Just in case you want to kiss up

I am really not on board with the "first day of school gifts". How could that not be sucking up, loud and clear? (This is foreshadowing, in case you are wondering). What I am on board with, is a thank you gift for putting up with my child all summer AND yeah new school year. That clearly is not sucking up. Not in the least.

Last year I gave the teachers doughnuts in a cute container and it was a big hit. This year, I made this label for my friend Sonia. She needed something for the crossing guard at her daughter's school (they have required drop-off and pick-up; a dream). Since men like smoothies, I suggested Smoothie King and with a card reading: "Thank you for making our days run smoothly". I love a good pun.

I have since made another one for Zach's Kindergarten teacher with a gift to a local, kid friendly yogurt store (she has twin first graders) that says:

So maybe I am on board with first day of school gifts....

Really, I am on board with gifts for teachers in most settings. Especially when they involve gift cards and me getting to make something. Plus, Zach's first week was tough. I think he handled it great, but I know that is largely due to his teacher being so warm, calm and supportive. I can imagine her week and I thought a little treat for her family over the long weekend, was not too out of control. But my concept of "out of control" can tend to be skewed, I have been told.

In case you want to kiss up be supportive of your teacher, here is a link to the printable of the first card.

School's back

You guys, I have a kindergartner, how is that possible when I am only 26 years old? And how is it possible this guy is in big-time elementary school?

His smiles were much more genuine then, but he still has the ability to shrink his eyes to 1/8th their normal large size when he smiles. He gets that from me - he is so lucky.

This is not going to be a weepy long post about my oldest starting kinder. Mainly because it has been done for me and I don't really do weepy. This post is my favorite first day of school ones (not weepy, just funny) and this one made me cry. Everything has been said and it is all true. However, I didn't cry, I practically danced out of the school and once I dropped James off, the only thing going through my head was:

I then spent an hour and a half at the grocery store (I had to make two trips and chat with friends) went to an eye doc appointment and prepped dinner. I could not have been happier. I then made what I thought was an awesome snack which both my children refused to eat asking instead for cheese and crackers. Naturally they did, it is the standard Wall snack. No worries, I polished off three to make myself feel better.

My friends keep asking me how I am doing, with a sympathetic look in their eye and I tell them I am fine. I am EXCITED. These boys are used to being in school. Zach likes it, James does as well once he gets past me not being there (I am awesome in his eyes, more of you should cry when I leave). Zach is so social and has oh, so many questions, he is a great fit for more schooling. He has already come home asking me to be sure to read him the author and the illustrator of the books we read before bed and has learned the sight word 'am'. Kindergarten = success.

Oh there have some hiccups too. Like getting up early. No one in our family is thrilled with this plan and we are pretty terrible at it. But luckily since Zach has to wear a uniform (basically, he can chose from khaki or navy shorts and a red, navy or white shirt) him getting dressed is fairly easy. When he does not get distracted by legos or something. And since they eat lunch at 10:40 I don't really worry if he doesn't eat all that much breakfast.

We have been riding our bikes to school, since we live less than a mile away. My sister says I am such a stereotype. Totally. I just need some pedal pushers (now called skinny pants) and I could be a 1950s housewife.

Except that on the way home, this guy sneaks my phone out from the pocket and plays games on it.

He also started school and did great for about three days then realized that this was also for real. He goes every day and staged a revolt (see paragraph above about my awesomeness). The revolt involved full body convulsions on the floor and a piercing scream to go with it. You would not know it from these angelic photos, but he is a beast when he wants to be. Which is anytime I tell him "no".

Happy first weeks of school my friends!

Here is the look back at the boys first days of school and the best example of the fact that clearly I birthed twins, 2.5 years apart.

Zach:

2013

2012

2011

2010

 James:

2013

2012

I am the mother of a graduate

Last Thursday Zach graduated from Pre-K and I didn't cry. Who is proud? Me, too! OK, I might have teared up when the director started reading some poem about how we gave them our kids as babies and they are giving them back to us as kids. But I pulled it together. It is just Pre-K after all, I needed to calm down.

Zach's teachers told him to dress up and he took them very, very seriously. Going so far as to tell me I had to wear a dress and not exercise clothes. He even picked it out and told me I had to wear my fancy shoes. He needed to calm down as well.

