Happy 30th Birthday, Rebekah!

Okay, so even though Rebekah's actual birthday isn't until next week, we did the big Girls' Night celebration tonight. Following what has become our usual format, we started the night at Pei Wei (gotta love that Mongolian Beef and Brocolli!), and ended the night with a giant Pizookie at BJ's. It was so fun to see some of our friends like Darice and Nicole that we haven't seen for a while. (Seeing how big Nicole's "baby" is reminded us what horrible friends we've all been for not getting together sooner!) The whole night was a ton of fun, but all of it was just to celebrate Rebekah's big 3-0! I think having me and Hilari hit 30 first kinda eased the blow for her--she's finally catching up to the big kids. (Okay, so I hit 30 a while ago, but who's counting?) Well, Happy 30th Birthday, Rebekah! We all love you!

Halloween Fun!

Rebekah, Hilari, and I just couldn't wait until Halloween to get our cute kids all dressed up together (that, and I was off from work this week!), so we had a fun little Halloween party for them this morning. Aaron and Sarah, my fireman and princess, loved being dressed up and were so cute in their costumes. All the kids got to decorate goody bags, played musical chairs, decorated their own pumpkin and ghost sugar cookies (which turned out delicious--I'm so proud!), and munched on "mummy" dogs for lunch. Of course, our kids rarely need any organized activities to have a good time together, so they spent the rest of the time running around the house and yard entertaining one another. It was just such a great morning! =)

My ELD Class

So, we may not have won Spirit Week, but we sure came in close! My class did awesome dressing up for all the Spirit Week days--crazy hair, hat, socks, pajamas (my favorite!), and sports jersey (go Y!). I've included a couple of fun pics from my class. Man, I love these kids!

Here's the whole group--yes, they always have this much energy. =)

Sports Jersey Day--those without pinned paper jersey numbers to their backs.

Pajama Day--this really should be everyday. =)

Crazy Hat Day--gotta love the black with orange feathers!

Time flies...

Wow, I can't believe another month has flown by. So, I've officially finished my first quarter teaching ELD 1-6 (yes, I have 1st through 6th grade all in the same class--guess you can call me Laura Ingalls Wilder in my one-room school house), but it has been fun. A crazy whirlwind, but fun. I finished all my parent/teacher conferences on Friday afternoon, and they all went great. Big surprise--one of the kids I've been having the hardest time dealing with this quarter (one of my first graders) is....AUTISTIC. Yep, that explains A LOT. Kinda wish I would have known that earlier. Well, at least that will help me approach him a little differently moving forward.

Well, enough about my school kids, the best part is that now I'm on a week of Fall Break, and get to spend every waking moment with MY kids (insert Happy Dance here!) I mean, I hate to brag and all, but does everyone realize just how cute my kids are? I know Jon does, but I guess he's a little biased, too. But really, do kids really come this darn adorable? Sarah has been cracking me up this whole week, and Aaron is as darling as they come. I have to admit--I really do feel blessed.

Moving from one biased topic to another, my cute husband just finished his Fall break and went back to work this week (lousy timing), but at least he got to spend his break working near me. Jon needed to finish his observation hours for his Master's program, so I hooked him up with my district's head counselor, Maria. Jon had an amazing experience working with her for two weeks, and may seriously be considering leaving high school Spanish teaching for elementary counseling. The only holdback right now is, of course, economics, but we'll have to see. Long-term, this is something he'd love to do.

Speaking of long-term, it seems my long-term plans may be changing a little. I always knew I wanted to go back and get my Master's (and Jon just happened to do the exact program I want to do), but we might be looking at moving up the timeline a bit and having me go back to school starting in January. It would be a whole lot of busy and a whole lot of crazy, but it kinda makes sense, too. I'll keep you posted on what we decide.

In the meantime, we're both still teaching, Jon and I are finishing up our Ironman Triathalon challenge (we're almost there!), and I'm getting ready for my 3rd Primary Program as the Primary president. This year Aaron gets to be in it!!

I'll be posting some more pics soon from some of our fun-filled activities this last month. Make sure you check back at the end of this month--I'm sure our Halloween pics will be worth checking out!