Five for Friday- July 31st

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for her Five For Friday link up.

I missed last week's Five for Friday and we've been busy busy soaking up every moment of summer fun we can.  Our former next door neighbors moved to New York in December and they were in for a long weekend visit.  We had so much fun hanging out with them and miss them so much.  Our friends treated the neighbor boys to some jump time at Helium Trampoline Park.  The boys sweated up a storm jumping around and rock climbing.

Rock Climbing

Neighborhood Boys

Every night the big boys slept at one house and the little boys slept at a different house.  We had the big boys on Friday night and the little ones on Sunday.  This is such an awesome group of boys and I'm so glad my boys have the opportunity to grow up in such an amazing neighborhood with great kids and parents (and you can see there are an abundance of boys).  There are four houses right by each other that each have three boys!

Breakfast is served

One of the best things about summer is getting to have leisurely lunches (not 30 min long like during the school year) with girlfriends.  I met my friend Laura at Cafe Lulu recently and my friend Charla at The Horny Goat.  I have been making the most of the gorgeous summer weather (finally) and dining al fresco every chance I get.  I also love getting to have brunch with my husband and boys and went back to The Horny Goat.  Bay View has so many great restaurants and we are indulging this summer.

Cafe Lulu-Bloody Mary with light chaser

Cafe Lulu-Chips and Blue Cheese Dip

The Horny Goat-Strawberry arugula salad with salmon

Horny Goat-Bloody Mary and Triple X mimosa

Horny Goat-Cinnamon rolls

Horny-Goat-Crab cake benedict

We are quickly running out of time to hit all the restaurants we want for the Nackel Boy's Summer Lunch Tour 2015.  I let each of the boys pick two restaurants to have lunch at.  Of course they only picked one that is right near where we live.  It's been hard finding time to hit these restaurants with basketball, football, and lacrosse camps!  #3 was Mitchell's Fish Market in Brookfield.  The boys love their calamari and clam chowder, as well as, their fish and chips and shrimp.

Mitchell's Fish Market

Ben went to Badger State Lacrosse Camp last week.  We've heard nothing but great things about this camp so we signed him up this summer.  He also attended the shooting mini camp.  He roomed with his good friend Shaun and knew lots of friends and teammates from his summer tournament team.  He had an absolute blast.   It was such a fun and worthwhile experience for him, even though I missed him being gone that long.  I don't know what I will do in two years when he leaves for college.  It sort of felt like foreshadowing of that, when we dropped him off.  Didn't I just bring that my baby boy home from the hospital?!  I could not believe how teeny tiny the dorm rooms were.  I don't know how I ever survived living in a room this small for a year (although I think our dorm rooms at Eau Claire were a bit bigger and definitely had better storage!).

Saying Good-byes 

Dorm room for the week

Next week's recap will be all about our Door County vacation we are currently enjoying.  We left a few days ago and stopped at Starbucks to pick up some breakfast.  I seem to always being doing some sort of professional reading on my many road trips.  I recently got this book and LOVE it!  It is geared toward grades 6-8 which is really helpful.  I was not a math major in college (Eled/Spanish double major) so this book is a great resource for me. I started out with the chapter on proportional reasoning because we start the school year studying ratios and proportional relationships.  

Soy peppermint mocha and professional reading for the win

Hope you are all enjoying the lazy days of summer.  Before you know it we'll all be back in school!

Five for Friday- July 17th

 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her  Five for Friday linky party.  It's a great way to meet lots of new teachers.

Last Friday was my birthday and my husband and I went out to dinner at Joey Gerard's to celebrate. We shared two entrees and I got a complimentary birthday dessert. The food there is always excellent and we really enjoyed ourselves.

We split the Filet Mignon.

We also split the crab stuffed lobster.

Schaum torte is my favorite.

Sunday was my adorable nephew's 2nd birthday party.  My oldest son had a LAX tournament in IL so he and my husband were unable to attend.  My younger two had a blast hanging out with their cousins.  The party was so much fun and I cannot believe how big my sweet niece and nephew are getting.  Love spending time with all these kiddos and the rest of my family.

All the cousins minus my oldest son who was in IL for a LAX tourney.

Later that evening I had a two hour massage.  It was pure bliss.  Perfect way to end an incredible weekend.

My happy place.

The other night my middle son had his final baseball game of the season.  I was only able to see three games this season because of LAX or BB conflicts from my other two.  After the game we headed over to Sonic for some dinner.  We were in two cars because my husband coaches so he and Drew left much earlier than Ben, Cooper, and me.  I have to say that every time I order food from a drive through it is such a fiasco and this night was no exception.  We must have changed our order 6 times before we were done.

Separate cars meant we ordered separately.

