I'm back...and I've got BIG news!

I'm back! Has it really been five whole months since I've blogged? Wow! This has really been a hectic year. Just a few weeks ago, I finished my first year teaching in the NYC DOE. As many of you know, I helped start up a brand new school this year. There are so many words that could describe this school year...exciting, challenging, fun, educational, exhausting! Mostly, it was just an amazing experience being able to start from scratch and build a school along with such an awesome team. We all work so well together and I hope that dynamic doesn't change too much as we grow and add new staff. I'm really enjoying this time off, but I'm already looking forward to our second year. We've got a new principal coming in and we are going to more than double in size. I'm excited and anxious to see what the next year brings us.

Here are some (belated) photos from our last day of school. We had an adorable red carpet celebration, inspired by Pinterest of course. The kids had a blast! I handed out a different award to each child along with a trophy. The kids sat in the audience and applauded for each other as they walked up the carpet to receive their awards. They even gave each other high fives with their little trophies. It was so cute! This was so simple to pull off...a roll of red paper along with some plastic cups, balloons, and tablecloths from the dollar store...and it looks like a million bucks! Parents donated the snacks and the cute little high five trophies. We had some awesome class parents this year! I'm sad that the year is over, and I am already missing those cuties!

I also graduated in May and received my masters in Literacy from Teachers College at Columbia University. FINALLY!!! It feels so great to be done! Although I will be receiving my Literacy Specialist certification, I fully plan to stay in the classroom with the kids. That's where my heart truly belongs. So don't worry, I'm not leaving you guys!

My husband and I at my graduation

And finally...the BIG exciting news. Drum roll...a new baby Ricca is on the way!!! I'm due December 8th! We are so excited and blessed to welcome this new addition to our family. Here are a few photos from our announcement photo shoot. All photos were taken by my husband or my husband + a tripod :)

As you can see, a LOT has been going on in my life! So, I hope you will understand why I haven't been more attentive to this poor little blog. I'm trying to get myself back into blogging more regularly because it's something I love to do and it's really become part of who I am. Plus I just miss all of you here in the blogging world! I'm working on a couple of other posts at the moment and I will be hosting some sort of giveaway very soon if I can figure out how to make that work! See you all soon <3