Happy Birthday Brent!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, wonderful husband! Brent turns 26 today! I'm so thankful to be married to my best friend and have the chance to spend my life with him. Brent is such a wonderful person and always makes me feel special! He is a great teacher and will be a wonderful Dad one day! I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays together! Happy Birthday Brent!

Birthday Cookout and Birthday Surprise

This weekend we celebrated Brent's birthday with our friends. All our friends came over on Saturday night and we ate BBQ. It was cooler outside, so we were able to spend most of the time outside that evening.

I gave Brent his first birthday present on Friday evening. I've secretly been working on getting a cornhole set made for Brent. Once it was made, my Dad and I painted it and Mom and I finished putting the tiger paw on the board. It looked really great! I brought them home on Friday so Brent and his friends could play on Saturday. Brent loved the gift, but being sneaky like he is, he already knew he was getting them. Oh well for the surprise! At least we get to take them to the games this season! I'm looking forward to getting good at cornhole!

I said Yes!

2 years ago today, Brent and I got engaged in Charleston! It is definitely one of my favorite days! We were visiting Charleston for the weekend for Brent's birthday. Little did I know, Brent and Candice had planned a wonderful surprise. We spent the day at the beach and then got ready to go out to eat. Brent wanted to eat out on Folly, but I did not. I decided since it was birthday I would let him get his way. On our way to Folly, we started going the opposite way of the restaurant. I started to have a feeling what was about the happened. We walked out on the beach and there was a monogrammed towel that said "Will you Marry Me?" covered with roses! It was beautiful! One of the best parts of the day was calling our family and friends. My mom knew the whole time, but played it up so well! We spent the night going out with our friends in Charleston. Candice gave me the cutest shirt that I still wear today! August 29, 2009 will always be such a special day to me. So happy that "I said yes"!

Back to School Treats

I love finding cute back to school treats for my students and teacher friends. This year I found the cutest Back to School Poem for Open House. I made a snack mix and then put the poem on the bag. Here's the link to the original poem. I just typed the poem out on different paper. The kids really liked it!

I also made 2 cute treats for the 1st day of school. Since we have a candy theme, I filled a toilet paper roll with candy and wrapped it with wrapping paper. It looked like a big piece of candy! For the teachers, I put sharpies and smarties in a bag and wrote "I hope your class is sharp and smart this year!"

I've found so many cute teachers gifts on Pinterest! I'll definitely spoil my child's teacher one day!

The Weekend!

After a full week of school, we were exhausted on Friday night! I think I slept a combination of 14 hours from Friday afternoon until Saturday. On Saturday we had the big reveal at Real Deal and then we celebrated Papa's birthday with everyone. On Sunday, I spent the day writing a paper and then we celebrated all the kids' birthday. They were so cute with their cakes! It was a great weekend of rest and I definitely got recharged for the school week. Next weekend...Brent's birthday!

Celebrating at Nana and Papa's

And the Winner is........

Us! Brent and I have been very fortunate this week to win 2 really cool things! First, Brent was selected to purchase Masters practice round tickets. He entered on their website and was really excited to be selected. We can't wait to go in April!

Secondly, Brent and I won the Ultimate Room Makeover at Real Deals! We entered the contest about a month ago and then last week they called and told us we won! We're going to get our guest room redecorated! We get paint, new linens, and a giftcard from Real Deal. The decorating team is going to come and redo our room! Since I've decorated the rest of the house, I'm excited to let someone else do the work. We are so excited! I feel so lucky! Check back soon for before and after pictures.

1st Day of School

This Tuesday was our first day of school! It's hard to believe how fast the summer went by this year! I was excited to meet my new group of students and see all my wonderful teacher friends. It's hard to believe that I'm starting my 4th year of teaching 3rd grade. My kids have been great this week and I'm looking forward to a great year. I made Brent take a picture of me that morning even though it looks a little cheesy. All the 3rd grade teachers wore aprons with cupcakes on them that  my Mom made. We were super cute! 

Sweet Classroom

This year the theme for 3rd grade was Sweets/Candy. It was challenging at first to think of ideas, but it ended up being really cute. I've enjoyed doing sweets because it uses lots of pink and is really cute! Here's a little preview of my classroom. I chose to do a Candyland theme and an ice cream theme with an awning. I added lots of new crafts to my classroom this year. I'll show my updates soon.

Back to School...for teachers

Today is the first day of school for teachers. I cannot believe the summer has come to an end. It went by so fast! I'm excited about starting a new year. I love the people I work with and I really enjoy getting new kids each year. I'm really going to miss my kids from last year. One of my favorite things is seeing my old kids on the first day of school. They are always so excited to see me. This year our classroom theme is sweets/candy. I really like how I decorated my room. More pictures to come this week.

I've already made some cute treats for my kids. I made their birthday bags this week and a first day treat. I took a toilet paper roll and stuffed it with candy. Then I wrapped it in wrapping paper and tied it off like a piece of candy. I really like them.

Brent is starting his first year teaching too. We've been trying to get his room ready and we spent last night shopping for more school supplies. It's been lots of fun!

Party, Party, Party!

There have been lots of parties going on with the Jacksons lately. The beginning of August has been very busy. Between finishing up a graduate class and starting to decorate my room, we've been really busy.

The 3rd grade teachers all came over for a little party last week. We had a great time laughing and spending time together. I made some really cute things for the party that I found on Pinterest. We had a popcorn cake that was so good. Here's the recipe I used, here. Also, we had popsicles with champagne. They were really yummy.

We had the kids over again for a slumber party. They stayed up really late and we went shopping for their birthday the next day. They loved playing with the photo props and taking funny pictures.

This past weekend, Grayson celebrated her 1st birthday! It's hard to believe it's been one year! Jenilyn and Matt hosted a wonderful pink and green bash! Jenilyn had a lot of great crafty projects too! The food and cake were great! We also had a great time playing cornhole. Grayson was so cute!

More parties are just around the corner.....