Five for Friday: July 31st Edition

Hi friends!  It's Friday and you know what that means...linky party with Doodle Bugs Teaching!  Here are my top five from this week...

1. I just got home from two back to back vacations!  Vacation #1 was in Tampa...long story short I was supposed to go to Texas with my inlaws to introduce my husband's family to our girls but before we left Ben's grandmother passed away.  So instead of Texas we all went to Tampa for her funeral and as sad as it was, it was also wonderful family time.  The day after I got back from Tampa I headed to the beach with the babies to hang out with my parents for a few days!  You can read about my vacations here on my family blog.  

2. My hair seems to finally be growing!  My hair was getting pretty long and my girls had started grabbing at things (mainly my hair) so at the end of June I got it cut.  I told the girl shoulder length, kind of like a long bob...she must've not heard the shoulder part because it was chin length.  I can finally pull it back into a pony tail meaning it's growing out!

3.  I have two weeks of summer vacation left but school is already starting to take over my brain.  I am already thinking about how I want to set up my room next year, what I need to make/buy, needing to go to Ikea, making my pins on my Pinterest boards become a reality, getting some more items up on my TpT store.  My brain is going full blast!  I am sure my fellow teachers know what I mean!  I am hoping to remember to buy a notebook at Target today so I can start writing all of this stuff down and hopefully free up some brain space.

4.  Teacher T-Shirts...have you seen these before?! A few teachers last year had some of her shirts and I really wanted a first grade one and I finally ordered one yesterday!  And I ended up getting not one but two!  Check them out...she has a ton of super cute shirts!

The black one says "I <3 My First Graders" and the blue one says "Kindergarten is SO last year...First Grade Rocks!"

5.  I'm excited to take part in the TpT Back to School sale that's happening August 3rd-4th!  This will be my first sale so if you've wishlisted anything, make sure to grab it then!  Everything is 20% off in my store.  I am working really hard on getting my newest product up by then!  I'm working on some writing journal prompts for whole class writing.  These prompts can be glued onto a notebook or be made into a notebook with paper.  I set out two a month for students to write in and when the month is over, I put the notebooks in our classroom library for the students to read the rest of the year.  They love them!  This year I'm cutesifying them in hopes that someone else would like them (and pay a few bucks for them haha!)

Cover under construction for my newest product.

Peek at some of my writing prompts!

That's it!  My Five for Friday!  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out my store during the TpT Back to School Sale!

Five for Friday!

Happy Friday friends!  I'm back to link up with Doodle Bugs for her Five for Friday post!

1. Celebrating my daddy's birthday!  His birthday was Wednesday and we met my parents in Annapolis for dinner at the Bonefish Grill...so good!  I had never been there before and my friend had recommended to me the Bang Bang Shrimp as an appetizer.  That. was. DELICIOUS!  Definitely get it if you go.  Ben wasn't able to go because of work but my brother met me at our house and we rode to dinner in our new minivan!!!  Which brings me to #2...

2. Our new minivan!  Since finding out we were having twins, Ben and I knew that we would have to get a bigger vehicle eventually.  He has a 2 door Acura RSX (sporty looking car) and I have a 4 door Honda Civic...neither one is a good sized car for four people and a dog!  For awhile we were going back and forth between a small SUV, like a CR-V or a minivan and I finally decided on the minivan.  I've never wanted a minivan but have decided to embrace it and it's pretty nice!  This past weekend we found a 2013 Toyota Sienna that we liked, went to look at it, and bought it!  We said goodbye to my car, Ruby, and hello to the minivan!  Name is still pending...

3. I had my first TpT sale last Friday!  I was so excited to get the email!  (Never mind that I made 90 cents...a sale is a sale!)

4.  I don't really call this a favorite but it is a check off of my Summer To-Do list.  I took Riley to the vet yesterday for her yearly shots.  I had to get them in ASAP because we are anticipating a trip to see family in the near future and I need her up-to-date to be able to board her.  I was planning on taking her on a weekend so Ben could watch the girls but I needed to reschedule her appointment so I had to figure out how to take her and two babies into the vet's office.  So I tried out our TwinGo Carrier!  I've used it a few times before but the awesome thing about this carrier is that it can be worn as two front carriers, two back carriers, or you can snap them together and wear two babies at once!  I've used them as front carriers before but Thursday was the first time I used them as a double carrier.

5.  My last one does not qualify as a favorite but as an unfavorite.  I mentioned on Wednesday that Ben's grandma isn't doing well.  She lives in Texas and his dad was able to get there on Wednesday so all of her kids are with her.  We are in the process of making plans to travel to Texas soon to be with family.  So please keep her in your prayers, that she is at peace and as pain-free as possible.  And also for us as we plan to travel by plane with two babies for the first time.  Thank you!

Happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

Five for Friday: July 10th Edition

Hello everyone!  Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching's linky party, Five for Friday!

1. I have another product added to my TpT store!  This is a favorite with my first graders and is also great for enriching kindergarteners and reaching lower second graders.  Click here to check it out!

2.  My family celebrated my mom's birthday by ordering a half bushel of steamed crabs!  If you're from Maryland, then you know how amazing these are.  I love me some crabs!

3. My girls had their 4 month professional pictures done!  Look how cute they are!  I have to pick 25 images to keep out of 52...how am I ever going to decide?

4.  (I am hoping this works) Here's a video of my baby girl laughing and squealing!  This was the first time she has laughed so long and it is so darn precious!

5.  Today, the love of my life and I celebrate 5 years of marriage!  There's no one I'd rather do life with than this guy.  He's an amazing husband to me and awesome father to our little girls.  If you want to read some more and see some pictures of us from way back when, check out my family blog at The Alvarez Family

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend and enjoy it...summer is flying by too quickly!

Five for Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party!  It's a party where you post five random things from this past week on your blog.  Don't forget to check out Doodlebugs Teaching for more posts!

1. I have loved spending my first week of summer with my two precious babies and my puppy!  We are going to have a lot of fun this summer....just look at those faces!

2. Speaking of my girls, they went to the doctor yesterday for their 4 month appointment and they did FABULOUS!  I'm always a little nervous taking them because there's a little part of me that is worried they will find something wrong and send us to the ER like they did with their first appointment at 4 days old (they had hypothermia but everything turned out just fine!).  Both girls are right around 11 lbs and 23 inches long!

3. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning has been our activity of choice this week...and I only got the downstairs done!  As all teachers know, our house got SEVERELY neglected the last two weeks of school and it is time to get it back in shape.  I am finding that it takes a lot longer to clean since I have to do it when they're napping and with two, it's hard to get them both to nap at the same time!

4.  I have been working on getting my Teachers Pay Teachers store up and running!  Again, it's been a slow process but I am hoping that I will be able to post my first freebie later today or over the weekend.  I'm excited to start posting some things and hopefully people will like them!

5. I've also been working on getting my new blog up and running...slow but steady wins the race, right?

Thanks for stopping by!  Please come back as I'll be starting to put more things up here.  Happy Friday!

~The Terrapin Teacher