I heart summer.

  Today was lots of fun! It started off like all days in the summer: sleeping until 10:30! There's not much that makes me happier than that. Then, this afternoon, I went up to my school and had a puppy play-date with two of my favorite students and their mom/aunt. These sweet kiddos are cousins and I had Natalie in first grade and Philip in third grade this year! I love them and their mom/aunt. She always helped me in my classroom and we loved to chat in the mornings when she walked them to class. They're the sweetest family. When we got to the playground, it started POURING! So, we just sat under the porch at school and talked and hung out for a while. Then, when the sun came out, we went down to the playground. Finley was SO WILD! I have never seen her act like she did: she was running so fast, flipping and tripping over her leash and grabbing mouthfuls of grass. She got sooooooo dirty and had to come home and go straight to the bathtub! Now, she's sleeping. My favorite thing ever is when she sleeps because she's all sweet and cuddly. I'm really enjoying being able to be at home with her in the summer :)

 

Here are some pics from the day:

 

Love them!

Wish my eyes didn't look closed: I'm so squinty!

It's raining, it's pouring....

but, that didn't stop Finley!

Does this look like a puppy who played hard? Ha!

She hates baths. Just hates them.

 All clean and ready for a nap!

 

Yesterday, I took a few things up to my classroom. It was the stuff I blogged about earlier this week. Mostly I just wanted to drop it all off so that it wasn't sitting in my house all summer. I hate stuff just sitting around. And, well, one thing lead to another and... gulp... I set my classroom up!

 

This is new and I am in LOVE!

At the end of last year, I worked on organizing all my books in those red and blue containers. I love how clean and organized that shelf looks now!

 

I honestly only stayed for about two and a half hours! It's so easy to set it up when you aren't changing classrooms and you aren't planning on rearranging anything. I'm not going back up there until July, but I do feel better knowing that some of it is done.

 

Well, that's all I've got to share for now. I wanted to warn you  that I'm planning on sharing some pictures of my house soon because I want to have a Home Tour tab on my blog. And, I don't know any other way to do it. So, if decorating's not your thing, just know that those are more for me than for you :)

 

Toodles, Poodles!

 

 

A productive day...

I'm not sure how it happened, but I actually got a lot done today! Of course, none of it was important, but still!

I went to Michaels and came home with some great stuff!

I apologize because all the pictures turned out blurry. It happens every time I try to blog from my phone. Grrrrrrrr.

The first thing I got was this jewelry holder. I've been looking for a nice way to display my earrings because I am forever losing them. I saw this and thought it was perfect!

I don't know if you've been to Michael's lately, but their dollar bin is awesome right now! I got this cute zebra tray for a buck. 

I don't know why, but I kind of LOVE it!

I also found this cool paper on sale for three dollars. They are cards that you fold in half. I'm not going to use them as cards, though. I'll keep you posted :)

I got a new piece of furniture for my classroom this year that someone gave me. And, I felt like I would need a big piece to put over it because it's pretty massive. So, I grabbed a red frame ad my favorite pack of scrapbook paper ever. I buy this stuff over and over because it's fun, bright and happy! 

I printed off a quite that I had been eyeing on Pinterest for awhile. I found it at eighteen25.blogspot.com. I used some scrapbook paper to make a mat around the quote. 

It's not perfect. In fact, it's kind of messy. But I am sooooo not a perfectionist! So, I love it, ha. It's colorful and kid-friendly. I plan to let the kids make self portraits the first day and I'm going to hang them around it. Well, that's the plan. Who knows if it will happen?

I also have a random space above my board. I tried hanging reading strategies there last year, but it was honestly not great because it was on the opposite side of the room from my guided reading table. So, I moved them and that space was blank half the year. You can seethe space in this picture, it's orange.

So anyway, I decided I wanted to hang some quotes up there this year. I was thinking about buying cheap frames and spray painting them fun colors. But, when I was reunited with my favorite paper, I got an even better idea! 

