The Pumpkin Patch.

Just another quick picture post :)

 

I was incredibly surprised by what a big deal Halloween was at my school. It's not something that I've ever really celebrated and it's been a while since I was in a school that did anything for Halloween but this particular school goes all out! I think my favorite part of this Halloween season was when our entire school took a field trip to the pumpkin patch.

 

It wasn't actually so much of a pumpkin patch as just a family-fall-fun-farm. It is owned by one of the families that attends our school and they invited all of us out for a visit the week before Halloween.

 

Such a pretty horse! And a beautiful farm too. The fall colors were in full force and while this was bar far the coldest day I had experienced since last winter, I was just thankful we didn't get rained on.

The poor barn cats spent the entire day running away from all of our crazy students.

Cute little train that they drive around the farm.

Best part of my day! I was wearing rainboots but it didn't rain and it wasn't muddy so they really didn't serve much purpose and they did absolutley nothing to help keep my toes warm. They were completely numb after an hour of walking around the farm and I very much enjoyed this opportunity to thaw them out.

Another one of my favorite things about Halloween has been decorating the classroom. here is some of the student work we had up on the "Treasured Work" board. Gotta love the acrostic poem. Always the easiest writing assignment.

 

And a few photos of my bulletin boards all decked out.

The kids did such a great job coloring these scarecrows that I'm planning to leave them up for my November boards as well. It's one of those fall decorations that can last through Thanksgiving.

I've discovered that one of the easiest ways to decorate is with books! I've already put loads of Thanksgiving picture books on hold at the library and plan to put them up all over my classroom next week.

"Get Caught In A Good Book" Classic glitter spider webs. I remember making them in elementary school and loving them and figured my kids would too. They did love making them and I'm enjoying the sparkles that will forever be in my carpet because of them. The students also wrote paragraphs about why they love reading and what their favorite books are and I printed out photos of each student and a little spider picture to go on each one.

I worked hard to make that spider web! Took ages for me to get all of the staples out today... My team teacher and I switch off who is responsible for the hallway bulletin board each month and since November is her month I had to take all of my stuff down after school today so that she could get her November bulletin board up. I was proud of that board but honestly, I was also ready for a change. I already have a plan for my December bulletin board --- get excited.

Okay, now here's the scary part. The parents at our school love Halloween and they get really into it. They're in charge of decorating our classrooms and my classroom was a little spookier than I care for. I wanted the kindergarten classroom with all of the cute little pumpkins but instead, I got this:

YIKES!!! They were great about cleaning up though and had everything taken down by the time we came back from recess in the afternoon.

Next stop, Halloween Carnival. The parents set this up in the auditorium and they are all responsible for different booths. My favorite was the doughnut on a string. I had never seen that before and it was so cute watching the little kids try to eat doughnuts that were swinging from strings above their heads. Loved it.

This is Heather. She's my new bestie at work. She teaches Math/Science for the kindergarteners and 1st graders. We zumba together a couple of times a week, and go shopping together, and eat Mexican food together, and I'm taking her on her first trip to Leavenworth over our three day weekend next month.

And here's the whole team of teachers (minus our Pre-K teacher). Hope they don't mind that they're on my blog :) We had to vote on a theme for costumes. I REALLY wanted "Fair Tale Characters" so that I could be Captain Hook but somehow 50's was voted most popular. I didn't like the idea of all of us wearing the exact same thing so I went with the Pink Ladies jacket instead of the poodle skirt. Didn't matter. The kids had no idea who we were and the funny thing is, since most of our school families are international, most of the parents didn't know either! We spent the whole day hearing "So... what are you anyway?" Mostly everyone was just shocked that I was wearing make-up and had done my hair, since that certainly doesn't happen on a regular basis.

My favorite parent costume (other than a super cool pirate one) was one of the moms who dressed as Flo -- you know, the insurance lady from those commercials? So funny! I thought it was really clever.

Steven and I are just having a chill evening at home tonight and as our street is still under construction and super dark, it looks like we'll have to wait another year for trick-or-treaters. SO glad that tomorrow is the start of the holiday season. I love love LOVE Thanksgiving and can't wait to make my students do all kinds of "thankful" activities!

