April 2013

I am officially horrible at updating our blog! It really is my hope to get better at updating, but time just seems to get away from me! Since I last updated in March I am going to do my best to update what we have been up to the last few months in the next few posts!

Tyler and I enjoyed a quiet Easter together! We are big dorks and do Easter baskets for each other...just a fun tradition! We made a huge Easter lunch and just enjoyed being together! Oh, and Tyler sent me on an Easter egg hunt in our apartment! We ended the day with homemade strawberry shortcake and Wreck it Ralph!

Tyler's Easter Basket

 Easter morning:)

At the beginning of April I had Spring Break and it could have not come at a more perfect time. By April, I am really feeling the fatigue of the school year and a break is very welcome! We decided not to go away since the next week we were traveling to Portland for a wedding and just wanted to enjoy some time at home, plus Tyler had quite a list of work things to accomplish so he needed to be in the office that week. We decided to take a quick day trip up to Leavenworth one of the days...we LOVE Leavenworth! We fit in some mini golf and had a delicious dinner at Viscontis!

During Spring Break I took some time and spruced up our patio! I love to garden and it was nice to have some extra time to plant new flowers.

 Before and After

We traveled to Portland to celebrate the wedding of our dear friends Josh and Heidi! It was a beautiful Christ-centered wedding. Our sweet friend Emelia was there too! We had a great time!

April was a lovely month!!

Bikes!

Tyler and I have been wanting to purchase bikes for awhile now. We loved to ride bikes in California, but haven't had any for over 3 years. In Southern California there was a lot to do so we stayed busy visiting Disneyland, the beach, going to parks, walking Mt. Rubidoux, etc. We didn't think about not having bikes as much because there were so many other things to do. Last summer we realized how much we missed having bikes and while we did enjoy playing catch, disk golf, and taking walks, we started to think it would be nice to have bikes again. Last month, we finally made our bike purchase while we were away on a weekend getaway! The weather is getting warmer and we are already loving being outside in the sunshine and riding!

 Safety first!

 It only takes a few minutes to ride to Starbucks!;) Every great bike ride involves a pitstop at Starbucks!:)

Christmas 2012

Here are some snapshots of our visit to Redding for Christmas! We had a wonderful trip despite the yucky travel conditions! I definitely shed many tears when we had to leave. It never gets easier to say goodbye. 

We ran into the Oregon Ducks "Duck" at In N Out!

 At the start of our trip:) We have fun together!

Since the weather was so yucky we stayed a night with our dear friends Chad and Ally so we wouldn't have to drive on icy roads in the dark! Don't they live in a beautiful place?

 Ashton and Auntie Tiff:)

 Chad entertaining us with his stories! He makes me wheeze!

 Crossing the border into California! Yay!!!

I love my family:)

Got to visit with our Berg family:)

 My Grandpa has left a legacy I will cherish forever. I sure love him.

 Merry Christmas!

Snapshots from Thanksgiving 2012

We had a great trip to Riverside for Thanksgiving. It's always so good to see the Ellis family. Oh how we miss them. We also got to see several of our dear friends. Unfortunately, I was having such a great time visiting with them that I forgot to snap some pictures!:( 

Those of you who follow my Instagram account have already seen these pictures of our trip. It's funny how I used to always carry my camera, but my iPhone is now my camera! 

We got to take sweet Leila on a birthday date! She is 4 now...how did that happen?!

Sweet memories at Sweet Frog:)

 We got to meet sweet Andelyn and hang out with her awesome parents!

 Uncle Ty and Leila

 Ty and Scott putting together Leila's new dollhouse. 

 Brothers laughing...

 He loves his nieces. 

2012

2012 has been a year full of challenges and blessings. I made a couple of collages through Diptic to capture some (definitely not all!) of my favorite memories of 2012. Here's to 2013!

Classroom Pictures 2012

I spend a lot of time in my classroom so I want it to be bright, fun, and cheery! I love how it turned out this year! Thank you Pinterest and so many awesome teacher blogs for lots of great ideas!!

Here are some great blogs and sites where I picked up many of the fun things you see in my classroom. I wish I could remember where I found everything but I can't: (I really do want to give credit where credit is due!)

http://www.the3amteacher.blogspot.com/ (She has the cutest clipart which I used for many things throughout my room! I used her owl clipart for bulletin boards and my subject headers!)

http://www.livelovelaughkindergarten.blogspot.com/  (Boggle board and welcome banner are from this awesome blog!)

http://www.stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com/ (One of my all-time favorite blogs!)

http://www.theteacherwife.blogspot.com

CAFE headers are from Alissa Manning-Telisak on teacherspayteachers.com

Pink and green owl daily five cards are from Amanda Holland Gregory on teacherspayteachers.com

Owl themed READ banner from Kathleen Amari-Crookston at www.middlegradesmaven.blogspot.com

Owl classroom theme pack from Rebecca Johnson at teacherspayteachers.com

Reading comprehension posters from A Year of Many Firsts at teacherspayteachers.com

Owl labels from Faith Wheeler at teacherspayteachers.com




Here are some pics...

I love organization:)

• 

 Math board

Reading corner with the table I painted this summer. The colored scrapbook papers are for "Work to Hoot About!" Each kiddo has their own space with a clip to display their work.

Tyler made the cute subject headers for me with free clipart from The 3am Teacher:)

Where we display our best work! I promise that picture is crooked and not the board:)

Boggle is a big hit during word work!

My kids love to play spelling jump on the alphabet puzzle!

View from the door

View from the door and my desk area