I love my Nails!!!

Yes, I am addicted to manicures and pedicures. I am seriously addicted.

It all started when I moved to Florida and my fingers and toes were exposed 12 months a year. There was no wearing gloves in the winter or closed toe shoes when it got cold. So, I now have been addicted to the bi-monthly habit. I love bright colors in the summer and dark hues in the winter.

I recently fell in love with the gel manicures that keep for two weeks without chipping. I've done acrylic years ago and solar nails for my wedding. I've seem to have tried everything. The problem with nails and teaching is that I use my hands a lot. I am constantly painting, using clay, gluing, using modge podge, cooking, etc. My poor manicures hardly last, but as you can see it's an addiction so I keep going back to the salon. Same goes for my feet; I mean they seem to last longer, but I tend to get my toes trampled on by my little students.

Long story short I will continue to always get manicures and pedicures, but I have found something fun to do with my nails at home too! It is Sally Hansen Salon Effects (you can purchase it at Walgreen's or CVS). They also sell something similar at Sephora. It costs about $10 and you get 16 strips. They are nail polish strips that you put on your nails with no drying time and lasts 10 days. They come in all different colors.

Here is the website to see all the colors they come in and read comments from other people that have tried it!

http://www.sallyhansen.com/products/nails/nail-color/salon-effects-real-nail-polish-strips

Sally Hansen Red-y for Trouble

I have had a lot of people compliment my nail polish color and I had to tell them it wasn't nail polish it was nail polish strips by Sally Hansen!

Wardrobe Wednesday

Ohhhh...back to work to this week!! I have had a fabulous two weeks off with plenty of fun outfits. I took a girl's trip, celebrated my hub's birthday, enjoyed the beach and had lots of down time. The following outfit is great for spring. I wore it to run errands on Friday. When I met my husband for lunch, he immediately commented on how he thought I looked nice and also used the word "preppy". I am not sure if I think it is preppy, but I like to pair long sleeves with shorts sometimes because running in and out of air conditioning can be cold sometimes. The shorts helped me stay cool in the Florida 80 degree weather.  By the way, I am obsessed with navy...it is a great color to match with tans, whites, and browns. Plus when you add stripes it creates a fun look for the summer!

Navy Shirt: Victoria's Secret (now on sale for $4.99-wish I had known they would do that)

White Shorts: Macy's

Brown Wedges: Steve Madden

Bracelet: Boutique

Necklace: Stella & Dot

Earrings: Aldo

Sunglasses: Target

Birthday Boy

Living the last year of the 20's

March 26th was Dave's 29th Birthday. He wanted to celebrate with his good friends at one of our favorite little Italian restaurants in Delray Beach. We go to Salotto about once a month and visit the sommelier, Claudio, who we have such a great relationship with and who always picks out the best wines to go with our food. The night of Dave's birthday we stayed out late with good friends; listening to live music, dancing and eating amazing food.

Live Music

Dancing

The b-day cannoli

The Guys

Florida Keys with the Girls

I feel so lucky to be able to get a two week Spring Break! The second week of Spring Break I took a girl's trip to the Florida Keys. We were going to have Katie's boyfriend fly us down on his plane, but we made a change in our plans. It would have been only a 45 minute flight and I wish I could have seen the aqua ocean water, but of course mother nature decided to be difficult so we chose to drive instead. The great thing about driving with four girls is that we got lots of great conversations in to make the time go by fast and we stopped for lunch!!

While we were at the Key's we went for bike rides, dinners, an organized pub crawl, snorkeling, dancing, dessert and lots of great sun. We stayed at a cute Inn right off Duval Street that was perfect. The Inn http://www.oceanbreezeinn.com/ was quiet and filled with super sweet people. We rented our bikes from the office and every morning we had coffee and fruit by the pool. I can't wait to do it all again next year. We are hoping to make this an annual girl's trip!

Lunch

 Taking a break from biking

 Enjoying the view

 Out and About

 Sun on the boat

 Bike time

 Dessert

 Dancing

 Sunset

Good-Bye Florida Keys

Wardrobe Wednesday

I thought I would try a new approach to Wardrobe Wednesday. Usually, I take a photo of myself in an outfit and post a picture. I always say where I got the pieces from and I usally say where I am going in the outfit. This week I decided to do something a little different. First of all, my camera I just bought in February is out of commission and I sent it in to Canon to get fixed. My fingers are crossed that since it is under warranty, I won't have to pay to have anything replaced.

