baby day

My very dear friend who my kids call AuntE is finally expecting a little one of her own.  She and her hubby are beyond excited and are going to be A-mazing parents.  AuntE and I lived in the same dorm in college.  She knew me as 'the girl on the bike' (I always rode my bike)  and I knew her as the dork who introduced herself to everyone the first day of school.  Then we got jobs when we graduated at the same school and taught together our first several years together.  This year she is the principal!  That means that  A.  he rocks and B. We are getting old! 

We didn't become friends until we started teaching together.  When Hubby and I went to dinner with Aunt E and her husband the first time we had a good laugh; they knew my hubby as 'the boy on the bike' and hubby and I had referred to Aunt E's hubby as and 'the boy in the lobby.'  In our dorm, guests weren't allowed up without their host.  Aunt E's then boyfriend waited in the lobby, mine snuck up on the elevator.  We ended up being neighbors and carpool buddies. 

I'm not the only one that loves them.  They had like 17 baby showers and have every little boy sleeper, onsie and bootie currently on the market.  That little man will be well dressed. 

I finally got to give this hat, a taggie blanket like Lou's, a nursing cover, and this quilt.  I spent 8 hours in the car for a 2 hour shower, but it was worth it to see my good friend and her mama.  I also listened to a book on tape in the car and the time passed SO quickly.   

Let me mention the whole book on tape thing again. I listened to Pioneer Woman's new book, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.  It was CD of course, not tape.  Same thing- from the library.  The drive went by so quickly.  I was worried that I'd already read much of the book on the blog, but there a lot more stuff in the book.  I was not disappointed.  I was going to recommend it to my Grandma, who I know reads her blog... but Grandma, it got a  little racy.  If you read it, pretend I have not.   Not like super racy, but just enough that I wouldn't want to watch it on TV with my parents in the room.. or my kids... or my boss.  It was sweet and romantic and now I feel like Ree and I are BFFs.  She was the voice for the book, so it was like she was talking to me.  We're tight like that.   I highly recommend passing time in the car with a book on tape, just make sure you know where you're going though.  It's a little tough to watch for interstate signs and follow the detour when you're worried about your new BFF working a prairie fire.  The truck caught on fire for goodness sakes.  My drive should have been 6 hours, but my poor sense of direction and inability to pay attention made me take the long way home.  The, little town every ten miles long way.

Hello sun

Because it's spring now and I'm packing for our trip I changed today's post to this- just to say Happy Spring.

Lucky Day

 I hadn't planned to do much for the kids for St. Patrick's Day except their special shirts (Bee wore last years shirt and Lou wore the 'don't pinch me' shirt that can be seen here) and a gold chocolate coin, but at 11:30 the night before, I saw this printable You're 2 Lucky card.  

I didn't want to break into my own stash of $2 bills, but I did.  I have been saving all of the $2 bill my Grandma used to send me in cards. I guess gifting them to the kids is as good a thing to do as any. 

At breakfast the next morning, they both found their cards and were excited to get a little something.  They've already traded me back the $2 bills in exchange for singles so they can spend them.  Two bills are better than 1.

butterfly in a jar- a splurge

The kids both had birthday parties to go to this week. I usually make our gifts, but I had several other things on my plate this week so I took them to toys r us.  I gave them a budget and let them choose.  I didn't have a budget for getting anything for myself of course, but ended up buying two things.  Both are butterfly related and I'll use them for school and the nature center so they'll get used, but they were a splurge.  One is this butterfly in a jar called My Pet Butterfly.   (I also bought a life-cycle model kit -something similar to this, but mine has four different critters)

It took me a few minutes to figure out how it worked.  There is a tiny tiny thin wire that makes the butterfly flutter about in the jar.  It's cool, plain cool.  It really looks like a real butterfly in a jar.

It makes a great cat toy too. 

teacher appreciation week - sweet treat

Wednesday's theme was sweet treat.  The teachers filled out a paper earlier in the year with their favorite snack, etc so we knew that both teachers like nuts.  This is a set that we made for Lou's teachers awhile back, but Bee's looked pretty much the same.  I think I remembered to type the ingredients below the name this time.   We gave them (really yummy)  candied pecans.  You can find the recipe I love here.   I've written about these pecans before, but they are so good; they deserve a whole weeks worth of posts!

We're sneaky.  It's just a zip lock baggie with a piece of scrapbook paper stapled over the top.   May be the easiest way to dress up a plain old zip lock.

Happy teacher appreciation day... again.

teacher appreciation week- a thank you

Tuesday's teacher appreciation theme was thank you.  We were to write a thank you note.  I did come up with a few cute ideas, but we just ended up writing simple thank you notes. I had already gone over budget for this week's events.  Next year I'll make sure to allow more!

Here's another thank you note though:

I wrote last week about our Dental Health day at preschool and how my dentist came in to speak.  He did a fantastic job with the kids and I wanted to say thanks.   I made up a special book for our classroom about his visit and decided to make one up for him too.  (I'm not sure the pages are in the right order here....)

I went old school and cut out clipart and glued it on.  I knew what clipart I wanted but couldn't find it online anywhere to cut and paste it in.

I tried to white out faces here just for my publishing it here. 

Like all the other class books I have made, I printed on card stock and laminated at home.  I hole punch and use those binder clip rings for the binding.

So far the books have held up really well.  We've had some since the very beginning of the year and they get looked at by little clumsy hands all the time. 

His book had these last pages where the kids and teachers signed.  For the first time since I've had my laminator, this page got wrinkled.

This was signed by the 3 year olds.  Some can write their names. Others not so much.

I took the book into the dentist office on Monday (had a little tooth thing that needed fixed) and the whole office loved it.  I hope it will be something that he keeps out in his office for years.

flowers for teachers - teacher appreciation day

I don't know if it's teacher appreciation week where you are.  I don't know if the schools just pick a week or how that's done, but it's that week for Bee's school.  I guess in some past years, the parents have gone really crazy with elaborate gift cards and presents in some classes and not in others.  The PTA assigned each day's theme for us to help avoid that this year.

Monday's gift theme was flowers.  Each student was to bring in some flowers for each teacher.  We went with bulbs.

With a quick raid of my stash of randomness, we found several netted bags.  I've been saving them for making bird nesting material bags at the nature center, but I've been saving them so long and only had a few to show for it. 

We wrapped up a few bulbs in each and tied them off.

Lou and Bee colored in some tags with planting directions.

Gladiolus are such a pretty flower.  I planted 30 or so in our backyard last week. 

We made up several sets while we were at it.  Lou wanted to give some to his teachers too.

We found these adorable buckets in the dollar section at target.  We also grabbed matching shovels and little plant markers.  Bee was pretty excited to give her little buckets. 

The only thing I could smell while we were working on these were the sweet potatoes we are sprouting in the sewing/craft/now indoor garden area.  They're getting a little funky.

No real reason for this photo- the cat was just hanging out. 

Happy Teacher Appreciation week. Whenever it is.

I heart faces challenge- sun flare

I'm working on my photography this year.  I've been following I Heart Faces for awhile now.  It's a photography contest blog with lots of other useful info about photography.  This is the first time I'm linking up.  Not because I think I'll win, but because it'll be good experience to get involved and participate.

The theme this week is sunflare.  The picture that immediately came to mind was this one of our chore time from last summer.  Watering the garden was never so much fun.