Thank You Teachers

I thought it would be nice to say thank you to the kids teachers for such a great year.  i had some leftover fabric and decided to make them a bookbag.  20 minutes and a few straight seams and voila!

...folded it and put a little tag on it to the teacher...

...and said goodbye to kindergarten and 2nd grade.  hello summer!

Scrabble Party

I had the privilege of celebrating my sister-in-law's 40th birthday this weekend. A wonderful woman, friend, mother & wife who loves words.  Anything with words.

So we thought we would throw her a Scrabble Party!

 

I found a knife block at the thrift store and thought it looked just like a scrabble tile so I painted a "J" (for my SIL's name) on it and used scrabble tiles to spell out Happy Birthday for the cupcake toppers.  Knife block: $1, scrabble tiles: free (I had them already)

My SIL also LOVES lemons and basil so we used those as accents around the table.

I found vinyl letters at the local drugstore and thought they would look cute on balloons, spelling out her name.  Vinyl letters: $3, Helium balloons: $5.68

I printed Happy Birthday letters using the News Gothic MT font (very similar to the Scrabble font) and put a wood background on each page to make them look like Scrabble tiles.

A sweet friend of ours asked all of us to bring one word that best describes my SIL, and put the words & descriptions in a scrapbook as a present to her.  How lovely to read these and realize what a gift she is to all of us.
 

Teddy Bear Picnic Party

 

My sweet daughter turned 3 in January this year and we decided to throw her a Teddy Bear Picnic birthday party.  I had this large jar hanging around and filled it with a "trail mix" of Teddy Graham crackers, mini marshmallows & cheerios. 

I found these cute teddy bear wood hooks at the dollar store along with little paint sets for a dollar as well, and gummy bears to inspire the little artists.

I made homemade chocolate cupcakes with green frosting to make grass and flowers made from the leftover mini marshmallows and m&m's and little teddy graham bear's.  Each little girl got to take home a basket which I found at Joann Fabrics and I was able to use my 40% off coupon which made them very affordable.  I filled each basket with Teddy Graham crackers, a little notepad (4 for $1), and a pen.

I ended up buying about 3 yards of gingham fabric for the table and hutch and some gingham ribbon to pull everything together. 

It was fun to sing the Teddy Bear Picnic song, do the "live" version of "Going on a Bear Hunt", and paint the teddy bear hooks.

Graduation Gifts

Congratulations Seniors!  My friend and I had so much fun putting these gift pails together for the high school seniors at our church.  
We decided to make the gift more meaningful by writing a diploma describing what was in each gift which included a:

Bucket

remember to be humble & willing to serve

Journal

to help you love God, learn his Word & ways and live His mission & message

Flashlight

remember, you are a light to the world

Duct Tape

remember to value relationships & anything can be fixed with duct tape

Stanwood Map

so you can always find your way home

Coffee

to stay awake and be ready

Starbursts

reach for the stars!

Bubbles

remember to have fun!

Graduation Bubbles

 I found these bottles (9 in a box) at the dollar store and decorated them with a "congratulations" sticker & made little graduation caps out of scrap black paper and embroidery thread.  Cost: $.11 per bottle.

Graduation Gift Contents

I found buckets at Ace hardware for $4.59 ea and paid for duct tape $1 ea at the dollar store, Starburst candy $.69 ea and found we had some left over journals at the church=free, flashlights $1.29 ea, Stanwood map=free from the local Chamber of Commerce & coffee=free from a vendor.

The Gift Bucket

I had some red ribbon left over from Christmas which happens to be the color of the Stanwood Spartans and made these humble buckets look like a graduation present.
                                       
                                                         Congratulations Seniors!

Baseball Coach Thank You Gift

We had a really great baseball season with the boys this year with really wonderful coaches (one of them being daddy) so we decided to make them gift baskets with gift cards to dinner & a movie with their families.

I found these cute peanut boxes at Target for $1 and filled them with peanuts & a little flag I made from paper & a wood skewer (this coach coached the Purple Ninjas). 

 I made an "Amazing Coach Award" certificate for each coach and filled the rest of the basket with peanuts, sunflower seeds, Cracker Jacks & a baseball Pez I found at the dollar store.  Each family chipped in and we were able to buy gift certificates to the movies & a local restaurant for a fun Coaches Gift Basket. 

 

THANK YOU COACHES!