The Grasshopper's Knee

Halloween Class Parties

2015-09-05T12:29:00.003-04:00

Fall is my favorite time of year! I know many others who feel the same way. Fall/Halloween classroom parties are the best! It's time to start planning for it now.

My youngest is in fourth grade this year. It's bittersweet to say this will be the last year for classroom parties at our school. Being a room parent was one of my most favorite creative outlets! It allowed me to be involved in my children's celebrations at school as well as give me the opportunity to be creative and have fun with them. I'm going to try to make the most of it this year!

I'm helping to coordinate the Halloween/Fall party for my daughter's fourth grade class. I'm going to be in charge of the favor bags that go home with them. I haven't decided what I'm doing yet, but wanted to share with you what I did for my son's class last year. He's in fifth grade this year and even though they don't have actual classroom parties, I might try to think of something. Fifth graders still like yummy treats, right?

Anyway, here's what I came up last year to send home with the students in my kids' classrooms. I designed the tag myself, although I got the main gist of the idea from Pinterest.

Hope you like!

My inspiration below was found at http://www.lovestitched.com/my-tutorial/halloween-in-the-classroom/. There are other cute non candy ideas on her blog as well!

Teacher gifts for Easter

2015-04-02T15:00:00.000-04:00

Wow! It's been too long since I've added anything fun to my blog!! I've been busy with my kids playing basketball, homework, substituting at school and just plain living life -- which is always a good thing. We've just started 4-H, soccer and baseball, so that will take over for the next couple months or so! Not complaining. I'm so glad they're interested and can do it!

Our school is out Thursday through Monday for Easter. Even though it's not a full week, it's still nice to have more than 2 days off in a row!

For Easter this year, if you need a quick and easy idea, this is a pretty good one! I had to go with something quick and easy because we have been so busy, but I still want the teachers to feel appreciated this holiday. I made mini baskets for the teachers, principals, secretaries and bus drivers.

I bought the pink cups at $ Tree. I should have stocked up because they were so cute and I could have used them for party favors.

I bought a few candies and filled the cups with "grass," chocolates, then wrapped them up in plastic treat bags. I designed the tags for them as well.

Hope you have a wonderful Easter and Spring Break!!!

Coordinating Classroom Parties

2014-09-03T08:49:00.002-04:00

When September rolls around, it gets me thinking of Halloween! I know it's early, but it's my favorite time of year. Fall in general is my favorite, so I like to look forward and plan for the BIG fall party for my kids' classes! I also make sure to call the party "harvest" or "fall" for those who don't particularly celebrate Halloween.

This year, I am not the main room parent. Their teachers had everyone sign up for certain things at the beginning of the year at open house. I'm signed up to coordinate the Halloween party (yay!). I'm kind of relieved to not have to coordinate each party. I've been doing it for five years and for both of my kids for four years. I've enjoyed every minute of it. However, this year, I'm subbing a lot more and don't want to spread myself thin. It's nice to let others coordinate, too. I've always waited a couple weeks into the school year to see if the teachers need a room mom. I only step up when no one else wants to -- I'm not one to step on toes. I'll coordinate, but not tell people what to do. It's not my style. I love seeing other people's ideas. I love having my own, too, but I'm happy to step back a bit this year.

If you're reading my blog for the room mom part of it, you may be wondering how I coordinate the class parties. Sometimes it depends on the class. I have two ways I'd like to tell you about.
For example, my son's teacher last year, sent the weekly classroom newsletters via e-mail to all the parents. I used that e-mail list to coordinate parties with the parents by sending them party updates. I'll send something like the letter below and ask them to respond to all when replying so everyone knows what is spoken for and is still needed.

See one of my Halloween classroom party posts here

~~~~~~~~~

Hi there! I'm (name here) and I'm helping to put together the Halloween/Harvest/Fall Party for (teacher's name here) class. It will be at 2:15 on Thursday, October 31st .

Here's the plan for the party but if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! If you'd like to help, please sign up for something below:

If you can bring or send in something, please reply to all, so we know what is spoken for : )

Sweet Treat* -

Healthy Snack (fruit or veggie)* -

Salty Snack* -

Drink* -

Treat bags* (optional) -

napkins -

plates -

*please remember, no snacks with nuts in the building due to allergies

If you can come to the party and would like to help with an activity, please sign up below:

Station 1: Halloween Bingo -- We will need someone to run the game and items for prizes such as pencils or candy (a bingo game will be provided)

Station 2: Snacks -- will need someone to hand out snacks -

Station 3: Photo Booth - I will take pics and have them printed

Station 4: Craft or other activity (suggestions are welcome) -

I'd like to have a "photo booth" during the party. A picture will be taken of the student and a photo will be sent home in their purple folder when I get them printed. I've done this in the past, but let me know if you don't want your child's picture taken.

Thank you! (I also include my information so they may contact me with questions or suggestions)

Molly

~~~~~~~~~

The other way is how I had to coordinate for my daughter's class last year. I did not have all the e-mail contacts, so I had to make copies of the letter above and ask that they e-mail or call me with what they could help with and it worked out pretty well. If I got duplicates, I just went with it. It's okay to have more sometimes, but if I had 3 desserts instead of 1 or 2, I would go back to the one who sent their info to me last and ask if they could help with something else.

