How I Spent My Vacation

Linking up with:


to tell about how I spent my Vacation!
I actually just pulled this post from my other blog "Team Darley", because it's all about our Christmas :)

We started out Christmas a week early this year! The weekend before Christmas we drove to Macon to my Mom's work because we heard Santa would be there to take some pictures.  Although, we'd already had Caycen's pictures taken with Santa at Bass Pro, we thought we would take advantage of getting more pictures with Santa that were closer up.  After we left my mom's store, we went to her house to do Christmas with my side of the family.  It was a little different this year because we usually drive from house to house seeing both sides of my family.  BUT we changed it up so that Chance and I wouldn’t have to do that with Caycen.  We ONLY went to my Mom’s house this year! It was so nice though because my Dad and Cheryl, my Granny and Papa, my sister, her husband and kids, my mom and stepdad were all there with us.  We had a little dinner then opened presents with everyone.  It was so nice to not have to travel around from house to house this year. 

Our signature kiss that you will see LOTS of :)

I was wondering if

Christmas Eve we went to church with Chance’s parents, which is a tradition for them, and then we went back to dinner at their house.  We had some crab stew and Shrimp Creole. It was delicious. We opened our pajamas and went home for the night.

Christmas morning we got up for Caycen’s very first Christmas! We videoed everything J  We took Caycen downstairs to see all of his gifts from Santa.  We opened his presents first, then Chance and I exchanged gifts.  We then gave the dogs their stockings from Santa.  Santa left them each a toy and a bone.  You would think they were the kids by how excited they both were! Then we opened our stockings too.  Caycen was so exhausted by then that he just passed out right in my arms and we opened the stockings while he slept. 

After we cleaned up a little and piddled around, we got ready and went over the Chance’s parents house… we actually went in our P.J.s and took a change of clothes with us for later! J  We had a big breakfast there, opened gifts, then just hung out.  Chance, Baby C, and I ended up taking a little nap in the back bedroom because we were all worn out.  After we woke up we watched a movie, ate dinner, then headed back home to the dogs. 

 

Overall, it was SUCH a wonderful Christmas! I couldn’t imagine a Christmas without Baby C there.  I know next year will be even more fun for him and us!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

I’m thinking up all of my New Year’s Resolutions that I’m going to make J I’ll post when I have completed my list…

Have a wonderful day!

-Aimes

A look at our Christmas Ornaments since Team Darley started 3 1/2 years ago...

When we got married on June 21, 2008

Our first Christmas 2008

Our first Christmas in our New Home 2009

Christmas 2010 (I was pregnant with Baby C)



This Christmas 2011 - with Baby C



Also from this year 2011 - a gift from our wonderful babysitter Stephanie

Baby's first X mas ornament - Also from Stephanie

Another Baby's first Xmas ornament from my mom... There's one more from his Nona, but I didn't get a picture of it.

a gift from Amanda

I made this also this year... I think I messed up because I don't think I was actually supposed to paint the leaves, just the feet... oh well whatever, it's still cute! :)

 ok... I'm really done now I promise! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!

Don't forget to look at my previous post so that you can get my NEW YEAR'S UNIT for FREE!!! EVERYONE who enters gets it :)



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New Year's Unit COME AND GET IT!

Wow, it's almost 2012!!! I'm super excited about what this next year has in store for me.

I'm so excited that I'm GIVING AWAY my New Year's Unit to EVERYONE who...

 becomes a follower on my blog AND does one of the following:

1. Posts about this Giveaway on their blog or facebook (leave link please)

2. Pins this giveaway on Pinterest

3. becomes a follower of my store on Teachers Pay Teachers

Please leave me a comment telling me that you are now following my blog AND whether you blogged, facebooked, pinned, or follow my store on Tpt. You can do this in one comment.  IMPORTANT: PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL so that I can send you the unit!!!

Enter now until January 2nd at 12:00 PM to get your free New Year's Unit!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

-Mrs. Darley

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Giveaway Winner

Hey Everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas Break so far!

The winner of the New Year's Unit Giveaway is:



Congratulations Mrs. S! I really hope that you enjoy this unit!!! Please give me any feedback you have!

Thank you to all that entered the contest! I will be sending you all a little something as well just for entering! :)

Have a wonderful break and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

-Mrs. Darley

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11 in 11 Linky Party

I'm linking up with Teeny Tiny Teachers and Miss Kindergarten for the 11 in 11 linky Party :)

 

11. Favorite movie you watched
Hmm... my favorite that I watched would probably have to be Bridesmaids, but honestly I haven't watched too many new movies :( 

10. Favorite TV series
My favorite TV series is a tie between Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives!!! I'm SO ADDICTED!

