Making Special Memories on the Last Day of School

A few special memories I have of my childhood were the fun things my parents did to celebrate the last day of school.  One year they put together an entire awards ceremony just for my sister & I!  I remember my sister getting a can of hair mousse & the reward had to do with how much time she spent fixing her hair in the morning!  (I wish I could remember the other awards…)  Other years it was just a silly string fight on the back patio & one year we got new bikes (if your kids need bikes, may as well make it count for something…).  We have started a few traditions on the last day of school that my kids really seem to enjoy.  You know it’s special to them when they start asking about it a few weeks before school gets out for fear of disappointment!   

I always try to make sure my kids look decent on the last day of school, since I like to take pictures to commemorate their last day of ____ grade (fill in the blank) & we usually take pictures of them with their teachers.

Speaking of teachers, the last few years we have made them these candygram letters using mainly school supplies.  We added a Dairy Queen gift card at the bottom this year.

It says:

“Dear Mrs. B,
I just wanted to send a quick (note- we used post-it notes) to say how much you (mint) to me this year!  There are too many things to (highlight- highlighter) from our year, but they made a (permanent mark- permanent marker) on me that can’t be (erased- eraser).  You are an (extra- gum) special teacher & I am a (smartie) because of you!
Love,
Elie
P.S. Celebrate the end of a great school year with some (DQ- gift card)!”

Even though this is a pretty inexpensive gift, the teachers really do seem to get a kick out of it.  My son’s teacher teared up & said she wasn't going to take anything off of it & that she would glue the gift card back on after she used it!

I like to make their lunch extra special on the last day, so I have started wrapping it like a present!  The past couple of years I have just purchased Lunchables, because they are easy to wrap & are also a special treat for the kids on the last day.  I had an epiphany this year & decided this would also be a great idea for when my kids’ birthdays fall on a school day.

The fun celebrations begin once school is out & they return home.  In the past, we have hidden behind the house with water guns, water balloons, & even the hose & soaked them as they come in.  We try to change it up a little each year, so this year we locked the garage door & all the doors to the house.  

We posted this note on the front door:

It reads:

Dear (Zeke) & (Elie),
We are so proud of the (Smarties) you have become this school year & are (bursting- starbursts) with happiness to have some (Extra- gum) time with you over summer break!  We can’t wait to enjoy (popsicles) on the back deck, family (game- You’ve Got to Be Kidding Me!) night, (movies- Redbox codes), & relaxing over the (glow- glow sticks) of the fire pit.  There are sure to be lots of (Snickers- candy bar)!  We love you to (pieces- Reese’s Pieces)!
Love,
(Mommy & Daddy)

(I left extra goodies in a gift bag inside, so my kids would each have their own, except for the Redbox codes & the game & the rest of the popsicles were in the freezer so they could enjoy them right away!)

We stood right inside the door & waited for them to come to the front door to read the sign.  Then, we opened the front door & covered them in silly string!  After a few years of getting soaked with water, I definitely don’t think they were expecting that!

  

We also try to take the kids out for some family fun on the last day of school.  We have gone to Kings Island Amusement Park, Laser Tag, & this year we played mini golf.  (Can you believe we have never taken our kids to a legitimate miniature golf place?)

I know some parents dread the last day of school, but I do really enjoy having my kids home for the summer.  Here are our plans for making the most of our time together:

I’ll be back next week to explain how we plan on preventing summer learning loss, while making it fun & rewarding for the kiddos!

White Elephant Gift Ideas

Ever since my family decided to forego the annual gift exchange in lieu of a white elephant exchange, I have been hooked!  We only did it one year, but seeing my Great Aunt Ruth open up the package of “his & her” holiday thong underwear, made Christmas ten times better that year! 

