Five for Friday

Whew!  It has been awhile!!! Life has gotten crazy for both of us.  I have started back to work after 6 lovely weeks of maternity leave and it is exhausting! :)  Thank goodness that my class if fabulous and soooooo enjoyable!
We are linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky. Click the link below to check it out.

Here is a peek at some of the randomness of our week!!

 Spider Spelling

Our kiddos love anything that is attached to a craftivity and we love to have cute things to hang from the ceiling!  Here is one of our spiders with spelling words on the legs.  Quick and easy and the kiddos get a kick out of having their spiders hanging up!

 If you would like to snag a free copy for yourself just click on the picture below!

 Autobiographies

I left these for my sub to do with the kiddos when I was out on maternity leave.  They have been working away and I love how they turned out!  I have all but 2 kiddos finished and we have started to share them.  

If you would like to check out our autobiography unit on TPT you can head to our store!

Katie did some persuasive writing with her kiddos this week.  We have been talking for awhile about getting ourselves into gear to work on a persuasive writing unit, but haven't gotten to it yet.  Luckily, Amy Lemons, had a super cute idea for persuasive writing!  Here is the book Katie used with it and 2 of her examples.  If you want to check out what Amy Lemons is doing with her writing just click on her name and head over to check out all the cuteness!!!  She has the BEST ideas!!!

Inservice!  We had an inservice today and our principal brought Chick Fil A for breakfast!  Yum!!!  No picture of that because it went so fast we didn't have time! :)  We had a great speaker in the morning and work time in the afternoon.  Here is a picture of what we will be working on after lunch...

Yup, you got it, grading, grading, filling in bubble sheets, and hopefully a little bit of planning!!

At our training this morning we learned about 2 GREAT tools to use with kiddos.  Check these out if you get a chance.  Both Katie and I will be exploring them this weekend.  What we were shown at our training got us excited about the uses for our classrooms!

Click on either of the pics to check these great tools out!!

Also, if you have time head over and check out my friend Kristen's new blog!  She is an awesome teacher and has started a new blog.

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Best. Classes. Ever!!!!!!!!!! Plus a few freebies!

Oh.My.Goodness.   Seriously, these are the best classes ever!!!!  Katie and I are having a facebook war over who has the best class.  She keeps posting about how her class is the best class and I have to comment and then post how she is a bit delirious from all the back to school activities, because I really have the best class!  We both had a rough group last year and ended the year happy for the summer and to pass the majority of those little friends on to their new 3rd grade teachers. What an awesome feeling to come back to this group this year and to realize that the kindergarten and 1st grade teachers weren't joking when they said we would love these kids.  They are so stinkin sweet, kind, and hilarious.  On top of that they listen, follow directions, and do their best work!  Does anyone else feel like if you have a REALLY naughty group they are usually followed by a bunch of sweetie pies?  That has been my experience in the past and it happened again this time.
We wanted to share a couple of little freebies with you.  We usually brainstorm our class rules and then write them on a poster, but this year Katie decided to do something a little different.  After her class brainstormed their rules she created posters of the rules to hang on her wall.  They turned out SO cute so we decided to share.  Simple little thing, but we love them! :)

Click on any of the pics to grab the set from google docs!

Another fun thing we are using this year was born out of necessity!  We forgot to order birthday pencils this year.  This was a dilemma because we always give out birthday pencils and we have a ton of siblings this year.  So dogonnit these littles are expecting birthday pencils like their siblings got!  So we used some of our favorite Melonheadz frames and created little birthday pencil toppers.

If you would like to grab the birthday pencil toppers just click on the pic to get them!
Enjoy!!

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Did Someone Say Sale????

It is time for the TPT back to school sale!  Woohoo!  Katie and I both are excited to start buying some of the things that we have each had on our wishlists lately! 

If you are looking for something great to start your year off with head on over and check out our Beginning of Year Fun Packet.  We also now have Common Core English Language Arts homework available for First Grade! Just Click on the picture to head over to our store and check them out.
Don't forget to use code BTS13 to get the extra 10% off on top of our already 20% off!

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August Currently, Holy Moly it is B2S, New Product, & Does Anyone Else Ever Think in Facebook Posts???

Where oh where has the summer gone!!????  It seems like just yesterday that we were sending our little darlings off to their own parents for the summer and heading home to our own kiddos!  I had my newest little addition to our family, Lucas, on May 30th and I swear the summer button has been on fast forward ever since!  I will post some pics from Lucas' newborn photo shoot at the end so that if you only are stopping by for the currently I don't bore you!! :)

Late to the party, of course, but I hate to miss a Currently!  Click on the picture if you want to head over and see what Farley's Currently is all about!

Listening:  Holy cow, stop the presses!  I currently have 2- 2 year olds and a 2 month old all napping at the SAME time!!!!  World record at my house!  I am loving the chance to accomplish something! :)

Loving:  My little bittie came after school was out so I get to take maternity leave at the beginning of the year.  I love that my district is being super flexible and letting me come back for a few weeks to get my class going on how things are run before I hand them off to a sub and take leave for 6 weeks.  It will be so nice to have my kiddos start the year of with how I do things, rather than how a sub does things!  (Can you tell I am a tiny bit type A and a control freak!!!)

Thinking:  That I MUST find time to get up to my classroom. This is the latest I have ever left it till!!!

Wanting: I wish that instead of tons of meetings we had tons of prep time.  It never seems like there is enough dedicated classroom prep time.

