Woo, hoo! We made it to Friday!

Woo, hoo!  We made it to Friday, y'all!  

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bug's Five for Friday linky party which is where teachers link up 5 things from the past week that struck them as important to tell the world about. 

So here we go with number one...

Last week and this past weekend we were in the fantabulous Las Vegas for the TpT Seller's Conference!  If you missed my previous post, please check it out here.

One of the beautiful things we did was visit the "zoo in Las Vegas you didn't know about", the Lion Habitat Ranch, which is the home of the lions previously at the MGM Hotel.  We were lucky enough to have our own tour guide from our Family Fun Tour and we learned many new things from the interesting Mr. Steve.  Don't get me wrong, Mr. Steve was a wealth of information, but he kept INSISTING we use a darn umbrella because the "Las Vegas heat will burn you a new forehead."  There's nothing like being singled out in a crowd as a tourist because you have a huge, black umbrella with tubes of lipstick and sunglasses on it, in a sea of people that don't have one.  Finally, my Mom just walked away from Mr. Steve and his insistent, must-have-an-umbrella self, and left me to deal with him.  Now how did I get off topic from lions to umbrellas?

They also had an ostrich family there at the ranch.  Apparently, there's more of them on the way as you can see from the pictures above.  I had no idea their eggs were so big, like the size of a football!

 Love this picture I took of Mrs. Ostrich!  I think she's trying to tell me something...

 This is what all the lions eat each day...10 lbs of horse meat.  Mr. Steve assured me that it was horses that were already dead? TMI for me to visualize!

The ranch is a must-see for anyone visiting Vegas!

Stay away from this machine.  It's addicting.

 My Mom unfortunately passed down to me the love of jewelry.  While in Vegas we found this awesome jewelry store in our hotel that allowed you to literally make your own pearl jewelry!  The (1) step is to choose your oyster that are flown in from Hawaii.  Then (2) the woman shucks? them for you with a special knife.  The inside (3) is nothing like I've seen before.  Some of you may be familiar with the inside of an oyster, but it's not in my food groups.  It's really yucky inside actually.  I don't know how people can eat that mess.  (4)(5) If you feel around inside you finally find the pearl, and they can be one of four colors:  white, pink, cream, and blue. The blue are one in a thousand of a find.  Then she puts some salt on the pearl and you rub it in your hands to polish it. (6) There's your clean pearl ready for you to put into some kind of jewelry setting!  I'm a ring kinda gal (7) and got my pearl set into a ring with two small diamonds on the sides.  You get another pick at an oyster with each jewelry purchase!  I'll just say that we ended up pulling 6 oysters and got a pair of gold earrings, two pendants for a necklace, a ring, and a tie tack for Garyn's first prom.  I warned you my Mom and I love jewelry!

Other stops we made while in Vegas were Fremont Street to see the worlds largest slot machine, we rode the gondolas (which was just beautiful by the way) and we stopped by the famous pawn shop from the show Pawn Stars.  It was packed in there, but my Mom just loves that show so we went.  I was instantly attracted to a Picasso print that was priced at $3,500.  That's the artist in me.  My Mom left with a diamond studded t-shirt.  Us and our bling... and finally

I finished my newest product, First Grade...Here I Come!  It's a packet of almost 90! No-Prep printables, that are all aligned to First Grade Common Core Standards.  Perfect for the beginning of the year, especially during those times when you need to have the kids busy while you're taking attendance or talking with the line of parents at the door.  You know those times!  It's on sale for 50% off for the next 48 hours, so grab it at this wonderful price quick!

Included are math, literacy, writing, getting-to-know you printables, awards, and much, much more.  Everything you need to get the year started with a bang!  You can check it out here.

Thanks for hanging with me friends and don't forget to check back later today to hear the winners of my huge Back-to-School Giveaway!  Click the link below to read more great Five for Friday posts!

Happy Day to You and Yours,