The book fair activities are over. I guess that means I have to wear normal clothes again next week. :( The overall theme was “Book Fair and Beyond!” Tuesday was pajama day for “The Book Fair of our Dreams.” I really wanted to take my whole bed with me but I settled for jammies.

Wednesday, the book fair was “Out of This World!” What does that mean? Aliens, astronauts, Star Wars characters, Buzz Lightyear and even other Toy Story characters.

Look at these little cuties!

It's a homemade alien shirt!

 Thursday, we dressed to “Run to the Book Fair!” Basically, for teachers that means team gear or sweats. The kids wore their team uniforms. Our principal even showed up in football gear! That evening we had a Back to School Picnic. It was such a good turnout! We had hotdogs, chips, drinks and cookies. Everyone seemed to have a great time.

Friday was our normal spirit wear day to support our school. Most people wore their new school t-shirts.

 

 What is a girl to do on a Friday night when the Hubby is out of town? And why does she need all this?!?!

Crafting!

I finally made one of my crate chair cushions. I would have made two tonight but I need to get some more foam. It takes 1.5 foam pieces to make a cushion.

My bestie Westie modeling the crate chair

I also received a package in the mail on Thursday. It was from this cute kid I know.

My friend and Australian travel partner has blogged again about our trip. You can read it here. Again, she is so much more detailed. I love reading! It's like I went on the trip! ;)

I suppose I should go clean up my mess. Tobie and I only have one more sleep until Hubby comes home!

It's a Baby!

For a long time now, I have wanted a babydoll in my classroom dramatic play area. I had looked but never found just the right one. Either their head was too squished, they were too small or just plain ugly. Until yesterday!

While in Enid, I couldn't resist going to Ross. I know, there is one 15 minutes from my house but they none of them always have the same goods to offer. So in I went, looking at clothes. It just so happens that the toys are right by the dressing room. I had already decided on 3 pieces of clothing and seen some other puzzles for my classroom when I saw it!

THE BABY GRAND! It includes a little bed, carrier, diaper bag, 2 bottles, 'baby wipes', and a little teddy bear PLUS the babydoll!

I didn't want Hubby to think I was going wild spending "his" money while he was out of the country. After all he had only made it to Chicago! So, I bought the Baby Grand!

Today at school, we talked about the baby and how we treat babies. We don't throw the baby. We don't hit the baby. We don't fight over the baby. We don't write on the baby because you will have to call and explain to your parents why you need a job to replace our classroom baby since you decided to write on it.

We talked about naming the baby. I took suggestions. Princess, Maggie, Rose, Lexie, Snow White, Baby, Cutie, Elizabeth, Jacob, Payton, Rapunzel, Roxie and Unicorn. {YES, I said Unicorn.} Our baby will be named Rose Elizabeth. I decided that she needed a middle name since I expect my kindergartners to know their own middle name.

Then we took turns holding Baby Rose. The kids were so sweet with her and so quiet waiting their turn to hold the baby. Some would even give her a little rocking.

Look at that little guy giving her a soft touch!

A careful exchange for Baby Rose

After school, I got out the new dishes I received with my latest Donors Choose grant. I have learned that if I want things put away correctly, I need to leave a picture behind of what it should resemble. Hopefully, they will pay attention when I tell them about more new stuff for them to use.

At home, I had another fun Skype. This time it was with my Hubby.



 A little family time via Skype

When discussing the baby, we realized our little baby did not have a blanket. Sooo, I got out my handy sewing machine and remedied that problem.

Here is the finished product!



Random Wrap Up

CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK! THIS POST IS RANDOM AND TOTALLY OUT OF ORDER!

So… I am really far behind. Well, at least I feel really far behind when it is actually only a week behind. I suppose the good thing is that I don’t have a lot to report on. That is good, boring but good.

Birthday blessings just keep happening! Last weekend, the in-laws came to visit for the day. While out shopping, I got this snazzy new watch. It’s a slap bracelet but a watch!

I went to Enid today for a quick visit and got these cuties from my cute grandparents!

What a cute home it has in the flowerbed!

And a little sweetie brought this to me at school!

Another little friend was real excited about it and helped present it when I saw them. At the end of the day, he made sure that I liked the gift. I told him I loved it and it was real sweet of him. He was so funny. You would have thought he made the snowman himself when he brought it to me with the little girl. The little girl just let him help and act like it was all his present. Very sweet!

