Holidays as a Teacher

Celebrating holidays as a teacher, (especially a Kindergarten teacher),

makes the celebrating 10x better!

Halloween:

For Halloween, we painted our  v e r y  o w n  pumpkins! 

A little messy, yes, but 100% worth it!

I'm totally against handing a student a piece of candy and

"calling it good" when it comes to holidays.

For Halloween, I made my kiddos their

own individual  s ' m o r e  packet. 

Throw a 'mallow, 2 grahams, and a fun size Hershey's bar

into a cellophane bag.

Tie a bow with my favorite gift-wrapping essential, twine,

attach a clever little note, and you're good to go!

Let's be real, though...  This is  w a y  better than the alternative.

Christmas:

 

Christmas in Mrs. Yates' Kindergarten Class

wouldn't be Christmas without Cocoa.

Meet Cocoa ::  Our Classroom Elf on the Shelf.

What a fun little addition he has been this December.

He has been up to a lot in our classroom!

From bringing us our own Christmas tree,

to surprising us with doughnuts (complete with his own elf doughnuts),

to magically changing our candy-cane kisses into candy-canes,

he has overjoyed us day in and day out.

The kids always come curious to see what he is up to next!

Tomorrow is our last day of school before Christmas Break

and he is supposed to surprise us with our  B I G  Christmas Present!!

We are so excited to see what he brings...  Stay tuned!!

 Christmas is here!  You know what that means ::  Gifts for my kinders!!

What is something I could do that would be fun for the kids,

but different from the boring go-to piece of candy routine? 

This is what I came up with... Hope you like it as much as I do!

This is just a little something I got for a few of my coworkers...

[ oven mitts, chocolate, soaps, wooden spoons, stamps, cookie cutters ]

Practical, yes, but still cute and fun. 

Bottom line :: Giving is SO much better than receiving.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to leave you with a wish of

"Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!"

from myself and my crazy cute kinders...

[  X O X O  ]

Playing Catch Up

Well, well, well...

Lindsay dropped the ball on being

on top of her A-Game when it came to blogging...

What a surprise. 

I am making a New Year's Resolution to blog AT LEAST once a month. 

If I'm really great, I'll do it once a week...  We'll see. 

What has gone on since July?  Well, a lot.  A lot a lot! 

I got a  p r e c i o u s  new nephew :: 

Cohen Preston Perkes 

Born September 27, 2012 

7 pounds 12 ounces

I could hold this baby non-stop. 

He is the sweetest, happiest baby you could ever meet.

Having to live an hour away from this babe is torture.

6 months has never gone by faster!  ::

Daren and I celebrated 6 short months of our

h a p p i l y   e v e r   a f t e r

together in November.

I walked downstairs on Friday, November 16th

to that adorable note hanging across the entryway to the kitchen.

He surprised me with a weekend getaway to  P A R K   C I T Y.

We stayed in the Newport Resort and felt like a million bucks.

Our room had a jacuzzi tub,

a fireplace at the foot of our bed,

a full blown beautiful kitchen,

and our own balcony, complete with our own private hot tub.

It was absolutely perfect.

Thanks to an amazing man for the huge surprise!

...It's the  l i t t l e   t h i n g s.

My brother got his Mission Call ::

He will serve as a missionary of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

in the Chile Santiago West Mission.

 He is excited to report to the MTC on

March 13, 2013.

As a sister, I could not be more proud. 

This boy started on his papers just  m o m e n t s

after the Church announced missionaries

could serve at the age of 18,

and one short month later, he received his call.

S-T-U-D.

I've been teaching school for 4 months already! ::

Wow.  These children are my life. 

I  l o v e  every last one of them like my own.

With the events that happened just a short week ago at

Sandy Hook Elementary in Conneticut,

I am competely grateful for the chance to see every one

of these beautiful faces every day.

I do not know what I would do without their

s w e e t  souls in my life.   

Daren and I are about to spend our  f i r s t  Christmas together as a married couple :: 

How exciting!  This is a picture of our  t r e e... 

I absolutely love it.  And it looks even better with all of our

presents underneath it!  I have always loved Christmas,

but it is  s o o o  much better when you're married. 

I bet it'll be even better when we have kiddos... But that'll be a while!

Life is a lot of fun right now, to say the least! 

Although this is my blog for Daren and I, I've also decided to incorporate things that I do in my classroom, as a teacher.  I use Instagram and Facebook to share my fun Kindergarten life with those close to me, but I think that keeping a blog about it is a

little more personal and a little more important. 

So throughout my posts about our lives,

you may see an occasional teacher post... 

Just love it.