What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Hi friends!

It's Wednesday and since I haven't linked up in a while with sweet Jamie I thought I would do so today! What are you loving lately??

I'm loving that our Disneyland vacay is booked! I seriously can't wait to see Reagan's face when he sees his favorite characters in person. Any Disneyland advice you have would be greatly appreciated! (I've gotten a bit from facebook friends and the web.... but I would love any help!)

I'm loving that my sister is already 20 weeks! Half way till the baby arrives. Even better? Just 1 month until her gender reveal party! I would be happy with either a boy or a girl. If it's a girl I can finally spoil a little princess. If it's a boy, Reagan will have a built in little buddy. It's really a win-win!

I'm loving that this weekend is a 3day weekend! We don't have much planned- but that sounds heavenly to me!

I'm loving that October is right around the corner. We throw a pumpkin party for our friends and family every October and I'm getting excited!! I need to start planning that party! You can read about last year's party here and here .Then there is Halloween ! I think Reagan has decided on being Buzz this year. Need to get that ordered! Another October celebration ---- Nick turns 30! He says he doesn't want a party or anything, but I think I should plan something!

I'm loving the book I'm reading. The only problem is it is huge... and I still have like 200 pages left. Oh, and I have 3 library books on my nightstand- so I'd better get reading fast!

There is a ton I could write about right now... loving lots. But I need to log off and do some Etsy shopping. :) XXOO

Reagan videos

So I finally figured out how to upload videos to Blogger.

Youtube. Hello.

Here are two that I have filmed recently! Enjoy!

For Valentines day last year one of my students got me this singing flower. Yes. It is singing Ashley Simpson's L.O.V.E song. Reagan became obsessed with it and he dances to it quite a lot. Who knew. I thought it was going straight to Goodwill.

Here is Rea Rea singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Mother of the Year

Nick had a big test on Saturday (he passed!) so Reagan and I went to run some errands. (I'm hosting my sister's gender reveal party in 1 month so a trip to Hobby Lobby was in order.)

It turned out to be a DISASTER!

Seriously. The terrible twos came back and this time- straight from hell. Let's see. 1) He was throwing a fit for having to ride in the cart. So I gave him a bribe, yes, I do this. I had some teddy grahams in my bag. He proceeded to dump them all over the floor...on purpose. 2) He jumped out of the cart (yes. scared the you know what out of me). 3) He ran through the store screaming NO. And just a reminder- Hobby Lobby is huge. I left the cart, threw my bag over my shoulder and sprinted after him. Everytime I thought I was close to getting him he was sprint down a different isle. I was freaking out. Oh ya. As he was running he was knocking things off the shelves. I finally caught him and spanked him so hard. 4) I put him back into the cart and had to hold him down. He proceeded to slap me across the face. Seriously? What was going on?!?! He took my items from the cart and threw them out.

I picked him up and carried him out of the store with him kicking and screaming. We both got loaded up into the car and both started hysterically crying. And yes, we both cried the entire car ride home. I'm sure the cars next to us were getting a good chuckle.

OMG. There are times when this mom job is soooooooo hard.

In other news. We booked our first real family vacation. Disneyland. I can't wait. Now please, please, please Lord let Reagan be well behaved. Because a tantrum like Saturday's CAN NOT happen at the happiest place on earth.

Meet the Teacher

Hi friends!

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' for the Meet the Teacher link-up!

Tell us a little something about yourself......

My name is Mandy. I've been married to Nick for 5 years and we have a 2 year old son Reagan. I have 2 doggies -Hunter and Lily. I am super close with my family and actually live down the street (like literally 9 houses away) from my parents. I love the color pink, reading, reality tv, and hugs from my little man. I graduated from college in 2005 and got my Masters and Reading Endorsement in 2009.

Nick and I on our wedding day

Rea Rea on St Patricks Day last year.

How long have you been teaching?

This is my 7th year teaching! And all in the First Grade. I seriously ADORE first grade and will probably teach it forever!

