Five for Friday! 7/18

Happy Friday friends! 

As you are reading this, I am enjoying some time relaxing, chatting, and bonding with my co-workers at the most beautiful lake house I have ever seen. 

Not the exact house, these are the neighbors. 

This is a working retreat for the leadership team at my school and we will work on some items a little bit. Mostly we will laugh and enjoy some time together before we all return to the craziness of the school year. 
Last year, I was nervous about spending a weekend with my principal. This year, I have been counting down the days. It will be nice to have a complete adult conversation without being interrupted by my boys. I love them dearly, but I am in some serious need of time with friends and adults! 

This week I spent a lot of time at the park with my boys. After each outing,I walk away thinking, we really live in a great place. We do. 
We have 3 parks in less than a 5 mile radius, one is in walking distance. The other night we visited the newest extension of the one across the street, and I was reminded how beautiful our county park system 
The newest extension includes an official disc golf course that is built in to the terrain and woods of the park. They added a playground and a beautiful pavilion. Guess where we will be having future birthday parties? 

The boys and I explored the disc golf course and attempted to figure out how to play - the boys really loved the game.

I think we will be spending a lot of time on the course. 

My oldest has been bit by he baseball bug. 

I could have kissed the coach at his skills session. He told the kids something I have been saying FOREVER - you only get better by practicing. 
It is great when someone else confirms what you have been trying to teach your children. At least now my son might actually believe it, since I wasn't the one who said it! 
The lessons were so much fun, that he is going back for 2 sessions next week. Because he had so much fun, my youngest decided he wanted to try it out too. I am so excited that my middle is going to give something new a try! 

While my oldest was at baseball camp, the other 2 joined me for a little bit of sorting things out in my classroom. They actually asked to go - shocker! Since the school is next to the park, it made sense to stop in.
The AC was not on in the building and it was so HOT we only made it for a little while. 

I did not move any furniture, but I did sort through some books and organized my bookshelves. I have a lot of inherited items and am in the process of purging things that I have never used or have forgotten about. 

My teacher desk was moved to clean the carpets and I am considering getting rid of it. 

I find that it is a clutter collector and perhaps without it, I might have a tidier work space. 

The boys loved playing in the open space and entertained each other playing ball, puppy, and reading together. 
The AC will be on next week, so my youngest and I will go back to do some set-up while the oldest two are playing baseball. 
Every little bit I can tackle before the official return date will make the week of pre-planning more productive. So hard to believe that I go back in a little over a week!

My youngest and my middle son joined me and a friend on a trip to a local farm to go blueberry and blackberry picking. YUMMY! I love fresh fruit and really love fresh blackberries. They were super sweet and lots of fun to pick. 

I am so glad we made it out there early because it was HOT!

We brought home enough to nibble on them during the week and I have bags of them frozen to enjoy in some pancakes, smoothies, and baked goods. 

 Summer is almost over fr me and I know planning is really on my mind , as it may be for many others. I am posting some items on sale as part of stock up summer sale series, hope these might be of some help to you with your planning. 

Animal and Plant Cells packet

Fraction Task Cards with a winter theme

Out of this World Fraction Task Cards

 I hope that you have had a great week and enjoy a very relaxing weekend! 
Cheers-

Five for Friday on the 4th

Happy 4th of July to you! 
I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

I am currently listening to the live results of the annual Peachtree Road Race. I top my hat off to all of those men and women who hit the pavement daily, and run annually in the intense road race on the 4th. I am in awe of their skills, I am not a runner (shin splints), so I know that their accomplishments requires tons of training. 

Another fun week with the boys. Monday I had a great day shopping and relaxing with my oldest while his brothers spent the day at their grandparents house. It is always nice to have one on one time with each of my kids. 

Enjoying drinks at Starbucks since our park plans were rained out. 

Sorry for the blur, it is hard to get a clear picture with my phone - he is a flipping machine!

I wonder how much the bungy jumpers cost, I could use one in our backyard!

We enjoyed our local park a lot this week. 

So excited that my middle is gaining confidence on his bike. 

"Mom, I accomplished one of my goals!"

It is official, I am a terrible tooth fairy! I cannot stay awake long enough to make sure my kids have fallen asleep to sneak in and leave money under their pillows. 

My middle lost another tooth, this time without drama, and we did not have to crawl around looking for it. This time, I messed up, I forgot to leave him some money. I fell asleep waiting for him to be in deep enough sleep to swap money for the teeth.
When he discovered the teeth*, he was in tears! (*I guess I forgot to take the last tooth out of the tooth fairy holder, so he had 2, more proof I stink at this job!)
I snuck in and left his some money, but he still felt like he was forgotten. Man, I felt horrible!
Luckily he has quite a few more teeth to go, let's hope I don't keep goofing up! Parenting is tough!

I have an awesome niece who is a cadet at West Point. It was the goal she set for herself in 5th grade. 
This week she is leading the incoming cadets through their "beast" training. I loved seeing this picture of her walking them in on R-Day to take their oath. 

She is proof that talking to kids about their future, when they are young, is very important. The more they know about future careers, the pre-requisites, the more likely they are to be focused and reach a goal. 

We are heading to a friend's for a 4th of July celebration. Hope you have fun on this wonderful day! 
Cheers-

Five for Friday 6/27/14

It is already the last Friday of June, whoah, time needs to slow down! My sweet husband pointed out the other day that I go back in a month. Yikes, 1 month! Time to tackle the summer bucket list! 

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly party, always help me get my accomplishments and desires in check. 

So excited, to finally have the stone for the fireplace. I am trying to be patient and not be pushy since my husband will be doing most of the labor, but I am ready to go! Trying to word my impatience carefully, need to keep the craftsman happy!

Testing out the height of the cinderblocks and sanding off the glue on the metal fireplace plate. 

Doing some work around the house means I am checking over my Pinterest boards. I have pinned a lot and want to use some of them. I know, "Be patient!"

It has been fun looking and dreaming. 

Sometimes my sweet husband and I do not communicate well about the work to be done in the house. He has trouble verbalizing what he envisions and I do not have the technical talk. Thank goodness for Pinterest and the internet, guess we are both visual learners!  

Since we have one wall open, we are thinking of adding some storage to the wall on adjacent wall. Might even do some improvements in the master bath! 

Thank you Pinterest! 

I hate cleaning. Too bad I was not born in to royalty and am not independently wealthy. 

I have spent some time cleaning up the kids' rooms and my own room. It always feel good to declutter, although it wipes me out and I get grouchy during the process. 

Ready for Goodwill

You can see the floor and everything is in the correct bin!

I am on a mission, to rid our surroundings of as much clutter as possible before school starts back, good thing Goodwill is really close to my house. 

Time to celebrate a small victory. Usually when I take my boys to the pediatrician I walk out frustrated and with one (or all) in tears. This year they all did well! 

My middle did not want to disrobe for the doctor and protested a little, but it was not that big of a deal. (Their doc is awesome, she works well and around their quirks.)

Guess it helped that no one was due for shots!

In the past, kids would escape form the room or someone would need a major timeout (one time, the doc put my oldest in the corner!), but not this time. Wow! It felt great, guess this is how life is for people with perfect children. My kids are wonderful, not perfect, so this was  huge deal for me! 

What would a Five for Friday summer post be without a picture from the pool? This week my oldest had his BFF over and they were in hog heaven, it was precious! Today my middle's BFF is coming over to swim with us. 

Happy Friday friends! Have a splendid day!