Drink Me.

Steven and I spent a lovely Saturday afternoon/evening with the Raney's this weekend. Our Saturday plans had been evolving all week long through various text messages and disjointed phone conversations and we finally decided to create a little tasting tour of the Eastside for ourselves. I think we tasted a little of everything that Woodinville has to offer with the exception of the two honey mead places we drove by and didn't have time to stop at.

 

We started our day at Mac & Jack's. Gotta love a free tour and tasting that gives you a free pint glass to take home! Steven and I are now up to half a dozen. He has suggested swapping our other glasses out for them. I don't think so.

We had a slight lull in our schedule between Redmond and Woodinville so we picked up a little snack at the grocery store and made an impromptu stop at this cider place in Woodinville. I've been driving by it my entire life and have always been curious -- we were so glad we stopped! It smelled amazing in there. We got to taste 4 different kinds of fresh cider (pressed earlier that day!) and their hot spiced cider. They also sell apple cider vinegar, local honey, all kinds of fruit butters and jams, fruit leather, and, of course, apples, at only 80 cents per pound! I'll be stopping by again soon I think. The people who worked there were really sweet and so excited to tell us about and share their cider with us.

After the cider we went over to Redhook but just barely missed the 3 o'clock tour as it sold out right when we walked in. Definitely for the best that it worked out that way though because we didn't realize how long that tour was and would've missed the tour we had planned for 4 o'clock. We decided to go over to Silverlake Winery and visit Papa in the tasting room there for a little bit. We tasted a couple of wines there and chatted with Papa until a bunch of customers came in and we decided we should actually let him get back to work.

Next stop: The Woodinville Whiskey Company. Best part of the day! It was a hit with everyone. We thought this was the most interesting tour and, the Bourbon whiskey and the vodka were pretty tasty. Can't say that I was a fan of the rye whiskey though. I choked every time I took a sip but somehow managed to finish my sample without making too much noise.

The guy doing the tour had some really cool information to share with us. We learned all about whiskey and how it's made in different places and the difference between scotch and Irish whiskey and Canadian whiskey and about how Bourbon is only allowed to be made in the U.S. and on and on.

I also really like the little glasses. I want some.

And then there's this crazy cool thing that they use to distill the whiskey and vodka. I can't quite remember exactly how it works but he explained all of the steps and it's a pretty interesting process of evaporating and condensing and and moving up the pipes and getting rid of the bad stuff that you don't want (like acetone, which is nail polish remover) and all kinds of things that I would need to hear a few more times before I could accurately relay them.

Post whiskey company, we finished off our day with a very long tour/tasting at Redhook. I kind of thought the tour was unnecessarily long especially because I was done drinking (just wasn't interested anymore) and the tour guide wasn't my fav but I'm still glad we did it. It's only $1 and since it's Redhook and it's a huge brewery and it's in Woodinville, it just seemed like one of the places that I should stop at at some point in time as long as we're bothering to do these tastings.

We had a quick dinner at La Corona (very quick!), then spent about 20 minutes trying to decide what kind of candy to take to the Crest, and then we were off for the 8pm showing of The Dark Knight Rises. I had almost forgotten that we still hadn't seen that movie! I'm glad we saw the third one but it wasn't my favorite. The first one I love and can watch over and over again. The other two were entertaining but don't have a lot of rewatch value for me. Well, especially The Dark Knight. I have enough stress in my life thank you very much.

By the time we got home (close to midnight) were were exhausted but, lucky me, I got to sleep in this morning :) Thanks Lena and Aaron for a super fun day!

Precipi-what??

Umm... can someone please tell me what this strange wet stuff is that's falling from the sky?

Welcome Aboard.

