First Grade Field Trip to the Zoo

We're back to reality after a really fun Fall Break.  I took the day off to help chaperone the first grade field trip to our local zoo the Friday before Fall break.  Leo was THRILLED.  We used to have a Mesker Park Zoo pass, but haven't had one in a couple of years.

Leo couldn't wait to ride the bus with his buddies and meet me there.  Tons of parents came so I was glad to be in mom mode with him for the day.  He was SO excited when he class walked in and he spotted me in the crowd.  I hurried over to him and asked which friends he wanted to explore the zoo with.  He said - just you!  I'm so glad to spend the day with just you!  Sweet boy.

We explored on our own for a bit waving hello to friends we saw.  Then we met up with some of his buddies and their moms.  The boys ran from animal to animal and the moms did our best to keep up.  Leo loves maps so he enjoyed navigating our way through the zoo.

Alligator.

Axolotl.

Sticky lizard.

Porcupine.

Otters.

Monkeys.

It was a HOT day at the zoo!  We had so much fun together!  I'm thankful for a great kindergarten assistant that teaches for me when I'm out and great admin that make it easy to be a good mom and a good teacher.  I loved seeing all of my former kindergarten families, students and Leo's friends at the zoo.  We ended up renewing our pass so we could go again and again this year.

We zoomed home to get all packed up for Fall Break!  Peanut kept trying to pack himself in our luggage.  We got an early start on our Fall Break thanks to me being off for the day.  Hooray!

Happy Friday!

I hope you've had a great week!  We're wrapping up our last day of school before FALL BREAK!!  We can't wait for a fun week together.

The best parts of our week were:

1. Our city is hosting the world's largest street festival this week so we headed down to enjoy the Fall Fest.  We played some games, ate some fair food and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

2. My book club book for this month is The Calamity Club.  Have you read it?  I keep hearing mixed reviews - you'll love it, it starts slow, what a fun story, it wasn't my favorite.  I'm excited to jump into this 600+ page book.  Although I didn't realize it was 600 pages when I said yes to the book.

3. A Fall carry in lunch at school.  All the dips and the most delicious apple pie I've ever tasted. I have got to take some apple pie lessons from this teacher.

4. Hand picked flowers for mom will always be a highlight for me.

5. I added this Cheesecake Factory brown bread to my grocery delivery order and we loved it!  I promptly bought a couple more loaves to keep in my freezer.

6. Kevin took the day off to go to a field trip with Fletcher.  They went to Angel Mounds for their special Native American days.  It was a great day for both of them!

7. Sams has the best toy options for friend birthday gifts.  Leo picked this out for a classmate and then we made her a keychain for her backpack.

8. Simple and sweet teacher gifts.  We picked out Fall notepads for Fletcher's teachers and I added an Amazon gift card to thank them for going above and beyond to make 5th grade so fun.

9. We filled our class compliment jar!!  The kids worked hard to earn all of those compliments from other teachers in the building.

10. Bookclub dinner date at Chuy's.  It was delicious and such a fun spot to sit and chat.

11. A family birthday with the yummiest homemade chocolate cake.

12. Peanut is growing quickly and cannot be left out of the action.  He helped me pack lunches, snuggles with Pumpkin and has found cozy spots to snooze all over the house.  He's about 6 months old and he is feeling right at home after 4 months at our house.

He is getting LONG.

I hope you have the best weekend!  See you back here later next week :)

Linking up with Momfessionals

Book Club Favorite Books

I'm coming to you today with some book club favorite books.  I have loved being in a book club with my neighbors.  We rotate who picks the book, plan a monthly dinner out to eat on a date that works for everyone and text about the books + neighborhood nonsense all month long.  Our dinners are heavy on the chatting and light on the books, but we always have a good book chat in person.

Some of us buy the books, some reserve it on Hoopla and sometimes we swap physical books mid month.  There is no pressure and that's my favorite thing.  If you had a crazy month and never read the book, we are all still thrilled to get together for a dinner out.

Our next book is The Calamity Club.  I had no idea it was 600+ pages so I was shocked when this massive book arrived in an Amazon box.  I need to get busy and read.  I have heard such mixed reviews about this book.  Have you read it?  Tell me what you thought of it in the comments.  I'm excited to see what it's all about.

Our last book - my pick - was The Burning Side.  I LOVED Sarah Damoff's debut novel The Bright Years and couldn't wait to read her next novel.  And that might be part of the problem because I did not love The Burning Side.  I think I set the bar pretty high for her next book.  I read reviews that said it was even better than her first book and it just wasn't for me.  The story line is compelling - a couple is on the brink of divorce when they lose everything in a fire.  Will the fire change the trajectory of their lives or will everything continue down the road to divorce??  The leading lady April was hard to connect with.  Her husband Leo wasn't a great communicator.  Actually neither of them were.  The side characters seemed more interesting than the main characters to me and I did not love the ending.  So if you are interested in Sarah Damoff, I'd highly recommend The Bright Years and maybe wait for her third novel to come out next.