Needless to say, it is much easier when I have all the e-mails. There is also Sign Up Genius. I may be using that this year. I'll talk more about it once I actually use it.

If you'd like to share your ideas, please do!

Happy party planning!!

Pen Pal Mail Art

2014-06-13T15:51:00.002-04:00

This is sort of a random post, but I'm really starting to get into mail art. It might be good timing for you if you've decided to have a pen pal for you or your children this summer. It would be fun to send decorative envelopes to friends, cousins, grandparents, etc. I've seen so many beautiful envelopes on Pinterest and around the Web and decided to make my own.

My husband has a sister who lives in Germany. We send letters back and forth. Of course we e-mail and include pictures that way to keep her updated on our lives here in the States, but to actually hold something in your hand from a relative over seas is more fun!

Here is the first one I sent her for Easter. She wrote back telling me how much she enjoyed the getting the letter with interesting art and their mailman commented as well. It's fun to get letters, but when they have an unexpected twist, it's even more exciting!

My daughter wrote to her as well and I stacked the letters on top of each other and placed them in the largest envelope (at top in picture).

This is what was inside the pink envelope (an Easter card). Just some cute little shapes that we stamped onto paper and cut out.

Hope you decide to make your mail creative and exciting this summer!

Classroom Halloween Party

2014-01-28T10:20:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder, I have been out of the picture lately with my blog and I'm going through a rewind of a few classroom parties I missed out on sharing with you. So in case you're wondering if I'm aware that it's a New Year already -- don't worry, I am totally aware and am looking forward to the next party, which is Valentine's Day at our school. But, before I can move forward, I need to go backward a bit to share a couple parties I've missed out on telling you about.

Halloween parties are so much fun to plan! I mentioned being a room parent for both of my kids' classes, but for my son's second grade class (um, last school year -- yes, I'm that late catching up!), I was a co-room parent with another mom. She also loves coming up with ideas and we have managed to come up with a couple good parties now that we have Halloween and Christmas finished. We make a great team!

The second grade party included a parade, so we were short on actual party time, but we managed to fit in a lot of things. I contacted all the volunteers and they signed up for various snacks:

I contributed to the snack by making sugar cookies:

I wasn't in the classroom to let them know the skulls were actually melted chocolate, so some of the kids were not sure if they could actually eat them. : (

My son's teacher allowed us to come in and decorate. We hung some lights and also bats and things from the ceiling.

The party included snacks, a "guess how many candy corn" jar, favorite/best/funniest/scariest costumes contest and a photo booth.

For the photo booth, I purchased a wall hanging from the Dollar Tree. I think it turned out pretty cute!

My husband had the day off and could help me. Since both parties were at the same time, I could only be at one party at once. So, another volunteer took the pictures at the photo booth while the other room mom and volunteers handled the rest.

While his party was going on, I was at my daughter's party.

Her party included snacks, a movie called "A Very Brave Witch" -- one of our absolute FAVORITES for Halloween, and a photo booth. While the kids watched the movie, they ate their snacks and I called one at a time for the photo booth.

I made the photo booth out of a patio furniture box for my son's Valentine's party last year and just updated it with Halloween decorations. The kids had fun with it.

Here was my treat contribution. Cupcakes with a chocolate bat. I used a mod for bat-shaped picks. They have an extension shaped like a long v to allow them to be inserted into the cupcake.

I purchased the cupcake holder at the Dollar Tree. Love that place!!

We had water for their drink since there were a lot of sweets! I made the labels to coordinate with the green, purple and black theme.

Here are pics of a couple of gifts I handed out to the teachers and other staff:

This Halloween bark was easy to make. I just melted white chocolate and added candy corn, waited for it to harden and then broke it into pieces. I made fold-over candy labels and that was it!

Okay, there's a catch-up party from 2012! Geez, where does the time go?

Classroom Valentine's Day Parties

2014-01-27T13:00:00.003-05:00

I have a few other classroom parties to post on here as part of my catch-up plan, but to keep it current, I will show some ideas from last year's Valentine's Day party. Did I say current? I guess I mean to say relevant to this time of year. I'm planning this year's party, but I wanted to post the ideas from last year. It helps me to remember and maybe it will help spark some ideas as well.