I’ll admit, my first few years going to white elephant exchanges, I didn’t exactly understand what they were.  I was told that you re-gift something awful you were given.  I had no idea that it was so much more than that!  Basically, white elephant gifts are a crap-shoot!  The four main categories of gifts seem to be:

1. Funny--  Presents using potty humor, inside jokes, or pretty much anything from Spencer’s Gifts. 
2. Throwback--  My husband had an old Vanilla Ice VHS tape that we gave away once & I’m pretty sure the Regis Philbin workout video is still making the white elephant rounds!
3. Weird--  This category seems to be mainly made up of creepy looking Christmas angels, but at a recent exchange a friend brought women’s tights with fruits & veggies printed on them.
4. Good--  Something you never use, but think someone else might like or something you buy.  I have seen popcorn poppers, tool bags, & unused gift cards given.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of a White Elephant Exchange, participants are asked to bring an unmarked, wrapped gift, within a set monetary amount.  Once everyone arrives, gifts are placed in a designated spot & guests are given a number, that determine the order in which the presents will be opened. The person who choses number one will pick a gift & open it.  The next person can either choose to steal the gift from number one or open a different gift.  If number one’s gift gets stolen, they get to open another gift from the pile.  The game continues with each person selecting to either open a gift or steal a gift that has already been opened.  Usually, a gift can only get stolen three times & then it is frozen.  Once everyone has had a turn, the person who was number one gets the option to steal a gift.  When everyone has a gift, the game is over!

Now that we have all the boring information out of the way, let’s talk gift ideas! 



I took this simple gift to a couples exchange.  Basically, hot glue a condom onto a piece of paper that reads, “In case of miracle… break glass” & put it in a cheap frame.  I couldn’t resist buying a Dollar Tree pregnancy test, so I included that in the gift as well & taped on a paper that read, “In case of different miracle”.



Another easy gift to assemble is the “Gotta Go Emergency Bathroom Kit”.  I grabbed a pair of .98 underwear, flushable wipes, toilet covers, & tissue pack (Emergency Toilet Paper) from Wal-Mart.  I found the antibacterial wipes, hand sanitizer, & cosmetic bag at Dollar Tree.  I made the No. 2 Spray & grabbed the rest of the items from our house (feminine products & rubber gloves).



I made this label (you can see the other side in the top photo) explaining what the contents were for.  Surprisingly, this gift was so popular it got stolen three times & frozen!  (I think some other people had White Elephant parties to go to!

My husband also had a popular white elephant gift.  He & some friends message each other through GroupMe.  On the app, you can easily make memes out of the pictures you post.  They joke around with each other, by creating memes out of pictures the other guys have posted.  Hence, he made a meme photo book.  These are mainly just inside jokes between the guys, but Mark did have to add a few new ones to fill up some pages.



The guys got a pretty big kick out of it!



So, what are some of your fun white elephant gift ideas? 

Baking Birthday Gift (for kids)

My daughter was recently invited to a birthday party for a little girl turning six.  I always have a hard time coming up with gift ideas for kids, since it seems most of them have everything they could ever want or need!  While out shopping, I remembered a creative gift my daughter had received for her fifth birthday, & decided to recreate that gift.

I shopped Wal-Mart & Dollar Tree for items to create a baking kit:



From Wal-Mart I grabbed a pink bowl, cupcake dish towel, cookie mix, decorating gel, & a pink spatula.  I got a whisk, digital timer, measuring cups, & pot holders from Dollar Tree.



Next, I made a simple apron by sewing brown ribbon across a “baking themed” bandana from Hobby Lobby.



Then, I assembled it in a bowl to create a cookie baking kit!  All together, I probably spent between $10- $15 to create this kit.  Hopefully, the little girl we gave this to will enjoy it as much as my daughter enjoyed hers!

Do you have other creative gift ideas for kids?  I’d love to hear them!

Teacher Gifts

As the end of the year approaches, I start thinking about gifts for the kids’ teachers at school.  We usually just give everyone (school custodians, secretaries, nurses, unified arts teachers, principals…) $5 gift cards for ice cream along with a little something else for the kids’ classroom teachers, like I showed you last year. 

Last week we whipped up a little something for Teacher Appreciation Week.  While that has come & gone, I thought I would share the idea since it could also be used as gift for the end of the year.