Needing:  I just can't get myself out of my house and up to school this year.  My new little guy is so snuggly and sweet and my girls are so stinkin funny at this age.  I really just want to spend every moment of summer that I have left with them.

B2s:  I always splurge on new grading pens.  I love my new 31 teacher bag!  It just makes me happy to carry papers back and forth to and from school in.  Even if the papers never make it out of the bag I still feel like I COULD grade if I wanted too:)  I love making to do lists and I always enjoy finding a new, cute notepad to make them on at the beginning of the year.

So one of our personal favs and also a huge best seller for us on TPT is our 2nd grade common core homework.

We have had people asking us about a first grade version and it has been on our to do list for awhile.  This summer we finally were able to get all 4 quarters of the Common Core First Grade Language Arts Homework finished!!!

We are almost done with the first quarter of math and plan on trying to have all 4 quarters of math done in the next month.  If you would like to check out the First Grade Language Arts then click on the picture or link to head on over to TPT and take a peek! :)

Okay, this is totally a random part of this post....
Does anyone else ever think in Facebook post????  Seriously, am I just in my own weird little world with this?? For instance: My hubby will head to the grocery store to pick up a few things we need for the kiddos and be gone for a few hours and come back with only a few things on the list I sent him with.  He will however, have a whole lot of random groceries that I did not ask him to pick up. So as I am trying to stay calm and not freak out about this I am writing a Facebook post in my head!!  Something like this..."Sent hubby to store for baby essentials..He came back 2 hours later rested and refreshed from his little break from two active toddlers and a baby.  Forgot diapers, organic fruit snacks, and oj.  He did however manage to pick up some really great chip dip and some awesome (according to him) steaks.  Glad SOMEONE got a break!!!  This might just knock him out of the running for hubby of the year..."
Or this one after day one of potty training..."Potty training 2 (yes 2!!) 26 month old strong willed toddlers with the 3 day potty training method. It might have been smarter for me to plan this when the hubby wasn't working both jobs on the same day and could be home to help!  Did I mention that I also have a 2 month old...I might need to be sent to the insane asylum by the time this is done!"
Seriously, I might just need to spend a little less time on Facebook.  In real life AND in my head! :)

If you have made it this far and want to see some serious cuteness here are the pics we had done recently!

AAAANNNNDDD if you are still hanging with us we would love to give away ALL 4 quarters of the First Grade Homework to the first two people who comment that they would like to have it!


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Fourth of July Flash Sale

We are having a Fourth of July Flash sale! Everything in our TPT store will be 20% off!

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July Currently & Belated Birthday Sale!

We are linking up with Farley for her July Currently!  Click on the picture to check it out.

Katie is crazy busy right now so I am flying solo on the currently this month!  Here is it! :)

Listening:  All 3 of my kiddos are actually asleep at the same time right now!  Granted, Lucas will be up and ready to eat in a half hour or so, but I am sure going to enjoy my hour of quiet time. Now I just have to decide if I want to catch a cat nap or watch New Jersey Housewives!
Loving:  Oh I had just absolutely forgotten how snuggly newborns are! My twins just turned 2 and I mostly hear, "No thank you mommy", to anything I do..especially if it involves cuddling.  I can usually get some snuggle time in at nap time or bed time and any other time they are too on the go to stop and snuggle with mommy.  So I am thoroughly enjoying that this little love bug wants to snuggle 24/7.

(Head over heels in love with this little man!!!!!)

I am also loving watching my girls be so very sweet with him.  They are so in love with him too and really never leave him alone.  If he cries at all they both come running to find me yelling, " oh no, brother cry, oh no",  Here is a pic of Brylee "chatting" with him one morning.

(Please excuse the blurry pic.  I only had my camera phone but this was too precious to pass up on.)

Thinking:  Where has the time gone!!!!???  A whole month has passed and my summer is almost 1/2 over.  I am so glad that I get 6 extra weeks with my little ones before I start back.

Wanting:  Sleep...I have a newborn so this is probably pretty self explanatory. :)  At least we get a lot of one on one bonding in the middle of the night.

Needing:  A common naptime for ALL my kiddos so that I have a few hours of work time each day....not happening yet, but I can hope!  I have so many things I want to complete and get up on TPT but I have to find some work time!

Tips, Tricks, or Hints:  Don't sweat the small stuff.  I used to worry if we didn't blog consistently or didn't get new products finished as quickly as we wanted but I have come to realize that life gets in the way and that happening is just, well....LIFE!  My family has to come first and as much as I absolutely love blogging, it has to fit in when my kiddos don't need me.  I tried the staying up late to get it in but I felt like I was not a very fun mommy when I was lacking sleep (my husband confirmed this!:)  So I realized that I needed to stop stressing and just blog when I could.  I know that I love reading my favorite blogs no matter how often they are able to (or not able to!!) blog and I just have to hope that no one gives up on us because we are infrequent summer bloggers! :)

Here is a  picture of my girls enjoying Deanna Rose Farm instead of being bored while mommy is on the computer!  So much more fun for all of us!!!

 I also wanted to share a totally random pic of the CUTEST onsie I have ever seen.  We call our little boy Little Man most of the time and I found this at Carters today. If you have a Little Man you just might need to stop in and pick one up!

We are also having a quick 2 day sale in our TPT store.  My bday was yesterday and I am just now getting around to having a birthday sale! So if you have anything from our store on your wishlist you can head on over and pick it up for 20% off!

Happy July!!!

***We are also not at all sure what Bloglovin is about but we are jumping on board.  So you can click the icon at the top right to make sure that you are following us!  Thanks so much!!!




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