A Taste of Fall

The weather has been so perfect this week! When I picked the girls up from mom's today, she made us candy apples! The girls loved them, but Hannah actually bit into her apple and was crunching away! yummmmy! Fall is my absolute favorite season and I am so excited for it!

emma buttering the pan

drying the apples

yea! Candy apples!!

yum yum

Hannah a hot mess

candy dripping down her arm!!

and here is how emma gracefully ate her apple!

My Media Center!!!

Here are some pics of my home away from home! I am so honored to be in charge of this media center. It is the best of the best in this area since it is the newest school. I cannot express how lucky I am to be here!

My office! (excuse the two silver laptop carts in the way)

my shelf and poster "Media Specialists - we know where to find it"

other side of my office used for checking adding new material and books to the system

from back corner

my instructional area

circulation desk - my office is to the right, door behind desk is the news studio

a bulletin board and reference area

view from behind circulation desk

we have ten computers in media center

view from side entrance

me!! I am putting together a bulletin board of teachers with their favorite books!

I love this place and don't feel like I have really "worked" all week because I have enjoyed every single moment!

Preschool Open House

Today was Emma's preschool Open House/Meet the Teacher. It was so ready and did a great job. She should know the building and her classroom well since it is at our church. She played and met her teacher Mrs. Piper and her assistant Mrs. Gripo. They were both wonderful. There will be eight chlildren in the class. Emma is going Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-12. She loved wearing her bookbag - the one she picked out from at the beach. She was only upset when it was time to leave. She thought we were eating lunch there. So, school officially starts after Labor Day, as all VA schools. We will see how that day goes!

walking in

finding her name on the door

emma and Mrs. Piper

leaving with mommy!

What. A. Week.

We decided to evacuate for hurricane Irene. We left Friday and went to Raleigh. When VA Beach started to evacuate we knew it was time for us to go. I did not want to be without power with two kids at home and not know when it would come back on. Of course Bo was out of town so I had to pack everyone by myself. I did go to work Friday and luckily Bremer, our college sitter, was available to help me with the girls. My mom, sister and grandmother had already evacuated to Salem, Va. So, after work I drove the girls to Raleigh and Bo had to meet us there. It was windy and rainy in Raleigh and we enjoyed the day being lazy. We did venture to Target later in the evening when the rain stopped. We just needed to "get out" for awhile.

lazy day at nana and dadoo's

playing dress up

Of course I spent a lot of time keeping up with people at home and what was going on at home. My dad and brother in law stayed home. My mom had some minor damage to her home with some siding that flew off. Her screen porch was also covered in mud. My dad said he had never seen such strong wind and heavy rain. He even had to go to my other grandmother's house because her window actually blew out. So, he had to board it up during the hurricane! Everyone lost power of course.

We all came home Sunday after chuch. The trees and power lines were a mess as we drove more East. Some roads were closed due to the lines down, but our route was okay. Thankfully, power had been restored by the time we were home. We found some water damage at our back door and in Emma's room upstairs. We immediately had to report it to our insurance company. Although we had power, we have not had cable, internet or phone until TONIGHT. So, that is why I am so behind on blogging.

My grandmother had to stay the night with us Sunday night since she still did not have power, nor my mom and dad and several other relatives. So, we were the lucky ones. We just couldn't watch tv! Monday we were out of school, which is the worst week ever for teachers to be out. We lost an entire day of working in our rooms to prepare for the school year.

The rest of the week has been normal at work. The LMS position has so many rewards but I have been extremely busy. I had to sit in on 5 interviews today for paraprofessional positions. I also have been preparing to give my copyright staff development to the teachers. I have checked all new material into the computer system, labeled and shelved them. I have started working on plans, but I dont get students until the 19th, so I have more time to focus on that later. Today I worked on distributing technology to the teachers. They each need their Elmo's, interwrite pads, remotes, calculators, listening centers, etc. And.....of course the laminator broke today so I had to make my first call into our service technician!

I have also had to start bulletin boards and organize a "new book" area for our parent meet and greet tomorrow. So............busy, yes......wonderful, yes!! I would not trade it for anything so far.
Plus, my commute has been averaging 6-8 mins from my mom's house after dropping off the girls. I also get to see the girls in the morning, which Iam not used to at all during the school year!

I will post pics of my library and office after I feel it is "ready."

We also have a big day for Emma tomorrow! We have her teacher meet and greet at preschool! She is so excited!

