Vacation is Over

Well, today is the last day of my vacation.  I am super sad, although I do miss my babes at school.  It has been a very relaxing vacation with a bunch of weekly trips to Disneyland with hubby and the grand kids.

Chinese New Year is on Friday, so I updated my little Chinese New Year book.  It is a simple - fill in the blanks book and has vocabulary cards and a true/false test.  Another grade for the grade book.  My kiddos really enjoyed it last year.

You can find it on TpT or Teachers Notebook.  Thanks for looking.

Five for Friday

Linking up with Kacey this week.  I am on break for 3 weeks, so this week has been a lot about having fun.

  

I have a FREEBIE small book of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  You can download it here.  I won't be using it this year, so I hope the rest of you can.

My brother received an award from the Mayor of our City for his 30 years of military service.  My brother lives in Colorado and had come down for Christmas.  The Mayor presented him the award at our Church.  She listed all of his tour of dutys, some of them I didn't know he did. He retired in July because of medical or he would probably still be enlisted.  Too many times jumping out of airplanes caused injury to his back. Our Care Pastor is on the left.  

When my brother joined the service, out of high school, our original Pastor gave him the bible that he carried during the Korean War as a Chaplain.  My brother said that he took it with him on every mission and it gave him peace and kept him safe.  There was not a dry eye in the building.

I am super proud of my baby brother.

I spent time with these two sweet bugs this week.  They both have distinct personalities and are so much fun to hang out with.  I can't believe that they are 9 months already.  I'm already planning their year birthday party - Minnie theme, of course.

I went to Disneyland, 3 times this week.  One trip with hubby and two trips without him.  He got that nasty flu that is going around,  I decided to head to Disneyland - so I wouldn't get it.  Plus, I wanted to take pictures of certain things. Find out about it here.

This is Jingles.  She was dedicated to Julie Andrews in 2008 as a Disney Ambassador.

I found out on Sunday that the carousel horses have names.  I wanted to take pictures of the horses that were on the ride and the Cast Members were super sweet to let me take pictures of the horses.

I got some crafting done.

I made these magnets for the fridge from the buttons that I got on Sunday.  Super easy to do.

Walgreens had a coupon for 60% off calendars, so I decided to make a calendar from our trips to Disneyland this last year - especially since my kitchen is getting a Disney make-over.

I, also, cooked most nights this week, shocking.  I had to make sure hubby was fed when I left him for the day.

Well, I am off to Disneyland with a couple of the grand babes today.  The wonderful Cast Member gave me VIP seats to the firework show tonight, so excited.

Training Day #3

Well, I survived Day #3 of training, woo hoo.  Only, 2 more days.   I love to go to conferences, I always learn new things.  These days have been long, almost painful.  The days have consisted of a lot of research reading and not a lot of actual classroom practice.  But,  this is what I have learned...

I don't enjoy reading research articles for hours at a time.

If you sit in the back of the room, you can plan lessons, while everyone else is reading the research articles.

I do enjoy looking at other teachers' classrooms and seeing what works.

I don't like clap, clap, clap - to get my attention.  I probably won't be doing that with my babes anymore.

If, I am not engaged - then I am bored.  I'm sure my little ones feel the same way.  So, I will be doing less talking and more interacting with them.

I love spending lunch with my co-workers - talking.  We don't get to do much of that during the school day.

If the speaker gets really boring I can pretend that I am here (see below)

The last thing that I learned is - don't forget to bring lots of Starbucks and snacks.

Happy New Year

I can't believe that it is 2014.  I, also, can't believe that my break is over - sorta of.  We have had furlough days for the last couple of years, but after the school year started - they decided to give us back our days.  They couldn't change the student calendar, so we have a week's worth of training this week.  I miss getting out of my pjs so early, but if I survive this week of meetings - then I get 3 whole weeks off.  I have never been off in January before, it feels a little strange.  Hubby has been making a list of things he would like to do on my time off.  Lucky for me, all of it should be fun. 

I hope every one has a wonderful, blessed year.