I Heart The Hungry Caterpillar...

Linking up from Kelly's Korner.... 

Here is the Pinterest Pin that I pinned of my: 

Project of the Day: Hungry Caterpillar Wrapping Idea

Step 1: Peruse your favorite paint chips and pick out a variety of primary colors. 

 Step 2: Punch out circles with "punchers" or whatever you call them.... Be forewarned, the paint chips are pretty thick, so this is a tad hard to do. My first one wasn't strong enough. I had to get the big girl puncher out. 

Step 3: Figure out what puncher works and go to town making circles of all sorts of colors.

 Step 4: First wrap your present in plain colored paper. I chose red. You could do whatever. Use double sided tape to stick circles down to make the ground. I like two rows, some bigger circles and some smaller circles. 

Step 5: Use the double sided tape and stick down the caterpillar pieces. I used different shades of green. 

Step 6: Draw a face, and since we started with plain red paper, it was easy to just draw the face. If you had white paper you could use red circles for the face, and if it's a large enough package you could even make a sun in the corner. 

And finally, here's my collage to show you the steps all in one picture! 

It was fun and I loved it. 

If you do this project, come back and link to it in my comments.

 I'd love to see how others make this work for them! 

Happy Pinteresting...

Confession: Pinterest Addiction

Woo Hoo, It's Friday! Oh....wait, it's the last day of my Spring Break.... 

Nevermind that excited for Friday business! 

I'm linking up for two things today.

First up, it's Friday Confessional with A Blonde Ambition. 

1. I confess that I woke up at a decent time today in order to get back on the regular schedule. It wasn't my favorite thing, but I've been super productive. 

2. I confess that I have had a wonderful Spring Break. I didn't need to go on any fancy trip, explore far off places, or fly away for a journey....instead I've enjoyed it in my own backyard. I've had a Spring Break bucket list and I'm almost through with everything on it. 

3. About that bucket list, I confess that I even put cleaning and organizing on it. Laundry too, would you believe it? 

4. I confess I'm quite giddy about this project my mom and I are doing for my sweet nephew, Andrew's 5th birthday. He asked for a book cake, and then mentioned the Hungry Caterpillar. Where else would a girl go than to none other than the world's greatest Pinterest? 

5. I confess, I'm about to start telling you about my next link up.... :) 

 Next, I'm linking up with Kelly at Kelly's Korner, which is Show Us Your Life: Favorite Pinterest Ideas!

So, I'm linking up with my current project that I'm doing exactly this minute. See, my cupcakes are baking. I've made chocolate and white. I've got all the ingredients for frosting, cute little graham sticks for the antennae, and Spree for the colorful ground. I can't WAIT to make this with my mom.

These are my two inspiration pieces. I can't wait to tell you all about it. Follow my blog and I'm sure to post the final product! :) The party is Sunday and mom is coming over tomorrow to help put it together! Wish us luck!

Pinterest Inspiration #1 

Pinterest Inspiration #2

And about Pinterest...I'm quite addicted. I've found it as a great tool to organize recipes, crafts, and most of all new teaching ideas! I spent one Sunday morning, for about three hours, repinning and organizing my Boards. They make me all sorts of happy. So, feel free to follow me. You can find me here. I'm still learning how to use it and such. I have my favorite people I follow, and I love it when I see something I pinned repinned. It's sort of nerdy, I suppose. Oh, and now that timer is going off. Gotta get the chocolate cupcakes out and put the miniature ones in next....  

A relaxing Spring Break

Hooray, it's my Spring Break (I couldn't hardly wait!) and Chris took off a few days to hang out with me too! We made it an adventure of eating a few new places and just enjoying our time without working. It has been the best. I still have two more weekdays plus the weekend before I go back and hit the ground running. So far, so good. 

Chris and I have our favorite Chinese restaurant in Tulsa. It's a cute little place called Wang Wang. One of the silly things I love about Wang Wang are their little take-out containers. They make for great leftover storage. They are the perfect size and they come in round and rectangle! So, we love Chinese. One of my friends has been telling me about this other place that's a little bit out of the way, but she had heard good things about it. So, I convinced Chris we should try it. I can't even remember the name of it now. Here's the story... 

