Modify!!

WARNING: For any of you non-teacher readers out there, this may be a pretty boring post.  It promises no pictures, no funny stories, and not much entertainment value, except for the fact that every time I hear the word "modify" I now think of Mater's Tall Tales when he becomes a drifting racer in Tokyo...but again, that's entertaining for me and not really for you, especially if you haven't seen that short.....

Anyway, as I was chatting with my teacher pal today, she was talking about her class load for the fall and how she was worried about how she would modify it all, especially since we no longer work down the hall from each other, making it pretty difficult to bounce ideas off of each other or share materials.  She asked for some help, and while I'm certainly not the end-all-be-all of special ed modifications, I do sort of have a knack for it.  And I started thinking that it might be a good idea to put all of these ideas in one spot so that I (and anyone else who's interested) can come here and glance through them in case I feel stumped one day on how to modify something.  (Tee hee...MODIFY!!)

So, in no particular order.....

1.  Page Numbers - a simple way to adapt any worksheet is simply by putting the page number behind the question.  This guides students in the right direction and prevents them from looking at a page too far ahead or too far behind.  Plus, it's super easy to do, and easy to remove later on when/if the student no longer needs it.

 2. Add A Word Bank - Another easy modification is adding a word bank for the kids to choose from.  Be nice and don't add any words in there that don't belong because having words left over in a word bank can send some kids over the edge, and you're here to help, not make them go nuts!

3.  Dividing the Page - Sometimes kids don't have a problem with the content, they have a problem with the format.  Easy fix - divide the page into smaller sub-sections.  Draw boxes around different groups of problems, leave more white space, anything that is going to segment the work into smaller areas is likely to help!

4.  Divide the page and Add a Word Bank - Split the work into smaller sections and provide a word bank for each smaller section.  This prevents the kids from feeling overwhelmed by too many words AND too many problems all in one space.  Some people may think this makes it too easy for the kids, but trust me, there are still kids who will mix up problems, even if there ARE only three words for them to choose from instead of 15.

5.  Color Coding - Sometimes adding a word bank or dividing the page requires too much cutting and pasting (whether on the computer or in real life), or you don't have an original copy/file to do it with.  Solution?  Color coding!!!  Here you can highlight three or four problems in a color, then highlight those three or four answers in the same color.  This way kids can see that the pink words are answers for the pink problems and they know only to choose from those options.  Fast, easy, and effective, especially for kids who are drawn to color or are easily distracted from the boring black and white page.

6. Colored Pencil - Speaking of boring black and white.....ever try colored pencil to keep the kids on track?  Either by allowing them to use colored pencil to write the answers or by using the colored pencil to underline important words in the directions, some kids LOVE colored things and will pay way more attention to them than boring black and white.  I don't blame them....and I bet right about now you wish I would use colored text too!  It's also a great way to get kids to do math problems if they are forgetting to carry or add/borrow.  Have them write the numbers in different colors and do the first step in one color and the second step in another!

7.  Sentence Starters - Sometimes students struggle with writing prompts because they aren't sure where to start their sentences.  Enter the pre-made sentence starters!  Format a page specifically for your students who need more assistance with their writing and make it more of a guided format with sentence starters and lead-ins. 

8. Make it Cut and Paste - This works for lots of things:  I've made writing sections on a test cut and paste, review worksheets, even fill in the blanks.  Kids love cutting.  Kids love pasting.  And sometimes the tactile sensation of doing the cutting and pasting helps kids focus.  Try making a Venn diagram cut and paste for your strugglers!  The hardest part is knowing what phrases you used in class and getting those written out so the kids are familiar with the phrases they're using.  But it's way fun and a lot simpler for them than having to recall all of the info themselves.  The students still have to recall the details, but now they only have to recall the topic it talks about instead of the actual phrase to write down. 

9.  Either Ors - This modification sometimes works super well and sometimes it's more confusing than the regular way, but it's worth a try anyway.  At the end of the fill in the blank, offer two choices (an either or!) and the student just has to circle the word or phrase that fits in the blank.  He still has to know the answer, but doesn't have to write it, which sometimes is all it takes for the kid to not mind working a little!

