Field Trip!

We had the best field trip today! We took our kids to the Parthenon. Obviously, not the one in Athens. But, since Nashville is the Athens of the South, we have our very own replica! And, it's pretty awesome.

Since we had three classes going and we needed two groups, I had to split my classes up. It was fine, but it felt weird for half my kiddos to be missing all day!

Which was a little sad, because these kids were soooo excited! 

One little girl wore an owl necklace in honor of Athena. That's one of her symbols. And, another little girl wore a green shirt to represent Poseidon's hair and blue pants to represent his eyes. I mean, if that's not obsession, I don't know what is! 

And, it's really cute how certain kids just develop a love for a certain god/goddess.   One little girl in my class looooves Pandora and she would squeal every time she was mentioned. Ha!

When we got there, my group started off outside in Centennial Park. We walked around the Parthenon, looked at the statues and plane/train replicas and then spent about 30 minutes at the duck pond. 

Look how little they are next to such a big building! 

I love Centennial Park. I've been going there since I was a little kid!

This is a random plane. The kids kept trying to jump up and grab it. Ha! There was also a train, but I didn't get any pictures of it. Mostly, because I was pulling kids off it and pointing out the "No Climbing" signs. 

Look at all the ducks, geese, pigeons, whatever. There were about a million and they were all different. I remember going to feed these ducks as a kid. The kiddos had a BLAST. A random family was there feeding them bread and they shared some of it with my kids and it seriously made their day :) 

This is me and Jennifer, the other teacher in my group. We may or may not have screamed about twenty times as pigeons dived at our heads and our kids. So scary!!

These three little guys spent the whole trip taking pictures with their hands. They are three little boys who always try to be "cool" so it kinda warmed my heart that they were doing this.

I let a kid take this picture as we were standing in line to go inside. I kinda love it! 

Here is the lady, herself. Athena!! She was soooo big!

Little kiddos in front of a biggggg statue!

They also had these remnants. The scenes are the same ones as the the ones on the front of the Parthenon.

All in all, it was a great trip. The only downside was getting back to school about 15 minutes before the kids had to be at specials. Sooooo, we ate lunch in 10 minutes. Or probably less. Ha. 

But, you can tell third graders that anything is fun, and they'll believe you ;) 

Thanks for reading! 

Just Keep Blogging...

I'm the worst blogger. Ever. I apologize to the twelve people and my mom who regularly read this blog. Ha! There are always fun things going on in third grade. But, at the end of the day, I'm just so tired. And taking pictures is far from my mind.

I do take a million random pictures that basically are a snooze-fest to everyone but myself. But, luckily for me, this is my blog! So, I'm gonna post them. Because, I do enjoy going back and looking at old pictures. 

So, here we go.

I'll start with my recent purchases.

First up: I just ordered new boots! 

Confession time: my name is Lindsay and I don't like boots that touch my calves. Is that weird? It's totally true, though. My calves aren't fat, but they certainly aren't thin either. I'd say they're average calves, that's a thing, right? Well, every pair of boots I try on are tight on my calves. Like, they fit, but I like then loose. Dilemma. 

I've seriously tried on about 20 pairs. One pair would fit in the calves but be weird in the front. Then the next pair would be too  tight. Uhhhhh. And I wanted them to be a little taller than my current pair. And, I'm kinda into the gray boots instead of the cognac color I've always bought.

Soooooo, long story short, I bought some on Zappos. That are grey and that have a bigger calf opening.  They're supposed to be loose. We shall see. They'll probably be too loose. Because that's how it usually goes. They got delivered to my parents' house, so I'm gonna try them on this weekend. I'll let you know. I'm sure you'll be dying to know!!! 

Oh, and I also bought a few things for my  niece who won't even be here until April. You stop judging me right now. 

For days when she's feeling a little sassy...

And, for days when she's feeling a little sweet. ( I didn't take a picture of the whole thing because it's a shower gift. Don't want to ruin the surprise.)

Okay, one more peek...

Yes, that is smocking. Swooooooooon.

My mom bought some sweet smocking too. Shopping for baby girls is reallllly fun, you guys! 

My mom also pulled all my old dresses out of the attic for Ryan Grace. They're obviously wrinkled and need to be dry cleaned. But, I'm glad they're gonna get some use! 

In other news, it's been really cold here. The kind of cold that makes you want to stay in and be cozy. (Okay, I pretty much always want to do that anyways.)

I got a little adventurous last week and made some scrumptious brown sugar pork chops! Perfect for a cold night! They were soooo good. I got the recipe off Pinterest. And, they smelled a-mazing! 

I also put my flannel sheets on my bed! You know it's cold if I do that! I pretty much always sleep with the windows open and a fan blowing on me. Ha! 

Finley was completely weirded out! 