We walked in and it was about 12:30 on a Saturday. I thought there would be more people there, but nope..we were the only ones. We ordered some dumplings and our dinners. It was alright, but we both still prefer our favorite Chinese place. I loved the ticket though, it was written in Chinese! How cool is that. It was pretty legit....it wasn't bad, it just wasn't our favorite. 

Beef and Broccoli with Fried Rice

Cool Chinese Characters

So, we tried to go see Oz, but Cinemark crashed their system and they couldn't do credit cards or gift cards. We didn't have enough time to get cash and come back so we just skipped it for the day. We'll go back again. 

We always take B'Elanna with us when we go places, and she's just adorable. Since Chris got the new car we've banished her to the back back of the car. Poor thing, I think she misses being up by us in the backseat. She loves to go. As soon as she hears the keys picked up off the desk she goes running down the stairs! 

Riding in the car...

Saturday night was another adventure. We couldn't decide on dinner. I had been trying to convince Chris to try Weber's Root Beer in Tulsa on Brookside. However, he wasn't totally sold on it. So, we agreed to Panera, it's a fave. However, as soon as we got there he decided it didn't sound good so he thought Weber's sounded good. We drove all the way over there to pull into the parking lot and bam... it was closed. apparently they close at 5:00 on Saturday. Are you kidding me? So, we ended up with Elmer's BBQ, which is a good place too, and we've both wanted to go there as well. It was a win-win situation, but I am determined to make it to Weber's before Spring Break is over, even if it's just for a Root Beer float!

Panera, our first almost stop...

And, it was closed...

 

Thank goodness, it was so good. 

We've been to the dog park, ran errands, ate out, cooked in, baked cookies, cleaned house, did laundry, relaxed, and just enjoyed being with each other. It's been the best. I treated myself to a pedicure and manicure today, which was wonderful. Tomorrow I'm having brunch with my mom, and I'm super excited about that. Should be good times. I've got a few things to do for school, and I've become quite technologically organized over the last few days too. I've downloaded google drive and placed all my documents on there, as well as updating my Chrome Folders with all my blogs. Ironically, the minute after I finished doing that I found Feedly, which will replace Google Reader, so I then imported all 87 blogs that I read to it and I LOVE it. It's been fun finding new apps for my iPad that I can use with kids as well as organize myself.... such a good Spring Break. And then, only 8 weeks left..... oh man, it went by so fast! 

Snippits from school...

Ah, I love the school stories. Part of our weekly work includes using their Word Work/Spelling words in sentences. They have to write a sentence using each word, or if they have a large group of words, they only write ten. I have one of my little ones who loves to give Safety Tips, and I couldn't help but crack up when I read his last sentence of the day. He's so darn creative. I love their minds. 

I had a substitute for a few days due to attending a conference recently. While grading the papers I came across some gems. I had to take a picture of this one. I thought it was priceless. "If I was a teacher I would never come to school." I laughed and told them they wouldn't have a choice if they were the teacher. They thought it was funny too!

I recently embarked on a re-labeling night for all my personal books as well as labeling the new books I received from our school book fair. I'm amazed at how much we are supported by our book fairs. I love Scholastic, but I love them even more now. I signed up for Book Clubs and I think I'm going to use them next year with my little ones too. And, have you checked out their new app, Storia? It's awesome. Just go sign up, check it out, and thank me later. Anyhow... back to my story. I let the dogs help me with the labeling and sorting process. They loved it. 

Apparently leveling and labeling can wear a dog out... 

Aw, such good workers. 

He's a Mo Willems fan! 

Personally, she chooses nonfiction pieces of work. 

You win some, you lose some...