Basically, it’s a take on the candy letters, but also using school supplies.  I found the idea here but changed some of the wording.  We used post-it notes, peppermint patties, highlighters, permanent markers, erasers, Extra gum, & smarties.  You can find all of the supplies at Dollar Tree, in packs of 4 or more, which makes this a very economical gift!



This one reads:
Dear Mrs. Mathys,
I just wanted to send a quick {note} to say how much you {mint} to me this year!  There are too many things to {highlight} from our year, but they made a {permanent mark} on me that can never be {erased}.  You are an {extra} special teacher and I am a {smartie} because of you!
Love,

Zeke

Do you have any other ideas for teacher gifts?  I’d love to hear them!  Feel free to post links in the comments section!

School's Out For the Summer!

Although my kids have had wonderful teachers this year, I am so excited to get to spend more time with them during the summer!  Here are some things we did to end the school year & start our summer off in a fun way...

Elie had her last day of Pre-K on Thursday.  She wanted her picture taken with this tree at their last day picnic!  In the car, on the way home, I heard sniffles coming from the back.  I turned around to see her tearfully staring at her class picture!  So sweet...

I found this idea somewhere online & loved it.  I put together little sand buckets of fun things for the summer.  I included bubbles, pool toys, water guns, glow sticks, toy boats (to race in the creek behind our house), a hummingbird feeder, & some other random trinkets.  Elie got her bucket on Thursday, but I saved Zeke's for Wednesday, which was his last day of school.

 I tried to talk Zeke into eating lunch in the cafeteria, but he doesn't like chicken nuggets, so I packed his lunch one more time for his second grade year.

I always like to give the teachers something homemade, so this year I had Mark cut a ruler & I glued it on a picture frame.  I had ideas of gluing a small chalk board on it & writing "Ms. Lewis Rules" in white, but that idea didn't work out, so I just used PicMonkey to add it to the photo.

We also gave the teachers, nurse, secretaries, principals, & custodians $5 gift cards to DQ.

We started a tradition last year to arm ourselves with water toys & the hose, hide on the side of the house, & attack Zeke as he got home from the bus on the last day.  After getting him good with a water gun & the hose, I decided to hand him my gun.  MISTAKE! 

Fortunately, Mark still had the hose, so he got Zeke to quickly stop chasing me with the gun!  Looks like he got Elie pretty good too!

Next year I'm thinking we might use silly string.  We'll definitely keep the tradition, but we'll have to change things up to keep it somewhat of a surprise!  He said he was going to hide a water gun to have to get us back, but I guess he forgot to do that!

Checking out his summer loot...

I have a ton of things I want to do with the kids this summer.  Here's our list:

Inside Fun...

 Sand Art- 

       Wacky Sacks

       Sewing Project

       Bake (Popsicles, ice cream, frozen pudding pops)

       Glow Stick Baths

       Salad Spinner Art

       Make Puppets & Put on a Puppet Show

       Colored Ice Cube Bath

       Make hovercrafts 

       Make movie or music video

       Marshmallow Popper

    Outside Fun...    

       Plant Seeds

       Make Bird Feeders

       Glow in the dark Bubbles

       Flashlight Tag

       Flashlight Limbo

       Catch Lightning Bugs

       Campfire

       Glow stick Hide & Seek

       Giant Bubbles

       Learn to Hula Hoop

       Learn to Jump Rope

       Boat Races at the Creek

       Wash Cars

       Water Play

       Scavenger Hunt

       Build fort in woods

       Use Your Noodle

       Pinaqua

       Water Balloon Toss using beach towels

       

Away from Home

       Camping

       Cave Tour

       Visit Grandparents

       Baseball Game

       Zoo

       Swimming

       Museum Center

       Movies

       Nature Center

       Wet Playground

       Fishing

       Letter Boxing

       Bike Trail

       Library Story Times & Reading Program

       Drive In Movie

       Amusement Park

       Outdoor Concert

       Home Depot/Lowes Kids Clinic

       Frisbee Golf

       Bowling

       Vacation Bible School

       Indoor Playground

       Go Karts

       Local Lake Beach

       Canoe

       Pick blueberries

Do you have any fun planned this summer?  Any end of school traditions?  