Last year for my daughter's 1st grade class, we had snacks, an activity and a photo booth. We divided the class into 3 groups for 3 stations: 1st station activity was for reading Valentine's (a parent was here to help read if they needed it and Valentine's were handed out earlier in the day); 2nd station was a snack area; and 3rd was for the photo booth. We had 8 students per group. We switched stations every 10 minutes for a 30-minute party.

Our photo booth turned out pretty cute. While one was getting their picture taken, the rest were decorating heart pencil toppers. Can you believe I don't have any pictures of that? What happened? Anyway, for the pencil toppers, I took in plain paper hearts that I cut out using my Making Memories Slice that I've had for a few years now. I precut two holes for the pencil. I also had crayons, markers and stickers. All they had to do was decorate the hearts while they waited for the picture to be taken and after while waiting for the others. I also provided pencils for the toppers.

For the "photo booth" I made a heart banner and hung it on the wall. I also brought a few props: a heart, a mustache and bow. The kids had fun. I actually did the photo booth for my son's 2nd grade class as well. I might even do the same thing again this year.

Some of the boys used the bow as a bow tie...

And some of the girls used it as a hair bow...

While others used just the heart...

or just the mustache...

I had the pictures printed and sent home with the kids in their take-home folders. I like to do this because, especially for the parents who can't be there, they still get a keepsake from their child's 1st grade party. My hope is that the parents keep the pictures and are happy to have them.

Here's a picture of the snack table. I love seeing what parents bring in for snacks. They really come up with some adorable ideas. And the kids have such a fun time! You can't really see everything because I took the picture after it was over : ( But you can still see the cute marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. They looked so cute!

The owl placemats were from Target a few years ago. Our teacher loves owls so I couldn't resist decorating with them!

Here are the Valentine's my daughter gave out last year. I found the super cute heart-shaped ring pops at Dollar Tree! I loved that the packaging was clear without a logo or anything. I had her draw a heart, then I scanned her drawing and made stickers. We added the stickers and then we had our Valentines. I know -- sugar, sugar, sugar -- but isn't Valentine's Day supposed to be sweet? I might try something healthier this year, but I'm not promising anything.

Enjoy!

American Girl Doll Storage

2014-01-24T12:10:00.000-05:00

Wow! It's been a long time since I posted here. So much to catch up on. Being a room parent has kept me busy, but for this school year, I am also subbing. I absolutely love it! However, the unpredictable schedule is hard for me to plan things. I'm not complaining, though. I've always wanted to work at my kids' school and now I am.

We did have some spare time this past weekend to work on my daughter's American Girl doll collection. The collection started with Bitty Baby when she was 3. Then Santa brought her Kit on Christmas when she was 5. I thought one girl and baby was enough, but then Molly was retiring last year and Claire really wanted her. Really, it was her, not me. Even though the doll has my name and her year is 1944 -- my Dad's birth year -- it really was my daughter who wanted her. It's just that all those things added up to it being okay for Santa to bring her this last Christmas.

So, now she has 2 American Girls and one Bitty Baby. She loves them and I couldn't be happier! I love that my little girl wants to play with dolls. She changes them into their pajamas for the night and dresses them in the morning. However, over the years, she's accumulated a few things to go along with the dolls. She was having trouble finding certain outfits and accessories she wanted to play with. It's great to have choices, but not great if you can't find them.

In her room, we already had 2 bookcases that I had purchased from Target that stored random items. I saw a couple ideas on Pinterest where someone used a tension rod to hang doll clothes. I thought that was a brilliant idea. I had enough to work with and got started.

On Saturday, we gathered all of her American Girl doll items and got to work organizing. We made little rooms for her dolls on the shelves. We left enough space between the the bookcases for the tension rod and under that is room for the bunk bed.

It's not glamorous by any means, but it's very functional and my daughter was excited about the finished look. She can see everything and knows where everything goes.

Let's take a closer look:

The left bookshelves have the bathroom, living room and cubbies on bottom shelf for

shoes and clothes:

The right bookshelves have the kitchen, kitchen accessories/supplies, and more clothes. I was going to purchase shallow containers, but instead we used the lids from AG products we purchased to store foods and miscellaneous kitchen play items.

Also, the salon chair on top so they can get their hair done, of course. : )

Here's where we used the tension rod; spread between the two bookshelves and the "bedroom" underneath that. One thing about the tension rod: it kept sliding down, so we just rested it on top of the bookshevles for now and it works.

Our next project is to paint her room. Now, that will be exciting!

Hope you found this idea useful!

Teacher Pamper Yourself Gift

2013-05-29T00:19:00.002-04:00

During the week of May 6th, our school celebrated teacher appreciation week. In my last post, I shared some of the gifts I gave. Our school's PTO sent out suggestions on how to celebrate our teachers and one of their ideas was to send in something sweet. So, on a separate day, I sent in something sweet with my kids to give to their teachers.

