Must Have Monday: crayons

Nope, still haven't made anything to link up with Tara, but I have started spotting things I want for my classroom. So I decided to link up with with with Santa instead for Must Have Monday. Isn't her button precious?

By the way, I'm posting and doing everything from my Kindle this week while Steven's out of town for a class. So formatting and adding pictures are a little harder. That also means I have less time this week because I have Keagan by myself. So far, we're staying busy and entertained, but it's only day one.

Anyway, I took Keagan to Wal-Mart today so I could buy a pair of hand weights for the 30 day shred I'm supposed to start today if I ever stop blog surfing before Keagan wakes up. We had to go through the school supplies section, and then I spotted this set of crayons.

I love it! My skin tone crayons are always running out, and these would be great! I almost went ahead and bought a bunch, but they weren't on sale yet (only 78¢ though), so I figured I could wait and see. Now if it also includes the perfect shade for red hair, I'll be thrilled!

Favorite Pins Friday #2

It's time for Favorite Pins Friday with Cara from The First Grade Parade!

I'm starting to realize that my summer is rolling along TOO quickly! There's still more left than I've had (just finished week 4), but looking at the calendar is starting to scare me. So even though I haven't done anything school-wise yet except buy one Reading Comprehension booklet from Target's Dollar Spot, I have begun to repin school ideas.

I got this from Head Over Heels for Teaching when she blogged about her reading workshops. I've seen a few inventories over the years and tried some out, but I really like this one. It's SO important to figure out about your students as readers, especially with the struggling readers. They will need so much guidance when choosing books, and you've got to be prepared to help!

Mind. Blown. Unfortunately this picture didn't link back to any website, so I can't give credit. What a great way to store their water bottles without having them all over the desks, though!

Forensic Science for Kids had a great inferencing idea. Set up a crime scene! Now, you could create your own (I have a fantastic hubby with some experience that can help me in that area), OR they provide a link to two great ones for kids that are already created. Obviously a lot of prep time goes into this, but it would be SO much fun!

Collaboration Cuties posted about this last week in their Favorite Pins post, and I love it! I feel like we waste so many paper towels cleaning our white boards. Instead, buy a bunch of Dollar Tree facial cleansers. Now I'm going to try and see if I can attach them to the board somehow for even more ease. Any ideas?

Onto a more personal pin, I'm thinking about actually letting my hair grow out (no source again). Usually I keep it shoulder-length because it's so thick and just gets to be too unmanageable. I saw this hairstyle with long layers, though, and I think we'll try it out! Plus I've starting pinning all these cute updos that my current hair isn't quite long enough for. We'll see if I stick with it, but I could always donate it to Locks of Love if I quit!

And on a similar note....

So true!

What are you pinning this week?

Book Talk Thursday - Board books

Sorry I haven't posted any this week. You would think that it would have been easier to post this week now that I'm home and don't have any company. I didn't have anything to say though, really. But I thought of the perfect book to share about this week as I link up with Andrea!

I haven't done much personal reading recently (although I finished Gone Girl, and it was fantastic!), but I wanted to share about my FAVORITE board book with Keagan. Before having a little boy, I would always buy Mo Willems books as baby gifts. He's still my favorite author, but this is a MUST READ for mommies of little boys.

Basically, it's about a mommy tucking her little boy in for bed. She tells him that she loves him, and then he proceeds to ask her if she would still love him if he were all these crazy things - like a dinosaur, one-eyed monster, or a smelly skunk. She tells him all the things she would do if he were each. Similar to Robert Munsch's "Love You Forever", but much less sappy.

Apparently we read it a lot because Keagan has started to "read" it himself. He'll turn to each page and say "Mama, mama", which is how the boy starts each concern.

What are some of your favorite read-alouds for toddlers?

Favorite Pins Friday!

If you've been following this linky, you've already heard from EVERYONE how sad we are that Five for Friday is on hiatus, but the amazing Cara has filled our void with a super-fun linky!

