Mystery Valentine and The Name Game

HAPPY CHOCOLATE DAY!

All the lovey dovey stuff is great but when it all boils down to it- it's the sweets for the sweet that make this holiday tolerable!

The Mr. and I used to make a big deal about valentines for each other ! But then we got older and became parents. Which led to all the frantic shopping on the evening of the 13th and the sitting at the table for hours over the years trying to get a 5 year old to write his name IN THE LITTLE BITTY SPACES.....22 TIMES!!!
After that it just kind of became okay for us to say "I love you" on the morning of .....and enjoy the calm...until we had to shop for Easter!!!


Speaking of writing names- I thought I would share with you the just a few variations of MY name- that came from children who have been in my class for 103 days.

The correct spelling is QUARLES.

This one was rocking it with the name....lost it  on the Squirrels.

I am not supposed to have favorites- but this one has moved up in the ranks...

In the mood for a great joke.....

I am grateful for every sweet treat that came my way today.... whether it was a heart full of chocolate, an index card with a hand drawn heart, or my favorite- a hug! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that they cared enough to give me any of those! I thanked them all just the same:)

However there is one friend who couldn't be thanked...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Life...

Dear Life,

We get it. There are ups and there are downs. We no longer need the "examples" that you keep sending us i.e.
sick Littles,
sick Mr.s,
sick Squirrels,
snow days,
lost holidays because of snow days,
teenage attitude,
pre-teen attitude,
no-reason-to-have-attitude-attitude,
cold,
bills due to cold,
and last but not least
DRAMA.
We totally get that there will be a little of each. We have learned all of our little lessons that inspirational quotes on Instagram WON'T fix. So we would appreciate a few weeks where everything is just normal. Like normal people normal. We appreciate your understanding and look forward to a few drama free weeks.
Your Friends,
The Squirrels


If anyone has the address where I can send that and get a response, we would greatly appreciate it!
Can you tell by the dates between blog posts that this squirrel-friend has been busy? Can squirrels be busy beavers? I wonder if that's an insult in the real squirrel world? hmm.... something to think about.

I missed Friday- thanks to a sweet little gift I received- PINK EYE!!! WTH? What am I, in seventh grade??? And I have to admit I was a little pumped about having the house to myself- because I am NEVER alone. Like really, NEVER. So I figured that me, myself and EYE (get it?) would hangout and watch netflix with the one good peeper. - NOPE. Not in the cards.

Littlest Little ends up with a fever and not keeping anything down.
We make it through the weekend. And then Chickadee starts Sunday night! So she was home today. AND to top it off, I was at the walk-in with Little Mr.
(I have decided that Middle Little sounded bad- we all remember how weird Jan Brady turned out because she was always "in the middle"??? I figured "little" represents that he is still one of my Littles and "Mr." refers to the fact that HE IS JUST LIKE HIS FATHER!!!!!)
So anyhoo- Little Mr. doesn't have have the stomach bug, but instead has "something viral" in his head!

Don't you love "viral"? Could you imagine a parent coming in to a conference with you and you told them, "Well, I'm not quite sure what the problem with Johnny is. We just have to let it run it's course and see if it gets better. Now that will be $160 office visit fee."

I just want everyone to be healthy and stop being icky. I'm tired of all the sickness. Bleck!

Something else I am tired of????
This cold! It isn't snowing here right now, so I guess I should be thankful for that. And I don't want anymore snow because we have already started losing holidays to make up for the ones we missed! But we are trapped inside!
The Littles don't go out when we are home. They don't go out at school. We are trapped. It's either too cold, too wet, too dark. Too something!
I just need them to go. They need them to go out! We all really NEED to go out.

I feel bad for the kiddos at school. They haven't seen the playground since before Thanksgiving!
And bless their hearts, my classroom is just not set up for Mega Recess this year.
My room is smaller and there is bigger furniture and more of it! And all the toys and games that I have are developmentally appropriate for K and 1- not 4th.

This weekend I decided that I had to put some order into our inside recess and try to fix some of the cabin fever with OLD NEW STUFF.
NEW as in I had to purchase it.
OLD as in oldies but goodies.

So I put ALL the other recess things away and these were their choices today.
CHECKERS OR CARDS.

I bought 5 cheapo checker sets and 8 decks of cards from the Dollar Tree. This morning I laminated the boards and the rules for Checkers. And I placed the rules for 8 different card games you can play with just regular decks of cards.

Yep. You should have seen their faces when they found out these were their only choices.

The cards are in the soap containers that I used last year for crayons and the checker pieces are in the glad containers.

There are  8 sets of rules for 8 games bound together for partners to take.

And in case there are some friends (more than half) who are not sure how to play checkers (without cheating), I laminated the rules that came in the boxes.

Can you hear that? That is the sound of Organized Mandatory Fun.

Who knew that $12 and some sheet protectors could bring such peace during Inside Recess??
Even if "Life" doesn't answer my letter, I may have something to smile about come recess time tomorrow!
Hope  you're staying warm (and sane)!

