Every holiday my kids bring home goodie bags and treats from their classmates…Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, birthdays, etc. Usually I feel terrible and tell myself that I will get my act together on the next holiday!
This year I promised that I would do a end-of-the-year class treat since I haven’t really done anything all year…or last year for that matter.
Pinterest is full of all sorts of cute ideas and a couple had caught my eye, but I hadn’t settled on anything and we only had a week left ’til SUMMER. {yay!}
I was trolling the aisles of 99¢ Only last week and came across some fun composition books. I immediately e-mailed Elliott’s teacher to get the girl/boy breakdown to gather the corresponding comp books. To my dismay, I could only find half the number of {boy} books at the two stores here in the area.
They DID have plenty of girlie versions in three different styles so I just wrapped a little yarn around them and attached a note to each one for her to pass out on the last day of school. After the fact, I thought the girls could exchange phone numbers and record them in these little books for play dates over the summer, too.
I decided on the collapsible water bottles for the boys in her class since they were such a hit at her birthday party…again from 99¢ Only and BPA-free!
{the tag reads, “Stay hydrated and have a great summer…see you in 3rd grade!”}
For Holden’s kindergarten class, I went with the “bookworm” idea that I’d seen on Pinterest awhile back. I did these for holiday treats in Elliott’s first grade class…
Individual bags of sour gummy worms, die cut worms, personalized labels and some washi tape later…
{gummy worms ~ Smart & Final, die cut worms ~ Dollar Tree, washi tape ~ Target}
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I always like to acknowledge the rest of the staff at the holidays and end-of-the-year. I usually deliver baked goods to the office, yard duties, custodian and aides, but this year I decided to go with paper products!
{typewriter notecards for the ladies in the office and mini purse-sized magnetic closure notebooks for the librarian, cafeteria staff and campus supervisors ~ all from Target clearance}
For our nice custodian who does SO much, I picked up a couple Monster energy drinks and CLIF bars to help get him through the day.
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Our principal is retiring and although our awesome PTA organized and put together an amazing gift basket for her, I wanted to give her something special from our family. I made her a nest pendant…she doesn’t have any children of her own, but has been a role model and friend to MANY children through her years as a teacher and principal.
The nest represents our school, the pearl represents our dear principal and the blue and pink beads represent all the boys and girls that are going to miss her so.
Going to get teary eyed delivering this one for sure…..
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Trader Joe’s has had so many cute greeting cards lately. If you haven’t checked them out when you run in there for groceries, you simply must…
Both the kids’ teachers are moving to different schools this Fall. I handpicked the perfect cards and wrote them a note from the heart letting them know how much we appreciate them and will miss seeing them on campus next year and included a gift card for summer treats.
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I’m emotional just thinking about delivering all these goodies in the next few days.
However, I am looking forward to slower mornings and filling our days with trips to the pool, beach, frozen yogurt or whatever comes our way. Having a virtually commitment-free summer ahead of us is so refreshing.
All I have to say is, if you’re a kindergarten teacher, you’re a saint.
I was assigned to the “yellow table” to help with an estimation exercise where the kiddos had a picture of a snowman and needed to estimate how many mini marshmallows it took to cover the snowman. They then put their estimation in the “guess” box, covered the snowman in marshmallows, removed and counted the marshmallows and finally reported the actual number of ‘mallows in the “check” box.
Easy right?
Bless their hearts…they did great, but all the friends at the table were counting too loud and at the same time and someone would inevitably get off on their counting and would have to start all over again.
Patience.
Let’s just say that most were {a little} off…estimating is HARD. I was never any good at guessing how many jelly beans were in the jar anyway!
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Most days {95% of the time} I pack Elliott’s lunch. Once in a blue moon she gets to buy {hot lunch} at school and this is a treat. Just so happened that today was a treat.
Well…
I was finishing up helping the teacher with some busy work when they went out to the lunch area. She desperately wanted me to come by the tables and say good bye and, of course, I did. She had already gone through the line and selected her lunch.
A slice of cheese pizza.
French fries.
A chocolate chip cookie.
Chocolate milk. {Of course!}
The end.
I’d hate to map that meal out on the food pyramid.
I rest my case.
That is precisely why hot lunch comes along once in a blue moon.
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Maybe 1st grade will bring some healthier hot lunch selections?
Hope your Thursday had at least ONE serving of fruits or veggies.
The kids never have a shortage of clothes, but they need a couple brand-new pieces to start school as well as some new zapatos.
I took them to Ross yesterday and it was a nightmare.
Everything that I liked, she hated.
Everything that she liked, I HATED.
We settled on a few things, but nothing that I super adored.
I’m not going to lie. I LOVE shopping for kids’ clothes. I am the one that always gives some article of clothing as part of the birthday gift for their friends. To kids, this equals B-O-R-I-N-G!
For Elliott’s birthday I found a darling pair of silver sequined high tops. I was so excited to give them to her. Wrapped in zebra print tissue and a glitter gift tag…she opened them and immediately blurted out, ‘They look like clown shoes!”
I told her they would look so cute with knee highs and a ruffled skirt.
Then she saw something on iCarly or somewhere and changed her mind.
So, now the sequined high tops are back in the game.
Yay!
Again, not going to lie….I am pretty particular about what I put on my kids. And I don’t mean that ALL they wear is designer, boutique inspired clothing. That is not the case at all. I have no problem putting them in a $2 pair of pants or a 50 cent shirt ~ as long as it’s cute!
If the shirt is ugly (in my opinion) and it’s 50 cents, no.
Cute and 50 cents, YES!
Sometimes a bow is OK, sometimes the bow ruins it. Sometimes there is just one little thing that makes it look cheap and I won’t buy it (even if it IS cheap).
I get most of the kid’s clothes from Ross, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, Target, The Children’s Place, Old Navy, Kohl’s, some hand-me-downs and occasionally Wal-mart. I refuse to spend a lot on their clothing. I almost always get their shoes from Ross. They have quality shoes like Stride Rite at great prices.
So, getting back to school shopping…I was so excited to take her this year, but I just won’t spend money on something that I don’t like for her. Is that bad?
What I think I’m going to do to come to a happy medium is shop for her stuff myself and then let her pick out her outfits (within reason). That way at least I will LIKE all the pieces she has to choose from if she won’t let me dress her.
Ugh! I can already see the writing on the wall each morning.