We went to Chick-fil-A for a celebratory lunch after and I tried to get a photo of all four of us (plus Liv) but as usual it looks like I was not there. Some stranger just took photos of my family.

The entire ceremony lasted about 7 minutes and I put Alex in charge of videoing the part when he got his diploma. I should have remembered Zach's first solid food and known how this would go. Ridiculous.

For the extras

Last week was the boys final week of school. James is out of the twos program and Zach is out of the school, headed to kindergarten in the fall. I am currently in complete denial about it, which is preferable to the mini-panic attack I was contemplating. Three months, people.Three months exactly until they have school again. Terrifying.

Last week I was all sorts of crazy after getting back from a wedding in St. Louis on Monday, pre-K graduation Thursday, then rolling right into Alex's birthday Saturday. I had previously set up the teacher's gifts, so I was ready for that. But what about those extra people, you know, the directors, art/music teacher, etc? I didn't want to phone it with a Starbucks card (because I did that for Christmas, let's be clear, I am not above it.) but I was tired. I really didn't want to get too crafty.

As if, that was possible. I was purchasing the Target gift card for the teachers when I spotted these 8GB zip drives in the check out aisle for 5.99. Surely I could come up with a clever saying for that, right? I feel everyone can use a zip drive. I seem to always loose them and for 5.99, they seemed perfect.

It took me a while, but I landed on the phrase, "Hope we didn't drive you too crazy this year". Because you all know I am a handful.

In case you could use this as well, I set up a PDF file. Just cut out the gray rectangle and you are ready to go!

The end is coming

There are exactly 10 more days of school for the boys. Well, technically, James only has five. Holy crap. That is coming really, really fast. I can't focus on the summer yet, or the weeks that we have very little to do...what I can focus on is end of the year teacher gifts! Naturally, I can get really excited about this.

I thought some of you might be getting panicky/excited as well, so I did a round up of the things I have done in the past in case you need suggestions for this year.

Donuts - Send the teacher's off to summer with a sweet treat and a gift card for the local doughnut place. Since she won't be rushing to get to school, she has time, but you know she is up.

Gift Cards - Check out the bottom of this post for a link to printable gift card holders. Make the teacher smile all while saying - thank you for making sure my child wiped!

Cookies - If you didn't use this for Valentine's day, you could totally use it now. Package up some cookies to wish your teacher well this summer.

Cup + Lemonade - Super easy, super cute with printable tags.

Bookmark - This is what I did last year, and might do again. I printed out this cute bookmark and included it with an Amazon gift card. Easy and fast.

Also you can check out my For a Great Teacher Pinterest board for more suggestions than you most likely want. Happy Summer!

The school was trying to make me sweat

For some reason the boy's school does Teacher Appreciation Week the same week as Valentine's day. I think it is on purpose to make the room moms regret they volunteered for this position. And, you all know I love teacher appreciation week. I have an entire Pinterest board for it. I love making things for people (Love Language = gifts) and especially for the teachers. But man, that love was tested back in February.

I had to really plan it out this year to get everything done and even though it was ridiculously overwhelming (moderately self-brought on) I loved it. I thought these could be good ideas for end of the year gifts, or if you have an appreciation week coming up.

I copied the theme from the last time I was room mom, in the Honeybees class and started with a poster with all the kids names on it. The class name is Hummingbird, to state the obvious. I came up with the slogan myself (Sloan totally guilted me into NOT just stealing one from Pinterest) and used my cutting tool to make it happen.

Zach insisted on helping with the hummingbirds which gave me a large case of crafting anxiety, but I pushed it down. I ended up letting him put glue on them and picking which side they flew towards the feeder from. And told him they needed to alternate colors (yellow and green). I am a gem.

Tuesday, they received a plant with a tag from the entire class (James' teachers got this for their gift)

Wednesday was hand sanitizer and I loved this one. So cute and useful.

Thursday was the countdown calendar, printed and put into an inexpensive 5x7 frame. All they have to do is wipe it off and countdown to anything. I hear they are counting down to Spring Break currently.

And Friday was a gift card in a funny card. You all know my feeling on using the majority of the money for gift cards and this was no exception. The one on top is my favorite.

It says, "I looked for teacher appreciation ideas on Pinterest, so I got out the Mod Podge, the Circut machine and thirty-two shades of glitter. Then I decided a gift card is better."

So, so me, no? But as if I own 32 shades of glitter....only 32 shades of sequins. That is not funny.

