Enchanted Forest, Oregon's Dirty Little Secret

Oregon has a dirty little secret, and it's such a great place that I must share a few of my favorite things. Today My sister and I took our kids to Enchanted Forest in Turner, Oregon. It's about an hour south of Portland, and about 15 minutes from Salem. If you live anywhere in Oregon, you MUST stop by this small amusement park at some point in your life. If you have children, it is best suited for kids age 4-7, but really any age might enjoy. My dd is 5 and I took her a couple of years back and it wasn't as amazing as it was today. I took my 14 year old son a couple of years ago and he was bored within a few minutes. I am teaching Kindergarten again this year and this would make an AMAZING field trip. Again, I really think that if you have a 5 year old, they will be in 5-year old heaven at this place.

If you can, go first thing in the morning during one of the summer months because it is likely to be cooler. There are a lot of hills so you will probably get warm fast, so bring water and a good pair of shoes. The admission is amazing for a theme park, it was $9 for kids and $10 for adults. What's even crazier, is that everything in the park is affordable. The medium sized sodas are $2, I just paid $7 at the theater(rip off!). The gift shop has lots of cheap trinkets and fun stuff to waste your money on. If you give your child a 5-dollar bill they will be able to get most anything in the shop. The food was reasonable as well, $2.65 for a nacho-WOWZERS! Totally not worth packing a lunch and hauling it around all day. There are two other restaurants onsite as well. One is outdoors has burgers and a grill. The other is inside and has pizza and salads-AND a free water show. The show is not all that exciting, but it's a fun thing to watch while eating in the air conditioned restaurant.

What is there to do you ask? There are a plethora of little houses from all the story book classics. Most of them you can go in and have a hands on experience of some sort. The crooked house is just crazy fun, you will laugh so hard you will think you are falling. Some are a little spooky, but all in good taste. After you go through Story Book Lane, you can watch a live show that plays three times a day. The show we saw this time was "The Emperor's New Clothes", last time it was "Hanzel and Gretel". The shows are awesome and super interactive. The kids are all engaged by the performance. It's a nice break for adults too. There is plenty of seating and and it's a great time to have a snack. Right next to the theater are the little kid rides. They take tickets and are not included in the admission. Tickets are $1 each and each of the rides takes 2 tickets. You can also opt to purchase the ride bracelet for $16. We never get the bracelet because we like the little houses and all of the other exhibits. They only have 4 little rides, so it's not worth it in my opinion. However, if you do buy tickets and don't end of needing or using them, they WILL refund your money. I know crazy, hugh? They will give your money back for any reason. Western Town is another fun little part of this majestic secret in the valley. The Western town has tons of tunnels and slides to keep the kids busy. Lots of mazes and coin operated exhibits to play with. Lastly, the big hit of the day was the slide in the shoe. Not only is it the best ride in the forest, it's free!!!

I hope I have encouraged you to give Enchanted Forest a try. I hope more people support this secret little fun pot, I would love to keep it around. Let me know your favorite part of the park and if you have a photo I can share on this post. :)

50 State Post Card Exchange-Kindergarten Style

I am so excited to tell everyone about the awesome postcard exchange that my class got to participate in this year. It was called "The Great Postcard Exchange" and it was so much fun! It all started when a new teacher blogger friend of mine, Sara, decided to organize this big event. She was able to gather up at least one teacher from each of the 50 states and even a few other places. Most of the teachers were Kinder teachers, but several were not. That made no difference at all, as they were all equally exciting and informative. Finally, she made a spreadsheet with all of our names and contact information and we all sent out postcards to each other.

We got the addresses in November and then the fun began. There were really no guidelines to follow, so the postcards started arriving in all shapes and sizes. I decided to ask for "donations" for the postcards and the postage stamps from my class, as you can see this would be a very expensive out of pocket expense. I couldn't' believe it, my school is 80% free and reduced and I was able to get 100% of this project donated. I had two different parents donate postcards. They found amazing ones at the Made In Oregon store at the mall. Then, during conferences I had a sign up sheet that read "We are doing a postcard exchange with other Kindergarten classes across the US. We are looking for people to provide postage and mail these fun cards. If you can donate, please sign your name and write how many postcards you would like to mail". I had some parents mail TWO and I had other parents sign up for 10. It was amazing! I really do think these parents want to keep learning fun in their child's classroom. It's a nice affordable way to contribute without a big commitment or expense. So, I prepared the postcards and got them to the parents to mail. Wallah! The postcards started coming in very slowly. Then, after the holidays there was practically one each day. We read them during our class meeting time. The kids were so excited to touch and read (listen to me read) the postcards.

