End of Year Gifts: Teachers, Bus Driver & Kids

Tomorrow I officially finish my room mom duties at the end of year party.  I was lucky enough to share this job with an amazing lady that I can now call my friend!  Her and I decided that since our little kiddies don’t get much downtime at school, we would keep it ultra simple.  No planned games – just free wheelin’ playground fun!  By this time of year, we figure their attention span for directions would be next to nothing, so why not just let them play?!

As an added bonus, we decided to have bubbles, sidewalk chalk and hula hoops out for them to use too.  I was going to make new labels for the bubble bottles with cute polka dot or striped paper like the one on the left, but then I thought about it and decided to save my sanity and my time.

Sometimes you’ve got to think about your audience and if it’s worth the time when half the bubbles will probably spill and the wrappers get torn off.  So I opted to simply label each with their names to avoid any “this is mine,” “no, it’s mine” conflicts.  You know what I mean?

For teachers’ gifts, I lean towards group gift cards because it allows them to get what they want.  You know, one can only get so many apple paperweights.  However, I am a sucker for presentation, so I wanted to do something more than a card.

While I was at Target the other day, I found these adorable plastic berry baskets (a 2 pack for $4.99) and grabbed a bunch of berry and fruit items from their dollar section to fill it along with the gift card. 

Those bags were too cute to pass up, so I folded them and tucked them behind the other goodies.  Then, when they go home that day, they can jus throw the basket and goodies right inside the bag!

Got another fabulous free printable from the ladies at eighteen25 and boom, that there is some serious cuteness going on!

 

And for a fun send off for the kids, I grabbed some Kool-Aid packets (5 for a dollar) and prettied them up with yet another awesome free printable from the Preppy & Pink blog.

Threw them in cellophane bags and sealed them up with…you guessed it, washi tape. BOOM! Cheap, fun and cute – my favorite recipe!  You could add crazy straws, but I’m in the less is more mode.  I figure they get so much stuff sent home as it is.

There are a few other people I like to thank at the end of the year too.  One of them being our bus driver.  So I chipped in with another neighbor for a gift card and tied it to a Simply Lemonade with a tag reading, “Have a Simply Fantastic Summer!”

And because I’m a “worry schmurry” as my son would say, I ended up wrapping the lemonade with the gift card in a cellophane bag.  This way, should the gift card fall off the bottle, it will still be safe and sound inside the bag.

I did get risky and tape the “simply fantastic summer” tag on the outside of the bag.

I’m crazy like that.

This year has flown I think faster than any of them.  I started it out with the two bookends of the school – a kindergartner and a 5th grader…and of course my girl mixed in between them.  Now I’ve got a soon-to-be 1st grader, 3rd grader and…..MIDDLE SCHOOLER!!!!!!  YIKES!  Somebody help me.  That scares me, let me tell ya.  Middle school.  Better make this summer count before he’s too cool for family fun!

Blog Love

Over the past several months I’ve been amazed by the support and comradery found in the blogging world.  Everyone is quick to help each other and encourage each other.  We’re talking complete strangers all working together to make each other better.  It’s really a pretty cool thing.

So today I just wanted to give a shout out to some ladies that keep me going with their words of encouragement and comments.  I’ve just “met” these ladies over the last several months during my blogging adventure and their support has been priceless.  Thank you, ladies!

Each of these ladies bring something unique and special to the blogging world.  If you get the chance, make sure to stop by and check them out and leave them a little love in the comments area!  In no particular order, here they are…

Tricia from making it feel like home

Annette from One Perfect Room

Sharon from Mrs. Hine’s Class

Kali from The Vintage Milk House

Polly from Families with Purpose

Cathy from Inspired D+signs

Randee from Randee’s Organized Chaos

Kim from The Money Pit

Jaime from Crafty Scrappy Happy

Bec from Little Lucy Lu

Have a great day, everyone!

Kim

Two Words

I had a different post planned for today, but all I can seem to muster up for you is two words…

I’M TIRED.

My house is being overrun by a jungle…

It’s the 5th grade last hoorah party this Friday…and I’m tired of thinking about it.

Tired of worrying about whether I’ve got enough stuff.

