Not so Heavenly Teacher!

Today, I FINALLY went shopping for my classroom.  I'm not going to lie...I've been in denial that I'm returning to school in 17 DAYS.  I decided that I needed to face reality and get excited about a new school year.  What better way to get excited then to do a little back to school shopping, right?  So, I load up my girls and we head on over to our local Teacher Heaven.  There's a reason it's called Teacher Heaven because you can literally spend hours and your entire paycheck in this store....and it's heavenly!  Well, not today!  I was completely bummed out and frustrated because I couldn't find any cute or age appropriate (4th grade) "decorations" for our beach theme.

Normally, I have no problem finding things to fit our school theme and usually I have to put things away because I can't use everything.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing Teacher Heaven entirely because I saw some GREAT stuff.  However, they seriously need to vamp up their beach themes.  I mean this theme isn't out of the ordinary like our military theme a few years back.

Most of the stuff I found was geared more towards the primary grades and I don't think my 4th graders would appreciate it.  Plus, I'm not asking for much because I'm a minimalist.  For the first month of school, my room looks a little bare because I use most of my walls to hang anchor charts of our learning.

On the bright side, I did get my new box of Mr. Sketch Markers and I know I paid WAY too much for them, but they were there and I just had to do it.

Here are few other pictures of what I did get...

I love the flip flops...so cute!

This doesn't scream...I'm in a 4th grade class!

These were only 2 out of 4 "beach" themed borders I could find.


So, $60 later I walk away feeling worse about going back to school.  I guess I'm just being a Negative Nancy, but if you have any ideas or suggestions, please don't hesitate to let me know.  I've searched some TPT stores, but most of the "themed" items are part of a bundle that I don't need or are geared towards primary.  HELP!!!