Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo!  Yes, it's partly my love of all Mexican yummies that make me love teaching about Cinco de Mayo but I also think it's a very festive holiday.  It's definitely one the kids get into.  It's even easier to teach now...with my 22 page Cinco de Mayo unit!

If you're not fluent in Spanish, don't worry, you don't need to be!  Especially in the lower grades, a basic intro to Spanish is enough to make them think they're bilingual.  ;)  My Cinco de Mayo unit introduces animals, body parts, colors, family members and numbers.  There are recipe cards, coloring pages, a fun hat to make {of course!} and even an easy reader to put together and color.  Here's a freebie download for you as well!

For a hands on idea, I always like to make salsa and guacamole right in my classroom with my students.  If you use a blender it is super simple.  Here's a tip: if you make the salsa first, just leave a little bit of it in the blender, add the avocados and the guacamole is done!  I guarantee you, if the kids get to help make it, they'll want to eat it.  {kid friendly recipes included in the unit}  And if you decide to cook while wearing a festive sombrero, even better!

While you're busy blog stalking & pinning festive Cinco de Mayo ideas, make sure you remember to enter the Origami Owl giveaway!!  And check out more freebies on TBA!

Origami Owl {giveaway}

Have you heard about Origami Owl yet?  Let me start by saying that I am NOT a charm person.  Never been a fan of charm bracelets and I typically go after more modern on-trend jewelry over something more traditional like a pendant.  However...I love love love this company and how charming the necklaces are.  pun intended?!  ;)

You can add pieces, take them off, order more & switch them out.  I'm so excited to team up with my fab friend Brooke to offer one of YOU {because I also love my readers} your very own, personalized Origami Owl living locket!  

Here's how the jewelry works:

You pick your chain & locket then fill it up with super fun charms and add plates & dangles as you see fit.  I wasn't crazy about the dangles until I realized they're on clips!  If you want it, keep it on...if you're feeling less blingy...take 'em off.  Or {like me} if you're thinking of getting one in your child's birthstone...you can keep adding as many as you need!  {perfect for Mother's Day...am I right?!}

Origami Owl was started by Bella, a young girl who wanted to buy a car for her 16th birthday.  And now, she's telling her story with jewelry parties all over the country.  So empowering & inspiring!  I also think their mission statement is fabulous:

So...where to begin?!  Here are 2 bundles I put together when looking through all the collections...

{love life}
All of the things I love about my life.  high heels.  wine.  teaching.  lipstick to represent my glamourous side.  my puppy.  a love letter {because hubs & I dated long distance for 2 years}.  coffee.  elephants.  and an airplane for my love of travel.  I'd also hang the heart charm for all of these things that I LOVE.

{blessed}
Then of course there are all of the things I've been blessed with.  teaching.  this blogging community.  the grace of God that is new every day.  breast cancer research in honor of my grandma.  baby girl's {soon to be} birthstone.  my puppy again.  a pink baby carriage & sweet little footies!  another heart dangle.  and again the travel.  I need to add something else for my family & husband...I guess I better get back to shopping!  :)

The winner will receive a

large silver locket & her choice of a $10 chain!

To enter the giveaway:
*follow my blog AND leave a comment on this post to tell me what you'd put in your living locket {do both for 1 entry}
*like Brooke's Origami Owl Facebook page & show her some love {for a 2nd bonus entry}

The giveaway will run through Sunday, May 12th and we'll pick a winner at random for Mother's Day!!

Little Miss Glamour is having a...

One thing I've learned is that pregnancy = listening to unsolicited advice & opinions.  Most of it I don't mind because I actually like hearing the different stories and experiences.  But the thing I've received the most criticism on is my honesty about wanting a daughter.  For my whole life, long before kids were even a realistic thought, I've had the desire to be a mom to a little girl.  I fully believe that God puts desires in our hearts but I also had to remember that just because God says He can do something, it doesn't mean it'll necessarily happen in our timing.

Needless to say, it took a loooooot of patience waiting for our 18 week ultrasound.  And I received a good bit of criticism {and judgement that I'm already a bad mom} for replacing the expected "I don't care as long as it's healthy" answer with "We'll obviously be happy either way but I would be over the moon thrilled to find out it's a girl."

So what is the result?  First, here are some pics from our party...

Everything was pink & blue themed, of course.  And I had fun comparing bellies with a few of my other preggo friends!  :)

Best surprise of the day {because I already knew what baby was} is that my AMAZING brother in-law surprised my sister & I both by flying her and my sweet nephew out for the weekend!!  I haven't seen them since Christmas so I was so so so pumped to find out they were coming.  How cute is he playing with the bubbles?!

Team Blue on top and Team Pink on the bottom.  This is a pretty accurate picture of reality.  All of the Old Wives Tales said boy.  Hubby's family has had boys as first children for at least 3 generations.  I'm carrying like a boy.  I haven't been sick.  Complete stranger women have stopped me in public to tell me that I'm having a boy.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  I was surprised there was anyone in the girl picture at all to be honest!!

Then it was time for the big reveal!  I put confetti & glitter in each of the lanterns so no peeky spying would give it away.  {A huge huge thank you to Oh Happy Day for this super fun idea.}

1...2...3...FAKE OUT!!  IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!

