Making Teacher & Staff treats

We like to craft here in our house. And we believe in putting our heart into our homemade gifts.
This year we made our teachers and staff small nugget bags with toppers. I showed the boys how to wrap each nugget and top with a decorative topper and label. The boys jumped in and wrapped nuggets hoping there would be extra....not today, boys! Gotta go back tomorrow and buy 3 more bags...and take some math classes. Your momma didn't add the supplies up right. Oops!Our little neighborhood school is a wonderful gem in our large metro area. We have staff and teachers that know each child by name and are genuinely interested in every single one of them. We have parent volunteers that make a huge impact on the development of the students either by directly teaching small groups or by assisting the teachers in the various small tasks that take up so much of the precious moments at school. Like all of America, our school district is painfully (and shamefully!) under-funded, yet every year our little school with heart gathers itself up and lives to fight another day, hoping against hope that there will be funding - somehow - for the necessary teaching staff and materials.

We like saying thank you to everyone...we want them to know that we need each-and-every single one.

THANK YOU!

Teacher appreciation

I know the "actual" date that has been officially declared as teacher appreciation day was in April....but our school celebrates once a week, with a grade hosted potluck lunch for the teachers. This way, the teachers get a hosted lunch each week for 6 weeks. Not too shabby!

Today was the 4th grade hosted lunch and Mr. Dude whipped up his extra-fantabulous triple choco-yum cookies.

I decorated CD envelopes and put a large cookie in each one, and delivered 30 of those yummy bad boys to the staff room. They were all gone before lunch was over!

Happy Mother's Day

Teacher Gifties, 2011

It's teacher appreciation week/staff appreciation week and there are many cute ideas out there in the blogging universe. I found this cute *FREE* subway art at EIGHTEEN 25.

A few months ago Mr. Dude bought a Groupon to Vistaprint for $50 worth of products for $10. I thought of the notepads and cards that I could make and when I saw the FREE subway art, it was like the entire universe aligned, and everything "clicked". Did I mention the subway art is FREE? I didn't have to come up with a cute graphic or try to recreate this...it was FREE! ;)

I'll post an entry when it comes in the mail. I'll be giving them their gifts at the end of the school year, in the meantime, we have teacher lunches each week until the end of the school year to show our appreciation.

Teacher Treats

I had a little time, a few extra treat bags from a class I made and made a few of these for the boys and their teachers and office staff. Each bag holds 3 rolos...the "pots of gold" or in this case, even better: chocolate!

Valentines for Boys

We made some really great valentines this year....I don't know how we're gonna maintain the position for best home-made valentines. That's a self-awarded title. ;)

It also sounds more impressive than it really is. Out of 30 kids only 3 made home-made valentines in the 4th grade and about 4 out of 22 in the 1st grade. I know it's a LOT more trouble than the boxed sets but the boys really like making their own valentine's and they REALLY like the attention.

I think they turned out pretty darned cute!

Making Do with Ugly

A few years ago, Mr. Dude & I built a deck off the house to replace some of the yard and have a fun party spot. My dad helped draw out the fairly basic plans but we really needed his engineering help for the slight slope to our yard. After the supports were in place, Mr Dude and I completed the deck together. I'm really happy with our deck and we spend lots of time out there watching the boys play.
But we added another boy after that deck and we all want lots of things like food and heat, so we don't have much left to buy fancy outdoor sofas and coffee tables. We also built this lovely thing in the background of the before picture. The boys love it and I get to sit on my large deck and watch them play.
Since I can't afford something like this:

I decided to make do with what we have. And what we have is old ugly hand--me-down wicker chairs:
I spent an hour getting busy with a can of Rustoleum 2 coat spray-paint in Satin "Espresso"

and look at this lovely chair now:


Tomorrow I'll seal the chairs with a clear coat of sealant.

I'm linking up to Trendy Tree House