Last day of 2012!

I am LOVING all these resolutions that people have been making - and linking up with my linky! And I am trying my very best to read each and every one of them - AND leave comments... see?? Already working on my resolution!!  You can still link up to it - click the pic to head on over to that post.

And one more thing....

I know I just threw a sale for B's birthday celebration, but who doesn't want to end the year with a bang??

head on over to my store to get everything 20% off!!

(except the bundles, since they are already discounted)

Here's to a great last day of 2012!!!

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New Year's Linky!

It's a NEW YEAR!!

Everyone always makes a New Year's Resolution...

Some make more than one...

BUT, I like to keep it at one because, well, that way I can stay focused. lol

I wanted to share with you my New Year's Resolutions....

One for each:

personal AND blogging

My PERSONAL resolution is to get better at sending out cards...

not just birthday and Christmas, but just-because cards too.

I used to be SO good at this, and now I'm slacking....

BUT,

I WILL get better at this again!!

And for my BLOGGING resolution???

To get better at leaving comments on blogs.

Another thing that I used to be SOOO good at!!

But time has just gotten away from me - but I will get back to doing it! 

I WILL get off google reader and leave more comments!

So tell me... what are YOUR resolutions??? 

Give me one of each!

And then come back and link up!!

Steal the pic below to post on your blog post!

Also - have you seen what's new on my facebook page??? 

It's a Fan ONLY freebie! 

I'm going to try and change it every week or so - so make sure you "like" me!!

also - here's a sneak peak on the pho-tog session we did with B the other day...

Are you tired of seeing pictures of B yet??? haha!!

Okie dokie - 

Now - come link up!!

It's Easy Peezy, Lemon Squeezy!!

Here's to a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my wonderful blogging friends and FABULOUS followers!!

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Frog and Toad all around!

OH MY!!

My world has revolved around this pack for the last WEEK!!!

It has been my baby - and I just kept adding and adding....and adding.

SOOO....

let me give you the low-down...or down-low??? Not sure...

There are four different packs, one for each of the Frog and Toad books...

Each can be bought separately.

33 pages:

Vocabulary Cards with a picture dictionary

Journal prompts for each chapter - strips or one page writing and illustration

Summary books for each chapter - in handwriting lines or regular writing lines

Seasons activities, Favorite Part, Problem and Solution, Inferencing activity

41 pages:

Vocabulary Cards with a picture dictionary

Journal prompts for each chapter - strips or one page writing and illustration

Summary books for each chapter - in handwriting lines or regular writing lines

Write a Letter - planning sheet and different template options, Favorite Part, 

Lost Button math graphing activity

34 pages:

Vocabulary Cards with a picture dictionary

Journal prompts for each chapter - strips or one page writing and illustration

Summary books for each chapter - in handwriting lines or regular writing lines

Favorite part, how to do your favorite activity writing with planning sheets

36 pages:

Vocabulary Cards with a picture dictionary

Journal prompts for each chapter - strips or one page writing and illustration

Summary books for each chapter - in handwriting lines or regular writing lines

Life Cycle of a Plant activities, Favorite Part, Beginning-Middle-End, Make a List activity

EACH one of the packs are sold separately....

OR....

You can buy them as a bundle...

BUT WAIT!

THERE'S MORE!!!

(lol...do I sound like an infomercial?? lol)

If you buy the bundle, you get ANOTHER WHOLE 45 PAGE PACK for free!!

hehehe

This pack is the "extras" pack.

45 pages:

Comparing books - Venn-Diagrams for all the variations of book combinations and writing extensions

Non-Fictions: Label a Frog, Toad, Amphibian

Compare and Contrast Toad and Frog with ability to differentiate activity - includes writing extension!

Show What You Know - Frog and Toad

Life Cycle of a Frog activities and Crafts

Frog and Toad Craft that can be used for ANY of the activities in the unit!

Click HERE to check out the bundle pack!

(which will also have the links for you to check out the separate packs!)

And I leave you with this...

My B is officially ONE year old!!

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Happy Birthday B!!

Today, my baby turns ONE!! 

(tears of joy, tears of sadness, and just plain ole tears)

My, oh, my - how time flies!! 

I'm inviting you to the party, since y'all have been with me for the last year - 

head over to my Facebook page to see how I'm celebrating!! 

Happy birthday to my sweet B!!!

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Best (posts) of 2012

Here are some of my top posts:

Reading Mini-Lesson with Word Work

First Days of the Year (with a Freebie!)

And my All Things Gingerbread Inspiration post 

(which also includes freebies)

And after those, my most popular posts are my Visual plans... so take a lookie at the last few months 

(since October - which also include LOTS of freebies!)

And who, do you ask, has been there for me?? In good times and in bad - haha!!

There is a HUGE list, but some of the most inspirational people are

Reagan

Teeny

Lori

Miss Squirrels

Gladys

Tanja

Nicole

Holly

Hadar

Stephanie

DeAnne

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It's the BEACH time of the year! (2012)

Sorry I've been MIA for a while - SOOO much to do to get ready for Christmas

but the best reason I've been MIA is because my parents are in town!!

YAY!!!

But I wanted to send you some Christmas wishes from our family to yours!!

My girls....

Loving "Christmas at the Beach" (it's a Ross family tradition!)

My sandman this year...

(see last year's beach trip HERE)

B's first Christmas!!!

Don't you just want to eat her up???

A girl and her trains.... 

And this is what I'm working on over the break.... 

