And That Brings Us Back to Monday

We had another busy, but great weekend in our house. I got lots accomplished and even managed to squeeze in a little fun. On Friday I dropped off a blanket and bucket that I made for a friend's niece so that she could take it to the baby shower with her on Saturday. 

The green doesn't really look that yellow in person. It's actually super cute. 

On Saturday we had lots of time to play. The weather was so nice that we filled up the kiddie pool and let the kids have all the fun they could stand in the freezing cold water. I asked Evan if he was ready to put up his "big kid" swing on the swing-set and he got really excited so we took down the trusty blue swing and replaced it with the other regular swing that came with our swing-set. 

Evan was so excited and proud of himself for being able to use the big kid swing and I am equally as excited that I no longer have to take him in and out of the little one. It's a win-win for sure. And yes, he does always wear rain boots unless they are, ironically, too wet to wear (from going in the pool with them on).

I was really looking forward to yesterday because I had gotten a ketchup and mustard rose bush (uh-huh, that's really the name - pretty cool right?) for Mother's Day when I went to the flower place with my family and my mom, and we planted it yesterday. 

I decided it would be the first plant in my perennial garden and since my mom was there when I got it, it would be my generations rose bush representing my mom, myself and Maggie. 

And because I just so hate to not be doing something.. I decided that since we got a new handle for our front door on Saturday, I needed to paint the front door. I don't love the door itself, and with just the primer, which is how it's looked since we put it in 3 years ago, it was pretty unattractive. I'd been thinking that I would like a dark grey door and shutters and now seemed like a great time to try the color out. So I got my dad to mix me some paint after church this morning and I gave the door a little make-over. 

From this... 

to this. 

I still don't really like the door style, but I love the color. 

What did you do over the weekend?

And Now It's Over

This is the last post about Teacher Appreciation Week 2012. I'm documenting it mostly for personal reference in the future, though if anyone feels like borrowing ideas, please do. The end of the week brought the last two raffle prizes, the drawing for the door prize and the teacher luncheon on Friday.

 The staff gifts for Thursday 

The support staff got bags of various mints with a tag that said "thanks for your commit-mint to our children". We tied each bag with a piece of ribbon and put their names on the back side of the tag.

The teachers each got a post-it notepad. We attached 5x7 card stock cards to a piece of foam board and then glued post-its to the top. The original idea uses an acrylic stand-up frame to hold the card stock, but that is for people with much bigger budgets or fewer to make. We were very happy with the way ours came out. I think you could actually put a magnet strip on the back of the foam too if the teacher had a file cabinet in their room.

The raffle prize for Thursday was Summertime Fun. It included sunscreen, a tumbler cup that we added bright summer-colored polka dots to and two gift certificates to the Northfield Creamie.

Friday was the teacher luncheon and the parents at NES did not disappoint. There was so much food I imagine they are still eating it today. One mom brought a 30 inch huge sandwich which was great because several classes were headed out on field trips and were able to pack some sandwich, chips and fruit so that they could still get lunch. We brought in Tupperware containers for the staff that would be leaving the building. It worked out really well.

The last raffle prize on Friday was Green Thumb and included a large pot, some garden gloves, and four New Guinea Impatiens plants. I think the teacher who won them will really enjoy her prize. I heard the entire fourth grade was in her room cheering for her when her name was announced at dismissal.

It was a great week. I think Stacy and I will start planning a bit earlier next year so it doesn't become one big rush, but considering we didn't know we were doing it until a month ago, it went very well. And now we rest. 

Some Details

I said I would share some of our Teacher Appreciation surprises once the teachers had seen them. Well, here you go. We kicked off the week long celebration today and it was a success! Stacy and I have been having so much fun getting all of this together and we're delighted that our plans so far have been well received.

We started last week with a banner in the hallway by the front doors of  the school to pump up the kids and let the teachers know that we were thinking of them. We wanted to build some school spirit and buzz. It definitely worked because I heard both staff members and students talking about Teacher Appreciation Week.

All last week, we scurried around shopping and putting together the many projects that will be revealed as the week goes on. We spent last night getting the room ready. 

A little window cleaning was the first order of business.

Then we set up the daily raffle. The teachers are automatically entered into the raffle and we have a prize for each day. Today's theme was pancake breakfast. It included apple strudel pancake mix and Quinn's Sugar House maple syrup, along with the little black basket that the winning teacher can hopefully use somewhere in her classroom. We draw the winner and make the announcement at dismissal. 

We added a banner that said Thank You across the windows.