The teachers said they felt so appreciated and the kids had fun giving them to them each day. The kids also like to look at the Hummingbirds with their names on them. Next time I am going to figure out how to make my handwriting better. 

That is really the main thing missing in my craft arsenal.

10 Steps to Crafting Happiness

As I mentioned in this post, my Valentine's for the teachers this year was a minimum of 10 steps. Which is clearly what I prefer.

But this was not my vision. This one was my vision. However, my vision crashed and burned at 9:30 a.m. the day before Valentine's day.

Let me break down the steps for you.
1. Find a printable online and immediately scale them and print them out, disregarding the time or the fact it is a week before V day.
2. Research a variety of s'mores mix on Pinterest. Scoff at most of them except this one.
3. Realize you have a delicious s'mores cookie recipe and wonder if those fit into the jars?
4. Decide they in fact can fit if you make them small enough and whip up two batches to freeze until you are ready to bake.
5. Order handled mason jars on Amazon and get very annoyed they will not arrive until the 12th. And yes, you need 12 because, of course you do.
6. Realize they don't come with lids (WHAT??) and that you have to drag your two year old to Target the day before Valentine's day in search of lids.
7. Find lids and $100 worth of stuff you didn't have on your list and arrive home to find that not only did you just buy the lids, not the sealers, but they are the wrong size.
8. Have a pity party for yourself because you have real problems. Debate dragging both children back to Target after nap time, then realize that is ridiculous since you have perfectly good bags ready to be used. Feel very proud of yourself for letting go of the original vision.
9. Put cookies in bags, tie a bow in the baker's twine (tell yourself it is totally fine that you only have red; no one will notice that you should have used pink) and staple it all to the bag.
10. Clip the tag on with the teeny tiny clothes pins you have been hoarding for years and try not die at the cuteness.

I would like to point out that while I used these for Valentine's day they don't actually say Happy Valentine's Day so you could use them for any teacher gift, at any time. Just make sure you have time to complete the steps.

Also, the blogger made some that just say "There is no one I love S'more than you" to be used for anyone, anytime! That is what I used for the director at the boy's school. .

But do buy some pink bakers twine when you make these. You will not regret it and I will need to borrow it immediately.

Holiday Teacher/Anyone-who-cares-for-my-kids Gifts

Did this sneak up on anyone else? The boys last day of school is Friday and I need to do the teacher gifts from the class, something from the boys for each teacher and what about their swim teacher, arts alive teacher and back up teachers? Why do they have all these activities?!

I immediately got on Pinterest for ideas. Here is what I have. Hopefully it will help if you forgot like me. But I am sure you did no; you all are much more on top of things (ahem, gift card tree, Debra).

Teacher Gifts from Class
As the room mom, I always give our teachers gift cards. Maybe it is crass, but those ladies wipe a lot of poop for not much money and I want them to have a little extra in their pocket on their special occasions.

In my search I saw a cup with the kids fingerprints on it and the tag line "Love your little deers" and I knew I had to use that. Not the cup. No teacher wants anything with the kids fingerprints on them. Sorry, it is the truth. Just ask my teacher text group - Debra, Melissa, Lauren, Joanna and Maria will all confirm.

But you guys just know how I love a good pun so I had to use the tag line. I went searching for a reindeer card and what do you know, I found a super cute one I could type my own wording in.

BUT I don't like to just give a card with the moula, especially for Christmas. I also don't like to spend much money either (if any), taking away from what will be in the gift card.

Then I remembered I had a link to sugar scrub cubes on my new favorite blog and I thought those would be perfect. I had all the ingredients on hand and I love to make stuff. I had to stop myself from starting it at 10 pm. Calm it on down, Kinsey.

I mixed them up one night (FYI I needed four batches to get 15 cubes) and put them in small canning jars. I made mine with honey and lemon, using the amounts suggested by the blogger. They were very easy (if messy) and super cheap. Also, a perfect use for those square ice cube trays I bought back when I was going to make baby food for James. A glue gunned bow, a gold sharpie and we are all set.

Teacher Gifts from the Boys
I found some insulated drink sleeves at Randall's a few months back and scooped up five of them. I had them monogrammed with the teacher's first name (since they use their first name at the school) and gave them a gift card to Starbucks.