More posts on the last day of school:

Last Day of School Traditions

Making Special Memories on the Last Day of School

Teacher Gifts

Hopefully next week I will have a post about what I am making for Zeke's teacher this year, but today, I thought I would share some of the gifts we made for his teachers a few years ago.

For teacher appreciation week, we made a pencil container.  We made it by using an opened can (I covered the sharp edges from the opening with duct tape) & some pencils that were cut slightly longer than the can.  I just glued them on & put a ribbon around them.

{Pencil Holder}

Here is how we wrapped it up to give it to the teacher:

For the last day of school, we made her a personalized Post-It notepad.  I took a bunch of Post-It notes from the Dollar Tree & attached them together.  I had Zeke write a short thank you note on the top page.  Then, I penciled in some words & had Zeke trace over them with a marker.  I tied colorful ribbon around it & inserted some pens.

{Personalized Post-Its}

{Ready to wrap}

{Ready for the teacher!}

We actually gave these to his teacher last year too, but I am going to try something different this year.  You'll have to come back next week to see if it turned out!

Birth Announcements

After nearly three months, I finally made & sent Evalyse's birth announcements.  At this point, I'm pretty sure all my friends & family know she's here, but at least they now have a cute picture!  Anyway, I thought it turned out well, so I'm sharing it with you!

The picture was taken by my EXTREMELY talented friend Lisa Hezlep.  I used PicMonkey to create the border & add the text.  

Hope you enjoyed!  Have a wonderful week!

Mother's Day Gifts & More

The past few weeks have been absolutely crazy around here!  First, there was the yard sale, which took more time & made more of a mess than I could have imagined.  It took me an extra week just to get the garage & house back to normal!  Then, I spent hours working on teacher appreciation gifts for the kids' teachers.  I'm bummed because they turned out so cute & in all the madness I totally forgot to photograph them so I could show them to you!  This past week was my son's school carnival & lots of Mother's Day festivities.

{Pony rides are always a favorite with Elie!}

{And of course the boy loves the dunking booth!}

{Mother's Day 2012}

This week, I have finally been writing "thank you" notes for all the baby gifts we recieved before & after Evalyse was born.  It's about time, right?  I also made her baby announcement & sent it out!  I am feeling so productive!  Now, if I could just get the nursery finished!  Hopefully next week!  (I feel like I've said that before...)

Anyway, back to Mother's Day.  Since my kids were born, we have been making gifts for both Mother's Day & Father's Day.  There have been stepping stones, bird feeders, flower pots, linen sprays, & this year, we made dish towels.

I purchased some flour sack towels from Wal-Mart for about $2 for two.  After ironing out the wrinkles, I folded them in thirds.  I traced each of my kid's hand prints & used some cute fabric & Steam & Seam to attach the hand prints to the towels.  I also ironed on some hearts & finished the towels with decorative ruffle ribbon.  I thought they turned out pretty cute!

{Handprint Towels}

 {Ruffled bottom}

{Sorry for the blurry picture & dirty stove...I didn't realize it was blurry & I no longer have these in my posession!}

Did your kids make anything for Mother's Day this year?  I will forever cherish the homemade gifts my kids have given me!  This year, Zeke wrote me a letter which read something like this...

Dear Mom,

Hi.  My name is Zeke...

Totally cracked me up!  After all, I did give him that name!

Gifts for the Baby, Big Brother, & Big Sister

The past few weeks we have been frantically getting ready for the arrival of our baby girl.  You could say I am in full blown baby panic mode!

To help the kids prepare for our new bundle of joy, we took them to Build-A-Bear Workshop to make a stuffed animal to give their baby sister.

They picked out this pink bear, which they later named Molly!  They each made a wish for the baby & put in a heart after filling her with stuffing.

Then, they fluffed & brushed her to make her look her best for when she meets her new owner.

Now, Molly is patiently waiting for her new owner, in her new home!

We also got the big brother & big sister some gifts, which we will give them at the hospital when they come to visit.

 

Zeke will get book & a game with a note from baby sister that says how much she can't wait for him to read & play with her.