My classroom this year

You might not know....

If I wasn't a teacher I would probably be a party planner. I love it.

Pictures from Reagan's 1st birthday party

Pictures from Reagan's 2nd birthday party

What are you looking most forward this school year?

I'm looking forward to learning new things and trying them in my classroom! A new year is always a new adventure!!

What do you need to improve?

My main goal this year is math. I think I am a pretty good reading teacher and get my kids to benchmark or exceeds in that area. But I would like to try and move more kids in math!

What teaching supplies can you not live without?

Mr. Sketch markers, chart paper, children's books, music, bins and baskets, pocket charts, my chimes, etc. The list could go on and on!

Our Weekend

Here is an overview of our weekend through pics.

I've got a sick little guy on my hands right now, so this will be short and sweet!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Friday Night

I was ex-hausted from school and Nick was ampted to watch his 2 fave teams play so we stayed home and watched the Packers/Cards game.

Saturday

Nick had to study for a test, so Reagan and I went to the Sea Life Aquarium.

After the aquarium we had lunch and rode the Merry-go-Round! (And for those of you blog regulars...no tears! He loved it this time!)

Sunday

Reagan and I woke up feeling pretty crappy. We slept all morning but went to my parents house in the pm. ( My family is trying to do Sunday Family Day where we all get together at my parents to eat and play). We went swimming and the kids played but boy Reagan started to really sound horrible. He is wheezing like a monster and has a fever. :(

So here we are now... stripped down to a diaper watching Go Diego Go. Poor baby!

WILW

Thank goodness it's Wednesday!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a week... bad blogger! But here is a little bit of what I'm loving this week! Link up with Jamie to tell us what you are loving today!

I'm loving these odds and ends I made for our teacher bathrooms at school. I am co-chair of the social committee and decided we needed something new for the bathrooms. It is one of my first Pinterest things I actually made after pinning! Whoo Hoo! Here is to more crafting!

I am loving that it's almost time to find out the gender of my sister's baby! I am throwing her a gender reveal party in September for family and her best friends and I'm getting so excited. (You know me and party planning!)

I am loving last weekend. Friday night we went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen then out for frozen yogurt. Saturday was spent working on school stuff, running errands, and swimming. Sunday was spent with my mom- lunch and movie (The Help....LOVED it!)

I am loving my wonderful hubby Nick. I get told just about every day from friends and family how luck (err spoiled) I am to have him. And I know it. I mean really. He irons our entire family's clothes. He cooks dinner for us every night. The list goes on and on.. I dont think he reads this blog. In fact Im pretty sure he has never seen it, haha. But if by chance he is reading it- I LOVE YOU!

I am loving adorable little boy Reagan. I swear, each day he gets smarter and smarter. Mom moment to brag..... he is 27 months and counts to 10, knows his abcs, and can sound out. No kidding- he was at the food court with my mom and saw a restraunt sign "Oskuna" or something. And he said "ah-sss-k--un-u" !! Now.. in an opposite end of the spectrum he still speaks pirate... ie. he says "aye" instead of "yes" all the time (not sure where this came from but he's been doing it since 1). And he still cant/wont say Elmo. He just rolls his tongue. Hmm..

I've been trying to upload the video of him singing... but it's been an hour and it still isn't uploaded. What on earth am I doing wrong?!?!

Fill in the blanks Friday!

1. My most favorite birthday was ...... my 11 th birthday. I had a 50's themed birthday and all my friends came dressed in their poodle skirts and bows. My parents surprised us with a limo to drive us to a 50's diner where we ate hamburgers and drank milkshakes. We danced all around the resteraunt. So much fun! The limo took us home afterwards and we did all the normal bday stuff plus busted out my parents' v-cam to film some pretty rocking movies and commercials. Blackmail material. Seriously.

2. My worst birthday was .... hmmm I can't really think of a bad one! I've always been blessed to be surrounded by friends or family!