Oh don't worry, I also found a printable tag to go along with that gift. BAM! Pinterest is my b***! (I told you I needed to calm down)

I printed a few extras of this card for the other activity leaders, coaches and the principal of the school. It fits perfectly in a 5x7 envelope with or without a drink sleeve.

Seriously though, aren't all the bloggers who are graphically creative (not just copy cats like me) so nice for putting their stuff out there for free? They are so talented and we can use their gifts. I love it.

They also rarely talk about how great they are, which, as you know, I don't understand. Did I tell you I was famous?

Letter of the Week

Like all Pre-K classes, Zachary has a letter of the week each week that his class works on. Last year I tried to have him do a craft in the afternoons/evenings one day a week with the letter of the week and it was a disaster. He was not as into art as he is now and it was torture for both of us. So after C I scrapped it. And with my work schedule we were lucky to do his letter book (where we had to cut out photos of things that started with the letter) and find something for show and tell. We regularly forgot both of those.

But this year he is very into art and I thought I would try it again. I found this site that has printable pages with the letters at the top and also ideas for each letter.

Since we had done some last year I tried to think of new things and asked Zach what he wanted to do. They are pretty straight forward.
A is for Ant and Anthill

 B is for Banana

 C is for Car

D is for Dinosaur

E is for Electric Pole or "poll" as I wrote it that day. Can you even believe it? Alex has since corrected it on the paper and initialed his changes. 

F is for Feather

Wait, you weren't expecting E for Electric pole? Yeah, me neither. I tried to encourage E for Eel with visions of me finding eels he could color and cut out but he insisted on creating an electric pole. So that was the result. Those are the electric lines leading to our house and his friend Logan's house.

We still haven't gotten much father but now we group them together and do as many as we can in one day. We have them on display in the back room of our house. It looks so lovely with the building blocks, UT football set and dozens of balls. 

New Wheels

Does anyone remember how old they were when they first could ride a bike without training wheels? I remember learning (and riding repeatedly into a ditch) but have no clue how old I was. These days it seems to run the gamete from four year old's to seven year old's.

Zach had been riding his balance bike for about two years and loved it. He could balance great; coasting down hills and picking up speed. I was certain he could transition nicely to a small bike with no training wheels. It was my vision, the entire reason to have a balance bike. Here he is at last year's Ride a Thon.

But my vision was ruined by one, well-meaning person.

We decided that it was time to get Zach a bike with pedals and Alex decided he was in charge of it. He is not usually the one picking the toys or getting them stuff so it seemed like about time. I tried to push for a small bike, one like his friend Kaygo had. Something like this. Zach had ridden it at the park and did great. But when Alex heard "small bike" he thought I meant 16" over 20". Nope, I meant 14". So he and Zach headed to the bike store and came home with a very nice, 16" Trek bike that Zach was not strong enough to hold up on his own. Awesome.

So needless to say, Alex put the training wheels and they both were perfectly happy about it. I was not. But since then, he and his dad have been going to the park on the weekends and riding in the grass and he is getting better. Yes, he and his dad not me, because I discovered I have zero patience for riding a bike instructing. I knew Zach could do it. Knew it. So it only made me highly angry/annoyed when he whined and wouldn't do it. But it does not bother Alex one bit, so he is in charge. Which is good, since this is all his fault anyway.

When Ride-a-thon came around this year I knew we had to put the training wheels back on. They circle around the parking lot and it is a very tight turn. Not happening on his big bike sans training wheels.

And you know what? There were a few kids who had bigger bikes without training wheels but most of the kids were on the 16" with training wheels. And Zach had a blast, riding in a circle and feeling very confident. That is more important, in the end than me being right...right?

On a side note, this is my baby's fourth Ride-a-Thon and his last, since he will be in Kinder next year. I can't believe my squishy baby who was pushed in the buggy for his first Ride-a-Thon will be a kindergartner next year.

James as well, is nowhere near riding even a balance bike. His grandparents got him this scooter for his birthday and it has mainly been monopolized by Zach. Of course, the fact that I didn't also order the two year old handle for it could be a main cause. It is an awesome scooter though and I highly recommend it.

James has taken more of an interest in it, as of late and was determined to take it to the Ride-a-Thon.

I also brought the push trike which he used to push his bestie Keller around in.

He wanted no help or guidance and after he ran Keller into the curb he just turned around and walked off. Pretty standard for James.