Speaking of Finley, she's going to Pet Smart this weekend for the first time to get groomed. She usually goes to a lady that does it from home. But, she was all booked up and this thing hassss to have a cut before Thanksgiving. Has to. 

Clearly, she's really stressed about it!

On Tuesdays, I do an after school program for third and fourth graders. It's hands-down my favorite part of the week. Today, we had some leaf throwin' fun!

I took the boys and we made a massie pile of leaves! They had so much fun and literally worked on this for 45 minutes. Then I let them jump on them. Which probably wasn't safe, but it was really fun! They all started singing Wrecking Ball, which cracked. me. up. Hearing 9 year old boys singing that song is pretty funny. I just hope none of them have ever seen the video: yikes.

Oh, and check out this sweet bracelet one of the kiddos made for me! I'm wearing it with pride! 

This was the sunset around these parts today. Just beautiful!

Here's a little sneak peek of what we've been working on at school: 

And, were going to Nashville's replica of the Parthenon on a field trip tomorrow! My kiddos could not be more excited! I'm gonna try to get some more pictures this week and I'll come back and post about our Ancient Greece unit. It's nothing special, but the kids have been soooo into it! 

Okay, well since we have a field trip tomorrow, I better go to bed! 

Thanks for reading! 

It's a Girl!

I'd like to introduce you to my niece.

Her name is Ryan Grace.

 And she is gonna' be one loved little girl.

We had a gender reveal party tonight. 

Everyone voted for pink or blue. You can see what Aunt Lindsay voted for :)

The theme was Baseballs or Ballet. We decked out the house! 

My mom and I made two banners. We made one that said Ryan Grace and one that said Lofton, their boy name. We use scrapbook paper and ribbon. My mom just sewed it all together with her sewing machine. And we bought some cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby, painted them white and glued them on! We wanted them to be a good quality so that Blakely could use them in the baby's room or in future pictures if she wanted to. 

Workin' on them!

They hung in my mom's kitchen for a week so that they wouldn't get bent!

This is where theyhung for the party.

I guess they'll have to save the Lofton banner for the future ;)

Miss Ryan Grace has already wracked up some pretty sweet goodies. 

I mean, seriously? I'm gonna' go broke. I've already started pinning baby clothes that she just HAS to have! 

It's all just too sweet. 

Ryan Grace Ridings, you better get ready because your Aunt Lindsay is going to kiss your face off and spoil you rotten! 

Pumpkin Book Characters

Over the last few years, I've seen a project on Pinterest that I wanted to try. I wanted my kiddos to make book character pumpkins! But, teaching at a low-income school, I was honestly kinda nervous to try it.

I would never want to make a family feel like they needed to spend a lot of money on something like this. And, I was kind of nervous that the kids would just color on it with a marker and not get super into it. 

But, this year, I just bit the bullet and made it an assignment. A family assignment. And I'm soooo glad I did! My kids blew me away!!!

First of all, I made the assignment due after Halloween so that they could find pumpkins cheap or take them off a neighbor's hands :) And, as a class, we brainstormed materials they could use without buying everything. I only gave them two rules: you must bring in the book you used and no carving. Ha! Mostly because I didn't want the room smelling like pumpkin (gag) and I didn't want kids playing with knives. Obviously. Oh, and I included pictures I examples on the letter to the parents. I think that helped a ton because it let them see what I was expecting. 

So, are you ready for a parade of pumpkins?

Sam I Am - Love the construction paper!

Sorry this one's a little dark. It's a Goosebumps character and he's in a locker, ha! 

Harry Potter - this kiddo was concerned because he used a gourd instead of a pumpkin. So sweet :)

I especially love the stick broomstick!

Pippi Longstocking...

And another! Shockingly, this was our only repeat. Obviously, we just got finished reading Pippi in class :)

The Cat in the Hat - love this! 

Cute little Arthur. You have to admit, the faces are pretty identical!

Love this Clifford! She used big jewels for his black eyes.

I thought this duck was precious. 

Here's Simba from The Lion King. This kid walked in holding it above his head like The Circle of Life, HA!!

Oh, wait. We actually had one other duplicate - The Cat in the Hat! 

Okay, I adore this one! This kiddo made the bird from Are You My Mother? So creative and cute!!

Seriously, I don't want to send this one home. It's adorable. How long do pumpkins last anyway?

Skippyjon Jones! 

And, last but definitely not least, we have Spongebob and Patrick! The kids literally dropped their jaws when these came through the door! Ha! 

Here they all are on my back counter: 

I told the kids before they brought them in that they'd get to vote on their favorites and the top three winners will get a new book. Any book they want. I'd buy it myself. But, guys, it's gonna be tough to pick three.

 I'm glad I don't have to decide! 

If you've ever seen this project and debated about doing it, DO IT! My kids had so much fun and I don't hear a single complaint from a parent. In fact, some of them told me they had a lot of fun working on a project with their kid. 

I'll definitely be doing this again next year!