Christmas Deco Mesh Wreath

So thanks to Pinterest I have a ridiculously long list of recipes I want to try, activities for my classroom I want to do with the kids, and crafts I want to make. Since we had a day off today for Veteran's Day I decided that a trip to Hobby Lobby was in order because I wanted to finally try and make a Deco Mesh wreath. I already had a 4th of July Wreath and a Halloween wreath so when I entered Hobby Lobby I had every intention of getting some items together to make a Thanksgiving wreath. Unfortunately their fall supplies were condensed into 2.5 small aisles and Christmas/Winter decorations had taken over ENTIRELY! So I picked up a few pumpkins and a roll of gold deco mesh to hang on to until I gather enough supplies to make an entire wreath. I decided to just get some supplies for a Christmas wreath instead (and a few supplies for a UNC/FSU wreath that I will make once I get a few more embellishments for it).

So in the picture below you will see all of the supplies I got. I ended up using everything except the 4 pack of large ornaments and the box of gold snowflakes. I also used my glue gun but that was it.

Step 1 was to take all the tags off and open up all the supplies. I used a red 21 inch roll of red deco mesh and a 5 in roll of bright green deco mesh. Normally I would tend to stick to more traditional holiday decorations as far as more of a hunter green and plaid ribbon instead of the bright stuff but I decided I wanted to do something a little different and more modern.  

The next thing I did was tie the pipe cleaners onto the wire wreath form. Then I unrolled the mesh and decided to go ahead and do the 2 colors at the same time. I gathered the ends together and twisted it down with the pipe cleaners, left about 6 inches and then twisted another gathered bunch and kept going all the way around the inside then the outside, puffing the loops up as I went. 

This is what it looked like once I had gone around both the inner and outer edges. 

Then I hung it up to make sure there weren't any huge gaps. 

The next things i did was add the ribbon. I started on an outside loop and rotated inside then outside though I'm not sure you can totally tell. That one weird loop on the left that somehow seems to be going the wrong direction kind of annoys me but I'll get over it :)  Then I started using my glue gun to glue in the embellishments. 

I kept hanging it up periodically to make sure I was adding things somewhat evenly and that I wasn't adding too much. I decided to leave off the ornaments I had bought because I thought it would look a little overcrowded and this is what I ended up with. Try to ignore the fact that it's not centered on our back door :) 

For a first try I'm happy with it and I plan on hanging it on our front door for the winter. I just have to hope that the little frogs that hang out all over our house/neighborhood don't get all over it!! The joys of living in Florida! 

Fall Fun in the Classroom

So most of you probably already know that I am a Pre-K teacher and I teach an inclusion class of kids from ages 3-newly turned 5 year olds. Some of you may not be familiar with the term "inclusion class"... what this means is that I have a mix of typically developing children who are in the VPK program (a free 3 hours) but whose parents all pay to have them stay the rest of the day and ESE students (Exceptional Student Education) who have a varying degree of exceptionalities/disabilities. My breakdown has been 10 typical and 8 ESE the last 3 years and the most common exceptionalities have been autism and speech/language impaired but almost all of them come in with a generic "label" of Developmentally Delayed and it's our job (I find some teachers push for it more than others) to get the testing and get the appropriate label before they enter Kindergarten. When you have such a diverse group every day is a big challenge to feel like you are meeting everyone's needs but luckily I have 2 awesome aides who help me so much every day and I feel like we do a very good job ;)  Anyways that was a long winded intro to the following pictures but I wanted to share some of the things that we did in my classroom in October that the kids loved :)  I have pinterest to help me keep up with activities that I want to do with my own kids one day but I'm hoping to keep a record on the blog of some of the pinterest activities I've done that are successful and some of my own activities!

The kids enjoyed making these spider webs. I punched holes around a paper plate and cut yarn in various lengths (longer pieces for the kids who I knew had the attention span and ability to sit there and work on it for awhile).  Some of the kids would ask for direction in which hole to put it in b/c they wanted it to be just like the example one I made and others just went to town stringing it wherever on their own. I had to get a few tangles out but all in all it went well (I did it in small groups with me rather than all at once). When they were finished they picked 2 spider rings to attach to it.  You can see the whole bulletin board below. 

We also made candy corn. I had a parent volunteer cut out the black templates but the kids tore all of the colored pieces themselves and then glued them on accordingly. My aide Melissa worked on these with the kids and the tearing was good for fine motor and the colors were good for sorting.  

We also made these ghosts... I'd say about 80% of the kids have not mastered the skill of using scissors yet so everything but the streamers was pre-cut by an adult. The kids used the glue bottles, the tape dispensers, and the scissors to cut the streamers. It was easiest to have them cut only the streamers b/c we could quickly give them a refresher on how to hold the scissors and cut with a little forward progression. 

