Is it time?

Question: How do you know it's time to retire from teaching?
Answer: When you're only 32 and you soak your feet in warm water at nights.

It's true. After spending only the 2nd full day with my new group of kids today I came home to mow the grass. After dinner and getting everything ready for the next day, I decided to soak my feet and man did it feel great! Luckily Friday and Monday went pretty well considering there are 22 new babies in my room. However, I thought about it at the beach and now am convinced that retiring after 10 years of teaching would be just fine! :)

The Carpet

I was the lucky winner at the coaches dinner for Girls on the Run back in May. I won two free tickets to the Biltmore Estate. I originally thought I would save them, but luckily looked back at the fine print to find they had to be used soon. They could not be used anytime in December or any Saturdays during their beautiful spring flower displays. I heard on the radio that the rug of flowers was being unrolled at the Biltmore until the middle of September. So, mom jumped on the invitation to come along with me. It was quite different seeing the estate during the summer months rather than the winter season as before. It was nice to see it all from a different perspective. We walked around the ponds and gardens on the grounds; stopping by the winery on the way out.

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setting the record straight

Fixing some blunders from my previous posts:
1. Katy is actually spelled Katie.
2. I knew that sometimes there were 2 T's and sometimes not. I should have written either Matt or Mathew.

*I should have looked these up BEFORE I wrote the posts not after! Just enjoy the pictures!

Uncle Dave-o

Sadly, Uncle David wasn't able to make the beach trip this year. However, we were able to spend some time at mom and dad's house with him the Friday before we left. Saturday evening that we returned, he came over for dinner and some fun times at the park!

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's a...

Superhero birthday party! Sawyer turned 5 on Thursday, August 12th. He is super into superheros right now and wanted this type of party. So, we dressed up in our best superhero costumes for the occasion. I believe that Goodwill was really loving our family this past month! We had a storm that afternoon that knocked the power out. Luckily we were ordering pizzas for dinner upon his request. Thankfully we had already made the rest of the food earlier in the day. We had to save the appetizer and the homemade chocolate ice cream for the following night. It all turned out super fine!

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barefootin'

Thursday started out cloudy, got a little sunny early afternoon, then ended with an incredible thunderstorm that knocked out the power for a few hours. It was also Sawyer's 5th birthday! I still can't believe that my nephew is already five, but that's for a different posting. Back to the morning... a few of us took the kids to play putt-putt. Caroline was done after about hole 3, Tommy was finished around hole 9, Zoe was done around hole 11 and Sawyer could have played another round! We all made it through, had some good shots, and enjoyed a morning out amongst the dinosaurs!

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Toes in the water...

We had beautiful beach weather everyday but one. There was a no swimming flag posted Sunday and Monday the ocean was full of jellyfish. Those days were spent throwing the frisbee, burying people in the sand, building sand castles, reading on the beach, and wrestling. By Tuesday and Wednesday, the kids had all gained enough courage to venture out to the sandbar for some wave jumping. Thursday was a bit overcast but still enough sun to enjoy some afternoon beach time. We had two amazing lightening storms Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. It was hard to say goodbye to the sand as we carried the beach chairs up for the last time Friday afternoon.

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A Beach House with a Pool

The enormous beach house was rented by the Petty family to enjoy a week long vacation together at Nags Head. After driving between 5 and 7 hours Saturday, everyone had arrived by supper time. The children were still full of energy, so after dinner suits were thrown on and we all headed to the pool. While watching the kids, we knew this was going to be a week to remember. As the week progressed the kids were fearlessly jumping off the wall making great splashes into the pool.

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Shout Out!!!

This news is too good to not share!!! I'm proud to work with such a wonderful group of teachers!
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