Spring Break- Part 1

Spring Break is officially underway!!! Ryan and I are enjoying our time off together and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of summer. We are so blessed to have this opportunity to spend time with each other. There is nothing more important to me than this man- He is my everything!Last week, I was awarded by my principal. I received the honor of "Above and Beyond" staff member. It was in front of the entire school board. I was really surprised! Sorry the picture is kind of blurry...

Here I am waiting nervously. My principal talked about the extra-curriculars I am involved in, and the contributions I have made to my school's English as a Second Language Program.

Here is the plaque I received. It is hanging up in my classroom now.

My friend/co-worker Amanda was awarded with "Innovative Project Work." We were the only two staff members to receive awards. It was very flattering to be acknowledged.

Speaking of project work, Amanda's first grade class did a project on "Community." They decided to create and run a Mexican restaurant in their classroom. Since I co-teach in her room for an hour and a half each day, I did some writing with them prior to the big event. Each child had to tell about their job, what role they had and how they felt about their position. Here it is displayed on the wall.

Here is her classroom turned restaurant. They named it "Comida Buena" (Good Food). Isn't it adorable? The kids invited their parents and staff members to their restaurant for lunch. Each child was assigned a particular job. Jobs included host/hostess, waiter/waitress, cooks and clean-up.

I brought some sheers from my house, and we converted her sink area into the kitchen.I helped the "cooks" plate up tacos and nachos for their restaurant. They were so cute- when an order was ready, they would ring a bell and shout, "Order Up!" They had such a great time. The kids were just darling and really loved this authentic learning experience. Here I am with some of my co-workers. We went out after school on Friday to celebrate the start of Spring Break! On Saturday, we had a few friends over for a bar-be-que. Here is our pal April and her son Kaden. It was Kaden's 8th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Kaden!!! Ahhhhhh to be 8 again... On Monday, we drove down south near Bloomington to check out Oliver Winery with Amanda and her husband, Dave. It was a beautiful day! Oliver Winery is the largest and oldest winery in Indiana. The grounds are sooooo lovely!!! I have been wanting to visit this winery since we moved here... I am a huge fan of Oliver wine. It is sooooo delicious!

You can picnic by the pond. It was still kind of chilly, but we sat out by the picnic table to soak up some rays regardless...

Pretty day...

Mmmmmm wine! We bought and drank a bottle there and purchased a Riesling to enjoy at home....

After the winery, we hit up a local brewery. The guys got some samplers to try out.

Spring Break is underway and we are enjoying EVERY minute! We are in heaven soaking up this BEAUTIFUL weather... 70 degrees and above the remainder of the week and 80 degrees this weekend!!! WOO-HOO!!! Happy Easter everyone!!! We love and miss you all!!! Until next time...xo

FINALLY!!!

The sun FINALLY made an appearance this weekend!!!! We were both so happy to do something outdoors. Ryan decided to go golfing and I went along for the ride! Here is a shot of Morse Reservoir on our way to the course....

We went to Bear Slide. It is only about 7 minutes away from our house in the town of Cicero.

Ahhhhhh sunlight, how we've missed you!!! xo

The morning started out just lovely. The skies were blue, the sun was shining.....but we had one, small problem-

The WIND!!!!! It was soooooooooooo cold when the wind decided to blow!!! Check out these goose-bumps!!! I had to make a trip to the car to put on my jeans once we were ready to hit the back 9. Once I had my jeans on, I was warm again and able to enjoy the surroundings. I love golf courses. I wish we lived on one. Maybe one day... This was Ryan's first time out in 2010. He shot an 88. Not too shabby... Aren't these plants weird looking? I totally thought they were birds at first glance. Strange, huh? As the day progressed, the weather got crappier and my dreams of a sunshiny day came to an end....BOOOOOO!!! Oh well, at least it was still pretty to look at... Hi Ryan! Coming up on the tee box... We had a great day. I love Ryan so much. I am glad he took me along for the ride. I REALLY want to learn to golf so we can play together!!! On the home-front, we went to Michael's for some arts and craft ideas for the wine corks I have been collecting since we moved here. Some of my faithful, wine-o neighbors have contributed to my collection-Thanks, girls!!! The first thing we bought was this GIANT wine glass to hold all future corks..

Then we debated about making a wreath, trivet or coasters...We ended up buying a shadow box and creating our own cork artwork. Here is Ryan sorting corks and pondering a cool design..

Here is the finished product... TA-DAH!!! We were originally going to hang it up somewhere, but decided we liked it better on the counter, so this is where it will reside (at least for now). Our new artwork has inspired us to not only continue collecting corks, but also bottle tops. We think we may be able to incorporate them into the bar we will be building in the loft this summerDo you always end up buying stuff you did not set out to purchase??? Us too!!!! Welllllll....at Michael's, we came across this wine painting and it went so well with our giant wine glass and cork display....Soooooo, we bought it. I know, self control is not a strong point of ours.

It does however go real well with our decor and fills up that empty space on our wall quite nicely... Too bad our wine rack is not filled. I wonder where all the bottles went, hmmmmm???It looks kind of pathetic, huh???

On Sunday, we decided to explore our town a little more. We drove out to the "square" in Historic Downtown Noblesville to have a late breakfast.

We love this area. It is full of mom and pop shops and restaurants. Some of the buildings are from the 1800's! We ended up trying out the Uptown Cafe. It was FANTASTIC!!! It was small, but had a BIG personality! It was decorated shabby-chic and had a grill right behind the counter with a short order cook busily frying away! Check out Ryan's breakfast- A Mega-Miller Sandwich (buttermilk biscuit, hash browns, cheese, tomato, spinach, bacon and jalapeno jelly)! It was to die for!!!! I had peanut butter-chip pancakes that were delish as well. I think we found our "regular breakfast hangout" for Sunday Funday!!! After we filled our bellies with that delicious, fatty, high-caloric goodness, we went for a walk around the old courthouse. Check out these bricks set in the sidewalk. Aren't they neat looking? I LOVE our courthouse. The architecture is so interesting. It reminds me of the movie, Back to the Future. There is a small monument right outside the courthouse that pays homage to fallen war heroes from Hamilton County. Here is Ryan paying his respects. Next time you hear from us, we will be on Spring Break!!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! Then on April 17th, we will have two teachers from Mexico that we will host at our home for 2 weeks. This is a program through Ryan's high school. I am soooo excited to practice my Espanol!!! Until next time...xo