Throwback Thursday Trio

I am super excited because I was asked by my friends Michelle and Fern to be a part of the Throwback Thursday Trio!   I know many of us have enjoyed the FREE packs they have shared with us from their Dynamic Duo Giveaways. They are continuing to share the love and now each week they are adding a friend (cause 2+1=3 and this week #3 is ME)!!!

 Each week, they make one of their normally priced packets free for one day.  This is their way of showing a little appreciation to followers who have loyally followed their blogs.  

I love this!!!

Click on the pic or link below to head over and get this for FREE today only!

Click HERE to download your freebie.

Just a reminder:  You will not be able to leave feedback after we change it back to a paid for lesson. 

Have a fabulous Thursday!

Hide and Keep - a Facebook Hop

Hello there! Are you ready for some fun + some great freebies + a chance to win a BIG BUNDLE with great New Year/ Winter Products??? I hope so!

All of the wonderful ladies above are participating in this game "Hide & Keep"! We did the "hiding" and you do the "keeping". We hid a  letter or number in designated freebies on our Fan Pages. Download the freebies to find them. There are 9 in all. When you have all of the letters/numbers, unscramble them to make a secret phrase. Be one of the first 10 to email me @ MissSquirrels@yahoo.com with the secret phrase and you will receive the BIG BUNDLE!

All of this fun begins tomorrow (Jan 2, 2014) @ 10:00 EST. Start on Lori's FanPage Teaching with Love and Laughter and just follow the links until you have all 9! All of the winners have been emailed - but you can still hop through the links to collect the freebies!

Good Luck! 

Christmas Card Memory Book {or It's Over}

Hello from the land of HOLIDAY DREAMS!!!

Oh, how I have enjoyed it!
Not only have I spent more time with the "immediate Squirrels", I was able to spend some time with "distant Squirrels".

Ok, so they aren't really THAT distant. In fact, they all live in town and one of them lives next door.
BUT I did get to spend the holiday in a much different way than I ever have before. And it was because of what I DIDN'T do vs. what I DID do.

This year, the Squirrels hosted the FIRST ANNUAL NOTHING!!!

It was Heaven kind of nice. We didn't have to deep clean prep the house. We didn't have to cook at all prepare any large meals. We didn't have to make nice and pretend that we weren't about to fall over dead because we were ready for everyone to leave wait on guests.

This was our first time to do things a little differently. So we didn't host anything. We traveled to my sister's (she lives next door), had some snacks, exchanged with them and my parents, and we were back home by 9:00pm!

And Christmas morning- We didn't go anywhere either!!!
We exchanged with each other and we saw what Santa had for us. Then we made a huge breakfast, played with toys, watched movies and went out for Christmas dinner. It truly was beautiful!

Not that we are trying to be unsocial squirrels-- on the contrary we are very social. "We" are also tired.
****Disclaimer- I just want to be sure that the reader knows that all "we"s aforementioned in this post actually means "ME". *****

Cause I am the one who prepares for guests and cooks and preps the house.
Who knows, maybe next year we will be on the party circuit again....but I am kinda doubting it. At least, "we" have no plans to host :)

Now that it is over though, we did have to do some big cleaning. And they were involved in that one!!!

One of the things we had to do was take down the Christmas Cards.
I love getting them in the mail! Like seriously, the whole family does. When we get home in the afternoon we are like Charlie Brown on Valentine's Day! Constantly checking the mailbox.
I love to see who sends one. I love to see how the kiddos have changed. The type of card that is sent. I love all of it- so much so that I can't bear to get rid of them.
I mean, someone took the time to write it out or take that picture or drive to the post office- i just feel like throwing it out into the trash is mean and "Un"christmas-like!
So this is what I do! I took pictures- and posted a flipagram on the fanpage earlier.

I had already take a few down before I thought to share this with you.

I stack them up- doesn't matter the size- they all just have to be opening in the same direction.

And then I bust out my 2 hole staple from the 60s !HA! And right in the middle of the "spines" I punch the holes.

I thread a yarn needle with some pretty ribbon.

And I go through all the holes. Starting from the front- that way I have ribbon to tie at the end.

When I get to the end I come back through- and I take each side and go through again- that way if it comes untied at any point it is still safe.

After I have going through twice, I tie it off into a pretty bow! And I always put our family card on top because it has the year on it !

And now I have a nice little Christmas Card book to go through. I store them with my decorations, and when next year comes I can compare pics and really see how my friends and family have grown and changed.

Here's me flipping through this year's, rereading one from My "Boo".
I {puffy heart} Boo.

Before I started doing this, in the past I would cut the fronts off of the cards and use them in the classroom for Christmas crafts and for them to use to make cards.
This was all before I realized all the love that comes in a card. Also before I realized how much freakin effort goes into getting them photographed, printed, addressed, stamped, and mailed. Now they are considered Christmas Gold!


So yes, the making of a Christmas Card Memory Book means that it's over. It means the decorations are on their way back into the attic. Goodbye Little Squirrels! Calm down! They are just ornaments.
Ornaments! Ornaments!

You didn't think I was putting MY Squirrels in the attic ? :)

Ha! Ha!
Hope you have had fabulous celebrations- whether you were guest or host!

I would love to hear what you do with your Christmas Cards once the season is over- tell us in the comments below!