9. Favorite restaurantMy favorite restaurant is definitely Jalapenos, the mexican restaurant here in Savannah.  We love to go on Fridays for Happy Hour :)

8. Favorite new thing you tried
My favorite new thing I tried this year would definitely have to be sewing! I am super excited about learning more and more about this new hobby!

7. Favorite gift you received

My favorite gift is the gift of a child that I received from God! He is the BIGGEST BLESSING in my life!

6. Favorite thing you pinned
ooh this is a hard one! My favorite probably has to be this pin from J's everyday fashion blog. Her blog is absolutely AMAZING!!!! She has the exact style that is perfect for me :)

5. Favorite blog post

 From Cara Carrol at The First Grade Parade.  This post was so inspiring to me.  I think I would like to do a twist on this and do at least one random act of kindness a month or a week all year long.  I love the ideas she had as well.

 
4. Favorite accomplishment
Signing up for Teachers Pay Teachers and actually doing pretty well my first quarter on there.

My Store:



3. Favorite picture


This was at Thanksgiving and we've been doing this pose ever since I saw it on Pinterest!!! haha!

2. Favorite memory
The birth of my baby boy.

 

1. Goal for 2012
In the classroom... to make learning as fun as I possibly can!

In my everyday life... to make lots of new memories with Baby C and the hubby!

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New Year's Giveaway!



Hey Everyone! I hope you are enjoying your holidays! 2 days til Christmas :) This will be my first Christmas with Baby C! We are super excited about it.  Though we didn't get him too much, since he's only 6 months old, it will be a lot of fun!

 

haha, he looks SOOO chunky here!

Well after Christmas is NEW YEAR'S! So I am going to be doing a giveaway for my New Year's Unit that you can find on my Tpt store and my TN store.  Go check it out!

Here's how you can enter to win:

1. Become a follower of my blog (leave a comment saying you're a follower)

2.  Pin this post on pinterest (comment saying you pinned)

3. Post this giveaway on your blog or facebook (comment leaving the link where you posted)
4. Follow my Tpt store by going to this link and hitting follow (comment saying you're following on Tpt)

You can do all or one of these. Each comment is 1 entry to win, so you have 4 CHANCES TO WIN! Make sure you leave a seperate comment for each entry.
Enter by 12:00 Wednesday night, December 28th! I'm giving until a few days after Christmas so more people get a chance to enter. I will do a random number generator to pick the winner.
Please make sure to leave your email address so that I can contact you.

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Christmas Christmas Christmas!

It’s OFFICIALLY Christmas Break!!! You can’t tell I’m soooo excited can you?? I get to spend 2 full weeks with my little man:

Here are some fun pictures from our last week before Christmas break in my classroom.

The first day was Santa Day and we read “Santa’s Stuck” then made our Santa’s Stuck stories:

The funniest one was one of my little girl’s who wrote:
“Santa got stuck in the chimney because he ate way too many cookies this year.  The reindeer tried and tried to pull him out but he was just stuck. Finally Santa said this is ho ho horrible.  Finally Santa sneezed and he popped out of the chimney.  Now Santa can take all of the presents and Christmas is saved.”

Tuesday we had our Elf Day.  We read “How Santa Got His Job” and we applied for a job as an elf.

On Wednesday we had Grinch Day. We read “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and wrote how we would make a Grinch Grin.

On Thursday we had our Christmas Party.  We ate pizza and chips.  Then we did crafts in groups with the help of their WONDERFUL parents! In my previous post I had a whole different plan for our party and the groups that we were going to have… but after searching on my ADDICTION (AKA Pinterest) I just found too many great crafts that I wanted to do! So we had some great groups!

Group 1: We made snow globes for our parents as Christmas Gifts. The kids just picked out their ornament, we hot glued them to the jar top, then put water and glitter in the jars.  I actually let them put their own water and glitter in so some ended up with WAY too much glitter! But they were still cute!

 Group 2: We made reindeer faces with a red glitter nose on the kiddos’ pictures.  We did this last year, but we haven’t had a chance this year so far, so I thought it would be a fun activity for them.

Group 3: We did the Snow Globe craft and writing “If I lived in a snow globe”.  We used spray glitter and it turned out really cute!