10. Multiple Choice - Another easy modification - turn any worksheet into multiple choice.  Not too many choices, but maybe three, so they have to consider the possibilities but can still find their correct answer.  If a kid has a chance to narrow it down from a huge list of possibilities in the text to only three or four, it can help a great deal.

Of course providing highlighted texts for students is always a good place to start too.  This list just sort of assumes that you've got that one covered already.

Now this is by no means the end, but let's face it, I've been up since 5, did a workout DVD, took a 2 mile walk, chased after the kids, survived a no-rest quiet rest time, did a short ab workout, peeled 10 more pounds of peaches....and basically am ready to call it a day!  So be on the look out for 10 or so more modifications as time goes on and as they pop into my brain.

But, before I go...here's a good option for differentiating, even if it isn't modifying exactly:  At the end of a lesson, ask the students to put their heads down and cover their eyes, then ask for a "vote"  as I always called it.  (explain the choices first so they know what to expect)  Ask them to raise their hand if they feel nervous or uncertain about the lesson.  Then ask those who feel pretty ok about the lesson to raise their hands.  Then ask those who felt the lesson was easy and are really comfortable with it to raise their hands.  (I normally things like "raise your hand if today's lesson scared the boogers out of you" - third graders loved that sort of thing....but I may need to MODIFY (tee heehee) for 6th grade!! - or "raise your hand if today's lesson was super easy and you can't believe I had to teach it")  This gives me a chance to assess if I need to reteach the whole thing the next day or if just a few kids are struggling.  Normally I have three worksheets ready (mainly in math) one for the strugglers (that we'll most likely start together in a small group), one for the middle of the road kids (that they'll do on their own or with a buddy if I'm feeling nice), and one for the advanced kids (one that isn't just MORE work, but stuff that makes them think or need to APPLY the skill we learned).  As they raise their hands to let me know how they feel about it, I distribute worksheets accordingly.  Since their heads are down, no one knows which worksheet is the "easy" and which is the "hard" and no one can laugh or be mad.  And I can also gently say to the kid "I think you should try the harder one today, you did really well in class" or "let's start off slower today with the easier work."  It really helps the kids feel like I'm paying attention to their needs and the parents LOVE that their kid is getting work specially for them.

Now....to give in to these pre-school stress eating attacks or to stand strong and just go to bed.....that IS a tough question.....

Hodge Podge of Crafties...

I know, I know, I have loads of school stuff to be doing.  Let's not talk about that, because honestly sitting here knowing that my classroom isn't finished, that I have no key to get into the building, and that I just NOW got my new school email account up and running (which had emails in it since May, mind you, so I'm just a little behind here!), I'm pretty stressed out about the new school year.  I'm trying to take it a day at a time, a project at a time....but it's freaking me out!  I've worked some on my Writer's notebook, but it's not beautiful enough to post anything on here yet (will it ever be beautiful? probably not, but it WILL be finished...I'm halfway through, so that counts for something, right?), and instead of spending all my time working on school, I thought I'd take a little more time off and do some scrapbooking - crafts are good for the soul, yes?  (So is shopping, but let's not suggest that  I go do that!!!)

Here is a page I just finished about our wedding party. I had this idea that I wanted a long, sort of panoramic shot of the wedding party in the middle that was surrounded by single shots of them individually and with us.  I like how it turned out, but after the fact I thought it may have been more fun to use shots of us in college with them and then include little captions about them as individuals - like their favorite beer or a funny memory of them.  Anyways, there's always time to add that in the form of another page, right?

I hand-drew the frame around the big picture and purposely made it wavy, not only because I can't draw a straight line to save my life, but because I like how things look when they have squiggly lines all overlapped like that.  Then I added the brackets, because brackets are so "in" right now.  I printed out the title and the names and pasted them where they belonged.  Super simple, but I really like it.

 Here's a close up picture so you can admire my squiggly hand-drawn border....

