Quick and Inexpensive Valentines

It's been kind of a rough couple of days.  Not in the classic sense of the word - I haven't had a bad day or anything.  But my kids have been sick and in Mom World, that's rough.  Not only do we not want our precious little ones to feel badly, but we end up putting almost everything else on hold simply to be around and take care of them "just in case."  So here I sit on day 2 1/2 of house arrest, with the TV tuned to the Disney Channel, the humidifier going and trying to do low key things while the kids endure it (and hoping that I DO NOT catch whatever it is they have.  Knock wood).

It just hit me how close we are to the end of January.  February is tomorrow!  And with it will quickly come Valentines Day.  Seems like we just finished Christmas, doesn't it?  With a bunch of family and friend's birthdays in January, it kind of feels like we haven't had much of a break from gift giving and big events.

 I'm afraid I don't often have much motivation by this point to get really creative and crafty when it comes to Valentines.  This year I pretty much just jumped on the first idea I spotted - which happened to be some fun mini puzzles at Michael's.

I added a quick chalkboard style tag and they're all set to go out.  Just one more example of things not having to be complicated or pricey to be cute and effective, right?

I also picked up these cute monogram notebooks for the teachers and added a few pencils I already had on hand.  That's it - school Valentines DONE!

Which leaves me two weeks to get the kids to work on their Valentines for their grandparents and the other special people on their lists.  Kaitlyn got the paints out (which are now residing on the coffee table until everything is finished - yay) and started on hers today, but Tyler didn't get any further than figuring out a plan before having a coughing fit.  *sigh*

I have a fun project in the works that I'm going to give the kids.  I will work on that some more after I get them to bed (T minus 5 minutes until bedtime - woohoo!)  No idea what to do for the hubby though - ideas??!

Surprises for the End of the School Year

**Reposted on my new blog, along with a few more fun variations of the Summer Fun in a Cup end of the year gift for teachers.  Check it out here!

Who is ready for summer?!  Last night at our first outing to our neighborhood pool for the year I was reminded again how much fun summer can be and started to get excited for those long hot days around the pool.

 I know a lot of schools are getting out next week - lucky.  My kids still have almost an entire month left but in the spirit of getting things done while I'm thinking about it (and if you're on Pinterest right now, how could not NOT be thinking about it? ;)  I see pins for teacher gifts ideas daily) I whipped up some End of the Year gifts for my kids' teachers yesterday.

 I started out with a trip to the dollar store and collected the makings for a little Summer Fun kit - daiquiri glasses, sunscreen, drink mixes, italian ice freezer pops, and qourmet-esqe chocolates.  (they're red velvet and yes I snuck one to try...yum)

 I topped them off with a cute tag, (found the inspiration and printable tag here)  a fun paper straw, and a tiny drink umbrella.

One, two, three, four - done!  The hardest part was finding the cute little umbrellas - I searched 4 or 5 stores before finally finding them at a dollar store in a different town from the one where I had found everything else.  I'm sure a party store would have had them, but I haven't been anywhere near one of those in the last couple of weeks.

While I was at it, I picked up a couple of little surprises for the kids and tied them together with some curly ribbon. I also did a quick google search for the clipart then just printed it out onto cardstock for a quick and easy tent sign.  They are now packed into a grocery bag and hidden under my craft table where I will hopefully remember to pull them out to surprise the kids with on the last day of school.

When do your kids get out of school?  Do you have any fun plans for the last day of school or vacation plans for this summer?

Teacher Appreciation 2014

It's that time of year again.  The kids came home with the note from the PTO with this year's agenda for Teacher Appreciation Week.  They follow the same schedule every year, which may get a little boring, but now that I know how it works I can plan ahead.  For three of the days during Teacher Appreciation week the PTO asks the students to bring in a little something for the teacher - a card, chocolate, and a flower.  Easy enough right?
It is me we're talking about here, so I do try to personalize it a little bit. 

I found the owl printable card first (Printable found here) and decided to go with that as the theme.

 The flowers are tiny pot/seed kits.  I'm sure the intention is that the kids bring in a cut flower or two so that when all are combined the teachers have a big bouquet, but I didn't want something perishable so I could get it ahead of time.

I modified the printable water bottle labels found here and used that for the tags on the rest of the items.  The tag on the flowers reads "Thanks for helping me grow.  Love, ___ "

 The chocolate:  The tag reads "you deserve chocolate! Love,  ___"

And finally, a more personal gift from the kids.  I like to get a little creative with these, not only to give the teachers a little variety but hopefully they also get the message that we participate in Teacher Appreciation week not just because we are asked to, but because we really do appreciate their contribution as teachers to the lives of our children.
Last year I did End of School/Back to School countdown sets, but I've been getting so many orders for pregnancy countdown blocks the process just didn't sound like fun.  So I went with altered clipboards and turned some plain old clipboards

 into something fun, pretty, and personal.

