My Little Ballerina

My sweet little girl started ballet a couple weeks ago.

She loved it the first week.

Not so much the second week. She through a MAJOR MAJOR fit!!

My little princess wanted to play in daddy's truck instead!!

OH MY!

Back to School

It's back to school for the Potters! The kids had their first day of preschool yesterday, and they were so happy to be back with the friends. They looked so sweet in their back to school clothes and I loved how excited they were! They had such a good day and were ready to go back again today!

I had my first day today with my little kindergarteners and we had a wonderful day. They are so sweet and so innocent. Their eyes were huge for most of the day with all the new things that kindergarteners get to do! I took a ton of precious pics of them in their new uniforms playing together, but obviously can't post them on here. But, if I could, I would! I'm so blessed to work at such an amazing school, with an awesome class and to have my own children right down the hall. Life's pretty good right now!

Have a wonderful weekend...

Mrs. Potter's Camp Kindergarten!

It's finally time! The day I've been waiting for...the first day of school! It's coming, this Thursday. I can hardly wait! I'll finally have all my new little kindergarteners in my classroom, ready to start school and eager to learn. I've been meeting them over the last few days while we conduct re-assessments. Our kindergarteners are precious, I mean really precious! I'm so blessed to be their teacher this year...God is so good!

Well, here's a little peak into Camp Kindergarten, my camping theme for the year! I've had so much fun decorating my room and getting everything ready for them. I hope they enjoy it too!

Here is our main meeting area, where we'll do our lunch count, answer our question of the day and go over our agenda for the day. We'll also come together here after lunch for stories by the campfire, before we lay down to rest. Can you see the logs at the bottom of the picture? It actually plugs in and it looks like flames in the middle of the logs! Chad put it together for me and I think the kids will love it. I will have it on during our campfire story time and during rest time.

This is our quiet reading area. The bullitin board reads "Camping Out With A Good Book". During free time, the children will be allowed to come over to the reading area and sit and read. Only my star camper will be allowed to read in the tent. My star camper changes each day, so everyone will get a turn in the tent! The star camper also gets to lay in the tent during rest time, if they'd like to!Our religion board reads "Hiking Toward Heaven". I love it! I found a really cute bulletin board set to go with it, that is camping themed with all kinds of bible verses. In front of my board is my religion table. I have a statue of Mary, a picture of Jesus, a few rosaries and lots of religious books for the kids to look at.

Here's my desk area, with my LOVELY teal chair! Where do you find a teal chair like that? It cracks me up! The color is so atrocious, but I've actually become a little attached to it, so it's not going anywhere! My friend, Allison, painted the sign above my desk that reads, "Mrs. Potter's Kindergarten".

This is just the other side of the classroom., where we'll do our work and the empty shelf will be full of books over the next couple days!

Thanks to Lori for taking all of these pics! Also, thanks to all the wonderful teachers online that have done this camping theme before and shared a ton of their great ideas. I stole, I mean, borrowed a lot of them!!

Have a wonderful day!

Huge Summer Picture Post

OK. this is going to be a big post of pictures from our summer adventures! We just had the best time this summer together. The kids and I both start school this week and we are all so excited. This week I'll have pictures of my classroom,"Camp Kindergarten", and pictures of the kids on their first day of preschool.

Carson had VBS this summer at our church and he LOVED it. He had the best teacher too. Mrs. Hyatt was so sweet and Carson really enjoyed her.

Great Grandma Virginia came in town for her birthday and the kids and I spent some much needed time with her. She is the absolute sweetest woman and we all adore her.

Chad and his buddies, Shane, Pat and Cody ran the Route 66 Quarter Marathon this summer. They did such and awesome job and I am so proud of them. What to go babe!!! And, yes, that is a little adult beverage in their hands, and yes, the run was at 8:00 in the morining! Gross.

At the end of July, our priest, Fr. Kastl...love him!...came over and we had our small faith group over and he blessed our marriages. We all just had the best time eating dinner together and catching up with eachother. At the end of the evening, Fr. Kastl blessed each of our marriages and our families...such a memorable night! Thanks Fr. K!

Fr. K. and the Jacksons...

Fr. K. and the Ross'...
Fr. K. and the Craigs...
Fr. K. and the Potters...
At the beginning of August, we celebrated Kennedy's third birthday. She is such a big girl and big girl's don't sleep in cribs! So, Kennedy got a new big girl bed with new pink and green bedding. She LOVES it! Now, if only we could get her to stay in it....ha!

For the kids' birthdays, we always do 2...one for family and one for friends. So, this year, Kennedy wanted her friend party at Build-A-Bear! We had the party in the morning and served donuts with juice and milk, instead of cake. The kids really liked it. Then, we headed off to Build-A-Bear...each child got to choose an animal to make as well as any clothes/shoes etc. that they wanted. They had so much fun!

One of Kennedy's favorite guests at her bday party was her baby cousin, Corbin. She loves him so much! Now, all her baby dolls are named Corbin too, after her cousin. She simply adores him.

We had our family party in our home. She had the best time and she finally got her pink princess cake...exactly what she ordered!
I really think the kids enjoyed their summer. They especially loved when we had nowhere to go and they could hang out in their pj's and play at the house all day long!

I hope you all enjoyed your summer and now it's back to school for our family. It's been such a change for us this past week, but we'll get the hang of it.

When I first applied for this kindergarten position, I really felt God calling me back to teaching. I just didn't know at the time how He was going to equip me. I just feel like He has made every detail fall into place, opened so many different doors for our family and has just made it easy to answer His call. I'm loving it!

Time is flying by...

I cannot believe it's been 3 weeks since my last post! If anyone still reads this, so sorry it's been so long!! Anyway, we have been so busy these past few weeks. Here's a little bit of our life...

1. Kennedy turned 3 on Sunday, Aug. 9th. We celebrated with her friends on Saturday and with family on Sunday. I can't believe you're 3 baby girl! You'll always be mama's baby, even though you're such a daddy's girl!! Love you Cate Cate! Pics to come.
2. The kids have both been having so much fun at summer camp. They even put on a super cute circus parade for the parents last week!
3. I have been working hours and hours in my classroom getting everything ready for the first day of school next week! I really don't know who is more excited, the kids or me!! Pics to come of my classroom soon...I'm doing a camping theme this year...Camp Kindergarten!
4. We took the kids to their first Drillers game and they loved it. Well, actually they didn't watch much of the game. But, they did enjoy folding the seats up and down, over and over again, and the hot dogs were a huge hit!
5. I have been busy taking classes at The Apple Tree to get me all up to date on the latest kindergarten teaching ideas. Super fun!
6. My Hide and Seek Boutique business has kept me busy the last couple weeks as well. I've been getting all those little ones' mats all decked out and ready for their first nap at school!
7. We had our small faith group over for dinner a few weeks ago. Our priest, Fr. Kastl joined us for dinner as well and at the end of the night he blessed our families and our marriages. It was such a special night!
8. Chad ran a quarter marathon last weekend and he did an AWESOME job! I was so proud of him!
9. Tomorrow Chad and I celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary! Happy early anniversary babe! Love you more than ever.
10. We have family coming in town from Nebraska on Wed., it's Chad's aunt and uncle and their 4 kids! It's been about 5 years since we have seen them. I can't wait!! They are such an awesome Catholic family and I'm hoping they'll join us for mass on Sunday!!

I guess that's all for now. I have a ton of pics on my camera to post. I'll take some of my classroom tomorrow and then I'll do a huge picture post!!

Love to you all...