We did several other fun things in October including our Fall Party which included this giant glow in the dark bubble. There is a fan that keeps it inflated and 2 black lights inside. An adult read each small group a story inside the bubble where they wore glow necklaces and bracelets and got to hold flashlights. It's a big hit every year. Our former SLP made the bubble years ago and I was lucky enough to inherit it! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful October!! 

Oh Canada!

Ok so we went out to Seattle to see Amy and Ryan for 4th of July and we were able to sneak in a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia while we were there. It was only a few hours away and I think the car ride was one of my favorite parts... even being stuck at the border for an hour was bearable thanks to some humor from Amy's ghost hunter app and the "Bed Intruder" song played on repeat. :)

Even though I am Canadian, I had never been to Vancouver or any place in Canada west of Toronto. I only lived in Canada until I was about 2 and a half but I did go back almost every summer as a kid to visit my family in both Quebec and Ontario and for some winter breaks. There's some feeling that I get inside when I'm in Canada that I can't quite explain . It sounds really cheesy but it does feel like I'm home and I get this warm fuzzy feeling inside. I think about happy times growing up as a child and I love to just soak everything in.

Vancouver was awesome. It was so clean and absolutely beautiful. I loved being able to be downtown... over looking water... and seeing mountains in the background. Everyone was so friendly and nice to us and it just reminded me how much I love being Canadian.

We stayed and the Westin on the Harbor and this was the view from our hotel room...

We had a lovely lunch at a place called Dockside Brewery where we overlooked the city and the water. 

After that we walked around the Granville Island area and visited some breweries. My favorite beer was the Raspbeery Beer at Granville Island Brewery... I wish they sold it in the US! 

One morning after eating some doughnuts at Tim Horton's... the Canadian version of Dunkin Doughnuts (but they do have those in Canada too) we decided to go up Grouse Mountain per my Dad's suggestion. We took the Gondola to the top (though they do have this challenge called "The Climb" where you can hike/race to the top and they time you) and got to enjoy some gorgeous views of the city and see/touch snow! My favorite! 

Here I am with Jim and Amy and my Pre-K class moose named Marty (He goes on adventures with me and with the kids over the weekends and holidays during the year and they take pictures and send it back in to talk about). 

Amy & Ryan 

Some gorgeous wood carvings. 

Me and Jim

The lumberjack show. There were also 2 real bears that lived in a pen that was a few acres large which was cool to see as well. 

Enjoying some raspberry Granville Island beer and some Poutine... topped with pulled pork!? So poutine is something that I grew up with on the ski slopes in Quebec. It is traditionally french fries with fresh cheese curds and gravy.... but this one had the pulled pork on top which I hadn't seen before. Relaxing on the top of the mountain was one of my favorite memories from this trip. It was hard to imagine it as a bustling ski slope in the winter! 

One of my other favorite things from this trip was the Harbor Dinner Cruise that we went on. We had our own 4 person table on the boat and we enjoyed about a 2 hour ride. We enjoyed lots of wine, food, and live music. Amy even got the guitar player to sing a Happy Birthday song for Jim. Too funny. 

Oh Canada..... I love you. I wish I could go back more often and I'm so glad that I got to be with Jim, Amy, and Ryan for this trip back! It was so much fun. We are really lucky to have such awesome travel friends who are always up for an adventure! Maybe our next Canadian adventure can be to Quebec City or Montreal?! :)  I'm in! 

Our Trip Out West

So I was looking at my lack of blog posts and trying to figure out what to blog about... school aka work.... is back in full swing. I have a decently manageable class this year though with 8 special needs kids in the mix of 10 additional typical VPK kids I always feel like I'm never doing enough! My hope is that it will continue to go smoothly enough. I keep telling myself that nothing could be worse than the first half of last year and knock on wood that will keep being true! Anyways I think I may try and blog about school stuff more this year so I can remember some of the fun projects that we are doing so I can do them with my own kids one day.

Anyways... I digress... the title of this post is Our Trip Out West so let me get to that. While in Vegas with Amy and Ryan this past January I threw out the idea of taking a trip out to visit them in Seattle with a side trip for all of us to Vancouver. Luckily Amy was on board... as we both usually are when it comes to trip planning and we decided we'd go out to visit the week of July 4th. To say this was an awesome and relaxing trip is an understatement! We had the perfect mix of sightseeing and hanging out.

We went to the Mariners game against the Orioles on July 4th which was a fun way to celebrate Jim's birthday. I was really impressed with their stadium! We sat in the club level seats and had access to lots of yummy food and drink options.

That night we went out for dinner and I learned how to play a version of shuffleboard... but on an air hockey type table... I don't know if there's another name for it. It took Jim and I quite awhile to get the hang of it but it was fun :)  We took lots of fun pictures with their cool wooden beer/liquor sign. 

We also had some awesome seafood chowder (it was the first time I had ever had chowder and now I've been spoiled) and we spent one more walking around downtown. 

We took some pictures in Kerry Park before making the drive up to the border to go to Vancouver (More about Canada in my next post).  We really couldn't have asked for better weather throughout the trip. I can't imagine living somewhere where you can eat all your meals outside in July because it is so nice! I'm super jealous of their summers!

