bloglovin' giveaway

I'd love if you want to travel along with me through bloglovin'

Two winners will get to choose any two items from my TpT shop as a big thanks.

Thanks to those two Collaboration Cuties for the linky and for making this a smooth transition for all!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out all of these bloggers who are also doing a bloglovin giveaway at their blog!  You have a chance to win at each blog!  If you'd like to do your own giveaway, grab our button for your post, link up, and then get the inlinkz code to insert into your post so that the link ups will also be visible on your blog.  :O)

1. School Is a Happy Place	2. Beach Sand and Lesson Plans	3. I Love My Classroom	4. Apples and Papers
5. A Teaspoon of Teaching	6. Camp Kindergarten	7. Ideas By Jivey	8. Pinkadots Elementary
9. Im Lovin Lit	10. Looking From Third to Fourth	11. Fourth Grade Flipper	12. Literacy Spark
13. Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road	14. The Polished Teacher	15. Teaching Maddeness	16. Learning to the Core
17. Fun in Room 4B	18. Primary Junction	19. Joy in the Journey	20. Where the Wild Things Learn
21. Lucky to be in First!	22. First Grade Buddies	23. Rosie's Rambles	24. Fifth in the Middle
25. Creating Lifelong Learners	26. Hunter's Tales from Teaching	27. Hoots N' Hollers	28. Hippo Hooray for Second Grade!
29. Sweet Rhyme - Pure Reason	30. The Brown Bag Teacher	31. Third Grade Tidbits	32. Eclectic Educating
33. Mrs. Laffin's Laughings (4th Grade)	34. Teach N' Tex - 2nd Grade is the Bomb!	35. Miss V's Busy Bees	36. Stellar Students
37. Laura Love to Teach	38. teaching, life, and everything in between	39. Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans	40. Suntans and Lesson Plans
41. Teaching with a Touch of Twang	42. Polka Dot Lesson Plans	43. Middle School OCD	44. Closing the Gap... in a Cute Outfit!
45. Yearn to Learn	46. Elemetnary School Garden	47. iTeach 1:1	48. Polka Dot Firsties
49. Crofts' Classroom	50. A Teacher Without a Class	51. A Burst of First	52. Karmens Kinders
53. My Life as a Third Grade Teacher	54. Hodges Herald	55. 1stgradefireworks	56. Fab and Fun in 4th!
57. Teaching Little Miracles	58. Kickin' it in Kindergarten	59. Diamond Moms Treasury	60. The Teacher Chick
61. 24/7 Teacher: Amy Harrod & the Big 100	62. Teach*Pray*Love	63. Kinders on the Block	64. Albuquerque Amy's First Graders
65. Taming My Flock of Firsties	66. Adventures With Firsties	67. K-3 Connection	68. Teacher Talk
69. Idea Backpack	70. Learning in the Little Apple	71. Smedley's Smorgasboard Of Kindergarten	72. First Grade Teacher Lady
73. Ms. Jones' Junction	74. Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten	75. First Grade is TOADally Awesome!	76. I Teach. What's Your Super Power?
77. Tori's Teacher Tips	78. Wolfelicious	79. Little Second-Grade Somebodies	80. Fancy Free in Fourth
81. Crayons and Curls	82. AppleGirlAmber	83. Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!	84. Learning Is Something To Treasure
85. Teaching Fabulous Firsties & 2nd Grade Smarties!	86. You Might Be a First Grader...	87. Lori @ Life in Room 24	88. Mrs. Johnson's Little Prowlers
89. Teaching with Moxie	90. Sliding into First!	91. Life in Middle School	92. Mrs. Russell's Room-First Grade
93. Primary Inspired	94. Learning in Bliss	95. First Grade Circus	96. Super Sparkly in Second
97. First Grade Brain	98. Charlotte's Clips and Kindergarten Kids	99. Heart Mrs. Smith	100. Teachingisagift (Gifted Education and More)
101. Teachin Little Texans	102. Live, Laugh, I LOVE Kindergarten	103. 2 Brainy Apples Orchard	104. travel teach and love
105. Lovely Literacy & More	106. Caffeine and Lesson Plans	107. the tattooed teacher	108. The Blessed Teacher
109. Teaching With Style and Grace	110. A Tender Teacher for Special Needs	111. 2peasandadog Teaching Blog	112. Elementary Matters
113. KinderMyles	114. Rulin' The Roost	115. Learning with Mrs. Langley	116. Books, Bugs & Boxes
117. Table Talk with C&C in 2nd Grade	118. Crayons and Storybooks	119. Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten	120. Keepin' It Krazy with Mrs. Berns
121. Mrs. Adams' Kinders	122. Wild Rumpus	123. Creation Castle	124. First Grade is a Treat
125. Surviving Sixth Grade	126. Sarah's First Grade Snippets	127. Love. Learn. Teach. (4th Grade)	128. In That Room...Adventures in Second Grade
129. The Techie Teacher	130. Mme Julie's Classroom	131. 4th Grade Frolics	132. Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher
133. Primary Paradise	134. MissKinBK: A Fifth Grade Blog	135. The Craft of Teaching	136. 3rd Grade Thoughts
137. Fun And Easy First Grade	138. Run Teacher Run!	139. Lovin' Kindergarten with Mrs. Lindsey	140. What Happens in First Grade
141. Creative Lesson Cafe	142. Polka Dot Palace	143. Whooo's in Second?	144. The Price of Teaching
145. Learning With Mrs. Brinn	146. Teaching to Inspire in 5th	147. Fourth Grade Studio	148. Kinder Doodles
149. Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes	150. Adventures of Room 129	151. Primary Possibilities	152. A Sunny Day in First Grade
153. First Grade Smiles	154. Teaching Snip-Its	155. Peace, Love, and Kindergarten	156. Kindergarten: Holding Hands and Sticking Together
157. The Educated Crown	158. Simply Second	159. Jillian Martin	160. Learning in Progress
161. Sandy's Learning Reef	162. The TechKnowledgey Teacher	163. Enchanting Elementary	164. More Than Math by Mo
165. Whimsy Workshop	166. Sparkling in Kindergarten	167. My Second Sense	168. Miss A's Kindergarten
169. Shfiting Teacher K-2	170. Kids Math Teacher	171. Collaboration Cuties	172. Head Over Heels for Teaching
173. I {Heart} Recess

