Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!  It's almost Spring Break and we are all ready for it!  The best parts of our week were:

1. We had so much fun with all the St. Patrick's Day things!  It was Pumpkin's first St. Patrick's Day and he looked the part.

We wake up every day to Pumpkin getting fluffier.  It's hilarious.  He's 90% poof and so handsome.

2. We had a blast in kindergarten making rainbows, graphing Lucky Charms and playing leprechaun games.

3. We collect Irish nutcrackers so I was excited to find this one.  I'll put him away for Christmas to add to our Notre Dame nutcracker collection.

4. Rainbow jello!  Once I year I spend a whole afternoon making rainbow jello. It's so pretty, so yummy and we've been enjoying it all week.  None of us love jello, but this is somehow the yummiest treat.

5. We made rainbow treat cups for our neighbors.  The kids helped and then we delivered them.

6. And a lucky lunch!

7. From Spring to Fall I try to keep s'mores ingredients well stocked.  We broke out the smore's station last weekend.  The kids loved toasting marshmallows for all of us and there was just one flaming hot flying marshmallow incident.

8. We have yet to get over Leo losing his first tooth!  I keep doing a double take at his new smile.

9. Leo had a blast celebrating the birthday of one of his school buddies.

10. We hosted Fletcher's buddies for an early birthday sleepover.  His birthday falls on Spring Break so we opted to celebrate early when all of his friends could make it.  They had the best time and we quickly learned that having a house full of girls is very different than a house full of boys.  hahaha.

11. Olive + her favorite boys.

I hope you have the best weekend!  We're off on Spring Break.  I'll check in sometime later next week :)

Linking up with Momfessionals

Kindergarten Class Rewards

I've done some fun things this year that have been really great kindergarten class rewards.  They are all positive and easy to prep.  Our principal does positive phone calls home for kids.  I submit kids every quarter for him to call.  

Let me tell you about the things I do in my classroom that are inexpensive and really motivating.

1. I made some Quiet Critters this year!  I ordered a mix of sparkly and regular pom poms.  Hot glued my heart out and made some really cute critters.  The kids earn them by being on task, working quietly or doing an extra great job on their work.  They lose them if they get too loud or if the class gets too loud.  I pass them out all day and sometimes they get returned.  The exciting thing is that there is no limit to how many you can earn and if you lose one, you have the chance to earn one back.  I like that I can catch the kids doing the right thing and reinforce their good behavior.  The kids love collecting them!

2. We work hard to earn class compliments from other adults in the building.  When we get 15, I plan a reward party.  We have done everything from PJ day, silly sock day, game day and a pie party.  We sampled 4 kids of pie and the kids got to vote for their favorite.  The parents are my school are always so supportive so I asked four parents to donate each kind of pie.

3. Reserve a fun space at your school!  We have a hammock garden that my class loves to use as a class reward.  It's free and fun.  I just have to reserve it for our class.  The kids usually bring out a little stack of books to read in their hammocks.

4. Ask the kids what they want to do for their class reward!  When I asked my class I was surprised that they picked art.  We did a painting project for our polar bear research and they all decided they wanted to work hard to paint more.  We earned 15 class compliments and had a water color paint party.  It was free for me since I used art supplies when already had at school.

5. I also have a class treasure box that I use in Q3 and Q4.  I ask families to donate small toys/trinkets that they are done with at school.  My families are very generious and are eager to help with class incentives.  I'm really thankful for that partnership.  The kids love seeing new donations come in for the treasure box.  If they bring them in, they get to refill the treasure box.

Teacher friends or parents, what kind of incentives do your kids love working to earn?

First Tooth

Leo surprised us this weekend by losing his first tooth!  And it's a top one!

We have been on wiggly tooth watch since Kindergarten started back in August.  Just in the last couple of weeks did his teeth start to get wiggly.  He called me over to him on Friday night and handed me his wiggly tooth.  We were so excited for him.  I was ready with a tooth fairy pillow.  That is something I never got around to doing with the other two kids.  Whoops!

Leo loved it.  He woke up bright and early the next morning to see if the tooth fairy came.

He went to a birthday party this weekend and his friends were so excited to see he'd lost a tooth.  It really is such a big deal in kindergarten.  He can't wait to show off his new tooth gap to his buddies at school today.

Big milestone for our littlest guy!

Happy Fri-YAY!

Happy Friday!  Our week took some unexpected turns - sick days and extra home days.  I always feel like it's hard to take a sick day especially when you have to do so much planning to be gone.  But we made it work and it was good to be home with Fletcher for a couple of days.  Thank goodness for a great assistant and a supportive team.

1. Date night!  I helped Kevin with a bunch of things at work in preparation for a really important week at work.  Everything went well for his team and we got to enjoy pizza at our favorite spot - Turonis.  We even tried a new app - Jalapeno Poppers.  They were just a little spicy and so cheesey.

2. New date night tradition?  We always end up doing something practical to finish up our date nights.  Sometimes it's a Sams, Target or Meijer run.  This time it was a stop in at CVS.  I picked out a new lipstick for Spring.  It's so pretty.  I like the tradition of picking out a new beauty item on our date nights!  I smiled every time I wore this lipstck this week.

3. Teachers!  Dollar Tree has these Primary journals for just $1.25.  It's a great deal this time of year.  I grabbed one for me and one for my teammates.

4. I hit the Spring jackpot at Marshalls this week!  I found several pretty things.  I've already worn two of them.  The pants and the button down cardigan for some important school meetings.

5. My Easter wreath got a refresh with some new flower stems from Dollar tree!

6. We hosted Olive's friends for a sleepover.  No big occassion, just a fun sleepover.  She put together a candy snackle box and grabbed some lip balm dupes she found at Dollar Tree.  You can read all about our favorite snackle boxes here.

She asked me to make a pasta bar for her friends.  Say less.  I'm happy to cook for her friends.  I did two kinds of pasta, meatballs, roasted broccoli and garlic bread.

I hit the easy button on the sleepover breakfast since it was spring forward Sunday.  The girls loved the cereal bar and I loved the easy prep/clean up.

7. Mr Mittens would like for you to know that his fur has almost completely grown back from his surgery in January.  He's been more lovey, more social and appreciative for his new lease on life.

8. First bike ride of the season!

9. Fletcher had a couple of extra days at home due to sickness.  The sunshine and fresh air of afternoons on the patio were good for both of us.

No one enjoys collecting things and hunting for treasures more than Fletcher.  He's started a new colletion - finding hub caps near our property.  These are his first two.

10. Olive loves a count down.  It makes me smile to see this one.

11. I got to be on the hiring team for a spot in kindergarten.  Our new teammate baked for us!

12. I finally found the perfect rug for our bathroom!  It's taken me years and years.  This pretty rug is the perfect colors to match our dark gray cabinets and it isn't too girly.  Kevin loves it and so do I.

13. Bonus days at home mean bonus cat naps.  It's been ages since I got a nap so this was a treat!

14. A super important week at work!  Ties and jackets are my favorite.

15. Leo writing birthday cards to his friends and shopping for gifts he knows they will love is my favorite.  He's super excited to celebrate with this friend.

16. Another fun lip find came from Dollar Tree.  I sent this photo to Olive to let her know I loved my new lip gloss.  It's the perfect light gloss to keep at your desk. I can't wait to buy all the colors.

17. We're ending the week a little bit on the struggle bus with some fun plans ahead this weekend.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  See you back here next week.

Linking up with Momfessionals