Apparently I'm going through a "white background" phase, because here is another page I did recently.  It took a lot more time and thought than the previous layout, and I'm pretty sure it's just because it was a very specific picture I was using.  It's a page about losing my own dad very young and not having him around for the wedding, but being blessed with the best father-in-law in the world.  I think really highly of John, so I needed this layout to be perfect.  (My type-A personality coming out in full force.)

I normally dont use such tiny pictures when they are the only photo on a layout, but in this case, I did for two reasons:  I already had the 4x6 print, so it was totally free to use, and I thought the smaller picture lent itself to the closeness of the hug and the feeling I was trying to express in the journal.

"How's the kitchen coming?" you may ask.  Well, here is the test run for the chalkboard that will soon be taking the place of my boring all white cabinets.  John stopped by late last week and we did a few tests and then just threw the paint up there, so the job is pretty sloppy and the color isn't right (I promised Jonathan no more green in the house.....) but I love it so far.  It's a handy place to write quick lists and notes, and Ollie was super excited that maybe she could ALSO write on it some day.  Some day, baby.  Some day.

PEACHES!!!  Deb went up to Dave's Supermarket in Fairbury some time last week and got us loads of peaches since we couldn't financially swing a trip to Southern IL to get our own.  Needless to say, my whole house smells pretty great (much like heaven, I think!), and I've been spending a lot of free time peeling, slicing, and freezing these beauties so I can still eat my most favorite fruit even in the dregs of winter.  YAY!

 Yet another home project.....this time made out of a cereal box! I had pinned this a loong time ago on Pinterest and actually forgot about it, but I came across it last week some time and realized I had the perfect spot for it!  THis is the side of my scrapbook table that John promised we could attach shelves to (hasn't happened yet, but oh well!).  I had a small drawer thing that was supposed to be in Ollie's room under it, but it wasn't being well utilized and all of the papers were piling up everywhere.  So I cut a cereal box in half (the back is a little higher than the front) and covered it in a picture that I'd already had printed that used to hang in that very spot!  Anyway, it was super easy, amazingly cheap, and solved my problem!  I made 2 more as well and hung them lower to stash drawing paper for the kids and colored pencils that they can grab easily.  It made the side of the desk look way nicer than before, and all for ZERO dollars!!!  I'm finding places to add more of these around the house - like one for the dry erase boards and markers, maybe one for coupons....the possibilities are endless!  and when they get too junky, I'll just toss them and build a new one!

I wonder if I should work on writing shorter blog posts that focus on ONE thing instead of a million....but guess what, that's how my brain works! 50,000 different things all happening at once!  Now back to the school stuff.......EEEEEKKKK!!!!

Early Mornings Make Me Happy

As crazy as it seems, I love early mornings.  I'm not sure if I'm legitimately a morning person, or if I've just been conditioned to be this way after spending my childhood in a house where "sleeping late" on a Saturday meant 7:30am, but whatever the cause, here we are today: 6:22am typing a blog post in a quiet house, just me, the cat, and the hum of the computer.  It's peaceful.

When I first had Ollie, I was always struggling to fit a shower into my schedule.  It became a stressful fight to make her nap (especially when she got to be older and didn't want to nap) so that I could shower and take care of my vain hair-related needs (a woman's gotta straighten her hair now and then, come on!).  I was grouchy and it wasn't fair to Ollie that I was being a sour-puss just because I hadn't taken a shower.  Finally one day I realized that I needed to treat raising Ollie and being a stay-at-home-mom for the summer months as if it were my JOB (because it is, basically), and if I wouldn't go to my job and expect someone to take over my duties so I could shower, why should I expect that at home?  Since then, I wake up at 5am, shower, do some household chores (dishes and laundry, yay!), and feel nice and awake by the time the kids wake up....except for those days when Charlie wakes up at 5:30....but no one is ever ready for THOSE days!

Basically, I do my best thinking in my 5am shower, which is why it's become a necessity not only for my own vanity and sanity, but also for my school career.  Many a lesson plan has been formulated while I shampoo my hair!  The few things I've been up to lately haven't really been brainstormed in the shower, but they're cool nonetheless.