I know I know I know I know I know!!! This post is WAY overdue! School has been in session for over a month and I can't believe I am just now posting these photos. It has been a bit of a rocky start for me. Being a first year teacher is somewhat of a challenge and I have a feeling that it's maybe even a bit (or quite possibly A LOT) more challenging at this particular school. In case you haven't noticed, I don't tend to give a lot of specifics in regards to my place of work. Some of you have asked why I haven't mentioned that anywhere in my blog and the main answer is that I don't want someone to be searching my school on the internet by name and have my blog post pop up. I keep things pretty positive on here as a general rule but, still, since this is a public blog and I've chosen to keep it password-free so that it's easier for everyone to access, I feel like I need to be somewhat careful about what I say. So if you want the real scoop -- shoot me an e-mail or give me a call :)

 

Here's a photo of how the classroom looked the week before school started: 

 

There were some things on a few of the bulletin boards, well, actually the class was pretty well set up but it had been used for a younger group last year so there was a lot that I needed to change and I knew that if I didn't make it my own, I would never feel at home in it. So I worked my tail off the week before school creating and laminating pirate-themed things for my bulletin boards. I also moved bookshelves, swapped dozens of books out for higher level reading books, and all kinds of crazy stuff like that. There was a lot more heavy lifting in those 6 in-service days than I had anticipated.

First day of school! Can't say that everything was exactly where I wanted it to be on the first day but it was pretty close. I've made a few small changes since then. I definitely ditched that awful pocket chart that's hanging on the board -- it wasn't working for me. And I've added a magnetic schedule to the board that I'm actually really proud of. Can't believe I didn't get a picture of that!

I did look pretty well organized on the first day, which was good since I was feeling all chaotic and frantic and kind of still freaking out.

In the front of my classroom I have this little reading corner, which I think turned out to be pretty cute and the kids were so excited about the amount of books I have in my classroom -- all supplied by the school. So much for all those boxes of books I've been saving "for my classroom"... I made the treasure chest and the sign out of construction paper and laminated them and then I made little books (by printing photos of book covers from pirate-themed books) and filled the treasure chest with them. It's looking a bit sparse but maybe someday I'll get around to adding more.

Here is my calendar and jobs board. The calendar I purchased at a teaching store and just laminated so that I could use double-sided tape to stick on the days and months. The days and months were pirate-themed printouts that I found on teacherspayteachers.com, which is a very handy little website with all kinds of fun resources. I wish I had gotten a closer picture of the calendar. The days have cute little parrots on them. (Sidenote: we have a few rules at our school that I don't think you'll find anywhere else. One of those rules is that you aren't allowed to cover your bulletin boards with background paper or fabric -- you have to keep the color that the board is made of as the main background. You're also not allowed to use borders. Just wanted to make sure that you understood that and didn't think I was being lazy or lacking creativity. I'm doing the best I can to make my room awesome and still work within my limitations.)

Close-up of the jobs board. I just used random clipart photos for the jobs and the helm pictures I found on a teacher blog. Each student has one and they have velcro on the back so I can move them around when we switch jobs. The velcro concept is one really nice thing about these old bulletin boards.

And here is our birthday board. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do for it since I didn't want it to be like any of the other classrooms and I'm not a big fan of the standard birthday-cake-for-each-month-with-a-candle-for-each-student thing. The cannon was Steven's idea and I love it! It's a big hit. The kids think it's really special when it's their turn to be shooting out of the cannon :)

This school has a very unique program. Actually, there are lots of things that are unique about my school but we won't get into all that right now. Anyhow, we do individualized instruction, which means that I don't actually get up in front of the whole class to teach. I work with students on an individual basis because almost all of them are at different places in the curriculum. As I'm teaching a student at the back table, the rest of the class moves through centers -- this is kind of an odd/foreign concept and may be a bit difficult to visualize. This is one of my favorite centers. I have a few different audio books that I checked out from the local library and students follow along in a book while they listen to the story.

This is the computer station (I let them play typing games as one of their centers) and the tower of supplies (glue sticks, scissors, rulers, etc.) and the shelf space where they put their binders during the day since we have tables instead of desks, and a lot of board games that don't get a whole lot of use.

