Big Changes for Next Year

I am so excited about the upcoming school year! I am going to move down to teach 2nd grade next school year! I'm excited about the changes, but nervous of course. It was so hard to leave my team. We have been working together for 4 years and I feel like we really had our groove! But, I was also getting bored with the routines and really needed a change! So a couple of weeks ago, I packed up my classroom, threw away a ton of stuff (seems to be a pattern of late), and moved my things downstairs. I'm in love with my classroom already! It should be relatively quiet, since it's not in a pass through hallway. Also, it's one of the few classrooms in our building with a mounted projector. I am really excited about having the projector. I've been using the promethean slate for a lot of my lessons and I think that the little ones will be really engaged in their learning while using this, and I won't have to drag in a cart.

So I have a lot of learning to do over the summer, but after a few weeks of relaxing by the pool, I figure that I'll be ready to tackle a new curriculum and a new math series. But for now, I have a new book to enjoy!

Disney Day 2

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early and headed off to Epcot. This is probably one of my favorite parks! I absolutely love walking around the world in the World Showcase. We first jumped onto Test Track with the kids - Christopher insisted on "driving"!

After our test driving session, we took the kids over to the Character Spot so that Caileigh can meet some of her buddies from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! It was so much fun to watch her see the characters for the first time! She was timid but she didn't freak out. I was more than happy to carry her over to meet the characters. In a couple of years, I am sure that she will have a much different feeling toward Mickey, but it was cute to watch her during these first few interactions.

Our next stop was Soarin'. This is an amazing ride! If you haven't seen/heard of it before, you are flying in a hang glider over different parts of California. We are going to get to go to California next year, so it was fun checking out some of the sights we will get to see next summer.

We then headed toward World Showcase - which is my favorite! We let the kids check out some of the items along the way then went to Great Britian for fish and chips. Yummy!!

We left Epcot following lunch, and went back to the hotel for swimming and naps. After resting, Matthew wasn't feeling too well (it was so hot!) so he stayed back to the hotel to rest with Grandma, and Mike and I took the kids over to Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom was relatively empty. We let Maddie and Christopher ride Expedition Everest alone, and then headed over to the safari. We don't usually do the safari ride late in the day, but the animals were out in full force! We have been coming to Animal Kingdom since it first opened, and we have never seen the cheetahs up close! The hippos are almost always in the water, but this time we got to see one out of the water enjoying his dinner!

We finally headed back to the hotel for the evening. Thankfully, Matthew was feeling better, so we grabbed some dessert from concierge and watched the fireworks from our balcony.

Disney - Runyon Style!

We just returned from our latest trip to Walt Disney World! We had so much fun this time around. We stayed at the Polynesian, which is one of my favorites anyway. We got to upgrade a bit thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, and had the Magic Kingdom view plus concierge service! Talk about being spoiled! We had breakfast every morning, snacks and beverages throughout the day, appetizers and wine in the evening, and mini desserts and cocktails at night. Such a treat!

We left last Friday evening (which was the last day of school) and drove through the night. It was surprisingly easy, especially since all the kids were fast asleep by about 10 pm and slept through the night. I slept off and on while Mike drove, and then took over the driving through southern Georgia and northern Florida. We arrived in Orlando at about 8:30 am - it took under 14 hours to drive the entire way! I was surprised to learn that we were upgraded to the club level when we arrived, although Mike knew ahead of time.

Our first stop was to get a bite to eat at the Kona Cafe! They have this amazing dish called Tonga Toast! Basically, it's this ginormous french toast stuffed with bananas and covered with cinnamon and sugar. Oh my! It's wonderful! Matthew and I shared a piece because there was no way that either one of us could finish it all!

Soon after eating, Mike's mom arrived and we checked in. We decided to hold off going to the parks right away because we knew the kids were going to be exhausted, so instead, we went to the pool. The kids played in the pool for awhile and then we went back to the room for much needed naps. When everyone woke up it was raining, but we decided to not let it stop us, and hit the Magic Kingdom. We really just took in all the sights, but then headed over to Buzz Lightyear. Caileigh loved this, especially since she is really into the Toy Story movies. The kids then wanted to ride the race cars at the Speedway. We then called it an early night because we were beat from the long drive and the lack of sleep!