Goodbye, Summer!

It seemed only fitting that I join up with Sheree @ Peterson's Pad for her Goodbye Summer Linky Party today because I got my Back to School letter with my class list and teacher workshop schedule from my principal. When I see that envelope from my school come in the mail each August, that always seems to make it official that summer is coming to an end and I can no longer live in denial that school is about to begin... That being said, I feel like I had an awesomely productive summer and I'm quite excited for this new school year, so with no further ado...

Here are the rules: Share four things about your summer!

1. A place you visited

2. A book you read (for school or fun)

3. Something you did or made for your school class

4. Something fun you did

Then comment on the two links before you and one after you!

1. For our first anniversary, we visited St. Croix Falls, WI. That's the St. Croix River in the background, it's really quite beautiful :).

2. I read a lot of curriculum books for 6th grade to study up for my move from 2nd grade up to 6th! I also caved and read the Hunger Games Trilogy, ha...

(Ok, so that Math in Focus text is actually for 5th grade but I couldn't find a pic of the 6th grade text!)

3. Well something I did for my class was a lot of studying! I've made quite a few things to decorate my classroom in the past couple weeks like posters for the classroom economy magazine files to hold my daily plans, a writing process clip chart, and the list goes on...but you will have to check back next week to see pics! I was in my classroom ALL DAY today and made tons of progress, just not quite ready for any revealing pics quite yet.

4. Something fun I did this summer is that I spent a lot of time putting things together in my house! My husband and I just built a house- We've still got a lot of work to do, but I'll give you a little peek into how things are coming:

So there you have it, my summer in a nutshell. Make sure to visit Peterson's Pad to link up and don't forget to visit MY linky party, too, by clicking on this link: Meet the Teacher Night Linky Party by Teacher Wife. Happy new (school) year!

Sweet Summertime...for now!

Every year it is inevitable... August 1 comes around and my brain goes into back-to-school mode! It is impossible for me to separate the two from each other. My aunt and cousin are in town from Iowa staying with us right now, and we had dinner at a restaurant down the street from my school. The itch to start getting things done in my classroom came on very strong! While we don't actually start school until after Labor Day, our staff workshops start the last week of August which means less than a month of summer left... I know, I know. That's still quite a bit of time compared to some schools. My mom is a speech pathologist at a school in South Dakota and she goes back in a week. But now that August is upon us I know full well I won't last much longer before my days are being spent in my classroom organizing, decorating, lesson planning, and blog stalking :).

But in other news, I can't let the event that occurred on July 22nd pass with out mentioning it. It was our first wedding anniversary! Peter and I had a lovely time celebrating the completion of our first year together as husband and wife. We went out to St. Croix Falls in Wisconsin and did a little exploring in the town and in Taylors Falls as well. We also went to Interstate Park along the St. Croix river and hiked along through the forest and along the river up to Lookout Point. Quite beautiful! We are so very fond of being by the water, so it was only fitting to include that in our celebration.

I made the poor life decision of wearing heels and a skirt.... Fail! I didn't know that our excursion was going to include such extensive hiking! :)

One wonderful year together! You are so wonderful to me and I am so lucky to have you. Love you, pickle!  Cheers to many more.

We had dinner at a fabulous little restaurant called Grecco's on the St. Croix right in the heart of the town. After arriving, we found out that it was their annual town celebration complete with street dancing, music, and a giant parade making it nearly impossible to get anywhere we were trying to go. We parked a little ways away and enjoyed the small town charm during our stroll down Washington Street before locating the restaurant. It was DELICIOUS! They make everything from scratch and have a completely new menu each week. We sat out on the patio overlooking the river and watched the sunset as we ate and enjoyed some sangria. Perfect :). 

After arriving home from Wisconsin and watching the Bachelorette finale with our neighbors, we had to partake in the tradition of eating the top layer of our wedding cake...

The cake was pink champagne with raspberry filling. We ended up making a giant mess because the frosting was quite disgusting so we pulled it all off and just ate the cake part. It was actually pretty good! :)

All in all, a lovely time!