At the end of the year I am going to let each child choose one to take home in their memory book. This was such a simple thing to do that created so much excitement in Room 15. I really hope Sara will consider organizing this next it again next year. Would you like to join The Great Post Card Exchange, no experience necessary? If so, leave a comment with your email and we will get you in the loop for the 2015-16 school year.

Disneyland Tips

Disneyland Tips

I just got back from Disneyland TODAY! And need to blog about it so I don’t forget what I loved and didn’t love while I was there. For those of you who know me personally, you know I LOVE getting deals and saving money. Thus, this chapter is going to be all about how to make the most of your time and money in Disneyland. One thing that I have learned over the years, yes I have been to Disney a plethora of times, is that you can’t just play it by ear. If you want to see it all, you have to create a plan. You can change it and keep it flexible, but if you are going for 3 days or less you NEED a plan or you will miss out.
You have booked your flight, right? I hope that you booked it going into John Wayne/Orange County. That’s seriously the best airport for anything in the Disney area. LAX is crazy and not worth the stress. Not to mention it is much farther away.

The first thing you need to do is find a hotel. You can stay at one of the gorgeous, convenient resort hotels on the property but, I heard there is a 5-day limit and I checked prices, they are ALWAYS insane! Disneyworld, however, has many affordable hotels on site for as little as $99 a night (oops we are still talking about DL not DW). Anyhow, there are many decent hotels all around Disneyland. I recently stayed at the Sheraton, but it was just a little too far for me to stay again. If you have younger kids I would recommend staying at the Howard Johnson Anaheim on Harbor Blvd. It is directly across the street from Disneyland, literally walking distance and they have a shuttle if you don’t feel like walking. They also have a super cool waterpark for kids. It has slides pools, and all sorts of fun things to keep your kids busy for hours. Since it is on Harbor Blvd. there are lots of restaurants within walking distance (unlike the Sheraton). There is an Ihop, Tony Romas, McD’s and several other restaurants within a 5-minute walk. Not to mention you are right across from Downtown Disney, the motherland of all fun restaurants. I think it’s important to have a decent hotel that is close by because you will need a midday break somewhere close by and something for your kids to do while you rejuvenate to prepare for round 2 at Disneyland. If you are one of the lucky ones, perhaps your kids will even take a nap. I am not so lucky.

Now that you have a place to stay, you need to think TRANSPORTATION around and to Disneyland. I often travel as a single parent and LA is no place for a single tourist with impatient kids to be driving a rental car. I recommend taking a shuttle from the airport. I LOVE Disneyland Resort Express. It’s $48 round-trip and your kids are free (up to 3 per adult). It picks up at the airport every hour and is a straight shot to your hotel. When your trip is over it picks up every hour and is a straight shot back to the airport. It’s $48 round-trip from LAX and I think it’s even cheaper from John Wayne airport. You don’t need a reservation ahead of time and they even play a Disney movie on the way to the hotel. Don’t be fooled though. There are many “Disney Express VANS” driving around trying to imposter the real deal. The real Disney Express will ALWAYS be a big giant coach bus and there are Disney decals on the side, right now it’s CARS themed. Anyhow, you can’t beat $48 for transportation that is comfortable, convenient, efficient safe and stress free. Once less thing for me to worry about. You won’t need any transportation if you are staying in a hotel near Disneyland because most hotels have their own shuttles everywhere. Most of the hotels charge for parking, so unless you are trying to see Hollywood or San Diego in the same trip, skip the car and skip the stress.
All right, most of your budget was already spent on your flight, your hotel and your transportation. Now it’s time to plan your fun on a budget. I have been looking for months and can’t find any great deals on Disneyland tickets. They never go on sale and there are never any deals or discounts. AAA/Costco has their tickets for $6 off, that’s not even worth my drive to the their office to get them. The best way I found to save money was to purchase Disney gift cards from Safeway using my Air miles credit card. I bought two hefty ones (Safeway only sells them up to $500). I used one to buy the tickets with and the other to buy all of our food, souvenirs, snacks and fun with. I was able to get 3 x the fuel points, plus earn airline miles. I earned so many fuel points that my next couple tanks of gas will be free. Thus, I really did save money, just in an indirect sort of way. I saved a lot more than I would have using AAA or Costco. A friend of mine used her Target “RED” card and got 5% back, and that will save you some money but not as much if you use those fuel points. If you think you will be able to go twice (or more) in the same year, get the annual pass.