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

summer collection: home in canada

I have the most beautiful niece.

She has a hilarious sassy attitude.

{I'm sure this is not so hilarious to her mother or Nana...}

She's rather independent.

And she brings me flowers :)

board game review: pandemic

I'm the kind of person that is not fun to play board games with.
I know because I've been told.
Anything based on luck or chance, I hate.
Anything super competitive makes me a grouch.
I can never roll the number I need or turn up the card I'm looking for.
Never bring out Risk around me.
It may make me hate you.

My husband is a bit of a nerd, which is awesome.
{For the record, he claims I am a nerd, too... As if.}
Since he prefers to keep me around {yay!}, he's been looking into cooperative board games.
We have a couple now, and I'm much more fun to be with when we play those games together.

The other night we brought Pandemic to our friends' place.

Basically each person in the group is given different abilities and works together to find a cure for four diseases that are threatening to wipe out humanity.
Strategizing {not a word apparently?} is fun because everyone thinks of or notices different things on the board.
It's really difficult!
But working together, you feel like you're accomplishing something at least.
And I'm happy to announce that today...we won!
Yes, we've only been playing on the "Easy" level, but hey.
I think it would even be a fun game if you have older kids.
If you're interested, you can watch a pretty good run-through of the game. 

Another one we've been playing is an iPad app called Forbidden Island.

Of the six or so times we've tried, we've won only once.
So also a difficult game!
You are trying to collect four monuments on an island and fly them (and yourself!) to safety before it sinks.
You have limited movement abilities and only three actions to make.
The "water rises" quickly!
Spaces are sinking constantly.
That time we won was so satisfying...
But it's fun and it's only five bucks so it's worth a shot.

Happy game night!
- Amanda

bloglovin'

Bye bye, Google Reader...
Hello, bloglovin'!

summer collection: home sweet home

Just got back to Canada for the summer (a short month and a half) so we're soaking it all in right now.

Happy summer!

Etsy. It's a Problem.

Seriously, who let me on Etsy?
It's a problem.
The sort of problem that I love, though.
It's like Pinterest, but for buying things!
And do I ever love buying things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giveaway!

Just stopping in to send you over to the lovely Sara from Miss V`s Busy Bees. She`s having a week-long celebration where you can win yourself some awesome stuff! (Including something from me!)

Goooood luck.

3 Day Weekend!

You know what's awesome?
A long weekend right before the last week of school!
Even though there are a total of 21 kids currently attending...
21 kids in grades 2-6 altogether...
So we've pooled the kids in one room and we all rotate through fun lessons.

Today is the perfect day to get a few things started for next year, and to get started on cards for my kids.

They're pretty simple, but I've written a personalized message inside each one.

I think the kids will love reading them.

I'll just add them in with their report cards and then we'll be outta here!

If you'd like a copy, I uploaded them to Google Docs, so feel free...

Since it's the crazy-hot summertime here in Kuwait, I've been keeping cool with these two yummy treats:

Starbucks Iced Green Tea at home
It's super easy to make and just as delicious as the real thing

and Breakfast Strawberry Ice Cream

Yep, ice cream for breakfast :)

June's photo header

This month's header comes from Amsterdam.
Since we'll be packing our bags to leave Kuwait in the next week, the photo seems fitting!
That thought makes me smile :)
It's also one we snapped on our way to enjoy a frothy cup of pumpkin ale.
We'll be looking forward to relaxing on the deck with something frosty alongside...
(You know, since it's not allowed in this country...)
Another thought that makes me smile!
- Amanda