Student Gifts

What do you get 19 students for Christmas on a teacher budget? A scholastic book bought with points earned and a white board w/ marker! We use individual white boards like these in class almost daily. So, each student got their own monogrammed for a gift.

To make 32 1'x1' white boards, go to a home improvement store and get a 4'x8' piece of washboard ($12) and ask them to cut it into foot by foot squares. How easy and inexpensive!

I borrowed a Cricut machine from another teacher to monogram the boards. And after using the machine I know what I want Santa to bring me for Christmas! It was so easy to use and fun to play with. The possibilities of gifts kept running through my mind of what you could make with this machine!

The students LOVED them and immediately asked to write on their boards and continued to ask the rest of the day if they could write on them. Hopefully, they will enjoy them for a long time!

Reindeer Ornaments #2

For Christmas gifts from my students to their parents, we made reindeer handprint ornaments. I made these with a class a few years back, see earlier post here. A few changes from earlier are using red glitter glue and smaller ornaments. They turned out cute then and they turned out cute again. These are blue plastic ornaments from Wal-Mart. I think I like the blue and brown better than the green ornaments done before. This was just one of many school projects that has consumed my evenings lately. But, hopefully it's something the parents will treasure for years to come.

Kindergarten Fun!

This school year as been busy settling into a new grade, new school and new schedules. I am truly blessed to be teaching at a great school with wonderful parents and students. Kindergarten is fun and tiring! We are half way through the school year and I'm finally feeling like I'm getting in a groove of things. I keep telling myself that next year will be easier and not having to create so many things, but just "add to".

Austin is just down the hall and I get to see him during the day which makes it great. And Coop is just a few miles down the road at his school. It's great all being close together.

Thank you God for this job and opportunity to make a difference in so many peoples lives!

First Day of School

It's that time again and school has started. Austin is in First Grade! Here he is with his sweet teacher Mrs. P. Best thing is we are at the same school this year! We see each other at lunch and usually on his way to PE. It's great getting those sweet hugs and kisses through out the day!
Everyone's ready for their fist day of school!

Coop with his game face on!

Precious boys! Ready for the first day of school.

Snow Days

Okay, so we tell the boys not to expect snow in Alabama at Christmas time and each year Mother Nature proves us wrong! They have been lucky enough to have snow during the winter time. Cooper actually enjoyed being out in it this year. Here are a few pics from 2010 snow days!

What a sweet looking little Dwarf! Which one is he...Grumpy, Dopey, Happy...?!

Second Christmas

We had our second Christmas with the Austin side of the family at New Years. We had to wait for everyone to get back from their travels, but it was well worth the wait! Angie hosted this year and we pigged out on traditional snack. This is a traditional snack that started with my Mother's family and we still carry it on today. Lots of delicious sweet and salty snack foods and of course Slushy Punch!

LoLo was super excited to get a "Shelia's House" of Northwoods mall. JK! This is the main mall in the town that we grew up in. She really didn't know if she should laugh or act like it was nice. It was a joke! We have several gag gifts that get passed around at Christmas time.

We were all given adorable hand-made scarfs. These were all made by a lady that we go to church with. Little did we know that she had this wonderful talent! We all loved them!

Christmas is just as fun the second time around!

What!? A NEW post! YES!

Okay, so I'm finally posting! Yea! After returning from Xmas we discovered our laptop had crashed. That's the second laptop to crash--NOT BUYING A GATEWAY AGAIN! So, now we've had this new HP and got a wireless router. I never knew how much I would enjoy at $40 piece of electronics!

So, here are a few pics from Xmas in Nashville. We all loved being with the fam. The boys loved Jami and Tim's new house. Especially, the elevator and movie theater. But, they truly LOVE their cousins and spending time with them. Austin cried again this year when we left. Merry Belated Christmas!