Today was a momentous occasion in our household.  My oldest son Ben got his Driver's License this morning.  He turned 16 in Feb, but didn't take Drivers Ed until Jan, so he had to have his temps for 6 months before he could get his license.  I asked him why he didn't smile for his photo and he said, "If I ever get pulled over do you think I will be smiling?"  LOL The boys got a point!

A new driver in the family.

My parents graciously let us use their car for his test because I have a minivan with a back up camera and evidently you are not allowed to use it for the test.  Ben felt more comfortable parking with the smaller vehicle.  We met my parents for lunch at Cheesecake Factory and then exchanged back our vehicles.   I swear I took some photos with Ben and my mom, but after we left they were not on my phone.  I am completely baffled by what happened to the photos.  Luckily I took a few on her phone.  After lunch I took one with Ben and my dad (not realizing the ones with my mom were nowhere to be found).  I have to best parents in the world and they have always been so supportive of their children and grandchildren.  I hit the lottery of parents!

Best Papa in the world.

Our former next door neighbors (who we love) are in for the weekend visiting from NY.  This evening we have a birthday party for a dear friend of ours and will all be able to hang out.  I'm looking forward to an incredible evening.  We have the best time hanging out together and our boys are great friends. Ben has his final LAX tournament of the summer tomorrow and Sunday so it will be another busy, but super fun weekend.

Five for Friday- July 10th

Happy Friday everyone.  I am linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for her Five for Friday link up.

I hit Target the other night to pick up some Tazo Passion Iced Tea.  It's the main thing I drink other than water so I tend to stock up on it and rarely run out.  Of course I happened by the Dollar Spot and found way too many things I do not need for school that were too cute to pass up.  I know I have a problem.  

Target dollar spot is my kryptonite.

My oldest son Ben is part of a LAX tournament team for the summer.  It is comprised of 7 boys from our high school and several boys from another city.  Tues. nights they practice in the other city (a good 30 min away).  It was our turn to drive this week and Cooper chose to come along and hang out with me at Starbucks while Ben practiced, because my other son had a BB game.  I was able to get my blog post written about Getting Started with Math Workshop.  Cooper was good for the first hour, but then got bored.  I think he was actually exhausted from his 3 hour basketball camp that afternoon.

My little lovebug

My favorite middie.

Yesterday I had the best afternoon.  I met up with a dear friend of mine for lunch. We taught together our first five years of teaching.  I taught 6th grade and she was the 6th grade computer teacher.  We had so many great times.  Sadly her husband passed away of cancer last December.  It was so much fun reconnecting with her, she is definitely part of some of my very favorite teaching memories (from when we were just babies starting out).  Lunching with girlfriends is definitely good for my soul!

Happy to be off to meet my friend. Someday I'll figure out how to take a selfie better.

After lunch and picking up Cooper from another day of BB camp I headed over to my coworker/friend's house to drop off a meal for her and her husband.  She went on vacation to TX and broke her leg on Day 3 so she is now laid up for basically the rest of the summer.  I signed up to bring her dinner.  The menu was crispy chicken, cheesy potatoes, and chocolate chip cookie candy bars.  This is definitely a favorite meal for my family.  Needless to say the boys were very jealous that the food was not for them.  She just had to pop the potatoes and chicken in the oven and bake.  I got the pans from the dollar store so she didn't have to worry about doing dishes or returning anything to me.

A great prep ahead meal to take to someone.

I finally wrote a blog post about How to create a font using your own handwriting.  You can see below the font I created last night.  It's just basically my handwriting.

Another font I made.

Today is my birthday and I am feeling the love from family and friends.  I've had phone calls, texts, birthday cards in the mail, and lots of FB love. I love having a summer birthday which means I get to celebrate multiple times with my family and friends.  I went out to lunch with all my boys today and tried out a new to us restaurant that was amazing.  We had calamari and frites cones (french fries) for appetizers.  I got a really yummy salad.  When we were done eating Cooper informed our waitress that today is my birthday so she brought me a piece of very decadent flourless chocolate cake.

Asian chicken chopped salad

Birthday cake

I was cracking up when I looked up to see the vultures swarming boys digging in to my cake.  I was feeling very vulnerable with them basically eating the cake over my head.  The cake was delicious and gone in a flash.

Many hands make cake disappear quickly.

I hope you are all having a great Friday.  I am having the best birthday thanks to my wonderful family.  My husband and I are going out to one of my favorite fancy restaurants tonight.  I have a very busy weekend ahead.  Tomorrow Ben has another LAX tournament in IL and Drew has a BB tournament in my hometown.  Greg coaches Drew's team so Cooper and I will be cheering Ben on.  I'm super excited for my nephew's 2nd birthday party on Sunday.  I can't wait to see him and my niece.  Drew, Cooper, and I will be going to the party and Greg will take Ben to his LAX tournament.  I'm ending the day Sunday with a two hour massage.  Looking forward to a fun, family filled weekend.