 

In getting ready for our book fair, we made a door decoration. The theme is to the book fair and beyond! Our outer space like theme was Star Wars.

Thanks to my PE teacher friend, I have an awesome little saying on it!

 

On Friday, we said goodbye to a member of the family, Peg. You know, cause he has only one Peg leg.

Peg came to our family in March of 2005. Unfortunately, for Peg, it was rough entry to our family. Deceit and lies happened for Peg to enter our family. BUT, he taught Hubby a very valuable lesson: Always run big purchases by the wife. I wasn't the wife at the time, but I was anticipating a sparkler on my finger when I found out a motorcycle was purchased instead. I am sure you can imagine how that went over. FIL also learned a lesson, (though he didn't take it to heart as much as Hubby did), Don't piss off the future daughter-in-law. Because believe me, I am not telling your wife you helped your son by this. Good luck to YOU when YOU tell her.

Regardless, I wasn't {totally} mad that a motorcycle was bought, it was just that I wasn't trusted enough to be informed on the matter until after it was done and little lies were told along the way.

We never actually rode this way (only posed) but wouldn't it have been cute?!

Hubby and Spencer, Hub's 'little brother', doing stunts on Peg

Now sits an empty spot in the garage where Peg once parked. Fancy was a little sad to see one of her roommates go but then again, she has more room to stretch out.

Peg, I hope that Dio treats you nicely. I will always look for you on the road. :)

On Saturday, during our football game against Texas A&M, I worked on a little craft project. I saw this idea, take a guess....... YEP, on a teacher blog! I have several sets of alphabet stamps that give me a headache when my kids use them. "I can't find R. Where's F? There's no J!" WHATEVER. Gone are those days with this fancy idea!

I bought my supplies at Hobby Lobby. They were all on sale! I think this project only cost $8.



Supplies needed: the brown drawers are a make your own advent calendar, alphabet stickers, 2 pieces of scrapbook paper and Mod Podge (which I already had courtesy of my sorority days)


The absolutely, adorable, could have given me a heart attack because it is so cute and useful finished product:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Isn't it just fun?!?

Here is a cute picture of my pup. We took this to send

 to Hubby while we were in Enid. She is so cute, I could just eat her!

Game Time!

Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State Cowboys have started the season! Our (I say that like I am on the team...) first game was on Saturday, September 3. Lucky for me it had a 6 p.m. kick-off, which meant we didn't have to get up at the complete crack of dawn to get there.

We arrived in Stillwater around noon and tailgated for the afternoon. The Parker's even graced us with their presence for the afternoon!

Is she not the cutest little Cowgirl?!?

What a worn out little Cowgirl!

We left Stillwater with a W for the evening.

The next game was on a Thursday night, which I already blogged about here. 

Our third game was on the road. This on the road game was actually closer to us than the home games. We played the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes in Tulsa. Since college football is all about making money, they kick-off was scheduled for 9 p.m. so it would be televised and not have the 'big' game at 7 to compete with. As we were preparing for the game, we heard the TV announcers say both teams were asked to stay in the locker rooms and fans were asked to go to the concourse of the stadium before a storm hit.

Tobie says, "Rain, rain, go away! My Cowboys want to come out and play!"



"I'll just rest my eyes before the game starts."



Resting up before the game

There sure was a storm! Lots of lightning, thunder and rain. 3 hours later, the Cowboys had kick-off. If you did your math correctly, you know that was a 12:15 kick-off!

This is how they were sleeping together when I woke them up for the kickoff

Our house only made it to halftime. I hear the game ended with a Cowboy victory around 3:30 a.m.

Blessed Birthday

What a day! If you take away the actual “had to get out of bed on my birthday” I could say the morning started out great. Nonetheless, I had to go to school. The first excitement happened when I was asked if I wanted dessert in my lunch. When I saw my dessert option, a cookie cake, I really wanted it BUT I had just gotten out of the shower and couldn’t take a picture with my cake. Hubby said, “We can take a picture.” I said, “My hair is in a towel and my body is in a towel. There will be no such pictures at 7:30 a.m.!” So, I passed on dessert.

When I got to school I was greeted with this at my classroom door. I have such sweet co-workers that I like to call friends.

A girl after my own heart brought me some mini Chick-Fil-A's for birthday breakfast! Thanks LeFlore!

After being in my room for a little bit, I stumbled upon this.

My little darlings were just that today. We had two friends gone so we were down to a mere 20. One asked me if they could throw me a surprise party. Very sweet however, it was never brought up again. Maybe I will let them do it tomorrow. You can never have too much birthday, can you?