I mean, what teacher (or girl, for that matter) doesn't like Pinterest, right? I'll be honest, since I've only been out of school for 3 weeks and don't go back until the end of August, I haven't gotten into the mood for pinning a lot of teacher-related items recently. However, I did find this amazing gem! Even though I'm not a regular classroom teacher anymore, I always had plenty of kids who needed redirection. I used to print out a simple morning/afternoon schedule to tape on their desk so they could check it off. This is SOO much better and will last a lot longer!

Around the end of the school year, I created a board for hair and nails. My hair is SO thick, and I have a lot of trouble maintaining it over the summer. I love this style, but I haven't tried it yet. Not sure if my hair is quite long enough, though.

A cleaning tip - did you know that you can (and should) wash pillows twice a year? I didn't know they could be washed. We always just bought new ones when they started smelling/yellowing. This link also walks you through how to get them white again.

No, I'm not pregnant again (yet), but I thought this was a cute gender reveal. You get someone to put colored confetti into a solid color balloon, and then the mom pops it!

And one that's Fourth of July related, of course! How fun would it be to eat an edible firecracker? I'm in!

Click on the pictures to follow the original source, and if you want to follow me (I have about 10 teaching-related boards alone), click here!

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone is taking plenty of time to spend this beautiful day outside and/or with family! This is my VERY short post during Keagan's nap to say Happy Fourth of July!

If you are like me and spending some time shopping today, don't forget that a lot of bloggers are having sales on their TPT stores through midnight tonight. Mine is included in that!

Also, my sweet bloggy friend, Holly, is having an AMAZING giveaway on her blog. I don't know about you, but I love Amazon (that's where I buy most of my books), and that $50 gift card would be very nice!

Okay, have fun, stay safe, and WEAR SUNSCREEN!!

July 4th Sale and What I'm Loving

First things first. I'm having a sale! Who doesn't love celebrating the fourth? It's up there on favorite holidays because of all the yummy foods AND warm weather. I'm not really a fan of cold. At all.

Anyway, I also wanted to link up with Covered in Glitter and Glue because this linky looked fun and I'm not quite ready to think about school-related anything.

First, I'm LOVING being back at home with my sweet little guy! He has not wanted to let me out of his sight (today he was outside with his Gran and saw a car pull away. He thought it was me and started RUNNING and crying), and it melts my heart. Hopefully the separation anxiety will go away soon, though.

I had to share this picture because it cracked me up! We were just hanging out yesterday because it was raining, and he did this entirely on his own. He's loving his fedora a TON recently!

Along with the picture above, I'm loving that my house is clean right now.  Obviously when Keagan is awake, toys are strewn all over the living room, but the rest of the house is CLEAN and ORGANIZED, and that includes suitcases being unpacked and laundry done! It's so relaxing, and I don't feel as guilty blogging.

Finally, I'm loving cute little clothing boutiques. One of my favorites is James & Leigh. My sister got me hooked and bought the cutest dress for my birthday. Then I bought my first maxi dress on Sunday. Hoping to get it in the mail soon!

Since my phone can't do screen shots, this is my roundabout way of adding the photo to Instagram. Don't you love these maxis?

What are you loving this week?

Bloglovin and a giveaway

I know you've probably seen/heard plenty about this, but don't forget that I'm on bloglovin! I was soo bummed that I missed the big giveaways and linky last week, but it's not easy to blog from my Kindle. At least not yet. Even without, I noticed that a lot of my followers have already moved on over - I'm up to 267 there. If you haven't already jumped over (and I hope you can see this since Google Reader is gone now), please click on the icon at the side or click here to follow me!

While I was checking to see which blogs I missed for myself, I came across a GREAT opportunity over at Ruby Slippers!

I've been wanting a new blog design for a while, but the money is tight right now (working on 1 1/2 salaries with a little boy is tough). This giveaway is for one of her custom blog designs! They are so cute, so I'm hoping I win!

Also, if you've looked over at my followers, I'm almost to 400 here! If you would be interested in helping me out, please let me know! I know I just did one less than a month ago, but I want to do something still. Thinking of going the more traditional route this time.