  I'm trying my first link up from Stephanie at her blog, Beautiful Mess. She talked about making "Guacamole Salsa." I can't wait to try it!  I'm also linking up with Katie at Keep Calm and Carry On. She did a cute DIY Acrylic Tray. 
 If you know me in real life, you know I'm a fanatic over Pinterest. I'm always pinning, obsessively to say the least. I've reorganized my boards lately and it's the best thing ever. I've sorted the school items out into categories as well as the cooking items. I'm so proud of my Type A OCD skills taking shape with my Pinterest addiction.
Part of the fun is coming up with new ideas to try in the kitchen. I'll tell you about two I've done recently, one was a smashing success and the other one was a miserable attempt at a burger.

First up, the Chicken Alfredo Roll Ups, which were the smashing hit. Easy as pie, cute as a button, and Chris said he loved them and to add them to our list of dinners! I took a shortcut and used a jar of alfredo sauce, but I think I want to make my own sauce next time. I'm just now beginning to love being in the kitchen.

The other one, which apparently considers itself to be the Best Burger Recipe Ever, was a miserable fail in my book. I'm not sure if I didn't use enough meat, or too much barbecue sauce or what. Needless to say, they fell apart on the grill and Chris offered to take me to Panera. Of course I happily obliged! 

So, I'm always pinning new ideas and wanting to try new things. I don't know what I'll do next. The opportunities are endless!

My Valentine...

Happy Valentine's Day 2013
It's our 1st Valentine's Day together!

We had made reservations at the Melting Pot in January so I knew we were going there for dinner. Before dinner we exchanged our gifts at home. It was fun. He surprised me with a new Vintage Pearl necklace that I love. He got me the secret love message heart. It's adorable. It has a secret message on the inside of the heart. He gave me a beautiful necklace for Christmas that was a longer one, made up of charms representing our love. I love it, but it was hard to wear everyday. I wanted something I could wear everyday, and this is perfect. I made him an "Alphabet Book of our Love" that I created off of a Pinterest idea. It was cute and he loved it. He also was super excited about his own copy of Battleship. After we did our little gifts we headed to dinner.

The funniest thing. As I got into the car I noticed something different. The music started playing. Chris's music plays through his iPhone in his car. It's bluetooth. It's always the same music and I recognize most everything. This time it was different. I knew this song. It was Donna Lewis' song, "I Love You Always Forever". I started singing it. As we were pulling out of the garage I looked over at Chris, smiled, and said..."Um, that's funny. This is a new song. Did you plan that or something?"
He just smiled at me and said, "Maybe." It was the cutest thing ever. He had made a playlist for our drive to dinner! Too cute. Too creative. I love him so.

We had been to the Melting Pot one time before, with a special Teacher Discount event. This evening was much different, but totally wonderful. It was a fantastic meal and we loved every bit of it. It was a special time with just the two of us for our First Valentine's Day together. We finished our lovely dinner, headed home and relaxed for the evening.

Happy Valentine's Day, Chris. I love you.

Pre-Valentine Dinner -- It's an iPhone front camera picture...so it's a little blurry.
But, it's us. I think we're cute. 

YUM. 

I heart him. So cute. He accidentally picked out the pink fondue fork for dessert.
I ended up with the black one. I thought it was funny.
His favorite was strawberries.
My favorite were bananas. 

School Valentine's Day...

Most of you know that I teach school. I am a Special Education teacher for upper elementary, er...middle elementary kiddos. I teach 3rd and 4th grade kids this year. I love them. Apparently, they love me. I was showered with love on Valentine's Day. I didn't even expect it, so it was a nice little surprise for me! Here are a few pictures from the day. 

I brought these for my assistant and her sidekick. He loves donuts.
I wanted one, and I thought it would be a special treat for Valentine's Day. 

This was the 4th grade Language Arts Conversation Hearts  love story.
They all had conversation hearts and each  kid had to use one of their hearts in a sentence.
The story built up over time. It was cute.
I hope you can read it. 

Here is some of my loot from my kids.
Chocolate, ring pop, necklace, fresh cookie from home (brought in a tissue), & a coffee mug and stuffed puppy!

Wow! Flowers. I have no idea what kind these are.... but they smelled amazing.
However, the smell was so strong they gave me a headache! :)