But the letters fell off, which I suspected they would. So when we got there to set up this morning, our friend, and a teacher at the school, Erin, had attached them to the window. I actually liked it better. Thanks Erin!

Lastly, we added some pots of flowers and candy to the table.

Today we started with a staff breakfast which was mostly coffee and pastry donated by Mim's Market, but Stacy and I added some yummy coffee cake and fruit for variety. 

I forgot to take a picture right away so the fruit bowl is almost empty already, but it really was there!

The last thing we added today was a door prize that all staff member in the building are eligible to win. While the daily raffle is just for teachers, the door prize can be won by anyone who enters. We were lucky to have the Peila family donate the meat for a barbecue so we added some condiments and accessories and had a very nice door prize. 

The meat is in the freezer at Stacy's house until we pick a winner.

We have a few more surprises up our sleeves so the fun is definitely not over. What we do know for sure is that our kids will be grateful when the week is over and they get  a wee bit more attention. It's been lots of work, but we know how much the teachers appreciate it and they are worth spoiling rotten for one week a year. But it's important to remember that they should be thanked in small ways all year long. After all, they spend almost as many waking hours with your kids as you do. 

Another Easter Project

I am completely scattered this week. I thought Wednesday was Monday and Thursday was Friday. Confused yet? I sure am. I have been trying to get ready for both the holiday and Evan's birthday. Add on top of that the situation with our plumbing, and the fact that it's our snack week at school. I am just happy to be walking straight. I've never felt this unprepared. The biggest problem is that I don't even know what's not done. I can't get it together enough to figure out what I'm missing. Needless to say, I will be thankful when this week is over.

The one thing I have accomplished is the kids Easter baskets. They are actually buckets, but they will be what we leave out for the Easter bunny. I struggled to find time, but I realized yesterday, whatever day that was, that I only had a little bit of time left to be ready for Saturday night. I'm happy enough with the way they came out. There are some air bubbles I'm not pleased with, but it was too much for me to get them perfect at this point.

Even my picture taking skills appear to be severely lacking these days. Ugh. 

Cups

My nephew Ethan asked me to make him a personalized cup for his birthday. I would have done it, but I thought it would be more fun if he created it himself. Yesterday afternoon he and Braeden got to choose what they wanted for design and then tell me where to put the vinyl on their cups.

Here are the finished products

 front

back

So proud

(please ignore the color of B's hand - they were painting at school)

I love doing projects with the kids. It is so fun to see their different personalities come out in their choices of colors, decorations, etc. Braeden's cup is all transportation, while Ethan has flames and video game controllers. I was actually surprised that Ethan didn't choose motorcycles or skateboards, but I'm happy that he's happy with his end result. I felt bad that I didn't get one done for Evan, but Maggie woke up from her nap. His will most likely be monster trucks. Eventually I will even make one for myself. I've done several for gifts and they always look so good, but I never end up putting the effort in to make my own. 

Valentine's Day

What fun it is to decorate in shades of red and talk about love constantly. I love to do Valentines activities with the kids. We make hearts for the windows, cards for grandparents and of course, valentines for school. And with the help of Pinterest, all of these things have gotten even easier, so I have so many wonderful ideas I'd love to put to use.

Braeden and Evan like solid chocolate, but aren't really into sweets otherwise. So instead of buying them candy that they won't eat, I made them these buckets this year. (They do have some Lindt chocolate balls).

Braeden told me his was "just perfect." Yay! I love to be creative and try to come up with things that look cute and they will really like. Each of the boys got a book, a movie, and some sort of art activity, plus the chocolate balls.

Maggie got some snacks, some socks, a book and the stacker toy. Evan had been refusing to let her play with the one we already had. It was so funny. Every time she would play with it, he would stack it all back up and just hold it in his lap. It seemed simple enough to just get Maggie her own.

No Valentine picture of Evan because he wasn't in the mood. I'm sure there are many other years that he'll be more cooperative and I will definitely have my camera ready!

To my surprise, I even got a gift this year. Roman and I don't usually exchange, but I was thrilled to wake up to a Got All Your Marbles necklace. It's such a simple piece of jewelry that can be changed up to go with anything. Thanks honey, you rock.

The kids and I made some Valentine Swirl Cookies too for the occasion. They were lots of fun and looked really great. Since I wasn't blogging a week ago, I didn't think to take a picture of them. Next time.

We had a great day. Now it's time to "pin my way" (this makes sense for all the Pinterest users out there) to St. Patrick's Day.