Last night I worked some more on my writing notebook, where I added a few days about Thanksgiving to the mix.  We'll read an article about the Mayflower and the pilgrims, analyze it for word choice (a review of previous lessons) to assess the author's tone and the mood of the piece.  The next day we'll spend assessing the facts and opinions in the article and then decide if it is a persuasive piece or an expository piece.  And day three we will spend making a class T-Chart about the pros and cons of sailing on the Mayflower, all so they can use their writing station time to write their own short paragraph about whether or not they would be a pilgrim and take the risks involved.  It's a lot to fit into the few days before Thanksgiving, but I'm glad I can give them some immersion into the history of the holiday instead of just glossing over it.  (But sorry Columbus Day...you're getting the shaft again!)

So what else have I been up to?  Let's see...

 I made a mental math stick game to play at school when the kids are just waiting around, lining up, or to start off math RtI time.  On one half of the stick is the problem and on the other end is the answer to that problem.  That way I don't have to test my OWN mental math skills!  I saw something similar to this on Pinterest, but it was more of a station game where the sticks had to go in a certain order because the answer to the problem was written on the next stick.  That was a cool idea too, but I wanted something that I could just as a time filler rather than a complete activity.  Plus, don't you LOVE the colored sticks?!  I snagged them at the LeRoy True Value - 500 of them for only $8!  Based on the layer of dust on the package, I'm pretty sure no one had even looked at the box since the store opened, but their loss is my gain!

 I also used a few of my clothes pins to make a Math Chain Game where the answer to the problem IS written on the next pin in line.  One side is green and the other is pink, so for 10 clothes pins, I have 2 games!  I also thought that I could clip them onto the kids and they have to line up in the order and that way it becomes a whole group activity rather than just a few kids at centers.

 

I finally got my no name paper board created, too!  Thanks to my awesome father in law, John, who came and trimmed down some scrap board and drilled the holes for the ribbon, it took hardly no time at all!  I'm planning on making a few more boards like this to hang in my own house, but instead of no name papers, I'll use them to display the kids' artwork or new pictures that I have printed.  Thankfully, John has left a lot of scrap wood at our house (supposedly for the fire pit!) that I've been itching to use, and now I have an ideal project for it all!

Besides school work, I finished Charlie's birthday banner:

We're doing a super hero themed party for him in December, but while I was in banner making mode I got busy and finished it.  Again I used the dollar store curly ribbon to attach it all, but rather than waste my time with glue and cut out letters, I got smart and formatted it all in Microsoft Word.  I love that you can type words upside down in text boxes now - that's a huge upgrade to the program and I've used it a million times already.  LOVE IT!

And, because my life isn't all work and no play...Alex was home from Korea for a few days, so once I pried the kids off of him, we got to hang out.  We actually pubcrawled Farmer City, which was a hilarious adventure because there are only 2 bars in town - that was kind of the point, and we had a good time without getting too ridiculous.

 I finally got some hang out time with my girl, Jordan, too.  Here we are outside of Panera where we had a pretty good dinner of mildly healthy food choices, so yay for us!  We hit the mall (a place I NEVER go with the children), got my hair cut, did some shopping, and had some dinner.  It was great to hang out again, and I'm definitely going to miss her next year when she's at her school and I'm at mine. 

Future projects?  Always.  Here are my kitchen cabinets...tilted on their sides because I didn't change the orientation of the pictures before I uploaded them....oh well.

 Anyway, I'm planning on painting the inside square with chalkboard paint so I can start keeping lists on the doors.  I think I'll do the drawers too, just so there's some continuity with the built in.  And then the kids can scribble away to their hearts content!

I'm also working on spending more one-on-one time with Ollie.  As the oldest, she sometimes gets the shaft I think, especially with Jonathan working 2nds now and me being the only bedtime person in the house.  I'm usually so tired by the time I get to her (because rocking Charlie makes me sleepy!) that she doesn't always get the attention to needs or deserves.  So there's my home improvement goal AND my parenting goal.  BAM.

