A Day Off

I had to go to court today for a ticket. I wanted to just pay the ticket and get on with life, but that was not an option. I had to appear before the judge. Let me just say - nerve wracking, but actually very educational. I wish I had brought my own 4 children so they could have seen a court in action. Plus, my fine was much less than I expected and I was done within an hour.

So what did I do with the savings? Hit up Sam's Club of course! I couldn't just be sensible and put that extra money back in the bank, I had to celebrate with this:

Now I am stocked up to print and laminate my heart out during Fall Break! I also got a three-pack of fuzzy socks and some delicious spinach & feta Mediterranean pizzas. It felt great to get to go shopping on a work day!

Lest you think I was all grasshopper and no ant, I also took my youngest to the hospital to get some blood drawn for lab work. The phlebotomist was clearly nervous about taking blood from a 6 year old and actually advised me to get in the chair with him, but I just held his hand and stood next to him and he took it like a champ - he even watched the whole process and was very proud of his green wrap bandage! Then I got a chance to see life from the other side as he excitedly proclaimed how he was going to tell his teacher all about the experience tomorrow - apparently she is going to be so thrilled to see that green wrap bandage and hear about the blood draw process lol.

I do have some pictures to share from yesterday. I recently got an offer to try out MPM School Supply which is an online teacher supply website. My town has just one teacher supply store, and selection is often limited, so I was intrigued to see what MPM School Supply had to offer. The site was easy to navigate - if you're not sure what you're looking for you can shop by departement such as Teacher Supplies, Dramatic Play, Manipulatives or Art & Craft supplies for example.

After browsing for a bit I decided to focus on increasing my dice collection.  I was pleasantly surprised by MPM's selection - they had just about every kind of dice I had ever heard of and then more! I added several to my shopping cart (the prices on these were fantastic!) and then remembered that I have been wanting another set of alphabet stamps. It was easy to find those as well and the prices were comparable to what I would have paid in store.

Finally, I recalled a Number Balance that I saw on another blog recently (can't remember who's blog, sorry! if it was you please let me know!). I found that on MPM's site as well, again at a good price. My order was placed late at night on the 3rd, I received shipping notice early in the morning on the 5th and had my package on the 8th! Talk about fast!

My order came well packaged, I wish I had taken a picture of how nicely wrapped it was, there was absolutely zero chance of anything getting broken! Here's my bounty:

I'll share how I used my dice at a later date, but here's a picture of my number balance set up:

 Here it is showing that 3+4=7.

And here it set up for 7+2=9.

Since we're solving equations with unknowns in all positions this week, the number balance came in very handy! My students were so impressed with it, they can't wait to use it in math stations this week!

I definitely plan on shopping at MPM School Supply again in the future. If you're interested in adding a number balance or dice to your classroom they gave me a discount code to share with you too! The first 10 people to order will receive 10% off, just click here to get the discount!