Ahoy Matey's!

It is hard to believe I have been back to school a week. It has been soooo busy. We start the day at 9 and go full steam ahead until 4:15. My class has been great so far and we are starting to see personalities come out. They are all really hard workers, which is number 1 in my book. I think will be the year of the early bedtime for me. I am finding most nights I am ready to crash by 9:30. I guess that is what happens when you start getting older and have a 5:30 wake up time!

Now onto some fun stuff! Back in July(yes I am still that behind) we went down to the river for a Riverboat Cruise. Every Friday afternoon they have a pirate cruise for kids. As we made our way down to the boat, we were greeted by pirates. The kids received their pirate hats and patches. Once we were on board, we explored for a little bit and the got settled in for the cruise. They had face painting, sword fights, pirate parades. They also had to swab the deck and walk the plank in order to get their treasure (an ice cream sandwich). We arrived safely back on shore and said our farewells to all the pirates on board!

Two Little Pirates

Checking out the treasure map

Face Painting With The Pirates

Sword Fighting

Walking the Plank

Fair Fun

I am officially back to school. Today was my first day with kids, and I had forgotten how tired you are the first few days back. This class is an exciting class, that will keep me on my toes. I have the cutest little girl who just lights up with joy when I tell her what we are going to do next. She will be my go to girl when I am having a bad day. There is no way you can look at her smile and not turn your mood around! I did remember to take pictures of my classroom but I haven't had a chance to take them off my camera, so those will come later.

So lets move on to the fair fun(before I fall asleep). I always take Logan to the fair in my town. Of course we are always blessed with 100 plus temperatures for the fair! We sweated it out and had so much fun. Logan always thinks it is funny when former students come up to give me hugs and talk. We love eating some panther burgers and fries( the panther burger is really just a deluxe hamburger served by my school district, our mascot is a panther). Nothing really says summer around here than the county fair.

Logan really enjoyed getting up close to the horse

Is this Alpaca not the cutest thing?

Logan's favorite thing to do is climb on the tractors

Riding the rides

On the way out of the fair we saw some sheep so Logan had to stop to pet them.

Friday

Usually I am happy to see Friday come, today not so much. Today is my last day of summer vacation, starting Monday I am back to work. Well I have been working for the past two weeks, but Monday it is official, as in I have to work a certain amount of hours instead of setting my own. I always have so many mixed emotions this time of year. I am excited to start a new school year, but sad that my summer fun is over. I can't wait for the challenge of co-teaching but I am wondering how it is going to work when my partner is out on maternity leave for eight weeks. Time will tell and I'm sure it will work out great!

Now on to another fun Friday. Mid-July, I found that the Cincinnati Museum center was offering free admission on a Friday. I thought this would be a great opportunity to visit the musuem center. Well, so did tons of other people. I will give credit to the museum that they were very organized and we got through the ticket line super quick. The kids had a great time exploring and the only thing we lost was the stroller. We took a cheap stroller, luckily because when we came back to the stroller parking it was gone!

They have so much for kids to do. The kids loved the water tables and the pretend play area. It was worth putting up with the large crowds to take part in this promotion.

AHA

Back at the end of June, I took Madison to a small childrens museum in Lancaster.  She had a great time exploring. It was so much fun to watch her in the dress up area, she was such a ham. I was a little worried at first when we got there, because there was a school group there and they were everywhere. Also the water tables were broken, which is a major part of the museum. We were so lucky because the school group left and they were able to fix the water table. YAY! After enjoying a few hours there, we went and had lunch and headed back home.

Doing a little fishing

Playing in the sand

Ready to put out a fire

Putting on a show

She loved the water table.

Ready to leave after a day of fun

Fire In The Sky

We had a great time celebrating the 4th of July (on the 3rd) this year. I read that my YMCA was having a community picnic with tons of activities. They had swimming, games, inflatables, and homemade ice cream. The evening ended with watching the fireworks on the hill. We had so much fun doing all the activities and watching the fireworks display.

On another note the Back to School countdown has begun. 2 weeks from today I will be meeting all my new little friends and starting our year together. I am excited and sad and slightly overwhelmed, but I know it will all get done, it does every year.

Swimming in the pool

Hanging out in the pool

Bouncing in the inflatables

Enjoying homemade ice cream

Playing with glow sticks

The fireworks display

We Are Family

We ended June with our annual family reunion. It is always fun to see family, especially those that venture north from Georgia. Luckily my aunts house still had electric and water which was a good thing because most of the county was without due to a big storm the day before. We enjoyed lots of good food and fun. The kids had fun playing in pool and on the inflatable waterslide. They also enjoyed a visit from one of my aunts German Shepards, who loves to play in the water. It was a great way to end the month!

Ready for a swim

Madison found a buddy to hang on to

Cannonball!

Heading down the slide

This dog loves chasing water from the water guns

Enjoying some of the food after the swm

Solving the worlds problems

Ending the evening on the porch swing

Wordless Wednesday-Splash