Now that I have told you how to save money. Now it’s time to save you some time as well. First buy your tickets online before you go with the gift cards you got from Safeway. Disneyland will email your ticket to your smart phone. On the day of your arrival go through the gate and they will scan your phone right there-don’t go to the ticket booth, go straight to the gates, they will take your photo and you are in. They will give you a paper ticket at that time so you can get fast passes. I am still not sure why there are always lines at the ticket booths if most people get their tickets ahead of time, but there were lines all hours of the day at the booths. Not long lines, but expect to wait a bit if you don’t buy ahead of time. If you can’t decide what ticket to get, I recommend getting the Park Hopper option (add $40 per ticket, not per day) and getting the 3-day ticket, as there is not much of a price difference from the 3-day to the 2-day. The 3-day ticket will be enough to see it all and give you access to the Magic Mornings. The one and two day tickets don’t have the Magic Morning option. The Magic Morning option gets your into the parks one hour before opening, and trust me when I tell you that that 7:00-8:00 hour is golden. It will literally be the only time you don’t wait in lines and can run from ride to ride with a 5-10 minute wait time. If you plan on going on the super cool rides, you will need this option. Radiator Springs Racers will run out of fast passes within an hour of the park opening and the Frozen show in DL will be sold out in a couple of hours, so plan your day wisely. Another time saver is the Fast Pass. If you haven’t heard about the fast pass, it’s a ticket that lets you skip the line. There are special fast pass lines for all of the popular rides. The fast pass is tricky because you can only get one at a time for the most part. At the bottom of each fast pass it tells you the time you can go and get your next one. These fast passes will be the only things that keep you sane during the day when the lines are a mile long and they will truly dictate your schedule. One thing that I learned this trip is that the fast passes for the shows are different from the fast passes for the rides so you can hold them both simultaneously. You can also get a fast passes from California Adventure AND Disneyland at the same time. The next thing you can do to save time and money is to buy their Photo Pass. If you buy it ahead of time it’s $69.99(14 day advance purchase requirement) and if you buy it day of it’s $99.99. It’s fabulous! If you buy it ahead of time they will mail you a redemption certificate. Once you are into the park there is a photo shop that you can go into and get your pass. Everywhere you see a Disney photographer they will scan your pass and take your photo. At the end of your trip you have EVERY single picture that was taken at the park for FREE. You own all the rights so you can print them out for a decent price. They even give you free hard copies if you have any meals with the characters. This pass pays for itself in just a few hours, let alone a few days. Another time saver is to splurge and do the character dining. You will get to see all of the characters in one place. This will free you up from waiting in long lines in the parks when you see characters. The Character breakfast at The Plaza in is the most affordable and right there on Main Street in DL. It has all of the traditional characters. They will take photos with you and sign autographs. They will each come to your table while you are eating. The only down side it is a breakfast buffet, but for a buffet it is VERY well done. It’s $30 for adults and $15 for kids and they have every breakfast item you can think of. If you want to see the princesses do lunch or dinner at Ariel’s Grotto. That was around $50 for adults and $20 for kids. You are guaranteed 4 princesses plus Ariel. They too, come to your table for autographs and photos. Between those two you should be able to see the most popular characters. Next time we are going to give Goofy’s Kitchen a try. The only reason we didn’t is because it was in a hotel and we were short on time. When making the reservations do these meals at odd times. You will get to see the characters for a longer amount of time AND if you plan a late breakfast or early lunch, you can get away with only buying two meals that day.

Another hint that you must take is “Take a midday break”. You will buy back time and energy if you can go back to your hotel from 1-5 or 12-4. This is the busiest time at the parks and you can avoid that chaos and come back later. You can take a nap, eat lunch and lay by the pool. It will revitalize your energy bank, rest your feet and let your kids rejuvenate. After a cool shower, fresh clothes and a couple hours of rest, I feel so much better and am ready to start over. The park is open until midnight and the later it gets, the lines dissipate. Midday is certainly the craziest. This is where the longest lines, most people and it is insanely hot.

I hope you enjoy Disneyland and California Adventure as much as I do. My 5 year old is in love with Disney and can’t stop talking about it. I know that her excitement for this park may dissipate in a few years, so if you have littles go now. I can do Mexico and Hawaii when she is a teenager, but for now I am going to cherish my time while she is still little.

