Manic Monday and Back to School

     So today is my first official day back at school.  Starting today we have 2 days of inservice and then the kiddos start on Wed.  It was very sad to turn that alarm back on let me tell you.  I've been trying to do better with waking up earlier so the 6AM wake up wouldn't be a shock.  I'm linking up again with Monday Made it.  :)  (I'll let you in on a secret.  I always write these posts the night before and then schedule them to post when it's actually Monday.  Then whenever I wake up I link up.)

     So this past week I worked at school every day getting my room ready (don't have any pics yet, they'll be coming).  I did all sorts of little projects, but nothing I took pictures of.  Also, this week was my niece Josie's birthday.  She was having a Little Mermaid party Sunday.  So the first thing I did was make mermaid tails for the 3 4-year olds that would be at the party (Josie, my other niece Brynn, and another little girl).  I got the idea from pinterest of course.  It's a no-sew.  Click here to go to the link that gives directions on how to make them along with photos.  My niece Brynn was my model for sizing to make the 3 of them.  She helped me with that after she helped me in my classroom last Monday.  Here's how they turned out.

Brynn's, the first one I made.  

The girls modeling for me.  

I told them to look at the balloons so you could see the back.  

Brynn was very excited that I was making these, as she loves to dress-up and loves Disney princesses.  Josie loved it too, but ended up taking it off half-way through the party.  Brynn kept hers on the whole way home.  lol  

     Now I love to bake and always make the desserts for my family's parties.  The last few years I've gone all out with making the girls' cakes.  I made a Disney princess castle cake for Brynn's 3rd birthday, a Rapunzel tower cake for Josie's 3rd birthday, a Fancy Nancy cake for Brynn's 4th birthday, and Josie requested a Little Mermaid cake for this birthday (Brynn has already put in her request, 6 months early, for a Barbie cake for her 5th, lol).  So I looked for inspiration through google images and found one that I liked that I thought I could do something similar to.  Here's mine.  

The bottom layer is a dark chocolate cake (box mix) and the rock she's sitting "on" (in, lol) is cherry chip cake (again box mix).  I always get super nervous during transport time.  I really need an assistant like on the cake shows, to hold the cake steady for me while I'm driving.  Let me tell you I notice every bump when transporting cakes.  lol  Luckily this one and the Fancy Nancy cakes were no problem to transport, for the castle and tower cakes, they were leaning by the time I got to the party and had to have some fixing done.  This is why I always take a picture of the cake before I leave my house.  lol  So that's what the above picture is.

This picture was taken after we made it to the party and added the other little figurines that my brother had for it (fish, Ursula, Tritan, Flounder, and candle).  The snowflake tray is the only tray I own that would fit the cake.  lol  

     So those are my made-its for this week.  We'll see what (if anything) I get done this week (besides my classroom) with school starting.  

     I'm also linking up with I'm Blog Hoppin for Teacher Week.  Today is Must Have Monday.  

My must haves:

*computer & printer

*laminator

*my silhouette

*my iPod stereo & music

*crafting supplies

Also, since I'm typing this up early, I don't know if it's only supposed to be school related, since it's teacher week.  Non-school related must haves:

*family

*my tv & dvr

Hope everyone has a great day!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)