Tired of worrying about what the parents and other committee members will think.

I know.

It’s silly, right?

The kids would have fun in a cardboard box.

Why should I worry about what the parents think?

Why do I do that to myself?

All that matters is that the kids have fun.

And they will.

I know they will.

Landscape & No Bake Watermelon Cake

Hi guys!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  We finally finished up on the bulk of our gardening.  Yay!  For the most part, my gardening goes as far as buying hanging baskets, cutting off the hangers and putting them in pots – two to flank my garage and one for my front porch.

I’m lucky enough that Kevin and Erin have started a father daughter tradition of planting the flats of flowers for the front of our house together.  Love that tradition!!

However flower boxes are one of my favorite things, so I do break down and actually plant those myself because I HAVE TO HAVE THEM!  The first few years I did them, my flowers would dry out so quickly that I couldn’t keep up and they would die halfway through the summer.  I’m all about low maintenance, so watering more than once a day wasn’t an option.  I barely manage once a day for crying out loud!

But last year I was determined to make them work and I’ve finally found the secret!  My first problem was that my window box is south facing and would get blazing sun.  Second, I use coconut liners and the water would leak out immediately, leaving the flowers dry and thirsty very quickly.  I couldn’t do anything about my house facing south, but I could retain the water better.

So if you also use coconut liners too, here’s my little tip for you…save the plastic liners they give to keep your trunk clean when you buy your flowers.  When you get home, line your window boxes with it, then put your dirt in.  It helps retain the water, especially on those scorching days.  I’ve come to discover they actually sell coconut liners with plastic already in them, but this is a cheaper alternative and hey, you’re giving another life to that plastic liner!  Works perfectly and it’s free!

Inside the window boxes this year…two varieties of begonias and goldilocks to drape over the edge.  Must have the draping!

We also have a small vegetable garden in our backyard.  My son has decided it is his baby this year…he wants to have a farm stand and sell the food for profit.  Hilarious, considering we really don’t reap that much from our garden and I want to eat some of it!

And before I go, I’ve got to share a no bake watermelon “cake” I made for my sister’s birthday yesterday.  It turned out beautiful and is so easy to make!  It would be great to take to any summer shin dig too.  I discovered this awesome idea from Heather at Cupcake Love Affair and Rachel at Bubbly Nature Creations.  Make sure to check theirs out too.  Heather actually made cantaloupe butterflies to stick on the sides!  The only fancy touch I did was putting a swirl of whipped cream in the center, which of course I forgot to take a picture of!  Still beautiful though!

Don’t you just love it?!

Two more weeks and it’s officially summer for us.

No more packing lunches!

No more homework!

No more piles of papers!

YAY!

Volunteer Brunch

Last week, my kids’ school threw a brunch for anyone who volunteered over the school year and let me tell you, I was so impressed!  The food was yummy and the decorations were absolutely adorable!  I’m sure people thought I was nuts, but I clicked a few pictures while I was there because it was just too darn cute.

Our school used a train theme throughout the school year to tie its activities and values together and they incorporated it into the decorations at our brunch.

We even got to take a map home, which I thought was way cool and my husband and son appreciate too.  They can never have too many maps.

Seriously, how cute are these accordion map flowers???!!!

They do so much for our kids already,

I almost felt guilty that they treated us with such a fabulous brunch.

But I’ll take it!

Thank you to the staff for making us feel so special!

Summer Calendars – More Washi Fun!

I love the lazy days of summer, but sometimes that’s a recipe for sibling bickering and whining if you don’t have some sort of plan.  I’m not a very structured person and that is why I need some sort of structure to keep me on track. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t want to over schedule our days because I also think it’s important for kids to be able to find their own fun, but I don’t want to waste our days away because we have no plan at all.  This year I’m determined to find a good balance of scheduled activities and “loosely planned,” lazy days.

Since I am a very visual person, it’s best if everything is laid out there in front of me to see.  So I decided to hang giant calendars on the wall to serve as a visual reminder to keep some kind of loose plan.  There’s really nothing fancy about what I did, but here’s what you need:

• 3 poster boards
• washi tape or some kind of decorative tape
• markers
• ribbon
• Scotch tape
• 3M hook

Using the wash tape, I created the grid for each month’s calendar.  I still need to make August because someone swiped my third poster board.  I’m not naming names, but he is short and cute.

