Flashback: Murder Mystery Party

A while ago, Daniel and I got invited to a murder mystery birthday party hosted by Ben and Emily Hawker. The theme of the party was "Murder at the Deadwood Saloon." It was one of the best parties We've ever been to! We each got assigned a role to play for the night, and we had to use the information we were given to find out who the murderer was. 

When we voted on who we thought the murderer was, Billy the Bartender (aka Daniel) ended up getting the most votes even though he was innocent! (I think it had something to do with the creepy moustache). The true culprit was the birthday boy himself - my "father" Montgomery Money! This party was so much fun, Daniel and I decided we have to have another one soon.

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Confessions of a Teacher-in-Training: That time I survived student teaching!!

I can hardly believe I am sitting here, writing a post about how I actually finished student teaching. I can still remember exactly how I felt just a few days before I met my students. And so much has changed since that day in April when we met the "survivors" of last year's cohort to discuss the wild ride we were in for. I remember looking at them and thinking: "Wow. These people are amazing. What was their secret to getting through this so successfully? They must know so much more then me." They were my pretty much my idols. I wanted to be them someday. And now, it's surreal to think that I am. 

Were there moments I thought I wouldn't make it? 

Yes. 

Did I feel like giving up sometimes? 

Definitely. 

But overall, was it worth all of the time and hard work I put into it?

Without a doubt.

On a different note, I am going to miss my students so much. The photos above are from the "photobooth" I set up for my going-away party on my last day. Let me tell you - it was a blast! The students thought it was the greatest thing ever. I bought a bunch of props from the dollar store, and set up my camera on a tripod. I loved this idea even more after I saw all the pictures. It was the perfect way for me to remember each of my students and their unique personalities. I had a truly amazing class this year. In some ways, I feel like they taught me far more than I taught them. And I won't ever, ever forget them.

So watch out world...I'm going to be a teacher!!

P.S. Remember how excited I was when I found out what grade I would be student teaching? Also, here's a post about my first two days of student teaching, a mid-semester update, and a couple of funny stories along the way here and here.

P.P.S Stay tuned to see the little craft I made for my students to say goodbye! I'll give you a hint - it involves owls!

A Christmas Potluck.

Can I just say how much I love the people I'm doing my student teaching with? I've laughed harder than I have in a long time at our late-night study groups and I've seriously had to kick my cooking skills up a few notches this semester to keep up with them at our amazing potlucks. You see, potlucks are kind of our thing. So, naturally, we decided to have a Christmas potluck and movie night to celebrate the end of the semester. My parents were kind enough to let me volunteer their house for our party, because let's be honest, 10+ people wouldn't have a prayer of fitting in our one-bedroom apartment. So there you have it, my first-ever Christmas potluck!

It was so much fun! I borrowed my mom's Christmas china and made centerpieces to make it extra-festive. The food everyone brought was a-maz-ing! For my contribution, I made these bacon-wrapped chicken bites I found on Pinterest, and warm artichoke dip using my mom's recipe. All of the fun Christmas decorations you see were already up. (I love how my mom decorates for Christmas, especially because it reminds me of Christmas growing up!)

After we ate (and ate and ate...) we watched the movie Freedom Writers. That movie makes me want to be the best teacher in the world! If you haven't seen it, there's this one scene where the teacher has her students make a "toast for change" at the end of the year. At the end of the movie, one of my friends busted out Martinelli's and little glasses for us to make our own toasts for the coming year! It was the perfect end to a perfect evening.

The Nativity

We Sorensens go all-out for the Christmas Eve nativity.

Can you tell?

Hope you had a fantastic Christmas!

I've already put away all of our Christmas decorations - can you believe it? Does that make me a Scrooge? Don't get me wrong, I love our Christmas tree (and its box, and all of the other decorations) but they were all taking up too much space over here and making me feel a little bit claustrophobic. But I can breathe now! Woo hoo! Bring on the new year.

birthday.

 A few weeks ago, we celebrated my 22nd birthday with a wonderful mix of chinese take out, family, friends, flowers, presents, and ice cream pie. (I'm not a big fan of cake, so my mom has made me ice cream pies for my birthday ever since I was little!) It was such a fun, relaxing evening. Aren't those flowers from D so beautiful? They really reminded me of fall.

Also, can you believe I got this fortune in my fortune cookie on my birthday? What could be better?!

I really wish I had brought my camera to school on my birthday. My darling (and very sneaky) 6th graders found out it was my birthday, and they threw me my first ever surprise party! They all hid under their desks after we came back from lunch, and they jumped out and yelled "SURPRISE!" They even brought cake and presents!! My favorite part was the sweetest handmade card they presented to me after the party. It started out as just one folded piece of paper, but more kids wanted to sign it so they stapled more paper onto the back. The notes my students wrote me almost made me cry! They were all so sweet.

The next day, D and I went out to dinner at Tucanos with friends. If you haven't been, it's one of our favorites! It just so happens that I share a birthday with our friend Laird, and Emma's birthday is only one day later! 

I've known Emma since elementary school, and our husbands just so happen to be best friends too! She gave me the sweetest shout out on her blog for my birthday, so I wanted to send her a little love as well. All the pictures she posted are exactly how I remember high school, and she's in every single one. We truly have been through everything together. I love this girl so much! 

 Daniel & John

 Laird & Daniel

It was an excellent triple-birthday bash. We ate way too much meat at Tucanos, and then carved some  awesome pumpkins together. My favorite is John's white pumpkin carved like Jack Skellington - how cool is that?!

Thanks everyone for all of your sweet birthday wishes. I felt so loved! I have the best friends and family in the world!

Halloween

D and I had a fabulous Halloween this year. As you can see, we went to our parties dressed as SWAT and CSI! Yay for homemade costumes! In case you haven't gotten your costume fix yet, here are some of our fabulous friends from the ward party we went to:

From top to bottom: An army man, Captain Hook and Tinkerbell, an 80's girl and a mullet man, Puff the Magic Dragon and Batman, and some ninja children, belonging to Puff and Batman. Regrettably not pictured are a pair of awesome Waldos and a fantastic Lady Gaga. We had such a fun time! The ward party was also very nicely documented on Sydney's cute blog, in case you'd like to see more pictures!

We also carved some sweet pumpkins, of course.

Can you guess who's is who's?

How was your Halloween? What did you dress up as?