Elie will get a Princess Belle cup & a Tangled CD with a note from baby sister that says how much she can't wait to dress up like princesses & dance with Elie.

Hopefully, these gifts will make the older kids feel special, despite some of the changes that they will have to deal with once we bring the baby home! 

Did you give gifts to your older kids after having a baby?  

Ladybug Birthday Gift

My daughter got invited to a birthday party for a little girl that loves to explore the great outdoors.  She even created a club for her friends called, "The Adventure Bug Club".  We put together this little gift for her that she will hopefully enjoy!

I picked up the Ladybug Playground in the Science section of Hobby Lobby.  It was $5.99, but I used a 40% off coupon I printed from their website to save some money.  My son got one of these for his birthday, & we have been taking care of ladybugs for a few weeks now.  It is so fun to watch them walk around on the vines & even upside down along the dome!  They seem to be doing well, as we feed them raisins & keep a moist paper towel inside to keep them hydrated.

We threw in a little box of raisins, which I spruced up by making a label from the computer that reads, "Ladybug Food".

To extend the ladybug theme, I found the "Bug Bites Kabob" candy from Dollar Tree & some bug stickers from Hobby Lobby.

I hope this little explorer likes her gift!  Do you have any gift ideas for nature lovers?

Gifts for my Sweethearts!

Usually our Valentine's Days are spent celebrating the whole family.  We have fun with meal times by eating a lot of foods that are red or pink & shaped like hearts (pancakes, jello jigglers, sugar cookies, strawberry milk, etc.).  We also eat dinner by candle light & use fancy plates & glasses.  Afterwards, the kids go on some sort of a hunt for Valentine goodies.
This year, I cut out hearts with different words on them.  While the kids are preoccupied, I will hide them around the house.  After dinner, they will have to find all the hearts & de-code the message to find the where-abouts of their Valentine's gifts. 

Here are the gifts they are getting for Valentine's Day this year:

I got all of Zeke's gifts at Dollar Tree... a word search, calculator, yo yo, sweethearts candy, Frog Lays Eggs experiment, & a Growing Pet Flamingo.  (I'm not exactly sure what those last two items are, but I guess we'll find out!)

I got Elie a sun catcher (from Hobby Lobby), bubble bath (from Dollar Tree), sweetheart candy, nail polish, lip gloss, & girlie nails (from Family Dollar).  The Girlie Nails are fake fingernails for little girls.  I thought they were cute for playing dress up & maybe encouraging Elie to stop sucking her thumb!

I put their gifts in these heart-shaped baskets I got from Dollar Tree a few years ago.

So, how do you spend your Valentine's Day? 





Cheap & Easy Photo Christmas Cards

Last year, I came up with what I think is a great way to save money on photo Christmas cards.  In the past, I have always been too cheap to spend $15 or more on photo cards, plus the cost of stamps.  Until last year, I had been buying boxed cards & adding a 4x6 picture of my kids inside.  Then, I realized, with the cost of cards & photos, I was spending about the same amount as I would on photo cards!  As I tried to problem solve a way to reduce my Christmas card costs, an idea hit me!

I placed my kids in front of the Christmas tree & desperately tried to get a good picture of them:

When I realized a "good" picture was not in our future, I told them to act silly & snapped some more pictures.  When I saw this picture, I knew it was the one:

{Not the greatest picture, but pretty funny!}

Then, I opened the photo in Picasa (a free photo editing download) and edited it in Picnik (which is part of Picasa's editing tools).

There, I messed with the effects, added a frame, & added text until I came up with this:

Then, I uploaded the picture to a local photo lab, which happened to have 4x6 prints on sale for ten cents each & picked up my "photo cards" one hour later!  They even threw in the perfect sized envelopes!  So, for about $5 I got 50 photo cards & envelopes!  (I'm curious to see if I'll get free envelopes this year too!  Otherwise, I'll just go buy some!)

I was pretty happy with my resourcefulness & we got a lot of compliments on our Christmas cards!

So, what do you think?  Have you ever tried this?