I found a spring outfit that I thought was cute since it included layers and a floral dress. I then went searching to find similar pieces at a reasonable price.

Spring Dress

You can find this look for less by buying these separate pieces and putting them together:

Forever 21

Flora Contrast Dress $12.80

Old Navy

Women's Jersey Blazer (petite and tall sizes too)

On SALE $30.99

Express

Shimmer Skinny Belt (coral, black, earth, blue, white)

$19.90

Forever 21

Safari Girl Bracelet

$5.80

Target

Mossimo Pattie Wedge

$29.99

ALDO

Bano Sunglasses

$12.00

Total Price for Outfit: $111.48

Healthy Snacks for Kids or Kids at Heart

As a teacher, I am constantly interested in learning about healthier snacks for my students. We have parents that bring in cookies, munchkins, cupcakes, etc. and that is great, but I also try to sneak in a healthy snack that they might enjoy too. Just recently, we had an "International Game Day" at school. We invited the parents into school and their kids taught them how to play games from around the world. We learned Mancala (Africa), Stuck in the Mud (Australia), Gaga (Israel), Escargot (France), Lupo Del Ore (Italy), and Checkers (originally from China). After we played games we indulged in foods from around the world. The parents volunteered to bring in foods and we had so much it was amazing. The children were able to try new things! As a class we decided that we wanted to contribute as well, so we made our own kid friendly sushi from Japan!

Here is the recipe below (make it with your kids because it is so much fun)

Kid Friendly Sushi

What you need:
- Loaf of White Bread
-Cream Cheese
-Shredded Carrots
-Strawberry or Raspberry Jelly

1. Cut the crust off the white bread.
2. Roll it out with a rolling pin to get it nice and flat.
3. Spread cream cheese and jelly to make one kind of roll or cream cheese and shredded carrots to make the other roll.
4. Use your hands to roll it up.
5. Cut the long cylinder into smaller rolls.
6. Ta-DA!!! You have kind friendly sushi! Enjoy

*Substitute with peanut butter and jelly or add in cucumbers to the cream cheese and carrot roll

Peanut Butter and Jelly Roll

Cream Cheese, Carrot and Cucumber Roll

Cream Cheese and Jelly Roll for a healthy lunch

Okay, next recipe I have was something I stumbled across on the Today Show. I am really excited to make it with my students when we get back from Spring Break. It is so simple and healthy! It is banana ice cream. All you need is one ingredient....bananas!!!! It doesn't have any extra sweeteners and it is great for vegans or people that are gluten free. Follow the recipe below.

Creamy Banana Ice Cream

1. Peel your bananas

2. Cut them into small pieces

3. Freeze them for about 1-2 hours in a zip-lock bag

4. Blend them in a food processor-scraping the bowl when they stick

5. Scoop it out and put it in a bowl to eat

Extras:

*Add in peanut butter to make peanut butter/ banana ice cream when your blending

*Top with dark chocolate chips

*Add an avocado to make it really creamy

*Add vanilla extract for flavor too

See Step by Step Picture Directions of Creamy Banana Ice Cream

More fun recipes to come....off to the beach with girlfriends for now! I will add more later!



Computer Games for Kids

I think that with all the technology under our fingertips, there are some really great websites for kids. In my classroom we have two student computers for the kids to use during their free choice time (I will explain this in another post). We also have an excellent computer lab with a teacher to instruct them, and as the kids get older we have ipads for them to use in 5th grade. My students are just learning how to use the mouse and the keyboard. It really is surprising to see how many of students come into school at age 4 with competent computer skills. Below are a few of my favorite websites:

1. www.starfall.com - I love this website because the students can work on their calendar skills, learn their ABC's, sing songs, read books all while having fun!

2. www.janbrett.com- She is one of my favorite authors for children. After you read her books, you can go on her website and make masks, puppets, cards, etc. I love using her printable characters to re-tell the stories.

3. www.pbskids.org/ - This is great for interactive educational games. Word Play is great for introducing "big" words through a game.

4. www.sesamestreet.org/ - I love this website for math games! They have amazing games for patterning, shape sorting and counting. They also have some wonderful literacy activities too.

5. www.onemorestory.com/- This is a website that you do have to subscribe too, but it is totally worth it for the classroom. Once you subscribe, you can pick a book in their library to have read. I like to put these stories on during snack time on the smart board and we listen as a class.

If you have any other websites you like to use at your house or in your classroom let me know! I love to learn new sites to visit.