{That's all 4 grandparents at the bottom with tears in their eyes.  We made family history & shocked them all.  It was a super, great, fabulous moment!}

Yes, we would've been happy with a son.  We are thrilled first and foremost that our baby is healthy and are excited to jump in and plan.  We knew - before learning the gender - that this is the baby we have waited on & prayed for.  But for me, this goes beyond my love of all things girly and sparkly and is a shining moment in my life that will always point me back to God's love.  I never prayed that this baby would be a girl and prayed only for health and an overwhelming sense of joy for the mood in the doctor's office.  And she will be my purest happiness - an answer to prayer that God pulled straight from my heart because I feared it was too selfish to pray out loud.

Now...to start building her shoe collection!!!  ;)

Bosses Week.

Next week is Bosses Week.  Do you have something planned for your boss??

We were reading Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus yesterday when we got to chapter 5, Principal.  As I read in my best Junie B. impression, it hit me...let's see what my five year olds think about our principal!  So I taught an impromptu writing lesson and we made this book.  I made sure not to give them any examples, just let them talk with their elbow buddies about what they think she does all day.

Here's what some of them came up with...hilarious.

Then this one...I could not resist taking a picture.  Read it in your 2nd language of phonetic spelling and I promise you will laugh.  :)

Yes, we fixed it!!  It's supposed to say "In her office, she do announcements."  ;)

If you'd like to make a class book for your principal for Bosses Week use the free download below!  Available for female & male principals, with and without sentence starters.

Happy Bosses week!  I hope your principals like reading these books that are all about them!  :)

P.S. We know what out little baby is!!!  :)  Come back tomorrow if you're curious for a non-school related post & pictures of our gender reveal party!

Scholastic Dollar Deals.

I tried to mobile blog earlier during a break from my workshop but I couldn't get it started.  Still, you have 24 hours to get shopping.  Because there is no deal better than Scholastic Dollar Days!!!

Last year I got some great books of writing templates, literacy centers and shoe box activities.  You know I love anything I can set up once then pull out over & over again the next year.  There are also leveled readers, ESL & ELL resources and other classroom materials.

$1 pricing won't last for long.  Let me know what you scoop up for cheap!

Spring Break & Currently

Take a deep breath with me.  Ready?  {ahhhh...}  In the words of Junie B. Jones, that is called a sigh of relief.  Spring Break is here!  I hope if you were off last week you're back feeing rested & reenergized! I have a few plans for my week off.  Let's see how many of them actually get crossed off the list...starting with my Currently for April.  Thanks to Farley for a FAB addition of the advice section!

Listening: Huxy runs though the house - and I mean fast - when he gets all riled up & no one is playing with him.  It is hilarious!

Loving: A week off.  Hubs felt bad for me that I couldn't go celebrate with my traditional vacation margarita and picked up a 6 pack of non-alcoholic beer on the way home Friday.  I'm not typically a beer drinker, but how sweet was that?!

Our church was hoping for nicer Easter weather when they got the snow cone truck to park out front, but still...who turns down a free snow cone after a great service?  Hallelujah, Jesus is risen.  Let's celebrate!!  :)

And I was super pumped these Pinterest eggs turned out.  Yes, some of those are chive & bacon.  They were de-licious...and I don't even like deviled eggs!

Thinking: Here is our current den, which will soon be referred to as the playroom.  :)  We haven't done anything to it since we've moved in so I'm really excited about changing it from "old people yellow" to a fabulous playroom/second living room/super great place to hang out.  I'm painting the walls gray today.  {I checked with my OB & she said it was okay!!}  The fireplace will be white, but not today as I forgot to ask hubs to take down the 2 ton mirror before he went to work!

Here's a closer pic of the fireplace.  I'm definitely painting over the brick with white but I'm not sure what to do about the wooden mantel.  Gray to match the walls?  Still white to match the brick?  What do you think would make it look fab??

These are the colors...updated pic to come when I'm finished!  I figure these can be accessorized with organizers & bins of any color to hide toys, diapers, etc.

Wanting:  Sunshine.  I love love love being in the sunshine.  And compared to last year's spring which came about quickly, the rain & chilling temps seem to be streeeetching out this year.  I am over it!  Hubs & I are going out of town tomorrow with the hopes to get in some beach time but I don't think we're going far enough south to achieve my goal.  Either way, my in-laws move in with us again today for about a month and we leave tomorrow morning.  These facts are {of course!} unrelated.  ;)

Needing: We find out in 2 weeks what we're having and I. CAN. NOT. WAIT!!!!

Advice: If you're a current blogger or are thinking about starting, my advice is to remember why you started.  I have let myself get stressed out and worked up more than once over my blog because I didn't post enough, have enough followers, get participation in linkys, make enough money, yadda yadda.  You name it, I've stressed about it.  But in the end, I just have to remember why I started.  For me, it was to share ideas, help other teachers and ultimately reach more students other than my own.  There are super bloggers out there and admitting my jealousy makes it easier to say Yay for You! {in a completely honest way!} and move on.  When I get good ideas, I'll share them, but I've tried creating, posting & starting link-ups just for the sake of drawing readers and I will tell you, they have all flopped.  Somedays the creative juices are flowing and other days, they're just not.  But authentic work and things that you truly enjoy will bring the most hits because your readers can't be fooled.  :)  Numbers are fun to track but they're not always a true measure of who is actually reading or following you.  There are ways to make your blog more like a business to increase revenue and up those numbers - and there are days that I wish I was doing more of that! - but in the end, you just have to go back to the beginning and remember why you started.  And if you're accomplishing your initial goal then you're doing enough for you.

Be sure to check my Facebook page over the next few days so to see vaca updates!  Happy April Fools Day.  Keep your wits & don't be fooled!  My favorite one so far comes from Chick-Fil-A.

Beware southerners, the cows would NOT be okay with this!!  ;)