 



Can you see the lovely retaining wall outside my windows? Great view, huh? It's actually a bit depressing -- I don't get much light in my room. And then there are these strange hanging bulletin boards. They're more than a little obnoxious. They're really heavy so they're a pain in the tush to take down, decorate, and then hang back up, but at the same time, it's not so easy to staple things to something that's swinging form the ceiling either. I need to do an activity sometime soon to put up on these boards since this one was at the beginning of the year, but this project was pretty fun. I had everyone do an acrostic poem for the word "patriot" and my older class got to make American flags with torn up paper and glitter. I was the first teacher to have student work up on my boards - yay me! I'm hoping to do something with pumpkins next but I don't want it to be too Halloween-y so that I can leave it up through most of November too.

 



Here are some pretty flowers that my mom brought me on Parents' Night. She didn't stay, even though she is my parent, she just knew that I was feeling super stressed about it was having a tough week so she stopped by with flowers and it was really sweet of her. It was fun to show her my classroom :)

So there it is! Now you've seen my classroom.

Everlasting Summer.

This has been both one of the longest and shortest summers I have ever experienced. It's the shortest because I feel like Steven and I hardly got to spend any of it together (as we had been looking forward to) but definitely the longest in terms of the number of beautiful, warm, sunny days in a row. It has been nothing short of incredible. I haven't seen rain in weeks! Literally. I have completely exhausted my warm weather work wardrobe. I've worn every sleeveless dress, skirt, and pair of capris I own and am about to have to start repeating outfits again. It's pretty great.

 

I have been ignoring my blog lately. The new job has kept me more than a little busy and I haven't bee writing nearly as much as I would like to. This post is my attempt to catch up on some of the late summer happenings that hadn't previously made it onto the blog.

 

The week before Steven came back from the fire (I know, right?? that was ages ago!), Lena and I made blackberry jam together. Lots and lots of blackberry jam. I also made a batch of peach blackberry jam but I don't think it was quite as tasty.

 

 

Lena and Mom and I spent my (and Steven's) anniversary in the Bellevue park watching a movie. We had MOD pizza for dinner (it's the best! You should check it out.) and Mrs. Field's cookies and ice cream for dessert and watched Dolphin Tale. I definitely thought it was going to be cheesy but ended up loving it. It's a pretty awesome story and it has Morgan Freeman and he's amazing. Note the phone pressed to my ear -- I was chatting with Steven :)

The breakfast I made for Steven on his first day back and the flowers he brought to me. Poaching eggs is definitely not my favorite thing to do but the hollandaise sauce was fantastic. We've decided that in the future, I'll just fry the eggs since poaching makes for a messier kitchen and a frustrated chef, I mean, Steph.

The weekend Steven came home we had a house full of guests and a pretty fantastic housewarming party. Jeremy and Ronnie came up from Portland for the weekend and Chad and Whit were in town from Boston. It's always a treat to have our friends in town and it was really fun to show them our new place!! Thanks Jer for the photo that I borrowed from your facebook without asking...

The day after our housewarming party was my first day of work. I spent that entire week setting up my classroom and stressing out big time. The kids didn't start school until the following Wednesday after Labor Day.

One of my first Fridays at school, Steven met me after work and we enjoyed the 80 degree afternoon at the zoo. Yes, there's a zoo at my work, and yes, the zoo happens to have a beautiful view of the lake (above) as well as 3 cougar cubs and 4 tigers (when I say "cubs" I mean 15 month old giant cats -- see below).

Can't say Steven cared all that much about the zoo but it was just nice to spend some time together out in the sunshine. Our time together has been somewhat limited since early August with our crazy busy work schedules.

In celebration of my 25th, Tara's 18th, and Dad's 50th birthdays, we spent the evening on a ferry boat ride. We just went to Bainbridge and back but Dad timed it just right so that we would get to see the sunset.

 

And what an amazing sunset it was! I took about 200 photos. It was a bit ridiculous.

 

We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful city!

 

Sunrise on the way to work one morning. Wow, wow, wow.

 

As I mentioned, the first few weeks of school were a lot stressful and more than a little overwhelming for me. So much so that by the second week of school I was already sick. I couldn't believe it! I felt so crummy and tired and it was no fun at all. I started to have flashbacks to last fall when I was sick for three months straight and just the thought made me incredibly nervous. I started planning out in my head how I would probably have to quit my job because there's no way I could feel that miserable and continue to work in such a stressful position. This was a bit of an overreaction. My cold started on Tuesday and was pretty much gone by Saturday.