I'm doing all four books, and I'm about 1/3 of the way finished.... it's taking me longer than expected though, since I keep getting more ideas! ha!!

Hope y'all had a WONDERFUL Christmas!!!

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Get Your Craft On!

First, I want to start off the post by showing you my students' reactions - 

Reactions to what, you ask???

To THIS!!

Remember when I showed you that the Jolly Postman came to get our letters to Santa?

Well, the letters came today!

I have never in my life seen kids so happy!!!

(p.s... PLEASE disregard the disastrous room! You can tell it's December for SURE in my room...lol)

They were so excited - it literally brought tears to my eyes!! 

Especially for these kids... they are such a good group.

I seriously owe my friend's husband and parents and sister the BIGGEST thank you for writing those letters! And they were HAND written AND matched what the kids wrote about in their letters.

If you can, it's such a great thing to do for your students. And it really makes your heart sing!

Now...

wiping away the tears...

Here is a gift I made for a few friends...

I saw them on Elyse's post, and it TOTALLY made me think of a few people, so I had to make some :)

Click her button below to check them out.

And these are what we made parents this year - I think it may become my go-to parent craft every year.

The girls' babysitter had one on her tree from her son from when he was in 2nd or 3rd grade, 

and I thought it was so cute!! 

So, I went to my local grocery store and asked for them to donate a few paper bags... you want those versus the lunch sacks you can buy because they are thicker/heavier.

The students traced a tracer, cut out the stockings, and I holepunched the stocking and then they got to sewing! haha... no worries, they used those giant plastic needles...like yarn needles??

         

     

hehe - some santa fun 

AND, I made a few Cookie in a Jar to give out to our neighbors...and those people that you want to give presents to, but can't really think of anything???

They turned out super cute!

Click the pics below to print up the directions and labels!

Ok - I hope I showed you something worth while.... to make you wanna get your craft on!!

Tomorrow is the last day of school... super excited!!

I'm even already dressed for tomorrow! ha!

Any day that you can roll out of bed and just head to school is a good day in my book! haha!

I mean... wait... no... I won't be wearing the same pjs I wear to bed tonight.. who does that!?

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UPDATE OVERLOAD!!!

Remember the letters we wrote to Santa and they addressed and stamped them??

(there's also a freebie on that post!)

Well, TODAY, we had the Jolly Postman

 come and take the letters on his way to the North Pole!

It was my friend's husband... he's such a good sport!!

In fact, her whole family has kind of "adopted" me this week. Her husband was our mailman, and then her parents and sister are going to write the letters BACK to them like they are Santa.

I think they feel bad for me because I don't have any family here to help me with that kind of stuff...lol... 

so they felt bad for little orphan Jen - haha!!

Moving on....

So, we've been busy traveling around the world....

We've already been to Mexico and Japan 

OH!

WAIT!!

Speaking of Japan....

Our Holidays Around the World event at school!!!

I didn't get to go that night. 

I became SERIOUSLY ill, and had to come home - and ended up taking a 4 HOUR nap!! 

But, LOOK how CUTE our stuff came out!

We have some Kimonos and some 2-Part snowmen 

(they only have 2 parts over in Japan)

Then, here's our tree...

SO STINKIN cute with tiny little snowmen and kimonos and little tiny lanterns!! 

We were going to do some origami, but we just ran out of time.

I am so bummed that I wasn't there that night - there were some seriously cool countries represented!!

Ok - Squirrel over...

Back to Sweden!!!

And Australia...

We made our Sandmen...

which TECHNICALLY could be for Florida or Hawaii too...lol

Check out what our Ross Family tradition is each Christmas day in THIS post!

and Italy...

We read one of my favorite Around the World books to read....

Check it out!

TpT

TN

Shop on the Blog

we also did our elf application - they did great with their writing!!

They had to give at least three reasons why they would make a good elf for Santa...

I read them this book to get them to connect with "elf rules" and such...

And I want to show you what we did for gingerbread week a few weeks ago....

I did a post a few weeks ago, so make sure you check it out to get the freebies!

(A wanted to join in on the fun) 

(freebie!)

Sentence imitation!!!

Then we did Kelley's Gingerbread Adjectives pack...

They used this to help them with their sentence imitation writing too! So after their sentences were good to go, then i busted out all the craft things they could imagine and told them to just go at it!

Now, if you know me, you know that this does NOT happen - haha!

I'm a bit of a control freak and I am VERY systematic, but they were being so good and they really did a good job with making sure it didn't get so crazy! 

They turned out super cute too!

AND the hubs made gingerbread cookies!!

I didn't have time to make them and he surprised me the next day and dropped off fresh baked gingerbread cookies!  awww.... he totally earned some "cookie points!" lol

Oh - and you remember the cute shirt Reagan posted??

(she's my idol, so of COURSE I had to go find one! lol)

No for real  - I LOVED the shirt that I've been looking for it since my gingerbread week, like THREE weeks ago, and hubs actually found me one over the weekend...

Except....

LOOK at the arms on this thing....

I now know what sausage in casing feels like! 

lol - and NO, my arms are NOT that big, it's the shirt.

Really it is.

Before I go, I want to share a little bit into my life lately - I've been so super busy, which is why I've been a little MIA...but here you go...

An Ugly Sweater Party....

(sorry for the blurry pic, but the photographer was a 3 year old - haha! Thanks A!)

A crying, teething baby.... my poor B - she doesn't have any teefers yet, and she's turning ONE year old in 11 days!! I think they're all trying to come in at once :(

Now THAT'S a cup of cocoa!!!

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