Here is my choice for something sweet along with a little poem I came up with to try to tie it all together.

I included for each of our teachers, an emery board, nailpolish, tissues, and their favorite candy that I wrapped with scrapbook paper to help tie the colors together a little. I added strawberry and fruit stickers and put everything together in a plastic strawberry container. It's just a simple gift that I think can also be useful. This would be a great gift for anybody! : )

Teacher gifts for Teacher Appreciation or End-of-Year

2013-05-29T00:06:00.002-04:00

I really look forward to thanking our teachers during teacher appreciation week. I love thinking of and looking up fun ways to show how much we appreciate what they do for our children's lives. I'll just post some pics of what I did this year and add a little detail. I hope you find something here that inspires you to create something for your teachers. : )

Class gift. I like coordinating a class gift when I'm a room parent. I e-mailed parents for one class and sent letters home for the other asking for a $2 donation so we can purchase a class gift. I asked that they send their donation to me in an envelope via their child's homework folder. All the donations made it safely home to me and we were able to purchase a couple of really nice gift cards for each teacher.

Now onto the gifts from me and my family. For the "specials" teachers, such as the gym teacher, art, and music teacher, a couple other mothers and I pitched in and purchased $10 gift cards to Subway and one to Applebees. I couldn't afford to get everyone a gift card, but it helps to find other parents who are thinking the same way. A $2 or $3 dollar gift card doesn't look like much, but a $10 one does! : ) Teamwork! I packaged the gift cards with some packaging I designed.

I also gave a $5 gift card to Subway to the school secretary and the principal. Along with the gift card, I designed personalized stationery for them and packaged with my polka dot design. I made a bag topper and mini chocolate bar wrappers to match.

Here's another picture of the gift card with chocolates.

This one below was for our AR teacher. I get her something small each time a holiday comes around. Like I said, I can't afford a gift card for everyone, but I at least want them to know they're appreciated, so she got a few extra chocolates.

Below are gifts for our "main" homeroom teachers who have our kids most of the day. I planned a break for our teachers and coordinated volunteers to take over their classroom for a half hour while they enjoyed a brief get together with their peers -- more on that later. The activity I had planned was to have the students write down why they love their teacher. I designed a cover label and pages for the kids to fill out and draw a picture on as well. Then put all the pages from the students in a binder for our teachers. I did this for my son's and daughter's teachers.

This is the binder for my daughter's teacher:

A sample of the pages that went inside:

This is the binder for my son's teacher:

Then, I designed and printed stationery for each teacher:

I also decorated a letter for each teacher. I painted the ends that would show and I used mod podge to glue the string all around. It was harder than I thought to go around a letter C. The rounded edges are tricky! : ) Once the string was on, I embellished with letters for her name and a couple of owls.

back:

I made a card for each teacher, too. This one is for my daughter's teacher. If you haven't noticed, she likes owls. I had fun decorating with them.

I also raided her Pinterest sayings board and found a quote she liked. I made it into a magnet and created a little pocket inside the card to hold it in.

Here's the magnet. I printed the saying on my computer and used mod podge to adhere it to a small wooden block that I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I then attached a magnet to the back. I have to say, I just love that little pocket!!

Here's the letter for my son's teacher:

Here's the card I made for her. I really love how it turned out.

Here's her quote magnet that I made. I also raided her Pinterest board for ideas -- that is a great way to find out what someone likes by the way!

I tried to make each teacher feel appreciated without giving them the same ol' apple-themed items. I like those as well, but I figured they probably already had enough of those things.

How do you show your teachers you appreciate them?

Kids' lunches

2013-04-27T13:11:00.002-04:00

Yes, I'm "that mom" who makes fun little shapes for my daughter's sandwiches. Actually, I think a lot more parents are doing this. I'd make them for my son, but he only eats soup. No sandwiches for him. Oh, and my daughter only eats jelly on hers. See? I had to get creative somehow! They don't give me much to work with - those little picky people! But, they're my people and I love them of course!!

Here's a sampling of how I get creative with her sandwiches. Sometimes, they're shaped like butterflies, but other times they're shaped like...

{Pigs}

Don't just stop at the shape. Draw on the sandwich bags with a Sharpie for some added fun for you or the kids...or you.

And, here's the butterfly. See, my daughter is normal afterall. I might not be, but I think she enjoys my drawings.

Have fun with your kids's lunches! We only have a few more weeks before summer so I'm going to make the most of it! Happy Packing!

Class Pet

2013-04-26T12:20:00.000-04:00

My daughter's teacher told us about the time they had a turtle for a class pet. They weren't allowed to keep him anymore and gave him away to one of the students.