It has to wait...

I've been MIA on this blog thing for a while, and it's either because I've been too busy....or because I've been preoccupied with facebook and pinterest, my two major vices.  Ugh facebook, why are you such a time suck?  The sad thing is that the majority of the time I'm just gawking at other people's statuses rather than actually communicating with the people who write them, and what good is that.  And Pinterest.....we have a love/hate relationship.  I love it because where else would I find the fine idea to spray paint boring old rain books with glittery spray paint and create amazing glitter boots?!  And where else could I find a delicious recipe for chicken alfredo made entirely in ONE pan?!  And where would I dig up clever teaching ideas to use in my classroom next year?!

Oh wait, Pinterest, I have that last one covered.....and that's why this blog post has to end so abruptly, because I'm in the middle of a pretty amazing lesson plan/project/activity/whateveryouwanttocallit that just can't wait.....which is why this blog post has to!

I'm working on my long-promised Writer's Notebook tonight, and I've made it to week 11.  I'm pretty pleased with myself.  Tonight's project is a review of Topic Sentences and the details that support them, an activity that will have a hold-over effect and be used for a few follow-up lessons as well, assuming it all works out and I can get my thoughts out of my brain and onto the Word document I'm creating.

So maybe sometime someone will be pinning MY great teacher ideas onto pinterest....one can only hope!

And the #1 Reason I'm Glad We Don't Live in an Apartment Building is.....

....because sometimes bedtime sounds like a death march, and any self-respecting person should probably want to call DCFS.

But let's face it, as parents, we've all had to grin and bear it while our children scream at the tops of their lungs, usually the same phrase over and over again, until everyone's ears are bleeding.  Today we suffered through two "I DONT WANT TO GO TO BED" blow outs, one at nap time (which wasn't worth the battle) and one at bedtime (which obviously I won....by the grace of God...), and thus I'm sitting here with some liquid relaxation reflecting upon my day.

First things first:  a huge round of applause to the fine people at Yellow Tail Winery for putting their wine in screw top bottles, because getting a cork out of a bottle was NOT on my list of things to do tonight.

Excitement of the day: two finished craft projects, a trip to the park, and a successful video chat with Nonnie (the kids kind of turn into crazy people when the camera turns on, but we made it work somehow!).

I finished Ollie's birthday banner today!  Here are some pics:

 I made the triangle template in Word and added the colors there, which allowed me to make some fun patterns without wasting my hard earned scrapbook paper.  In retrospect I probably could have formatted the white circle and letters onto the banner template as well, but I didn't think of that until just now.  Doh.

 Oh well, it was fun using the Cricut with Charlie to cut the 2" circles out of white cardstock - he was fascinated by the moving parts on the machine!  Then I cut the letters out as well (1 1/2" size), and Ollie got to help glue the circles and letters down, so she was part of the magic too.

 The first and last triangle on the banner has a small picture of the My Little Pony group on it, so if the color scheme works for next year I could always reuse it by gluing a new picture over it.  I say this now, but of course I'll probably make a new one next year anyway.  I punched little holes in the corners and attached them with curly ribbon I bought at Dollar Tree for - you guessed it - $1.  It worked really well, and I like it uncurled best (I tried it both ways, and even Ollie agreed on straight being better.)

I also have some 5" circle cut outs to glue together and then hang from the tree outside when we get ready for the party, which of course isn't until August 31, but I'm one of those plan ahead kind of girls, so here we are!  I may even start on the Superhero banner for Charlie's party tonight if I can't get motivated about school stuff!