When we got back from Vancouver we had about a day and a half left in Seattle and we definitely made the most of it. We went and checked out the Chihuly Glass Exhibit and it was breathtaking. I love colored glass designs. It reminded be of being in Italy and the South of France where they had a lot of glass jewelry and I got to watch someone go through the glass blowing process. 

 

I loved the canoe because it just reminded me of Canada or being on a lake in upstate NY. I'd love to blow up on of the pictures I took of one of the glass filled canoes and put it up in our house one day. 

The exhibit is right next to the Space Needle as you can tell from this picture. :) 

They also had a lot of pieces outside in the gardens which was cool. 

On our last day we visited some wineries and did some wine tasting which was fun. I think Seattle is an awesome area and I love the fact that it is so close to British Columbia. If it wasn't so far from the East Coast & my parents I think I'd be able to move out there in a second! Thank you to Amy and Ryan for a great Seattle visit! More about our weekend in Vancouver to come! 

Halloween Ribbon Wreath

So I've been trying to keep myself busy with projects at the start of the summer. I made 2 ribbon wreaths. One for my friend Ali's wedding which was a purple theme and one for Halloween. I think I will definitely need a break from my glue gun for the rest of the summer. :)  Anyways here are a fun pictures from making the Halloween wreath. This time I used a round Styrofoam wreath instead of a flat one like I used for the 4th of July wreath. I like the way it turned out though I was still meticulous on how I placed the ribbons section my section starting on top. If I make another one I think I'll do it placing random ones all over (not worrying about them being straight up and down and super close together) and go back through and fill in the holes. Anyways, if gave me something to do. :)

Styrofoam Wreath

The ribbons I used 

Finished Product 

Up Close 

Spring Break: London

So we woke up Wednesday morning and made it to the big train station Gare de Nord, to take the train to London. It was an easy trip but you do have to check in and wait to board in a separate area than the regular trains so it was a good thing we figured that out and cleared customs in plenty of time. The train ride is 2 hours which seemed like nothing at all.

When we exited the Tube station (prices are ridiculous if you aren't getting a day pass to ride the tube (subway)) in London we wandered a little to get our bearings and find our hotel. We stayed at the Park Lane Sheraton and it was in a great location right near Buckingham Palace. The free breakfast we got there was awesome.... you could choose anything from fruit, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc. etc. It was much better than the bread and croissants you could get with Jim's hotel status at the Westin. Anyways below you will find some pictures from our few days of sightseeing.... the only super eventful things that happened was the fire alarm going off in the middle of the night at the hotel one night... and our flight back to the States getting cancelled and having to run through the airport to catch a flight to Miami so we didn't have to stay an extra day! We didn't get to sit together for the 10 our trip home but at least I was able to make it into work the next day!

After we left our bags with the concierge we were quite hungry and didn't feel like going to far so we wandered literally next door to the Hard Rock Cafe. Did you know that the one in London is the original?? Once our room was ready we unpacked then wandered around the city a little bit and caught a sunset ride on the London Eye (A giant Ferris Wheel that holds like 25 people per car). You get a great view of the city and I would definitely suggest it though it is somewhat expensive. Museums and attractions in London definitely have higher prices than the ones in Paris which is too bad... but you only live once and who knows when we'll be back!  I was also bummed that we couldn't take any pictures inside Westminster Abbey and Saint Paul's... good think we have the internet to look pictures up to remind us how gorgeous they are inside! :)  We spent each day exploring everywhere we could think of and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! It was not the typical dreary London weather!

Buckingham Palace 

Big Ben 

View of Big Ben from the London Eye

The London Eye 

Me in front of Buckingham Palace 

Westminster Abbey  (though St. Paul's was my favorite church, the dome inside was AMAZING)

Olympics Countdown in Trafalgar Square 

Jim's fish and chips & mushy peas 

The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum 

The National Portrait Gallery in London... we just randomly decided to go in here since it was free... best decision ever... I was happily surprised when we wandered into the rooms with the impressionist paintings :) 

Piccadilly Circus  

The Tower of London... they were refurbishing a lot of it (and the city in general for the Olympics) and I was disappointed that more of the Crown Jewels weren't on display like the last time I was there

Tower Bridge

We took the tube up to see Jim's favorite team's stadium :)  

We had our last lunch at Harrod's.... I love this place... you could get lost shopping in here for hours and the food was awesome. I had an amazing truffle Mac and Cheese. 

We ended our trip by seeing a show in the West End... Rock of Ages. Now there is a movie coming out this summer. It was a great show and Jim loved all of the 80s music. 

All in all we had an awesome 1st Anniversary/Spring Break trip. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to top it. I got to go to my 2 favorite European cities and being in England brought back so many memories from when I lived there over 20 years ago!! It is so crazy how quickly time flies! I hope that Jim and I can take many more trips like this in the future.