Who is this 8 year old and what has he done with my baby?

We celebrated the little man's 8th birthday this weekend!

We had a party at our house with 10 of his friends.

They rode pedal tractors.

Played in the dirt.

Ate cake.


Opened presents.


Played kickball, cornhole, and dodgeball.


We had a pumpkin ring toss, pumpkin seed race, and even pumpkin bowling with toilet paper ghosts!


After the party, we headed to my parents' house where we had been hiding our gift to the birthday boy.

Could it be?


Is it really what I think it is?


Yes! A 4 wheeler! Woo hoo!



He is SO excited about his new 4-wheeler. Now he's one of the big guys.


But he'll always be my baby.


*sniff*

Happy 8th birthday, my little man. Momma loves you more than you know.

The Speed of Life

Over the past month...

My new sweet baby niece was born.



4 days later, my own baby girl turned 6.


3 days later, my other sweet baby niece turned one.



Then the kids and the husband were in a wedding for my cousin and his beautiful new bride.




We are now enjoying Fall Break. And when I say enjoying, I mean screaming at the kids to QUIT FIGHTING.

(These pictures of the Little Miss were taken 2 weeks ago, when it was 80. It is currently 30 degrees.)

And today we are celebrating my little man's 8th birthday. Gah! Crazy. Unbelievable. Impossible. He was as small as his new baby cousin just yesterday.


Life is flying by too quickly. Someone, please pass the pause button.

It's October

So that means...

1. I am knee-deep in papers to grade.




2. The combine will be rolling out of the barn soon.




3. The boys in my life will disappear for a few weeks.




4. My baby boy will soon turn 8.


5. Both kids will be in a wedding next week.


6. I am knee-deep in papers to grade.


7. The leaves are changing.




8. I am making way too many stops for this.




9. I can start making meals like this again.


10. Fall Break is only 2 weeks away.

My Newest Obsessions

Pinterest.

I am forever ripping pages out of magazines, printing pictures of things I love, bookmarking websites and pictures to come back to later. And then I lose them or they get thrown away. Or I never remember to go back to those sites.

Enter Pinterest.


Pinterest allows you to "pin" all your favorite things, creative ideas, recipes to try, all in one place. My pins include shoes I must have, ideas for my classroom, party ideas...the list goes on. If you haven't tried it, do it. It's crazy addictive, but it feels...useful. Purposeful. And although it leads you to believe you need to be "invited" you can request to be added and it only takes a few hours. Click here to get started.


Guess-the-Google.

Oh my dear. What an enormous time waster...and yet? Completely addictive. The gist: You see a series of Google images and then guess the keyword that brings those images up.


Go ahead. Click here to play. Well, finish reading this post first. Because I know once you go over there, you won't want to come back.


Montage-a-Google.

Brought to you by the same genius who created Guess-the-Google, Montage-a-Google is another cool Google image time waster. You type in the keyword and it will make a montage of images based on that word. Here's one I made:

Yum.

Big Huge Labs.

I may be severely late to the party on this one. But...I just discovered this site and am in love. Basically, you can do lots of fun stuff with your own pictures.

Remember the motivator posters that started out as serious?


But then ended up as fake and hilarious?

At Big Huge Labs, you can make your own!

and seriously if you don't know this story, go read it here.

I have also made some for school. They make great teaching tools for whatever you're studying: vocab words, content area, story elements, etc.


At Big Huge Labs you can also make magazine covers, movie posters, pop art posters, and more using your own pictures. So fun! Click here to check it out!


I hope you have fun playing with my newest obsessions. What's keeping you from cleaning your house?

Award Winning Spaghetti Recipe

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from the deacon of a small Georgia church. He had made my spaghetti casserole for a spaghetti cooking contest and won first place! How awesome is that?! If you haven't yet made this, what are you waiting for? It's so yummy and now... Award Winning! Click here for the recipe. Enjoy!

Back at It

Several of my friends have been posting on Facebook that they are going back to school tomorrow. And to that I say :p~~~~~~~~. (Does that sound like a tongue sticking out making a raspberry?)

I've been back for months. Okay, it's only really only been a few weeks, but it feels like it has been months.


The kids went back to school a few days before I did. Here they are on the second day of school because this mom forgot the camera.


Can you believe I have a second grader?! He's going to be 8! 8 years old. C.r.a.z.y.


And my kindergartener! She loves school. Loves it. She gets a weekly homework page on Monday to be turned in by Friday. She has it done in about 2 minutes on Monday afternoon, begging for more!


The boy on the other hand? Is doing great in school but really lives for recess and playing with his buddies at after-school care. The 6 hours of school are really an inconvenience to his playtime. And homework? Not quite as willing as his sister.

The weather for the first 2 weeks back to school was amazing. Low to mid 80s with less humidity. The entire summer was 95 degrees with unbearable humidity, so we definitely did our best to enjoy a few beautiful days after school at the park.


It was 100 degrees on Friday and today? A high of 62 with no sun. It was SO cold this morning! But it was definitely a welcome change. I love nothing more than chilly evenings and extra blankets.


We have a busy couple of months ahead. The little miss turns 6! this month with a party at the local gymnastics center. My niece turns one this month AND becomes a big sister! I can't wait to meet my newest niece or nephew! The boy turns 8 and they are both in a wedding next month!

Not to mention we have gymnastics, book club, and Girl Scouts. All the while I try to keep my sanity teaching all day! The good news...Fall Break is only 5 weeks away. :)