Year 2 - Day 279 - October 7

Maybe I should keep this picture and put it on next year's book fair flyer with the caption "Why you should bring your kids to the book fair on Monday afternoon when I'm open after school if your kids have book fair late in the week."

We were out of everything from the advertising flyer and video, and had very few choices left by this afternoon!

Year 2 - Day 278 - October 6

We ordered a newer version of Soar To Success this year that I'm sharing with another teacher. The difference is like night and day! There are finally non-fiction books included, which is going to make all the difference in the world (hopefully.) Cross your fingers!

Yes, I'm a nerd, but I'm ok with that. :)

Year 2 - Day 277 - October 5

My Rockport shoes came today! They were in a box on my front porch when I got home. I finally found them at Towson Town center this weekend but they didn't have brown in my size. Thanks to the friendly guy at the store for hunting a pair down at a store in Rhode Island. Free shipping to my house! PLUS, I guess there's no tax on shoes or clothes or something up there because my card was only charged for the exact amount of the shoes! These are not something I'd play basketball with, so I deemed them "NOT SNEAKERS" and therefore acceptable for work. They're not the most attractive shoes on the planet but I would rather be able to walk. :)

Year 2 - Day 276 - October 4

Not gonna lie - one of the perks of the book fair is getting to see the Mouse & The Motorcycle series of "After School Specials."

Mouse & The Motorcycle - I show this to K & 1 (Also, the big kids on Wednesday get to see it because we have a K class at the same time as the big kids - surprisingly the kids are totally ok with that. These are all ages flicks even with the 80's claymation style mouse!) - The big exciting moment is when Ralph's on the motorcycle and the vacuum is trying to suck him up. (Spoiler alert - he makes it!)

Ralph S. Mouse - Ralph goes to school and the kids have him run a maze. Ralph makes up his own rules.

Runaway Ralph - The most amusing for the grownups, even though it's not the best story of the three. Ralph goes to camp with (see above) Fred Savage! And there are girl bullies - Sara Gilbert and Kelli Martin! And "Berta" from 2 1/2 Men is their counselor! Hilarious.

Thank goodness I have book fair this week, because we are Internet-less. We get our internet from some tower nearby (just 3 schools) and we share that tower with other groups or something. (Not being on the tech committee, I just get baby details.) The part is broken, it's expensive to fix, the part's hard to find, and our school system doesn't have a lot of money. All these things together are making the perfect (internet free) storm until further notice. I don't know who provides that internet, but it's not the local cable company. My school is in the middle of the cornfields and there's a tiny little spot where a local company provides phone/cable/internet. Calling outside of our zip code at school is automatically a long distance call. Very odd and "middle of nowhere" style. They're thinking maybe we will be able to hook up with the cable company at least until the part is found, but even that will take awhile. D'oh!

Year 2 - Day 275 - October 3

Look what's here! It's the Book Fair! For the next 5 days I will be practicing my money estimating and counting skills and putting those skills to the ultimate test! Can I estimate, count, and check out kids while other kids are asking me constant questions about THEIR money? Can I do it without losing my mind? :) Here's the super duper rules for keeping me happy (and friendly!) at the book fair. These rules have been finely tuned over the last 20 book fairs. (Note, I only give these to 3rd and up - 1st & 2nd all get to browse, then they watch a movie while we pull a couple kids at a time to shop.)
1 - No talking to grownups while they're doing money. Stand next to them, smile, and wave, and they'll know you need them - but wait until they're done checking out the other person.
2 - It's a book fair not a stuff fair. Pick a book, then we'll add on posters, pencils, bookmarks, highlighters, etc.
3 - No sharing money - sorry!
4 - Know how much money you have before you shop. Ask a grownup if you need help.
5 - $4.99 really means $5. However, it REALLY means $5.29 with tax. Always leave space when you're estimating from the prices on the back of the book.
6 - You're only checking out once - so make sure you have used your brains, the calculators, and the grownups to get as close to your total as you want to be.
7 - If you forgot your money during class, don't worry - there are 2 days after school where you can shop OR you can shop at our brand new online book fair. The bonus there is that they won't run out of that (cough cough Dolphin Tale) book that you're dying to get and we were out of in the first 5 minutes.

Year 2 - Day 274 - October 2

Yesterday, our baby shower was an afternoon tea. My friend decided to get us all tea balls (do they have a fancy name?) as favors. I laughed at her, because a) there was a teabag with it, so that's silly and b) who uses tea balls?

Today, I laughed at ME. We were at Towson Town Center buying me shoes (FINALLY! Success!) and passed Teavana. It smelled heavenly and they were handing out free samples. Thumbs up to a store handing out free samples of caffeine free tea, because that never happens. We both liked it so much that we bought some to bring home. It was a little expensive, but oh so tasty. AND...it is sold looseleaf, so we needed a tea ball to make it.

I had to call my friend on the way home to apologize for laughing at her. Then she laughed at me. :)

Year 2 - Day 273 - October 1

Today we celebrated the upcoming birth of our friends' daughter. Rather than play games at the shower, we decorated onesies. I did a lot of research before the party because I wanted us to be able to make outfits they could actually use. A few things kept showing up in the recommendations list of people's blog posts. #1 - don't use puffy paint (it stays tacky forever) , #2 - don't try to glue anything onto the outfits (it will come off in the wash and/or the kid will try to eat it) and #3 - invest in stencils. We started with stencils, but as we kept going we gained more confidence. Most of us made a couple and they all came out really cute! My first one is the alphabet above ... it's hard to see in the picture, but the "I" and "U" are different colors, with the "O" being a heart in between. (Totally stole that from a picture online.) I think the mommy to be made the flower on the right, and I have no idea who made the flowers on the left. :)

Later, we moved on to free hand for large shapes we thought we could handle. We also used masking tape for straight lines like the cupcake wrapper and ice cream cone.

Our Spanish teacher friend made one that is unique - the new mommy will always remember who made that one! The St. Patty's day and pumpkin ones were made by our friend that has annual Oktoberfest and St. Patty's Day parties. How appropriate! :) And how cute is wiggle worm?

The butterfly/dragonfly was a stencil, as was the bee ... but the apple was done freehand. I also love that the butterfly has a smiley face. The friend that made that one put a smiley face on both of her animals. Here's the other ... hee hee...

We were laughing about the fact that although the new baby has some vegetarians in her family, she will be exposed to bacon. The new baby's daddy has been known to say "Bacon is nature's candy!" So this is the perfect onesie for this kid.

And finally, any baby in Baltimore needs a onesie just for Hon-Fest.

The flamingo was done free hand, which is super impressive ... and it says "Hon" on the butt. HA!

We had a great time!