Back to School!

Sorry I've been MIA for so long! Back to school time means back to doing nothing but getting the classroom and curriculum ready and surviving the first couple weeks! Well, as you can see, I did survive the first week! Whew! As some of you know, I switched from teaching 1st-3rd grade to teaching 4th-6th grade. It's proved to be quite a change, and though I am enjoying it, it comes with many new challenges. One such challenge being that a sticker or stamp is not really a meaningful reward anymore. :( bummer! Instead, I am going to set up a classroom economy system and see how that works out. If you have any ideas, please share! :)

I hope to take pictures of my classroom this week. I had a great time setting it up and would love to share some of my fun little corners of the room. I also set up a class website with blogger. I'm really excited about it and have already had some parents comment on how much they like it! yay! If you are into newsletters, Teacher's Clubhouse has some super cute templates that don't have to be used just in the classroom! I'll be back soon to post some of my other school files and finds that you might enjoy.

Until then, I'm off to grade papers and make more classroom materials! It's a never ending job that I really do love! (I also love help, so if you are interested...)

Wordless Wednesday

Sip & See for Manny!

For anyone who does not already know, I love to throw parties! I don't often get the chance to host them, but when I do, my creative juices just can't stop flowing! One of my very close friends, Sarah, had a beautiful baby boy named Emanuel William Martin this past May. Isn't he a total cutie?!

Sarah and I worked together as teachers in Waco. Sadly, she moved away so we hardly get to see each other. Since she still has many Waco friends, and I couldn't wait to meet the new baby, I threw her a Sip & See party with another friend. Here are some of the details of the party. The invitations, hanging ornaments, and all the other things made of paper were made on my computer using mostly the Monkey Do Kit from DesignerDigitals. Anything else not in that kit was made with other digital scrapbooking items from that site.

Invitations:
I forgot to take a picture of the invitations so here is the digital form of them. On the left is the invite; the banana was loose inside the envelope, which is on the right.

Gift and Favors Table:
All the frames were dollar store frames that we painted. The monkey jar was for people to write down messages for the baby and mommy (jar and materials were 50% off at Hobby Lobby). The "I am a Child of God" was also found at Hobby Lobby for half off! The favor bottles and boxes were found at a local party supply store, and we filled them with blue jelly beans and yellow banana runts. Yum! The info-pops were made with the digital scrapbooking kit (those are the decorations that look like big popsicles).

Food Table:
This was a very popular table! ;) The cupcake decorations were mini versions of the large info-pops. I ran them through my Xyron sticker machine (a must have for scrapbookers) and them stuck two together with a toothpick in between. They worked and looked great! The water bottle labels were one of my favorite decorations. I made the labels, printed them out, ran them through the sticker machine and then stuck them over the label already on the bottles...super easy and added a very nice touch to the table!

Party Decorations:

I wanted to hang as many pictures of Manny as I could, since he's such a cute kid and all, so I hung various pictures from ribbon which was draped across the ceiling. I also hung letters across the windows to spell out his name. I pieced together a few pictures to get a close up, that's why the long picture looks a little funny.

I hope you enjoyed checking out Manny's Sip & See as much as I enjoyed throwing it! Here's a picture of me, Sarah, and Manny (I think he's busy watching SpongeBob in this pic.) Can't wait to see them again soon!! :)

First Post!

Well, I've finally made it to the blogging world! Thank you Sarah for all the encouragement and help getting started! I decided to become a blogger since I have so many family members and friends who are out of town, and let's face it, keeping up with each other is tough no matter how hard you try.

My blog posts will mostly be about things going on in the Grygar household, crafty projects I undertake, and family/friend events that are too good not to share! I promise not to spend my time telling you how many hours of sleep I got or what I ate for dinner (unless I cooked it- that's an event worth documenting!)

I hope you enjoy the site and the updates! If you blog, I would love to keep up with you too! :)