I love tracking my books on Good Reads.  It's nice to have all the books I read for the year in one spot.  I'll do a little recap of my favorites.  I adore anything by Emily Henry.  Funny Story was a good one.  Local Woman Missing was scary, WILD and I still think about it today.

Remarkably Bright Creatures will be one of my favorite books of the year.  I know.  A book about an octopus.  Trust me.  It's more than that and you'll love it.  Follow up the book with watching the movie and you'll love them both equally.  You might just surprise yourself by crying over an octopus.  I did.

Theo of Golden.  Wow.  I'm going to say this one goes in my favorite books of all time category.  I adored Theo, adored his view on life and loved to see how much he impacted the community around him.  I think of Theo often.  I'm still in shock that this is the debut novel for Allen Levi.  His story of challenging himself to write a novel and then writing one like Theo of Golden on his first try is nothing short of amazing.  I'd recommend Theo of Golden to any adult.  You'll be better for reading it.

Again, I adored The Bright Years.  You should read it!

And then you get a glimpse at my mom read alouds - Mercy Watson & Hardy Boys.  My boys would recommend them to your kids.  Along with Elephant and Piggy, Dogman and Who Would Win books.

What have been your favorite books this year?  Have we read any of the same books?  Let me know in the comments!

Friend Birthday Gift Ideas

We are in a season where we go to a lot of kid birthday parties.  It can get expensive!  

We have figured out a formula for gifts that won't break the bank.

If it's a classmate or a casual friend, we try to stick to a budget of around $15.

If it's a best friend or a long time friend, we shoot for $25.

The kids LOVE to shop for their friends.  They will stroll around a store or scroll through Amazon to find the perfect gift for their buddies.  Not all kids open gifts at their parties, but my kids really enjoy when they do.  It's so fun to see their friends get excited about the gifts they give.

Fletcher is ten and a fun gift for ten year olds is $15 in cash + a couple of fun candies to try.  Or if he knows the friend well, he enjoys personalizing the gift - a mini basketball hoop for the friend that loves basketball or a fresh set of art markers and coloring books for the art loving friend.

Leo is six and he loves to give crafts, toys, oversized stuffed animals, etc.

Sams has some really good toys for $15-20. We recently purchased this set of Play-Doh foam for $15 at Sams.  It went to an artsy little girl in his class and then we worked together to make her a personalized key chain with her name on it.  The key chain looked so cute on her gift and was a big hit immediately at the party.

Right now Sams has a couple of versions of this set, bath toys, sticker sets and some really awesome books.  I'm going to stock up to have some things in my kid birthday stash for those last minute invitations.  I love when we have a couple weeks notice for a party so that we can shop on Amazon, craft for that friend and enjoy shopping for them.  But we can pull it together faster with a quick stop in Sams.

I always have the kids write cards to their friends.  I love seeing them write something sweet on the inside.  I really like playing with you.  You are awesome at football.  Thanks for being such a good friend to me.  You get the idea.  Have your kids write one nice thing/one compliment to their friend in their card and it'll be precious.

We buy our cards in bulk at Dollar Tree or sometimes the kids will make their own cards.  Olive enjoys making cards for her friends personalized with their latest inside jokes.

I hope you feel motivated to enjoy shopping for your kid's friends and making gift giving fun!

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday and Happy October!  I love Fall so much.  The best parts of our week were:

1. Thank you coffee!  Our administration treated us to a coffee delivery to thank us for all the extra things happening at school last week.  They sent us an order form and gave us a delivery time and date.  It was wonderful!  I'll take an iced coffee delivery every morning, please.

2. Olive loves all things Peanuts so I knew she'd love this Snoopy Halloween sweatshirt.  All the Snoopy stuff at TJs and Marshalls is so much more affordable than other stores.

3. Quarterly BFF dinner date!  We celebrated some birthdays and got caught up on life.

4. The Chicken Critter Salad from Texas Roadhouse is my favorite salad ever.

5. Turtle Ice cream pie by the slice is the perfect treat.

6. My bookclub book for October is The Burning Side.  I LOVED her first book The Bright Years and this one was just fine.  Good characters.  Interesting story line.  But I didn't love the way everythign wrapped up.  It's a solid read.  I would just have written the ending differently.

7. Rainbow clouds!  We parked at school and found a glowing rainbow cloud greeting us.

8. Leo outgrew his shoes overnight so I took him shoe shopping.  By himself.  He was thrilled.  And of course he put on the shoes, walked in them and then ran down the aisles of Shoe Carnival to make sure they'd be fast enough.  Long live slide on Nikes.  This time he requested matching Nike swoosh socks.  6 going on 16.

9. Leo has had a lot of friend birthday parties to go to lately.  The most recent was to a friend's family orchard to a fall day of fun.  The little girl gave pumpkin favors.  It was precious.  The perfect Midwest Fall birthday party.

10. My favorite fisherman!  I headed over to the lake to hang out with my favorite fisherman.  He loved the company and was happy to show me his fishing skills.

I hope you have a great weekend!  See you back here on Monday.

Linking up with Momfessionals