Ever since then, I thought about how sad it is that they don't have a pet anymore. So I wanted to come up with something. I know they can't have a real live pet. I know her teacher likes and decorates her classroom with owls. So armed with those two pieces of information I came up with the ultimate (echo echo) class pet (echo echo)!! Ok, maybe not ultimate, but maybe clever?

Just add water and voila!

I decorated a mason jar:

I bought the owl at Hobby Lobby. It will grow to be 600 times it's size. My kids love these things!

I also made one for my son's class.

They didn't used to have a pet, but I thought they still might enjoy this anyway.

Room Mom Reading Series - Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed

2013-04-25T17:24:00.004-04:00

Okay, maybe it's just me, but I love these cookies I made this time for my Room Mom Reading Series snack. They were like my little pets.

Many of you know of Mo Willems. He writes brilliantly hilarious books for children like "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and the Elephant and Piggies series. My mission is to buy every book. We have a lot, but we need more! Those I just mentioned are his most popular from what I gather anyway, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised to find the one I'm going to talk about in this post.

Our family took a trip to the Good Zoo at Oglebay Park in West Virginia about three years ago. Actually we go every year, but this particular visit stands out in my mind as the first time my daughter saw mole rats at the zoo.

She saw the mole rats and then. she fell. in. love.

That's right. She thought they were adorable!! I think ewww! But, she can see the beauty in just about anything that's not.

After that, I was determined to find anything about naked mole rats. I found a stuffed animal naked mole rat on Amazon and while looking there, I was lucky to find this book by Mo Willems - "The Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed".

Are you kidding me?? It couldn't be more perfect! How could I have not known about it before then! The book is about a naked mole rat named Wilbur (name is also perfect) who likes to get dressed. Adorable!

Now, three years later, my 6-year-old daughter still loves them so I picked this book to read to her 1st grade class for my room mom reading series. I also brought along a picture of an actual mole rat. I was surprised to find out only 3 of the 24 students in her class had seen one. I guess they learned something that day. They may not be happy about not getting the image of the naked mole rat out of their minds, but they learned something new. Just kidding. They did say "ewww a lot, though."

Here's the pic I showed them:

See what I mean about the ewww part?

Source: http://extremelongevity.net/wp-content/uploads/naked-mole.jpg

Ok. Moving right along.

I hope you enjoy the rest of these photos:

Here's a picture of the book along with one of the Wilbur sugar cookies I made. Do you they look like him? I used a deliciously yummy sugar cookie recipe from a friend of mine, then tinted white canned icing (after adding some powdered sugar to the can) with one drop of red food coloring. I used miniature marshmallows for the teeth. I cut them in half and then in half again (in fourths for those of you who are better at fractions than I am). I also bought black icing and squeezed it into a sandwich bag. I snipped a tiny hole in the corner and squeezed dots for the eyes.

I made a coloring sheet for the class. Here's a picture of everything for that day, including the picture my daughter colored of Wilbur.

Maybe you can find a place that has mole rats on display near you and make a day of it! Bake some "Wilbur" cookies, read the book and talk about your new friends, the mole rats. Believe it or not, they are pretty amazing creatures.

Also, you might want to check out more of Mo Willems here and here. You're welcome. ; )

Easter Gifts for Teacher, Staff and Students

2013-04-12T19:08:00.000-04:00

For Easter this year, we gave our teachers and staff candy. My kids also gave treats to their classmates. We tried to make it look pretty.

Here's what we gave their classmates -- Peeps on a stick. I saw a similar version of this on Pinterest, but with four peeps instead of just one. I thought four would be way too many to provide to almost 50 students between their two classes, so we just did one per stick. I think they turned out pretty cute! I even had a staff member ask to take a picture of them. Too funny! : )

Here's what we gave the teachers and staff. I used pretzel treat bags and cut scrapbook paper to size. I used the scrapbook paper as a background for the candy. Once everything was put in the treat bag, I folded the top down, punched two holes and used ribbon to attach a tag. In retrospect, I wish I would have used maybe Snickers eggs because their wrappers were blue. These Reese's (although extremely yummy) just weren't that pretty for for display. It's the thought that counts! : )

Administrative Professionals Day Ideas (Teacher appreciation, too)

2013-04-10T13:53:00.001-04:00

Hi there! I was looking at my calendar and noticed that Administrative Professionals Day is coming up on April 24th. Have you celebrated your school's secretary lately? The 24th will be a good day to do it!

Here are a couple ideas:

This is something I made last year for one of our teachers (for more teacher appreciation ideas, check out here here, here, here and here), but you could also make one for the secretary. It's a pasta sauce jar that I cleaned up and wrapped with yarn. Just add flowers! I added a package of seeds as well to mine last year, but that's because we knew our teacher liked sunflowers and gardening.