It's a Jolly Holiday for Emma!

Emma's love for Mary Poppins began with a Disney Sing Along video. She started singing the songs and dancing to the Mary Poppins scenes. So, a few weeks later I bought her the actual movie. She has watched it all the way through and knows all the words to every song now. She even copies the dance that the penguins do. My mom has bought her lots of Mary Poppins things via the Internet since there is nothing Mary Poppins in stores. She has books, puzzles, a doll, etc. One time a lady at a restaurant asked her what her name was. She said "Mary Poppins." She adores Mary Poppins and when asking her what kind of birthday she wanted there was no doubt that she would want a Mary Poppins party. I steered away from this idea for several weeks because the party theme would be so difficult. I asked her if she would rather have Dora, Tinkerbell, ballerina, anything but Mary Poppins - it is just too hard!!!! But, she never let the idea go and planning this party has been super hard. However, with the help of Etsy, Ebay, several other websites and my mother it was done!

The party was absolutely perfect. Emma was so excited and Hannah loved all of the action too. My mom made them both a Mary Poppins "summer" dress. They were so adorable. This was the best birthday for Emma because she understood why she was having a party, knew everyone there, said "thank you for coming" and "thank you" for each present, she was not shy, and she is smiling in every single picture. She came over to me near the end of the party, hugged my leg and said, "thank you mommy." It brought tears to my eyes singing happy birthday to her and even now thinking of her being so happy. She is growing up so fast - starting real preschool, starting dance class, moving on with swim lessons, and just learning and absorbing so much. She is the sweetest little girl and brings us more happiness than anyone can ever imagine. This party was a ton of work, but it was worth it to look at these pictures. Happy Birthday Emma - love you so, so much! (Please see Facebook for more pics - there are just too many!)

Emma's cake

Spoonfulls of Sugar!

straws for the kids

sidewalk chalk to play

kites above the pool

Emma's sign

all the kids got to stuff their own penguin

Emma with her cake

Emma with her carousel

my parents and the girls

us four

Emma's present from mommy and daddy

my best friend dressed her son as Bert!

presents!

Emma and her friends and family

stuffing penguins

Emma and daddy

Bo, the girls and Bo's parents

singing "Happy Birthday"

Emma with her great grandmother - Mammie

Past Few Days

Mom and I picked the girls up on Thursday afternoon. On the way home Emma fell right to sleep and Hannah wanted me to take pictures of everyone, including her lamb. I felt so bad for mom since she had to drive both ways. I was not able to drive yet.

lamby

As far as the surgery I am moving around. I am bruised but feel fine. I just cannot turn, bend down and lift things very well. I still can't pick up the girls. It was hilarious trying to explain that to them the night they got back home. Emma said, "mommy's boobie hurts." Then she asked me questions like, "can you shower?" "can you dry your hair?" "can you get dressed?" I don't know what prompted her to ask those questions but they were pretty good questions and she seemed to understand that there are things I cannot do and things that are okay for awhile.

Friday was more errands for the party, again with my mom driving us around. My poor mom dropped us off and went home. Later that evening she was on her laptop in the den and heard an awful noise. Her entire cabinet in the kitchen fell, breaking every single dish including her Christmas dishes. It was an awful mess and my aunt, cousin and sister were able to get there fast enough to help out. I felt so bad I could not help out after all she had done for me.

Today I went to our clubhouse and cleaned up a little for our "Mary Poppins" birthday party tomorrow. I set some some tables and chairs. Bo and Emma did some last minute errands to get food and pick up our Chick Fil A orders. Mom came over with the cake and then she stayed to watch the girls while Bo and I got ready for a wedding. One of my favorite girls I worked with at Georgetown was getting married and I had been looking foward to her wedding since the day she got engaged. I am going to miss working with her so much. But, we did have a very nice time and she was gorgeous.

E and H hanging out this morning

Hannah put her whole cup in her applesauce - ughhhhh, the things she does

we clean up well

me and Rachel

amazing former colleagues

Mom and the girls made "spoons full of sugar" for the party with hardened chocolate. My dad also delivered the carousel horse so the girls had plenty of fun without us tonight.

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making "spoonfulls of sugar" with Gaga

working hard

PopPop bringing the carousel

Emma's turn

Hannah's turn

We are super excited for Emma's party tomorrow! She was up when we got home and I said, "are you too excited to sleep?" She said, "yeah, I'm too excited." We hope it is a very "jolly holiday" tomorrow :)