 The tag reads "You're just write, teacher.  Love, ____"

Hope they like it!
Now if I can get the kids to sit down and sing cards for teachers and the Grandmas I will be all set for the one-two punch of having Teacher Appreciation back to back with Mother's Day next week.

Back to School Already?

Here we go again!  We're on the downhill side of summer and in full prep mode for school.  We have 2 1/2 weeks until the big day here, but I know some people have already started back.  I'm kind of sad about it actually.  This summer has absolutely flown by and I find myself wishing for many many more lazy days by the pool.  Oh well.  Fall has its good points too - like school shopping.  I kind of like dragging the kids from store to store and forcing them to try on all the cuteness :)  And we all know how fun it is to stock up on 50 cent notebooks!

 

We finished up the last of the clothes shopping this past weekend.  Tyler was in full cowboy mode that day and while I had convinced him to leave the hat in the car so he could try on clothing more easily he still insisted on putting his boots back on with each pair of jeans.  Love that funny kid!

Now with stacks of school supplies waiting to be labeled, lunchbox jokes Pinned (but not printed yet), and summer swimming lessons almost at an end it's time to start the final countdown.  So of course I made a set of blocks :)

 Actually I made two sets so I can give them to the teachers - either as a Hello gift at Back to School night or save them up for Teacher Appreciation.  (I did post a listing in my Etsy shop if anyone would like their own set)  How good would I be if I was all ready for that (teacher appreciation) so far ahead of time?! lol 

 The base has two sides ("days til summer" and "days til school") so it works for either the beginning or the end of the school year.  Genius, no? ;)
Now where is my List so I can figure out what else I need to do before school starts...?  Only 19 days to go!

Linking to:

 

Almost Summer!

 It's June!  I know a lot of schools are out at this point and I'm so jealous!  For the last week or two all I have wanted to do is hang out with friends at the pool or in the back yard.  Forget the schedules, forget the Have Tos - just soak up the sun, enjoy the company, and watch the kids have fun! 
We've been going through the paces of wrapping things up - final dance recital, field trips, class parties, Kaitlyn's first time taking the EOG's (End of Grade tests - they are huge here UGH) and Friday was Tyler's Kindergarten graduation/awards/ice cream party (oooo he's getting way too big!).

We are down to the final week of school and I'm just as excited as the kids are.  (Someone remind me of this at the end of July when the kids are driving me nuts and all I want is a day of peace and quiet ;)  )  Since a lot of my time this week will be spent doing final prep work for our Girl Scout Bridging/End of the Year Party I thought I'd better get ahead of things and put the End of the Year School gifts together.  They came together pretty easily this year.  Weeks ago I ran across the After Sun lotion in the Target Dollar section and snapped up a few bottles, knowing I'd be able to use them for something.  Here and there I found the small containers of sunscreen and chapstick with SPF and then I spotted the double wall glasses at IGA for $3 and knew I had it made.  The thing I really like about these particular glasses is that they have the flip top instead of a straight straw, which means much less chance they will spill if you put them in a cooler or beach bag.  I may have to go back and pick up a few for myself!

I found the printable Summer Vacation tag here.  And that's it - quick, easy, cute, and not-too-expensive end of the year gift for the teachers!  The bus driver will be getting the same tag on a Toblerone.  So we're all set!  Now BRING ON SUMMER! 

Teacher Appreciation (belated)

Teacher Appreciation was last week.  It didn't catch me by surprise, I just didn't get to it far enough ahead of time to blog it.  But if it's worth the work, it's worth sharing, right?  Even if it's late.  Give us all a jump start on next year maybe?  :)  Or end of the year teacher gifts.

 

Our PTO seems to follow the same schedule every year.  One day during teacher appreciation week they ask the kids to bring in a card.  Another day it's a piece of chocolate.  And a different day the request is a flower.  I always like to show a bit of personality while following along with the PTO requests and this is what I came up with this year.  First I found ran across the A is for Amazing printable cards.  (you can see print them here)  Then when I ran across the other letters (you can print the other cards here), I knew that was the direction I wanted to go this year.  Plus all I had to do was print them, get the kids to sign everything, and attach them to the gifts - easy!

The A is for Amazing card went to school the first day with a more in-depth Thank You from the kids inside.  The C is for Caring card (and chocolate!) seemed like the perfect addition to the extra-large candy bar.  Kaitlyn chose the letters for the other two - K (because well, her name starts with K) and S is for Smart.  I used one to go with the small potted flowers I had picked up.

And the final card went along with the bonus gift I send in on Friday.  Going above and beyond - that's what I do, right? :)  Plus, I think it sends the message to the teachers that we appreciate them enough to take a little time and effort to do something special, not just what is "requested" of us.  This year I decided to change up my countdown blocks and make a set for counting down the days 'til the end of school (that idea got the thumbs up from Miss Kate - she loves countdowns).  I really only had the black chalkboard type paper on hand that really screamed school, so I went with a black, white and red theme to make it work.