Or something quick and easy. Wrap a candy bar with pretty scrapbook paper , add a tag and a bow:

If you know they like to garden, here's another idea. I bought the container at Target for $1 last year. I thought it was cute and knew I could use it for something some day. So, while at Target the other day, that someday was finally here. I found these garden stake labels there, bought some seed packets and put together a small, but cute gift.

I wrapped the seed packets around the stakes using burlap ribbon.

I added some fake grass and put all together in the planting container with a burlap ribbon to finish.

Maybe this will give you some ideas!

Basketball - last game gift

2013-03-05T16:35:00.000-05:00

This year, my second-grade son expressed interest in playing basketball for the school's team. I was so very excited because this was his first time expressing interest in a team sport. I've never been and I refuse to be one of those parents who lives through their kids -- you know the ones who push their kids to start a sport when the child can't even talk or say "yes, I want to try that." I believe in giving your children options and yes, there are times you want to give them a nudge to try something out. I don't want my kids to be couch potatoes, but I also don't want them to feel pressure to participate in a sport just because I said so. But, it was so nice to hear him say he wanted to play for his school. ~sigh~ I also couldn't wait to see him wearing a jersey. So cute!!

Anyway, the season is now over. It was a lot of fun for me to watch my son grow and learn what it's like to be part of a team. He had little to no experience starting out, but really learned a lot by the end of the season.

His teammates consisted of boys from 2nd through 4th grade. Quite an age difference, but the older ones were actually pretty nice to him. They didn't make fun of him when he could barely dribble the ball and they cheered when his ball finally hit the rim (like I said, he didn't have a lot of experience). Now, he truly likes the sport and since we didn't have a basketball hoop at home (we were waiting for one of the kids to show an interest before purchasing one), we are planning to buy one now for spring. Any suggestions? We want the adjustable kind that goes in the ground. I must do some research.

For his last game, I made each of the boys on his team a snack bag. It included an orange Gatorade, a basketball sugar cookie that I made myself using a friend's awesome sugar cookie recipe and small basketball chocolates that I got at Party City. I also included a small bouncy basketball because it went with the theme and I thought it was cute. I put everything in an orange lunch sack, folded over the top and stapled the cookie to the outside to keep it closed. Not sure why I didn't get a picture of that.

I designed labels to go around the Gatorade bottles as well as for the cookie bags:

Then, for his coach, I made him a clipboard personalized with his first name and last name initial on top and then attached a cookie and gift card for him. We decided to give him a gift card because devoting time to teaching a team and being away from family isn't easy and we wanted him to know his time was appreciated.

So, what do you think of the sugar cookies? They actually kind of look like basketballs, don't they? : )

Valentine's Mailbox - Lego style!

2013-01-24T12:08:00.001-05:00

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought I'd share with you a Valentine's mailbox that my son and I made last year. He likes Legos, so this seemed appropriate for him and he really liked it! The kids in his class liked it, too. They seemed most impressed with the fact that it was spray painted. Too funny! Anyway, here it is:

We started with a box and small condiment containers.

We used the containers with their lids on -- having the lids on made it easier to glue onto the box.

We laid out how we wanted them to look first. Then, glued them onto the box.

I took the box with containers attached outside and spray painted all of it blue. Blue is my son's favorite color, but of course you can buy and use any color you like. Let it dry and voila!! A pretty cool Valentine's Day mailbox for your child to take to school. We also cut a hole for the Valentine's to go in. My daughter also likes Legos, so if she wants one of these this year, she can pick her color. It'll either be pink or purple for her!

Hope you like it!

My son's Lego-inspired Party

2013-01-10T08:56:00.000-05:00

This post will be short and sweet. I just wanted to show a couple items I put together for my son's Lego party in November. He turned 8. I realize it's getting harder to find themes as they get older.

Instead of having the party at home, he wanted to have it at a local rec center that had swimming and rock climbing. This was the best place because it was reasonably priced and it gave the kids lots to do! We had our own party room, then let the kids loose to enjoy the amenities. Well, we didn't really let them loose. We had some structure. It was rock climbing first, then swimming and then parents took their kids home. I had a clip board with cell numbers for the parents who dropped off their kids. They also signed waivers for the rock climbing. Everything seemed to be covered and my son had a great time!

I can't believe my son is 8!! The time goes faster every year!

Room Mom Reading Series - Book 2

2013-01-08T07:51:00.000-05:00

The second book I read to the class was in October, so I picked a Halloween-type read. I chose to read "Room on the Broom" by Julia Donaldson. It is one of my favorites to read because of the rhyme and it's just really cute!

