Happy (Almost) 2014!

I am so excited for 2014!

2013 was a little bit of a tough year for me and my family (if I'm being honest...) But amidst the tough times, we had some wonderful times too! I'm joining Kristin, Hadar, and Traci for 13 in 13. Here are 13 of my favorite memories from 2013 (there's a little school and a lot of personal stuff here!) 

 1. I presented at the San Diego CUE conference with a dear teaching friend and partner! We are looking forward to presenting at the CUE in Palm Springs in March, too! 

2. I "just went for it" with some things at school. Here we are Mystery Skyping with Kate from Purely Paperless's class! With a Mystery Skype, you connect with another class and ask questions to figure out where the other class is in the nation (or even world)! My kids had so much fun with this!!! And Kate's class even showed us how their playground was covered in snow! 

3. The weather! This is what we've been "dealing with" in Southern California ;-) 

4. Colleagues have become more than just "people I work with"- these are amazing friends that I love dearly. 

5. This is not one of my favorite moments at all, but I just feel like I need to put it in here. We had to say goodbye to our sweet Abby girl just shy of her 14th birthday as we helped her to the Rainbow Bridge. My heart still aches and I miss her so much everyday. 

6. These two have kept me entertained...

Thank goodness for pets to help get us through the tougher days........ 

7. My mom continues to be an angel! She comes in to school once a week to work with my kiddos and help me out! 

8. We took an amazing cruise to Alaska this summer! If you ever get the chance to go, GO!!!!

9. We celebrated my grandpa's 91st birthday this year!

10. And spending time with family is always the best! 

11. I told my class I'm expecting...

12. And on Christmas we found out... 

13. My word for 2014 is LOVE. 

And just for fun... 

I hope you are enjoying these last few hours of 2013 with family and friends! 

Here's to all of the WONDERFUL 2014 will bring! 

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Currently & SALE Time!!!

I CAN'T believe it's already December!!!!!!! I also can't believe I haven't done a Currently in MONTHS! 

Here's what I'm up to....

LISTENING- I always think it's funny when security system people come to our door trying to sell us a fancy schmancy security system for the house as the dogs are barking their heads off at him.... I mean, they're vicious.... 

LOVING- Yipeeeee! Only fourteen school days until Christmas break! That's only, like, 91 hours. ;-) But who's counting...?

THINKING- If you didn't know (!?!?????) TPT is having a SALE! I'm stocking up!!!!!!!! 

WANTING- I have a date with my best teaching buddies to hit up Fuddruckers for a burger and milk shake later this week. Yum!!! 

NEEDING- Our class got a beta fish today.... I've got my fingers crossed he makes it through the night... When I transferred him to his new bowl today with "purified" water he started to move really slowly... I really don't want to get to school in the morning and find a floating fish... Fingers crossed! 

TRADITION- We always watch Christmas Vacation with the family over break. It never gets old! What's your favorite Christmas movie...???

Happy TPT shopping and counting down to Christmas break! :)

Now head on over to Farley's to see what everyone else it up to! 

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Take Me Back Tuesday and Elf Ideas!!!

It's been WAAAAYYYYY toooooo looooong! Eeeeek! 

As life would have it, priorities shifted for a while, and this poor little blog got neglected and forgotten. But (hopefully) I'm back in business. If nothing else, I've still been reading blogs and enjoying all of your classroom happenings and ideas! 

It feels good to be back ;-) 

Today I'm linking up with Hope at Second Grade Shenanigans and Tabitha at FlapJack Educational Resources for some fun linkys!!!!!  

&

These are two posts from last December when our elf Sparkles visited! Are you doing Elf on a Shelf in your classroom....?

I always post our elf's shenanigans on my Instagram account @soaring_through_2nd! Make sure to hash tag
#elfintheclassroom if your elf is on Instagram too!!! 
:) 
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We've had so much fun with our elf, Sparkles! Check out some of the silly stuff she's gotten into!

She arrived in our homework chart! 

Messing with the alphabet chart! 

Playing with our free choice Friday tubs! 

Elf hunting before school! (Cutest picture EVER!) 

Someone "accidentally" touched Sparkles and she lost her magic. Luckily we were able to email Santa and he responded. The next day, he sent us some "magic" dust to sprinkle on her so she would get her magic back...

Marshmallow fight with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head! 

Taking a little break in the tissue box. 

She switched all of our math racers around- we all had someone else's rather than our own...

She replaced our class picture with a picture of her and her best friend "Elfis" from the classroom next door. They're BFFs. 

Rollin' around in the hamster ball...

Then she got into the glitter...in hindsight, not the best idea....

Over the weekend, the kids thought it would be a brilliant idea to time lapse her overnight to see how she moves!!! Check out what we found on Monday morning...

(You can see her in the beginning on the table with the huge mess glitter.)

I wonder what she'll get into next... 

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Friday was SUCH a fun day at school (and it didn't hurt that I was soooo looking forward to our two week vacation!!! :) We said goodbye to our class elf. She was really fun to have around throughout December. I'm not sure who will miss her more- me or the kids. 

She decorated our SMART board with Christmas lights and put Christmas music on our iTunes! {I'd like to think the small, temporary power outage in our wing did not have anything to do with this... }

Gone finishing! 

She changed ALL of our screen savers....even on the SMART board!

The kids brought her lots of goodies and treats...

We think she was scooting over to reach them when she fell...

She laid there, face down in the dust bunnies, all day long- so sad...

But don't worry- she got back up and enjoyed her treats that night with her BFF next door-

On her last day with us she brought us a beautiful tree, candy canes, and homework passes! (From Tara at 4th Grade Frolics!) 

She also decorated our tables! 

Love the wrapping paper as table runners- found this idea on Pinterest! 

During her stay, she even hacked into our class blog! Check out some of the funny comments she left...

 I know what we'll be working on when we get back.... question marks at the end of questions!!!

And we made gingerbread houses! I used Amy's Gingerbread House pack during the week, and the kids and parents had such a blast building their own gingerbread houses! Check it out!

I'm pretty sure not one of my kids ate dinner that night- I told them three pieces of candy and I'm pretty positive no one followed that rule...they literally had the shakes from all the sugar! I even had pictures of kids licking their hands and arms (like cats) that were covered in frosting. We had such a fun time, and now I'm ready to relax and enjoy the holidays with my family and friends!

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to you!!! 

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Happy Thanksgiving friends!!!!! 

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