacy station chart

my focus wall (reading area, vocabulary, and big ideas)

grammar wall in the back

calendar and math wall

my teacher area

my girls! (lisa- been teaching with her 4 years, kelli- 5 years, me, and kate-6 years) we are such a great team not to mention great friends. I am so lucky!

here we are again- this time with Kim. This is her first year on our team. Her preschool position got cut last year and she moved up to our team. Heres to a great year in first grade!

I had a great "Meet the Teacher" night last night. Pretty good turnout (12/22) families visited my room and they were all so adorable. I am def excited for this school year. Ive got a great feeling about this year!