My second craft victory today is my "Becoming a Bride" layout for my wedding album.  Honestly, it turned out exactly how I pictured it would and so I'm not sure why I had such a hard time finishing it, other than I didn't know what I wanted to write on the page or how to make the perfect title for it.  I'm not much of a perfectionist (just as my father in law about all the hideous cakes he's gotten for his Cake of the Month Club gift Ollie and I gave him at Christmas!), but when it comes to scrapbooking, I really become OCD about everything being perfect.  Maybe I don't want people to see things 60 years from now and think I did shoddy work!  Anyway, here are pics of the finished layout:

I was inspired by this original page that was in my Scrapbooks, Etc magazine (that used to come straight to my door until Better Homes and Gardens decided they didn't want to print it anymore.....but I'm not bitter or anything...), and just sort of tweaked it a bit to fit my own needs.  I hand-cut the title out after formatting it as a Word Art in Word.  (I really like Word, can you tell?)  I didn't use my Cricut because I'm cheap and only have one cartridge that doesn't cut pretty swirly fonts that I needed.

 I went over the title with glitter, because everything is better with glitter.

 I think the scalloped/lace trim adds some interest to the page without overwhelming all the other things I have going on...like the glitter!

This is some sort of fuzzy snowflake self-adhesive trim that my dear scrapping buddy Sam donated to me several years ago before she moved away, and I was stoked to finally use it!  I really loved how it looked over the aqua glitter.

So there are my two craft victories for tonight.  On the horizon.....

• As God is my witness, I will force myself to work on this writer's notebook!
• Homemade sour cream....it's gonna be big.
• Maybe the start of a new wedding album page...we'll just have to see...

The School Year Cometh...

Most people feel  like teachers have it easy.  We work from 8am-3pm for 9 months a year and then have 3 full months off to kick back and do nothing.

HA.  I don't even want to delve into all the inaccuracies in that last sentence.  Let's just say that as teachers (good teachers) we work hard ALL year long and earn the breaks we get.  I'm not saying that I'm not blessed to have a full summer off with my kids to spend at the pool and the zoo, and I wish my husband were that lucky, but I do think that I earn that break.  And it's rarely 3 FULL months!

It's usually around this point in the summer when teachers start having "teacher" moments, where we're constantly thinking about the up-coming school year and what we need to do to get ready for it.  Just the other day at the pool one of my teacher friends was telling me about the nightmare she had that it was the first day of school and the new principal was already mad at her and she didn't have any of her work prepared.....yep, it's officially school season.  Heralded by crazy school dreams and middle of the night panic attacks, back to school arrives well before the crazy school supply sales at Staples.  (Which I'm totally excited for, PS.)

For me, I've been having these teacher fits all summer since I'm moving to a new grade and a new school.  I'm trying to organize a reading and writing curriculum for myself so that I don't feel totally lost come September, and it's been fun, but stressful.  There are too many ideas out on Pinterest and not enough time in the day, and I finally said to my husband, "Why do I spend all my time pinning new ideas when I just need to sit down and DO some of the ideas I have??!"  (His sage advice?  "I was wondering the same thing.")

So I sat down and started this Interactive Writer's Notebook.  I have grand ideas to have notebooks like it for reading and math as well, and maybe even social studies, but those will have to wait.  For now, I'm trying to focus on finishing up the Writer's Notebook.  It's got neat little flip-tabs where notes about punctuation go, some fun charts that we're going to make and glue in, and a few places where we get to bridge the gap between subjects and analyze writing within our social studies content.  My latest addition to my lessons (not necessarily to the notebook) are my Publishing and Peer Editing anchor charts.  Take a peek:

Truthfully this is one place where I scoured the internet and couldn't find anything that I was happy with, so I created my own.  They aren't gorgeous by any means, but I'm planning on creating them as large anchor charts with my class and these just served as a formatting guide for me anyway.  Plus now I can throw away the ratty notebook paper that I scribbled all my notes down on.

I'm trying to set up Daily 5 in my classroom for the fall, and these anchor charts and the notebook go along with the writing mini-lessons I'm creating to teach.  So far I have pretty much the whole year mapped out and I'm just going back in and actually designing the lessons and making the notebook entries so I have a sample book to teach from.  I'll be sure to add more about it once I get it finished.

I'm especially nervous this year because I'm going back to middle school, where I haven't taught since I was a student teacher.  It's common knowledge that most third graders are just pretty happy to be at school and have a teacher who smells nice and gives good hugs, but something tells me that the 6th graders are going to be a little more discerning.  I'm trying to gear up some more behavior incentives and some start of the school year activities that they'll enjoy.  And I guess the bright side is that if they don't like it.....there's always next year to get it right! (Good thing I'm a Cubs fan and am used to that mantra!)

