Snap. Scrap. Repeat!: between there and here

I swear we've been up to plenty. All document-able, of course.
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We celebrated Momma's birthday...

at Uncle Julio's in Lombard, where the food was absolutely yummy.

The weather was so comfortable and perfect. We ate outdoors under a bright red umbrella. BEAUTIFUL.
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Brandan got a haircut. He went from fuzzball to fine in less than 20. I still can't get over how he walks over to the barbershop on his own...

I got a haircut, too. And this was the best I could do to take a selfie...

...at 9 o'clock at night when I had to be up at 5am the next morning. I'm not a fan of mid-week appointments AT ALL.
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Way back in the early summer, I pinned THIS funky recipe to my board. Boy was it fun to serve up to the kids...

I'm not quite sure Brandan knew how to eat his lunch!
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The last full week of MY summer break, I headed back into the classroom to unpack my gypsy mess. I spent four to five hours M-W of the first week and T of the second before I had to officially return to school for meetings W-F this past week. Each day I took a kid or a Mom or a cousin to help me out. (THANK YOU Aly, Brandan, Mommy, and Jessica!!) It always starts out like a tornado...

The library area is my least favorite to pack and unpack each year.

But, I got it all put back together and am in LOVE with my desk area. The window looks out to the world just below. I love the old buildings down Broadway.

After a LONG online search for the perfect class mascot, my friend Jakki led me to find Owliver at the Pier 1 store!!

...I feel in love with those big bird looking legs immediately, and convinced myself I needed another one. Owliver and Owlivia will meet my students tomorrow!!
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My friend/colleague, Nichole taught me that 360 was available at the touch of my fingertips (i love iPhone!) so THIS is a panorama of my classroom when it was just about finished last week.
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Somewhere in all of it, we got the impromtu chance to hit a FIRE game.

...and there wasn't much more after that.
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We were hoping beyond hope that the HOT weather that we had during the week (suffocating both Chato and I in our NON AC environments) would let us head back to the beach to swim and splash, but no dice. Chato did get to hit the greens with some good friends he had not seen in a while, this morning...