Tieks for Teachers

As you may know already, I have been teaching for over 14 years. Most of my career has been teaching upper grades, but this year I took on a new challenge and became a Kindergarten teacher! Let me just tell you something I learned on my first day as a Kinder teacher, you can NOT wear the same clothing and shoes as you can when you are an intermediate teacher. The first day on the job as a Kinder teacher sent me home with blisters the size of Montana. I was wearing awesome sandals that I have had for years, so I had no idea why this had happened. The second day I tried a different shoe and still the same result at the end of the day. Let me preface and let you know that I NEVER buy cheap shoes, so I was completely frazzled! Every sandal I had cut into the top of my foot and rubbed on my heel. Every heel did the same, and by the end of my first week boots, sneakers and flip flops were my only options. I couldn't' swing the boots because of the long summer, thus I tried the sneakers but they agitated all of the open sores left by previous shoes. I finally had to get permission to wear flip flops for a couple of days because my sores were so big and so raw. My principal was awesome and totally understood my problem, as wearing flip flops in our district is a total sign of teacher rebellion. I obviously had a problem here that needed solving so I reached out to my teacher friends and the FB blogging community and asked for suggestions for good flats. The same name came up on several forums, TIEKS! I did a little research about these pretty little shoes and found them to be flawless (except for the insane price tag). However, even with that price tag I didn't have a lot of time so I ordered a pair of RUBY RED PATENT ballet flats. I normally wear a size 9 and that is the size I ordered. From there the fun began, they arrived in this cute little blue box. Totally reminding me of Tiffany and Co. In the box was a handwritten card with a sweet message and these cute little shoes folded up. I am amazed that MY shoes can fit in a box that small. The shoes are beautiful and shiny and have these adorable Tiek blue soles. The only problem is that I felt like one of the wicked step sisters with the long bony feet, the size 9 didn't fit. I was totally bummed because I just dropped $200 on shoes and how I was going to have to drop $10 to send them back. I sent a quick email and within hours there was a response and they asked if I wanted to try a 10 and they sent it to me for FREE, told me to try them both at the same time and decide which was best for me, and sent a prepaid mailing label to send back the ones I didn't want. I was so impressed with this customer service that I literally was excited for the entire week and told all of my friends about this. I am so used to everyone needing collateral and this company did what was right. For Christmas my sister, Teacher Laura(Check out her awesome blog), got me a Tieks gift card and it too came in the adorable Tieks blue signature box. These shoes are amazing, they never give me blisters, make my monster feet look cute and brighten up every outfit that I attempt. I love them so much that I decided to order the Gray Croc style, which is so versatile and just as comfortable. Guess what came with the gray pair? Another hand written, personalized note. Anyhow, TIEKS are this teacher's best friend. I am going to start a collection, but on my modest teacher salary one pair a year is all this girl can afford. Move over Tiffanys, there's another little blue box in town.

Breakfast Pinwheels

Last week I was at Great Harvest and I saw this beautiful, delicious sunrise roll type of breakfast roll. It was amazing!!! Since then, I have looked around P-Town and have not found anything else that looked as appetizing. I have been having non-stop cravings for these things and had to figure out how to make something similar…AND I DID!
Go to your local grocery store or look in your refrigerator and I am sure you will have most of these ingredients. Here is the list that I used, but as any good cook who cooks from the "hip" would do, change it up to make it your own.
Pizza Dough (Safeway has pre-made dough that is ready to go in their deli section).
Chopped Ham (I used leftovers from Christmas, but don't worry I froze it right away).
Shredded Cheese
A bag of Shredded Hash browns(cooked with the onion)
A small diced onion (cook with the hash browns)
Half a green pepper
2 Eggs scrambled

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Fry up the hash browns and the onion, add some salt or pepper to taste. Then, roll out your pizza dough as thin as you can without making it tear. Spread a thin layer of cooked hash browns, sprinkle with a layer of ham, then cheese, then green peppers or any other veggie that sounds good to you. Roll the dough up into a big jelly roll type shape. Next, you need to take a knife and slice it into pinwheels. My kids thought I was making cinnamon rolls with meat in them, lol. Now, take the rest of the hash browns and spread them in a baking dish, both 8x8' or 9x11" will work. The only difference will be if your rolls touch or not. I actually made a double batch and used the big pan and they all touched. After your spread the hash browns in the dish, place the pinwheels in the dish on top of the hash browns. I added swirl of hot sauce to each pinwheel for a little flair. Lastly, I poured the egg mixture over the top of the pinwheels and baked for 25 minutes.
Goodness, gracious these things were awesome. A batch will make 6-8 pinwheels depending on how much dough you have.Have fun with this breakfast. It's one of those recipes that you can use whatever you have. I bet bacon or sausage would be good, or pretty much any veggie. Have fun making this recipe your own, something so simple, yet with so many flavor elements going on. Happy New Year!