So here we are again...

Hello again, blog world.  I must say that I'm pretty proud of myself today; I feel like I may have actually earned a bid for Mom of the Year - a REAL one, not just the sarcastic one I usually award myself when something devastating happens, like Charlie falling down the stairs and scraping his face up or Ollie eating nothing but peanut butter sandwiches all day long.  No sir, today, I may have earned an honest-to-goodness Mom of the Year nod....or at least a Little Mom on the Prairie Award. 

I usually wake up with the birds but have fallen into a sloppy routine this summer (I'm blaming Jonathan's new and seemingly ever changing work schedule), but today I was up at 5:45 (still late by my standards, but I'm breaking myself in easy), did my cheesy early 90's workout DVD, showered, retrieved Charlie from his crib, made homemade blueberry muffins, made yogurt (in the crock pot!), washed some dishes....and that was all before lunch time!  Yes, let's just say I feel like I've had an insanely productive day.  Go me.

I never thought I'd be the chick to make homemade yogurt, but as I started realizing just how much I was spending each week on plain yogurt, it made me a little ill.  Compounding the sick feeling was the sheer amount of waste it was creating - 2 or 3 large plastic tubs each week??!  I tried making myself feel better about the plastic tubs by washing them and coming up with ways to reuse them: storing bulletin board trim at school, stashing craft supplies, creating station tubs and games for center time at school....all of those were great ways to use those 24oz tubs I was accumulating, but I was running out of storage room in my kitchen, and since I'm currently between classrooms (left my old job and waiting for the new school/classroom to finish being built so I can get in it), it was getting ridiculous and something else had to be done.  Cue pinterest (of course) where I started looking around for homemade yogurt recipes.  There was one in a Mason jar....seriously.....but it wasn't nearly as simple as turning on my crock pot, taking the temperature every hour or so, and letting the "live and active cultures" do the rest.  I was worried that the yogurt might taste funny, but today's batch is my 2nd, and I think it tastes even better than the stuff from the store.  And not only am I not wasting those silly plastic tubs, I'm also getting WAY more yogurt for WAY less money.  It's awesome.

So to get back on track here, the REAL reason I started this blog was to post about some of the cool things that I do/find/make/want, and one of the coolest things I've done so far is throw Ollie a pretty rocking Mario Brother's themed birthday party.  Now don't get me wrong, not all of these ideas were original, and certainly not all of it was my own doing, but it turned out super well, and since I was in charge of the application of it all, I'm claiming it all as my own personal victory.  Before I get too far into this, I should explain that we are OLD SCHOOL Mario at our house.  None of this new-age Wii Mario with their blue overalls.  At our house, Mario rocks out the red overalls, Luigi the green ones, and there's only ONE princess to save and that's Peach.  So this is the kind of party we threw.  Old school, vintage Mario a la Captain Lou and The Super Mario Brothers Super Show.

No party is complete without a birthday banner, so here I made one out of squares to mimic the blocks that Mario is always breaking apart.  I flanked it with 2 Piranha Plants with a Goomba trapped between them.

It was pretty easy to construct all of these items using construction paper and various shapes that were easy to cut - I didn't even use my Cricut!  The pots were just rectangles overlapping, then the stems and leaves.  I cut big red "U" shapes and topped them with white hearts and polka dots of different sizes (using my 3/4" and 1" paper punches).

Food is always super important.  The fare this day? Italian, or course.  A yummy pasta dish from a Kraft magazine I had lying around, salad, bread, plain noodles for the youngsters who were opposed to saucy pasta, and some fruits/veggies.  Now I know you're looking at this and thinking...."yes, but what about that GIANT Mario head poking around back there???"