During free choice centers, I had a birthday party drawn for me.

That is me with my cake. A present is above me and the squiggle is decorations. :)

I was able to finish off my lunch with one of these

Those would be double doozies from the Great American Cookie Company!

After school, I headed to the Day Center for the Homeless in downtown Tulsa. Our Sunday School class was in charge of serving the meal tonight. While we were serving, my dear friend Holly called me. When I listened to her message it said Happy birthday and something along the lines of “… I hope you are somewhere really romantic and that is why you aren’t answering.” I laughed. Not so much romantic but was rewarding to do.

After we were finished, Hubby and I headed off to birthday dinner. My choice? IHOP for stuffed French toast!

When we were finished eating, I needed to run into Wal-Mart for some dry erase markers, when I found this steal of a deal!



These crates were $1 a piece! They usually sell for $3.47.

This is the idea. I am still not 100% sure I will love it if I try it but I am sure I will end up using the crates in some way.

I finally made it home from Wal-Mart to celebrate with Hubby and Tobie. Here is the official picture with my cake and of course my cute little pup.

She even helped open the presents.

It's a super cute shirt! Good listening Hubby!

"Let me get that Mom. It's your birthday. You should take it easy."

Later in the evening, I was voting for Sonic's Limeades for Learning when I saw that my project has been completely funded! What a great birthday present!

I proceeded to stay up until at least 12:01. I had a phone call to make for forgetting my birthday. :( Hopefully that won't happen again next year.

A Stranger's Tribute to 9/11

After a long Monday at school, I went to play bunco. I won! WooHoo! Then I came home to do a little school work. I placed a book order, which was all me, and then started investigating random things for school. What random things you ask?

• the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile- ever since I was 'in charge' of Truck Touch, I randomly think of neat vehicles I would like to get to our event to make it bigger than the previous year
• School calendar- to try and map out topics I want to cover and how closely they fall to a holiday
• Tulsa Zoo's Education program- they will come out to schools and even bring animals with some of their programs

Anyways, while investigating the zoo, I decided to email them a question or two that I had. So... I logged into my school email only to see that I had another donation to my current Donors Choose project. I clicked on the email, which shows me why they chose my project, to see that Beth from Colorado "gave to this project because my child raised money for kids that need things in their classroom to remember sept. 11."

What a heart warming gesture! I hope this project gets funded so that these items will be a constant reminder of how a nation came together to support one another. I am in no way saying that my other donors have not shown generosity but I am moved by this woman's desire to help her child learn about compassion and helping others.

Currently, I wear a blue TEAM ISAAC bracelet as a reminder to pray for a Sapulpa family as their 13 year-old son battles brain cancer at St. Jude's in Memphis, Tennessee. Now, when I see my students using the materials in our dramatic play center, it will be a reminder to say a prayer for all of the families affected September 11th.

The start of Birthday Week?

If you know me, you know that I believe in Birthday Week. Hubby used to be real good at following Birthday Week protocol. Notice the words used to? I don't know if it is his old age but he has been off his game.


I also feel a little off my game too. Not that I feel like I deserve or need gifts but I usually make a list. Years ago, my grandparents started requesting a list when it got within a month of my birthday. In hoping to claim the 'favorite' position, I obliged and made a list of things I wouldn't mind getting for my birthday. This year, I feel like my birthday snuck up on me. I feel like it was the whole returning from a two week vacation to Australia and then starting right into school.

I mean, I’ve been on a trip of a lifetime and spending more time chatting with my niece, what more could I need?

That’s right, Toy Story 3 Operation. We went to Big Lots! after church to get a game for a silent auction basket at church. They didn’t really have anything that looked too great for it but they had Toy Story Operation for $5! I said, “I need that for my classroom!” So we bought it. On the way to the car I suggested we try it out tonight and Hubby told me, “That’s not necessary.”

Fast forward a few hours when we were taking things out of my car to go into school. He starts to grab the game and I tell him, “No, we didn’t get to play it yet.” Again he insists we don’t need to. Finally I said, “Yes. We do. It is birthday week and I want to play so leave it there. We’ll play when we get home.”

And we did.



The Toasted Turbo Boosters aren't firing.
Please remove this faulty wiring.

Hubby is really concentrating on getting those toasted turbo boosters out to help Buzz Lightyear

Maybe this is a sign that birthday week is still to come even though the big day is on Tuesday?!