 

We had a really fun surprise the next weekend. I guess it wasn't so much a surprise for Steven since he helped plan it but it was for me! Paige decided at the last minute to come into town for a wedding and she and Steven planned a get together. Steven and I drove up to Capitol Hill and he distracted me while Paige jumped in the back seat! We had lunch together and walked around Queen Anne and it was just so nice to be near her for a little while. I hope we get to live in the same state again someday in the future -- no pressure Paige! I can love you from any state :)

 

Steven and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Science Center walking through the King Tut exhibit and watching an imax film about Egyptian mummies.

 

The exhibit was very well done and we spent quite a bit of time in there. It was difficult to take photos with the lighting but I managed to get a few. We had been looking forward to this for a looooong time. It was the only reason we renewed our membership last year.




Last weekend, after Scott and Kristen left, Steven and I went to my dad's house to help him with the honey harvest. It was another sunny day and I quickly discovered that sunlight streaming through honey is absolutely gorgeous. A hundred and thirty five photos later, I was very nearly satisfied that I'd gotten some good shots.

That thing Steven is spinning is full of frames of honeycomb. Tara is trying to rescue the bees that fall into the honey that is dripping out of it. She would get them out with a stick, put them on the ground, and pour water over them to help de-sticky their wings. She had a nice little bee hospital. Dad didn't bring any bees with him -- he just brought the bee boxes (with all of the honeycomb) from his farm to his house, but all of the local bees near his house showed up for the occasion and there were bees EVERYWHERE! It was crazy. Dad had close to 10 stings by the end of the day. I like the photo on the right -- this is definitely a more extreme version of "licking the beater" but it made me smile. My dad definitely loves his sweets when he lets himself have them.

These bees were cleaning out the honeycomb. It was pretty fascinating actually. Those were all sticky when they were first set out on the bench but the bees licked them clean.

Love, love, LOVE Tara's hair like this. I had done one of those zig-zaggy braid for her after her shower. She said it took her 5 minutes to take it out since I had done the sections of hair so small and she looked like Hermione when she was done. I love how happy Charlie looks to be in this photo too.

Steven took me out for breakfast yesterday. It was so great! I love going out to breakfast and we were in desperate need of a date. He's the best. We spent the rest of the day running a couple of small errands and then enjoying our favorite Seattle hangouts: Blue Highway, Sushiland, and Card Kingdom. They were having an auction at Blue Highway so we couldn't actually play any games there but I did purchase a couple. One just because it looked really cool and I got it for $3 and the other is a word game for my classroom. Both were excellent finds. We did play a new game at Card Kingdom but it wasn't our favorite. Most of our entertainment came from the excellent people watching -- there was a Magic tournament. Need I say more?

 

This is one of my favorite things to eat -- crab salad tempura roll at Sushiland. We were there this weekend and it occurred to me that I'd never taken a picture of it before. It's delicious and it's almost always fresh because it's not something they keep out on the belt and you have to order it. And I want some. Right now.

 

We took Uncle Barry to the Sounders game with us tonight. October sunshine in the evening. Glorious. And we had the best seats in the house (section 304 comes with a marvelous view of the Puget Sound). AND the Sounders kicked some Timber butt (3-0), which was pretty fantastic to watch. It was crazy to have so many Portland fans there. They were a bit rowdy actually and the security guys made them all stay in their rows until the rest of us had cleared out after the game ended. The soccer culture in Seattle is a little different from our other sports.

So here we are, well into the month of October and enjoying what could be the last of our 10+ weeks of sunshine and warm weather. The fall foliage this year is some of the prettiest I've ever seen! I just hope the weather holds out through tomorrow as our entire school is having zoo day and that would be positively miserable in the rain. I am ready to transition into fall when it comes though. I certainly won't complain about the sunshine and would love to have more but I have some lovely sweaters and boots that would like to be pulled out of my closet and when the time is right, a pumpkin latte will suit me just fine!