3. My favorite birthday memory is .... I dont know if I have a "favorite" but a goodie is definately receiving my MC Hammer tape at my 8th birthday party. Boom. Can't Touch This! We danced around the house for hours. Again- blackmail video- we may or may not have danced like strippers. Where we learned this... who knows?!

4. The best birthday present I've ever received.... When I was 16 I got a new car which was an amazing birthday present!

5. The best birthday present I've ever given was ... I love to give gifts... I think I have given Nick some pretty great birthday gifts! He loves watches and I love to get him different kinds.

6. Birthdays are ... amazing once you have kids! I have loved throwing Reagan birthday parties seriously can't get enough of kid parties!

7. My favorite age so far has been ... I loved, loved, loved 24! Nick and I got engaged, we got Hunter (our first dog), my parents got me a new car for graduation, I became a first grade teacher , and we moved into our first house! It was an exciting year to say the least!! :)

Teacher Tuesday

Hi friends!

I have finished my 2nd day of school this year! Wahoo!! 25/27 have shown up and half of them are from another school in our district. (The district made new school boundries and switched a bunch of the students around.) It is very interesting (to say the least) to see a different group of students from a different school. So the last two days have been spent practicing proceducres and good behavior, touring the school, getting to know you activities, etc. I'm enjoying my new class and am hoping for a great school year.

One of my favorite bloggy/twitter friends , MJ at Teaching in Heels, started a new link-up for teachers on Tuesday. So of course I had to participate and show her some bloggy love! She wants us to share fun and new teaching things for other teachers.... very cool!

The girls on my team have been doing some activities from Babbling Abby's Fun with Firsties this week. One of my favorite new things is the Jitter Juice. The kids LOVED it!! Big time!!

First I read the book "First Day Jitters".

Next, we talked about nerves / jitters / etc.

The kids all read Abby's poem multiple times (too cute).

Then, we made the jitter juice. ( I altered the recipe a little bit - mainly bc I didnt want to deal with scooping sherbert ice-cream! So I just did Hawaiin Punch and Sprite). The students all drank it and were hilarious -- "oh- my butterflies all flew away!"

Last, we graphed our results.

If you haven't checked out Babbling Abby's Back to School Unit I would definately reccomend it! :) Jitter Juice was a BIG hit!

Back to School

I've loved looking at all of your beautiful and creative rooms these last few weeks! After working like an animal in my classroom this past week (in between all of those meetings/trainings of course) my room is complete. I've carried over the apple theme that I started last year. That made things a lot easier- although it didn't stop me from buying an insane amount of new things! Here are the pictures I took today at school. Enjoy!

Room at a glance
Grammar Wall (I am an ELD teacher so I have to have this instead of a word wall.)

Front door, Class Jobs, Star of the Week

Name Station (From Deanna Jump's Unit)

Word Family Station

ABC Order Station, Word Work Station, Rhyming Station
Calendar Math Notebooks (So excited to try this!)

Calendar Math Wall
Calendar Math Wall

Calendar Math Wall

Math Stations

Got these above great ideas from fellow bloggers! Thank you!

Writing Wall

(We are starting Thinking Maps, thus the new posters.)

Carpet Area
(Love the vowel glues from Teacher Wife! Thank you!)

Reading Focus Wall

Small Group Area

Reading Group Tubs

Student Work Display (27 kids so far! Wow!)

Student Book Boxes

They are organized by Table Numbers and I am going to take their pictures and post on the boxes for easy id.

Looking into the hallway

Reading Tree

The kids apple/names will move up or down depending on their ORF scores each week.

Organization (writing journals, wake-up journals, etc)

My Teacher Area
Library Station, Cubbies, Computers


An Example of a Table

Thursday night was Meet the Teacher Night at our school.

Here is a picture of my first grade team this year.

Cori is new to our team this year (she came up from Kinder and replaced Kelli who went up to Second Grade this year), then me, then Kate (this is our 7th year teaching together), and Lisa (this is our 5th year teaching together). We're going to have a great year!