I just found out they made it into an animation. I missed it, but I was able to check out the trailer and you can too. Check out the trailer here

Before reading the book, I brought a mystery box full of items that were part of the book (a stuffed orange striped cat, a bow, a frog, mini black cauldron, etc). I would pull them out and introduce them to the children. When they would come up in the book, they would shout out, "there's the bow", for example. I think the mystery box helps engage them a little more.

For this book, I planned a "make your own broom and wand" activity. It was very simple. I cut the shapes with a star-shaped punch for the wand and cut paper triangle shapes for the broom and provided popsicle sticks. I had them cut the bristles for the broom so they could at least get some dexterity practice ; ) The idea came to me the night before I was planned to read. I wanted something simple that could be completed in the allotted amount of time and it needed to be related to the book. These served that purpose and the kids liked them!

I brought in goldfish crackers (I think -- it's been a while and I can't remember the salty item) and I made brooms for the sweet. I got the idea for this on Pinterest. They appeared to be simple enough to make, but putting a pretzel stick into a mini reeses cup proved to be a little more challenging than I thought. The cup wanted to crack. Keeping them in their wrappers helped.

I hope you liked this one!

Room Mom Reading Series - Book 1

2013-01-04T12:27:00.003-05:00

The real reason I started this blog was to share some of the ideas I have as a room parent. I am lucky enough to be a room parent for both of my kids' classes this year.

As a room mom, my responsibilities include planning the holiday parties. I contact the other volunteers for the class and coordinate the holiday parties. I also take charge of purchasing teacher gifts for various occasions, such as Christmas/Winter and Teacher Appreciation/Last Day of school.

Another activity I've always wanted to do is read to the class. I asked my daughter's first grade teacher if I can read to the class twice a month and she agreed.

I've taken it upon myself to call it the "Room Mom Reading Series." It makes me feel more accountable giving it a title. I also plan an activity and snack to go along with it.

The book I chose for my first reading series was Skippy Jon Jones. I choose books based on my own children's reactions to it. They seemed to really like this one -- especially when I throw in my pathetic, yet entertaining Spanish accent.

Here's a pic of the book I read:

For the activity, I handed out Skippy jon Jones coloring sheets.

For the fun snack, I decorated a juice box with Skippy jon Jones' face (hee hee) and gave them some graham crackers shaped like doggie bones. The kids loved it! I'm also lucky that we don't have any allergies this year. There is one child, but his mother provides extra treats for him so he does not feel left out.

For the face, I made a 2-inch circle with an image of Skippy jon and used a 2" circle punch to cut out and then used a triangle paper punch for the ears.

If you haven't read Skippy jon Jones by Judy Schachner, I highly recommend it!

My Mom and the signs of a heart attack

2013-01-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

I just posted details of my parent's 50th anniversary, but I wanted to make a separate post about this.

The party never happened.

An hour after finishing with the set up and one half hour before the party was to start, I received a call from my sister to tell me that my Mom had a heart attack. Like I said in an earlier post that life just kind of takes over and we don't have control over much else. At that moment -- all the hours of preparation, anticipation and excitement of celebrating two of my favorite people's long lasting love for each other -- nothing else mattered except for was my Mom going to be alright?

Thankfully, she had gotten to the ER in time. She had to have one stent put in and now, four months later, she is great. Actually she was doing great a few weeks after the attack, but I'm just now getting back to my blog.

I'm putting this info out there to let women and loved ones know her signs. She was at the grocery store and started feeling really hot. Her chest had some discomfort right in the center (more the breastbone area), but what bothered her the most was the aching in her jaws.

She didn't know that jaw aches were a sign of a heart attack.

I'm assuming a lot of people don't know this, so I'm putting it out there.

She finished her shopping, loaded the groceries in the car, and drove home but not without getting behind a slow-moving truck. I know, I just cringed thinking of the time that was passing before she got help as she told me the story. She even passed a firestation. She wasn't thinking of a heart attack. She was thinking she just wanted to get home.

Once she got home, she walked into the house and told my Dad that she was not feeling well. He got the groceries out of the car and put them in the kitchen. She went to lay down, but immediately knew that wasn't going to help. She was home about AN HOUR before they went to the ER. Now, I don't recommend anyone doing this, but like I said, she didn't know she was having a heart attack and she wanted to try to make it to the party. I'm so glad she went to the ER instead. One thing better would have been for her to call a squad. They could have administered necessary drugs on the way, but all in all, it worked out the best way it could. She was lucky. Someone was looking out for her.

She was very lucky to have gotten there in time. She doesn't smoke, doesn't have high blood pressure and leads a pretty wholesome lifestyle with mostly home-cooked meals her entire life. The fact that she is overall healthy probably allowed her to buy more time to get the help she needed.