What? This guy?  Just an awesome paper machie Mario head that one of my friends from school made.  Pretty sweet, huh?  He was destined to be a pinata, but I didn't have the heart to smash him to bits, so he made a great table decoration instead.  And there's a vintage Mario coin bank standing next to him.  Cute, huh?  I'm sure glad my brother decided he didn't need such a childish collectible anymore!

The cake (made by my awesome mother-in-law) was a real hit.  Simple, but really spot-on for the party, even if the characters ARE wearing their new-age blue coveralls.  She got the little figures at the local party store and cut the stars and dots out of fondant.

Cake is never enough, so we also had some Question Blocks made out of rice krispie treats.  Clearly I made these, which is why they are lopsided.  Had my mother-in-law made them, they would have been precisely trimmed into perfect cubes.  I'm more of an estimator, myself.  Especially when it comes to measurement.

Extra cake batter meant little star-shaped cakes too.  The cupcakes aren't pictured, but they had the same blue icing as the cake with little cake toppers made from stickers and a 3" scalloped paper punch.  Super cute.  And before you ask, the answer is No, there is NEVER too much cake.

 Ollie was just turning 4 and so most of her friends are the same age, which means they're too young for any crazy party games, but we did have one: Smush the Goomba.  I think I snagged this one from somewhere else online, but I decorated orange balloons with Goomba faces, attached brown feet to them, and set the kids loose to try their hand at Goomba Stomping like the Marios do.  Ollie told me it was her favorite part of the day.

 More Goombas and Piranha plants decorated the windows!

 Such a fun idea.  WE made mustaches out of black felt, hot glued them to color coordinated straws, and let everyone wear their mustaches in pictures.  You can't really tell, but the Mario mustaches are extra ruffly on the bottom (like his real 'stache is) and the Luigi ones are smoother.  It was a huge hit, even with the adults.  My fantastic sister-in-law made Mario and Luigi hats for the kids out of fleece, so the kids had hats to wear for the party too.

All in all, a super fun birthday theme, and Ollie totally loved it.  Here we are as a family sporting our mustaches and Mario/Luigi hats.  The Toad hat was left over from the previous Halloween when we all dressed up as Mario characters.  Ollie was Mario, Jonathan was Luigi, Charlie was Toad, and I was Princess Peach.  We got quite a few compliments.

Maybe that gave someone out there some ideas for their own Mario party!  For now, I'm off to tackle my still unfinished Interactive Writer's Notebook.....

Blogging Rookie...

So, here we are computer...it's just you, me, and this crazy blog that I've been thinking of starting for a while now.  See, the thing is that I have tons of super ideas, and let's just face it, I do tons of awesome things that probably everyone needs to know about.  Sadly, if you post about it on Facebook, then you're just some girl who likes to brag, but if you post about it on your blog...suddenly you're some sort of awesome superstar that people follow on Pinterest. 

I'm hoping that blogging here will help me ease my addiction to the old FB and help me make better use of my time, especially because schools kicking back up again and I need a way to motivate myself to complete all of the fantastic projects that I think of while I'm in the shower.  It's going to be a pretty random blog that's filled with things that make me laugh, craft projects, school stories/creations/tips, birthday parties, and whatever other crazy things I choose to write about.  That's why I titled this "From Out of Left Field" - because basically everything will be coming at you from left field!

My newest projects?

• An unfinished wedding scrapbook - specifically a page about getting ready on the big day
• A half done Interactive Writer's Notebook that I started for school in the fall
• My Little Pony decorations for Squirt 1's birthday party
• The family garden, which is growing surprisingly well considering I'm NOT a gardener

I've got to say that I'm pretty pleased with myself on all of these fronts..I just wish I would actually finish something!  It's the time of the summer when I have too many things whirling around in my head and can't stop to focus on just one of them, so instead I turn into that guy at the circus who juggles plates, and working on the writer's notebook leads to trying to piece something together for my Teachers Pay Teachers store which leads to adding a touch here or there to the birthday banner.....oh well, it'll all get done, right?  And then I'll start on my classroom website.....


(I'd hoped to post the banner template I made for the party banner so anyone else could use it, but I couldn't figure out how....so maybe next time!  Until then!)