Kindergarten Clay Handprints

As you know, this is my first try at teaching K. I am absolutely LOVING it too!!! At first I was so surprised at how much help the kids needed and I didn't realize that they would be so needy. I guess that is expected after 13 years in 3rd grade. Anyhow, I am constantly amazed at just how fast they learn and the growth curve amazes me every time I look at the data.
Anyhow, I thought I would give clay a try since it was December and I did need to make something special for the holidays. I searched pintrest and couldn't find anything that caught my eye so I went traditional. We did the most beautiful clay hand prints. There was a definite learning curve here, and several pretty BIG mistakes. Let's just say that we started with 29 handprints and by the end of it there were only 22 left.
First take your 25 pound of clay and divide it into 30 equal pieces. I use a long piece of string to cut it with. It pulls so nicely through the clay and allows for easy distribution.
I did this project entirely guided and modeled with my own clay and the kids did awesome. First I had them turn their chunk of clay into a nice smooth ball. I told them to squeeze and massage it and then roll it between their hands and on the table to turn it into a ball. Once the balls were forming, I called the kids over to my kidney table and helped them roll the ball into a flat patty. I used a bowl to trace the edge to create a perfect circle. Side Note: I went to the ceramics store and they had a circle tile cutter for $80!!! No way was I going to buy that, the manger told me to go to a kitchen store and get a muffin cutter or use the top of a paint can. Anyhow, I didn't have time for either of those, so I found a bowl. Once the clay was flat and round, I pushed their hands super hard into the clay so you could actually see the shape. Then, I write their name and 2015 somewhere on the clay. Finally I poked 2 little holes through the top to put a ribbon on later. After letting it dry over the weekend, I fired it.
Now, here's where these precious little projects got slightly unique. The children each painted the entire hand plaque in regular glaze. When they were finished I used a Crystal Glaze by Mayco to fill in the handprint itself. I had no idea if it would show up, but it did and looks so cute. The little pieces of glass exploded so you can really see the shape and size of the hand. <> Now for my tips to ending up with just as many as you start with. Don't let the kids play with the clay too long. It seemed to weaken it. Don't roll it too thin, it WILL crack. Push very hard on the hand, the deeper the print the better it will look. Don't forget the holes at the end of the project, I did and there is no going back once it dries.

Chicken Mulligatawny the EASY way!

Do you want a delicious hearty soup on a cold winter day? That's what I was craving today. I love Pioneer Woman's recipes so I decided to make a version of here Easy Mulligatawny with a twist. A very long time ago I worked at The Old Spaghetti Factory and on Thursday's they have an amazing version of this Indian soup. It's by far, the best one I have ever had, however I can't remember the entire recipe. I do know it is very similar to Pioneer Woman's so here is what I did…
1. Saute' Onion and Garlic in Olive Oil. Add salt and Pepper to taste. Once everything softens, add 2T of curry powder. 2. Add 8 cups of chicken broth and 2 cans of diced tomatoes and bring to a boil. 3. Add 3 peeled Granny Smith apples, chopped up and 2 cups of diced or shredded chicken and reduce to a simmer. 4. Let cook for as long as you want, today I let mine simmer for a couple of hours. 5. When it's time to serve, add 2 cups of quick cooking rice and a splash of half and half or whipping cream. 6. It's ready when the rice is done. Add as much or as little cream as you like.
The awesome thing about this recipe is that you can modify it. If you love the apples, add more, if they are not your thing, then you can omit them(I don't recommend it). My guy likes it hearty and meaty so I add extra chicken. You can toss in raw chicken or use a rotisserie chicken.
The soups is really quite simple to make, preparation in all is 10-15 minutes. The apples add suck a unique twist. If you are thinking your family will freak out about the apples, tell them they are potatoes. My family can't tell the difference. This is one of those beautiful recipes that no matter how much you customize, it will still be delicious. Now, when you reheat it, expect it to be thick and stew like. You can serve it like this (my favorite way), or you can chicken broth to soup it up again.
Grocery List 1 Onion, 6 Garlic Cloves, 2 Cans of diced tomatoes, 3-5 Granny smith Apples, Small carton of Whipping Cream or Half and Half, 1 whole Rotisserie chicken, Rice, and Chicken Broth.

About Me

Good Morning, Today I am officially committing to joining the blogging world. I am not tech savvy so be patient and I learn through this endeavor. I am a public school teacher in Portland, Oregon. I have been teaching for 14 years and just started teaching Kindergarten in a very diverse, impoverished school. I have taught other grades, but most of my experience has been in 3rd grade. My awesome sister, fellow teacher, has been teaching Kinder for over a decade. You should check out her blog at teacherlaura.blogspot.com. She is my inspiration and is keeping me afloat this year. I have an awesome family and 2 amazing children. My son is finishing up his last year of middle school and next year my daughter will start Kindergarten. For fun I love to cook, travel and shop of course. That about sums up my life. Post one accomplished! I am hoping for followers soon.