 I added the option to count down to the beginning of next school year - just for the fun of it.

 So there we have it!  Hopefully the teachers felt fully appreciated.
Time to start thinking about end of the year gifts and our Summer List...

Teacher Appreciation 2012

Teacher appreciation week starts Monday.  Did it sneak up on you too?  Actually I knew it was coming as I've seen lots of fun ideas popping up on Pinterest :)  I just put off throwing everything together until this week.  Which is actually fine, as our PTO isn't the best at getting notifications out ahead of time and we only received the note requesting participation this week.  Luckily they did the same thing last year, so I knew what I was in for.  The PTO requested that the kids bring in a card for their teachers on Monday.  I decided to use this printable (found here) as I love anything that seems a little bit more personal.

Tuesday's assignment was chocolate so I grabbed chocolate bars that looked pretty decadent and added a tag.

Wednesday the PTO will provide breakfast.  Thursday we are supposed to send in a flower.  I found that a hard one last year as our town isn't big on cut flowers and I didn't have any in my yard.  So this year I grabbed some flower seed packets and prettied them up a bit.  The tag reads "If teachers were flowers, I'd pick you!"

The PTO's plan is to give the teachers a larger gift on Friday, one that doesn't require contribution from the parents.  So I figured that's my chance to go out on my own a bit and send in something that wasn't "assigned."  I picked up a bunch of yummy smelling anti-bacterial (in pocket sizes) and holders at one of Bath and Body Works big sales knowing it would come in handy for something like this.  The tag says "you are scent-sational."  The printables for this one and the chocolate came from the Eighteen25 blog and can be found here.

And while I was on a roll (and because the italian ices looked interesting when I was at the dollar store), I duplicated the "stay cool this summer" idea I used for end of the year gifts last year.

I have to say, it's a relief to have all of that put together and ready to go so I don't have to rush around at the last minute.

Teacher Appreciation Week

I know, I know. We're already half-way through teacher appreciation week already. Time is seriously getting away from me lately. But I did manage to throw a little something together on Monday.
Original inspiration (and instructions) for the project found here. I chose a smaller size bead organizer from Walmart and grabbed a few coordinating office supplies from the clearance section and split them in half, since I was making two (one for the main teacher, one for the assistant).

I was shopping with both kids for the candy and couldn't concentrate, or I would have made sure the wrappers were blue or green to go with my color scheme too.

The school sent home a little schedule for Teacher Appreciation week too. On Monday the kids were each supposed to bring a card for their teacher (Kaitlyn did the cutest little notes on her Hello Kitty stationary). Tuesday was chocolate day. I let Kaitlyn splurge for the really expensive candy bars. The note says "You deserve chocolate! Thanks for being such a great teacher." I'm sending the goodie boxes this morning. And tomorrow we're supposed to send a flower (which I still need to go shopping for). The note for that one says "thanks for helping me grow." What are you doing for teacher appreciation?

Dance Costumes and Teacher Appreciation

The school year is definitely winding down. How do I know? Because I've spent bits and pieces of the last 3 or 4 weeks working on dance costumes for the recital! :)

My mom is teaching 3 classes this year - one for Kaitlyn, one for Tyler, and one extra because she ended up with that many when we started to fill Ty's class. Lucky for me, one of the other moms took over the costumes for the younger class(es) and I only had to make the 5 for Kaitlyn's class. We went with a really simple design this year too - it's called Buying the Skirt lol. Seriously, the past 2 years I don't know how many hours we spent making skirts. But this year Mom stumbled across a fabulous deal on the petti-skirt type she'd had in mind anyway so we got those and dressed them up. We started with a black leotard, and the pink skirt. I grabbed some zebra print for the sash and whipped out 25 fabric flowers (3 for the top, one for the waistband, and one for the hairbow x 5 girls). The flowers still managed to take me longer than I thought they would (isn't that always the way with crafts?) but I didn't mind that since I had the time. And look how cute it all is together!

My mother-in-law was nice enough to make the vest for Ty's costume. Photos of that one later. I'm taking all the portraits on Friday.

What else goes along with the end of the school year? Teacher Appreciation. I'm not sure when it is at Katy's school, but here in blogland everyone is talking about it. I had been on the fence about if I was going to do something for it or just some kind of end of the year token. But then I found these adorable FREE printables at http://www.dimpleprints.com/ this morning and HAD to make something.
This is the result:

*those are bath fizzies I found in the dollar section during Christmas, I think and had a couple boxes left over. I love having a few things on hand when I need something quick.

Is anyone else doing something fun for Teacher Appreciation?