Then I just used a different color marker for each child’s scheduled activities and a color for family activities like vacations.

Then I linked them together with ribbon and hung them on the wall.  The poster board is flopsy, so you will also need to tape the back.

 All of our scheduled things like camp and vacations are marked, then I have a list of ideas next to it to help fill in the blanks on days we need ideas.

Truly nothing fancy going on here. Handwritten to do list in fun colors and literally used the washi tape to hang it on the wall. We can easily add to the list and add another sheet below it if needed.

Now, on unplanned days, we can look over at our summer checklist and see our options or even better yet, make a plan for the next day.

It’s silly, but I’m in love with these calendars.

That washi tape can make anything fun!

So, how about you?

Are you ready for the summer?!

What do you do to stay on track to avoid the whining trap?

Feel free to leave ideas or links in the comments area!

Winner & International Food Fest

We have a winner!

The lucky recipient of the $50 gift card to Stella & Dot is… 

#61Kali from The Vintage Milk House

Congratulations, Kali!

Thanks again to Kelly from Stella & Dot for providing this fabulous giveaway to us!  If you didn’t win this time, but would still like to get your hands on some of Stella & Dot’s fantastic jewelry line, make sure to stop by Kelly’s webpage.

Today I’d also like to share some fun we had over the weekend celebrating my son’s 11th birthday with our family.  I’m not sure where he came up with this idea, but he asked for an International Taste Testing Party.  So I asked everyone to bring an ethnic dish of their choice and we ended up with a FEAST!

I also tried out some ideas from Pinterest and Blogland, like using cupcake liners as tops on the cups to keep the bugs out and…

 

…veggies and dip in individual cups...mozzarella and tomatoes on a stick…

…potato chips in cut paper lunch bags…

…and strawberry shortcake on a stick.  Lots of stuff on a stick.

We also had samosas, fattoush salad, spring rolls…

…sushi…

…and desserts galore!  My sister really outdid herself.  She made original elephant ear cookies, cream puffs and fruit pastry all homemade!

 

My son’s favorite of the day…Argentinian steak kabobs!

You can get the recipe from my sister here.

And of course our party staple - steamed “Home Depot” hot dogs made an appearance.  (aka – Koegel’s)

I think we ate for 7 hours straight!

And even with all those desserts, we still managed to top everything off with one of Jake’s favorite desserts, orange sherbet.

That’s my boy!

Favorite Summertime Drinks

Since Memorial Day weekend is upon us, thought I’d share some of my favorite summertime drinks with you…

We’ve all had water with lemon slices, but why not get crazy and try cucumber slices and mint leaves for another refreshing alternative?

Cucumber Mint Water

 

Passion Fruit Iced Tea

Have you ever had the Passion Fruit Iced Tea at Starbucks?  This is one of my favorites.  My kids love it too.  A fellow Midwest blogger found her own way to make it at home much cheaper.  Check out Vicki’s recipe to make your own.  We’ve been drinking it all week!

 

Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

Looking for a refreshing white wine? A friend of mine just tipped me off to my new “go to” summertime wine! You might recall my “go to” red is Red Diamond Merlot, but in summer it’s nice to have something refreshing and crisp when the temperature rises. I’m typically a red wine drinker even in the summer, but this stuff is delicious! It’s got a hint of citrus flavor to it, not at all sweet, just refreshing.

Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc is affordable - between $12-15 depending where you buy it.  I found a bottle at Target the other day and you can also find it at Costco. 

 

 

 

Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy

And for my favorite summertime beer - Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy.  It’s got a hint of lemon in there making it extra refreshing, but not overpowering or sweet.

  

For some other refreshing drink options, check out East Coast Creative’s post here.

If you haven’t entered the $50 Stella & Dot Giveaway, you’ve still got time!  I will draw the winner Tuesday!  Click here to enter.

Have a safe and relaxing

Memorial Day Weekend!

-Kim-