awesome august

we concluded our summer vacations with, of course, a lake havasu trip. best part of this trip was that the lil' man overcame his fear of floating in the middle of the lake. he even jumped in the water and swam around with us. and one of the cutest things was his love of this little boat and trailer that grandma got him. he asked us to get it from grandma's house a couple of weeks earlier and i didn't think we would see her. naturally, i thought he would forget about it. the day of the trip he asked if we were packing the boat and trailer. i said no, we didn't get to grandma's house. he began to cry and truly wanted it. dad said let's stop by her house on the way out of town. thank goodness we did because he would not let this go all week. he wanted us to beach the boat so he could back the his little boat into the water with the trailer "just like dad". 

{maddie skiing in background.}

after returning from this trip i was back to work. my staff development week began and this was my classroom progress. if you look back at the july post you can see i was pretty much there. just a few details to finish. but i am super happy and so excited to start the year. 

{bulletin boards completed. number line printed and posted.}

{new alphabet.}

{reading nook next to library.}

{my library. still not complete. i need labels for each sorted bin.}

{the black bulletin board we painted.}

{book jacket banner over the library.}

{completed bulletin board in the library. this was the
original yellow cherry wall we painted last month.}

  

{i made this teacher toolbox from pinterest.}

{my son left me a little present.
he spelled this on his own while i was working.}

after a long week we headed to the beach. lil' man overcame another fear, boogie boarding. he just jumped on top of maddie and asked her for a ride. they did this a few times. then he was ready to try it on his own in the shallow waves. he had the best time. couldn't wipe the smile off his face. 

and then these 2. they have bonded so much this summer. reese is becoming less of a momma's boy and more of an i-want-to-go-with-daddy boy. yahoo! they love swimming and hanging out by the pool, running errands, and kicking the soccer ball around. maybe going back to work has it's advantages. 

that was our last weekend before i officially began work as a full time teacher after 11 years of job sharing. {sniff, sniff} going to miss being able to drop off & pick up my kiddos at school, volunteer in their classes, and get life done while they are in school. my first week back with most bulletin boards done, back to school night complete, and first day jitters gone. 

our 15 year wedding anniversary was right in the middle of my fist week back. and look what my sweet huz sent to work. beautiful, thoughtful, surprised, happy.

we decided to sneak away for a night to palm desert. had such a necessary time reconnecting with the man i married.

{pool time}

{yummy dinner & dessert}

{drinks at the club}

then soccer season began. this year both kids are playing. reese's first year! we were super nervous about this new adventure for him. but the fact that he loved kicking the ball and needed the interaction with his peers won out over our fears for him. jason decided to coach his team, which made it a little easier on him. and now i am so glad we did it. he is having a great time. he is learning not only how to play the game, but how to be a team player, and that he needs to really pay attention to things happening around him. both kids had great first games. maddie's team won 5-0. reese's team won 3-2. i was a bit bummed that day because both kids' games were at the exact same time on different fields. since j is his coach he went with reese, which meant i missed his very first game ever. {sniff, sniff} and i will miss the second game for the same reason. after that the rest of the season seems to be all good. 

{practice with the coach.}

{game on.}