Her father had heart disease and died of a heart attack. They say it's probably genetic regardless of lifestyle but being healthy helps with recovery and overall amount of damage that could have been caused. I know I need to pay attention to the signs.

I hope by sharing this story, it will help others to know the signs. Everyone is different so sharing as many different stories as we can will help spread the word and possibly save someone's life.

Take care out there and be as healthy as you can be!

Parents' 50th wedding anniversary - barn reds and burlap

2013-01-01T22:32:00.002-05:00

Another project that kept me busy this summer was the preparation for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary! I grew up on a farm and that's where they still live. They have chickens now and I thought we could use that as our theme.

I had been looking forward to this celebration for a couple of years prior and got started on the decoration ideas last year.

Here are the pics. Be sure to check out the next post for some important information.

I wanted to make it all about them with pictures of them on the food table and on each mason jar I included a tag with their picture which served as the centerpiece on each table. We had battery-powerd tea lights in them. I found the small wooden easels at the $ Tree and thought they came in handy.

I love striped straws. I used red and white striped straws as well as brown and white striped straws.

The candy table - I made red and brown chocolate chickens.

And red and brown number 50 chocolate suckers.

I placed them on a styrofoam board that I wrapped with burlap ribbon.

I thought placing the chocolate chickens in small crates lined with raffia added a cute farmy touch!

A sign-in book was included with an early picture of them next to it.

We had to have some gold in there somewhere so that's what color we used for the cake plates and napkins.

Here is the cake! This picture was sent to me from the place where we had the cake made. They took my design and really brought my vision to life! I added a small ceramic vintage chicken and rooster on top that I found on Etsy. I don't have a picture of that though.

Maybe these pictures will give you an idea for throwing a barn/chicken/burlap theme! : )

4th of July Buckets - Target Dollar Spot

2013-01-01T21:29:00.002-05:00

Here's a cute idea for July 4th. Little buckets filled with cute items from Target's Dollar Spot!

4th of July Breakfast -- blue and red sugars sprinkled on mini pancakes topped with white chocolate chips! Yum!! My son loved this! They look like mini fireworks!

Yellow and Gray Baby Shower Onesie design

2013-01-01T21:23:00.001-05:00

I was so excited when a local cupcake shop asked me to come up with a baby shower design for their window display.

I thought of using a onesie as the main design and am so excited at how it came together. This was back in July. I was going to display my work at her shop as well, but when school started I decided I needed more time to be a volunteer and room mom at school. It was a lot of fun to do, though! I'd still like to have a party to do once in a while.

So, here is my design in a window!! Can you believe it? I was so excited!

cupcake tags:

more tags:

all the little pieces (water bottle lables, candy wrapper label, cupcake flags and tags, invitations and small cards for food labeling. I also made a banner:

Another view of the window (see banner at top):

a close up of the candy label:

I was so excited to do this project! I hope you like the designs, too!

6th Birthday Girl Bug Party

2013-01-01T21:07:00.001-05:00

Wow! And Happy New Year!!! I hope 2013 is the best yet for everyone!

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog. Life just kind of took over! I'll rewind and share a few of the projects.

First thing I want to share is my daughter's 6th birthday. She loves bugs and I wanted to make it look girly, so to cut the details short, here are the pics!!'

Here are the invitations. I bought plastic bugs at the $ Tree and spray painted them pink

Small bug catchers for favors filled with bug party blowers, ladybug tattoos and ladybug chocolates. I designed the labels to add to the front of the bug catchers to thank friends for coming to her party:

Another pic of the favors. I hung strips of crepe paper from the kitchen cabinets for a backdrop:

Saw this idea on pinterest to use 2 plastic table covers. I liked the look of tying the top layer:

I designed labels for the water bottles:

I opted for a short cut and ordered cupcakes from our local grocery (Meijer). I added my tags with lollipop sticks:

I also designed a t-shirt iron-on to pull it all together!

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek at my daughter's party. I had fun putting it together and she had a great time as well! : )

There are more projects to share, so stay tuned...

Pinterest Inspiration

2012-06-26T18:03:00.001-04:00

If you've read any of my past posts, you may remember me mention a few times how I love Pinterest! Well, I thought I should put all that fun research to use and actually make some of the things I've pinned.

Let's start with this one it's called unicorn poop. Ok, I didn't name it! I just call them unicorn cookies when I made them with my kids. Aren't they super cute, though? Here's the inspiration picture:

Here's how they looked at my house. Color not as bold, but still kind of pretty.

Now for the glaze and stars!

They may not look as great as the inspiration picture, but they were actually really yummy! Would I make them again? Well, they took a long time to make with the twisting of the different colored dough strips, but I think I can bypass that part next time and just swirl the colors through the dough. Maybe? Anyway, I tried making them and they got eaten so I say mission accomplished!