Memorial Day Weekend

I am so fortunate to live 15 minutes from our nation's capital and there is NO better time to take advantage of that than Memorial Day and the 4th of July. We spent the BEAUTIFUL weekend cheering on DC's respective sports teams and had a great time enjoying the long weekend and sunny weather!

On Saturday, Andy and I went to a soccer double header at RFK Stadium. As a former soccer player, I love going to watch any games I can get in. I have been a big DC United fan since they began major league soccer in 1996. I try to get to a couple of games every season. I used to follow the local women's professional team, the Washington Freedom, a few years ago. Unfortunately, the women's league was disbanded for several years due to lack of finances. However, this year it made it's comeback! I am so excited to have the Washington Freedom back in action! To gain some publicity for the league, the Freedom and DC United have agreed to several double-header matches at RFK and this weekend just happened to be the first one. I somehow convinced Andy to go to both games with me. We had a blast! The Washington Freedom won 2-1 and DC United got yet another tie on their season at 0-0. It was a nice way to spend a sunny Saturday in D.C.







On Sunday, we kept it in the sports world and headed to Nationals Park for a Nats-O's game. The Nationals were hosting the Baltimore Orioles for the Memorial Day weekend. I grew up going to O's games because it was the closest MLB team to where I grew up. When Washington finally got a team several years ago, EVERYONE I know stopped cheering for the O's and became Nationals fans. Now, I will cheer for the Nats and support them on most days because they play in the NL and the O's are in the AL. However, when the "Battle of the Beltway" begins, I am all O's. My Dad has become a big Nats fan so we decided we wanted to head to the game on Sunday and Andy decided to tag along. Nationals Park is a fantastic stadium with great atmosphere, delicious food and just a great ballpark for a baseball game. Dad got us great tickets right by first base. We had so much fun heckling each other during the game! Although my O's took the first 2 games of the series on Friday and Saturday, they unfortunately lost the game I went to. So Dad had some fun giving me a hard time for the loss. All in all though, we had a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend in Washington D.C.!

My 25th Birthday

"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear meee, happy birthday to ME!"

Yesterday, I officially turned the big 2-5. And boy did I have fun celebrating it! For all my worries about feeling old, I STILL don't feel a day over 21 :)

My celebrations began on Friday at work where my fabulous co-workers threw me a party! I am so lucky to work with such great, caring individuals. Here's a few shots from my celebration!




This is the AWESOME shirt my co-teacher made for me. It's made out of 25 $5 bills and 25 cent quarter as the buttons. All in honor of my 25th! How creative!

Saturday night, my best friends and I arranged a delicious dinner at the Melting Pot in Washington D.C. It was such a great way to spend some time with a small group of my best friends over a delicious meal before heading to my big party afterwards.





After a GREAT dinner, we headed right down the street to a bar called Rumors. I had never been there before but it was so close and seemed like fun. We all ended up having a FANTASTIC night! I was so overwhelmed by all the people that came out to help me celebrate! I truly have the best friends ever!







On Sunday, my actual birthday, I spend the day with my family. I opened presents from my parents and from Andy and we ordered in my favorite pizza! Stuffed crust extra cheese pizza from Pizza Hut is the BEST! What a great way to welcome in 25!




Thank you to all my fabulous friends who made my 25th a birthday to remember! Here's to a great 25th year for us all!

Teacher Appreciation Week

This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week... and let me tell you, there is NO better time to be a teacher! Not only do schools find fun and creative ways to thank teachers, but a lot of stores offer great sales and discounts for teachers! I wanted to share some of the beautiful things my school and my students "appreciated" me with this week!

Monday

Monday is an early dismissal day in elementary schools in Fairfax County. So, our fabulous PTA invited ALL of the staff to join them for a luncheon at a local restaurant. We went to Eggspectations and it was great! Delicious food, fun with co-workers, and all FREE!


Tuesday

On Tuesday, the PTA donated lots of delicious food for a continental breakfast set-up in our teacher's lounge. I love breakfast foods so I was pretty excited about all the choices!





Wednesday



Wednesday was candy day! We received little pieces of candy in our mailboxes throughout the day. They were each labeled with a cute, encouraging message such as: "Brookfield teachers are out of this world" (Milky Way), "Thanks for making our kids such smarties" (Smarties candy), "Great teachers keep poppin' up at Brookfield" (Popcorn), "You are worth a mint to us" (Candy mints), "Thank you for going the extra mile" (Extra gum). Yum!

Thursday

Our office staff catered another delicious continental breakfast with casseroles, bagels, donuts, and fruit. Did I mention that I love breakfast foods?! Then after school, the PTA set-up an ice cream social in our cafeteria! Everyone was given a banana in their mailbox with a letter requesting that we don't "split" after school and join them for some ice cream! Well, I never say no to ice cream!



Friday

On our last day of teacher appreciation week, many of my students brought in beautiful bouquets of flowers, cards, and small gifts. Take a look at my loot!



The PTA also had one final gift for us... gift cards! All of the teachers were randomly given a $20 gift card to either Target, Barnes & Noble, Red Robin, or Chipotle. I was so excited when I opened my gift and saw I had received...



I LOVE chipotle! Hopefully I'll get to enjoy the $20 but I have a feeling some of this gift card will be spent on Andy as well. All in all, a GREAT week to be a teacher! :)