Group 4: We made Christmas Cards for the kids in the Children’s hospital.  I found this picture on pinterest and used it as inspiration for the kids.  We cut a whole bunch of wrapping paper and let them go at it.  They had the sweetest little messages in them.  I plan on delivering the cards sometime next week.

 Friday was Polar Express Day and we got to come in our pajamas.  We had surprise package to the office for our class that morning and it was full of bells for my class and a note from Santa.  They were even still cold from the North Pole!!!! (FREEZER-if you want to do it with your class next year) It was so cute because they were sooo amazed that the bells and even the box were still cold from the North Pole.

We had a lot of fun this week, but the break is MUCH NEEDED!!!

I made these cute little reindeer for the lunch ladies and some of the office staff from the 2nd grade teachers.  I got this cute idea to make the Hershey's Reindeer from Pinterest OF COURSE! They all loved them! I also made a tag that said "Thank you for being such a "DEER" to us".

I just uploaded my New Year’s Mini Unit on TPT and TN if you want to check it out!!! Check back this week for a GIVEAWAY!!!

Have a great Christmas Break!!!

This is what happens when a student gets ahold of your camera:

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Fun Using our Snowman Centers

The countdown to Xmas break is winding down!!! 1 week to go!!!!! WOOHOOO! I hope everyone is getting ready and looking forward to the break as much as I am.  

Then we did Synonyms and Antonyms...

 We also worked on sorting words to make a sentence...

In math we have been doing time, so we made Snowman Clocks to practice telling time to the hour, half hour, then to 5 minutes.



Here is a preview into our week ahead:

Monday - Santa Day: We will be reading the story "Santa's Stuck"

then making these cute Santas with the writing prompt "If Santa Got Stuck In the Chimney..." from Cara's blog

We will watch a Santa Claus movie to go with our craft day.

Tuesday: Elf Day - We will read "How Santa Got His Job"

and then have the students fill out an elf application and create their elves. This is also from Cara's blog.

If time allows we will watch "Elf" while doing our writing.

Wednesday: Grinch Day - We will read the story "The Grinch" and create a Grinch with the writing prompt "I can make the Grinch smile by..." and this idea is from Deanna's blog.

Watch the Grinch if time allows during writing.

I also plan on giving them "Grinch Licked Candy Canes" (also from Cara's blog - yes I STALK her blog because she just has TONS of great ideas!!!!)

Thursday: Class party - we will be having stations during our party. 

Station 1: Gift for parents (snow globes using baby food jars, ornaments, water and glitter)
Station 2: Christmas Bingo
Station 3: Christmas Musical Chairs
Station 4: Cards Station (students will create cards for the kids in the children's hospital)

At the end of the party students will open up their x-mas gift from me which is the book "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas".

Friday: Polar Express Day! We will come in our P.J.s to watch the Polar Express!!! Before we start watching I am having the office call down to our classroom to tell us that we have a package delivered to us from the North Pole.  I will send two students to go pick up the package.  Inside the package there will be a note from Santa to the class and bells.  The bells will be cold because I plan on putting the package in the freezer until I take it to the office. I'm so excited about this because I really think the kids will be shocked when they feel how the bells are cold and all.

We will be drinking hot chocolate and laying blankets out on the floor to watch the movie. 

We will also be making a Polar Express Snazzy Snack using grahm crackers, MnMs, and whipped cream.

Found on this blog:

At the end of the day we will be doing a major cleaning to the room since we will be gone a whole 2 1/2 weeks!!!!! YAY!

I'm super excited for this week, but I think I'm even more excited for it to be over so that I can spend some QUALITY time with my boys (the hubby and Baby C). 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!! Oh and check back later this week for a New Year's Unit Giveaway!!! :)

-Mrs. Darley

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HUMP DAY GIVEAWAY WINNER!

Thank you to all of you who entered the giveaway!!! It really means so much to me that you all loved my centers! The winner of the giveaway is...

Kylie, you will be recieving both my Christmas Math and Literacy Centers and my Snowman Math and Literacy Centers.

BUT, because this is my FIRST giveaway, I am going to send each of you my Snowman Math and Literacy Centers for FREE!!! Thank you girls for entering the giveaway! All I ask is that you give me feedback on the centers letting me know how you like them and spread the word about my Tpt store.

Thanks again girls! I will be emailing each of you if you left your email address!

Have a wonderful night! :)

~Mrs. Darley

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