Still colorful, and a looooooot cheaper! Win, win! I used quotes that I've seen around the Internet, quotes that I say a lot, and quotes that my parents used to say to me :) I like then because I feel like that is kind of just wasted space: so, it might as well be cute, right?

So, yeah. That's what I did today. Want to know what Finley did while I was working? 

I knew I bought all those pillows for a reason :) 

Arkansas

Well, I've been out of town for the last week. The whole family (Finley included) loaded up my grandfather's Buick LeSabre (jealous, I know!) and headed to Springdale, Arkansas to see my brother play minor league baseball. We had a great trip, but it ended a little differently than we expected. My brother got released on the last day we were there. His team had too many pitchers. I know he's disappointed, but we're prayerful that there will be more opportunities for him to play ball. And if there aren't, we'll be totally psyched to have him and Blakely back in Tennessee!

 

Enough about that, on to the pictures!

Matt sent Finley a little text from Hampy before we left. It basically said that she couldn't wait to see her cousin :)

This is my new favorite picture of Finley. She sat and watched me pack forever!

And, she was pretty spoiled in the car! I don't think she spent an hour in the crate that was crammed in the backseat.

Nice night for baseball!

We were even there on Star Wars night!

One day, we drove over to Fayetteville to see the home of the Razorbacks. Can you see that lady? She was taking pictures of her family, who were standing on a roof inside the stadium! We were cracking up. They just, like, tromped through all the bushes and plants and climbed up there. Although, we can't judge because my dad tried to open every single door her could find.  

Oh, this is just the Titanic. We drove about two hours to Branson, MO one day. I have to say, I can happily check that off my list of places I've been and never go back. It was pretty nuts. We basically drove around and looked at stuff, I'm sure it's more fun if you actually do stuff! We did go to an outlet mall, so I guess it was worth the drive, ha!

We ate lunch at this café. Food was great. Entertainment was, well, interesting. There was a lady who was singing live and she was reallllllly chatty with the audience. I have a phobia of entertainers who interact with audience after a particular evening at Shoney's Family Fun Night when my mom had to ask the Shoney Bear to leave our table because I was crying. And I was in 8th grade. Not my most proud moment. So, needless to say, I was pretty busy the whole lunch trying not to make eye contact with this lady.

We got frozen custard at the cutest little shop!

 

In downtown Branson, we went in an old-fashioned 5 and Dime. It was so neat, but really crowded!

Me and my girl :)

I bought a new hat for my beach trip with friends in a few weeks. And, even though Matt's not a Royal anymore, I'm still glad I bought it. It was his team for four years and I'll always be thankful that they took a chance on drafting him when no other team would because he had Tommy John surgery a week before. You know who's not thankful? My grandpa. He's 89 and he's so sweet, but you do not want to make him mad! Yesterday, we were on the way home and my grandpa told us that he left all his Kansas City stuff at the hotel because he never liked that team anyway! We just died laughing.

Me and my "little" brother. And, I just want to say, I look like a COW in this shirt. Moo.

One night, my dad saw a player's family go out onto the field after the game to take pictures. I turned to my mom and said "Guaranteed, we'll be out on that field by the end of the week." Sure enough, the next night, there we were.

 

Some people saw Matt out there and he had to sign autographs for a while. Sorry, Matt!

Pool time was plentiful.

While we were there, I got brave and tried something new. Has anyone tried this stuff? It's spray moisturizing lotion and it is AMAZING! It smells soooooo good and it's not greasy at all. I highly recommend it!

Finley Girl did a great job in the hotel.

I took a picture of her one night in bed with my parents because it will probably never happen again...

Think she needs a haircut?

My grandpa, who never liked the Royals anyway.

Another day, we went to Bentonville. It's the home of Wal-Mart! This was the original store opened by the Walton's.

Inside was a museum. This was Sam Walton's office.

Bentonville has a really nice little square!

Finley was praying that we could go home! It was a looooong week.

Matt and Blakely's dog, Hampy. Isn't she cute?

I think mine's pretty cute, too :)

 

It was a fun trip.

 

Before I go, I want to wish my daddy a Happy Father's Day! He's the best and I love him so much!