TAW - Day 4

It is already Day 4 of Teacher Appreciation!  

Today's little treat was a school supply all teachers love - highlighters!  Let's be honest.. who doesn't love highlighters?  Am I right?!

Thank you

for making

my school year

BRIGHT!

Love,

I simply added this little note (that I made using the colors of the highlighters... did you notice that?) with cute ribbon and called it done.  

Simple. Cute. Bright. Appreciated.

Check back tomorrow for the last day of TAW!

TAW - Day 3

The theme for today?  Fish.

The kids chose Goldfish over Swedish Fish... crazy kids!  And, they didn't want the snack size bags of Goldfish either.  Caleb wanted to give his teacher the BIG container of Goldfish - which probably would have been a good idea.  She could have shared with the whole class...

Here is what we came up with:

You are  o-FISH-ally

A great teacher!

Love,

These pictures were taken in the early morning with my phone, so they are not the best quality.  Oh well.  Isn't it better to document the memories?  That is what I keep telling myself.

Day 4 tomorrow!  

TAW - Day 2

Today is Day 2 of Teacher Appreciation Week.  Our treat for the teachers today?

You are "EXTRA" special!

Again, a simple and inexpensive gift that the teachers would enjoy - and fresh breath!

The kids were excited to see what their teachers would say this morning.  From what I was told yesterday, Olivia got a hug from her teacher.  Ella's teacher drank her juice for lunch and Caleb's teacher said, "I love it.  You are the best student ever!"

Check back tomorrow for Day 3!

And, just for fun...  The kids had check ups at the dentist this morning.  Our dentist is amazing!  She is patient, soft spoken (but firm), answers any questions in terms I understand - and her new office has an iPad room!  A room with iPads for the kids to play on!

But, most importantly, we left with NO cavities... and a mustache :)

Apparently, mustaches are serious business.

Teacher Appreciation Week

It has been busy around here.  The new monkey bars are being climbed daily.  Molly has been racing through the evenly raked mulch chasing birds.  Caleb's room is finished.  Olivia's room update is also complete!  We even started Ella's room redo - all because I was shopping for new knobs for Olivia's desk and saw a picture that belonged in Ella's room.  It was on clearance.  I had to get it - and then I hid it in our bonus room so Chad wouldn't yell at me.  And then he found it...

It is also Teacher Appreciation Week at school and out of everything going on, this has thrown me off.  As a homeroom mom I am in charge of decorating our class door.  This door was such a pain.  I stressed and stressed planning this door.  I never want to decorate a door ever again.

In the end, I think it turned out cute and Olivia's class was excited to see their names on the flowers.  The door says - If teachers were flowers, we would "pick" Ms. Collins.  Cute, right?!  Worth getting headaches over?  No.

As the week progresses, students/parents will write notes to Ms. Collins and I will add them to the door.

I also have small little treats for Caleb, Olivia and Ella's teachers for every day this week.

Day 1 - You're SIMPLY the best.

We found small bottles of Simply Raspberry Lemonade at Target for under $2.  I printed a note from this blog on cardstock.  Easy, peasy.

The kids were very excited to carry these juice bottles this morning.  Something as simple as this makes their mornings a little bit more fun!  And hopefully, made their teachers smile too!

While climbing into the car Olivia looked at me and said, "Papa will use this bottle."  I asked her what she meant and reminded her that it was for her teacher and that she needed to hand it to her when she walked into class.  Olivia said, "But Papa will want to put bird seed in it."

A few things have not changed about Papa - even now that he lives in Texas.  He still mows his lawn a lot. And now he helps me mow mine :)  He also stores his bird seed in these Simply bottles.  And Gatorade too. And humming bird food.  You never know if you are about to drink red Gatorade or humming bird food at their house...

Silly Papa.  And Silly Olivia.

Check back tomorrow for Day 2 treats!

Oops, Olivia did it again!

Remember this?  When Olivia "helped" Ella lose her first tooth?

Well, Olivia has struck again!  This time involved a hula hoop, not a stuffed animal.  My kids were playing outside with the neighbors kids when all of a sudden I saw blood in Ella's mouth.  Olivia accidentally hula-ed a little too much and collided with Ella.

This is the result:

Ella is one tough little girl.  She was SO excited to wake up to find the Tooth Fairy left her $6!  She said, "She must REALLY like me because she left me so much money!  Six dollars and I am six!"

Revamped playscape - adding monkey bars

The playscape addition is done!

Chad and Dad worked all weekend to finish it and it looks great!  Once the new treated boards have time to set, we will restain the entire playscape.  But, for now, it is ready for the kids to play on.

Here is a look at the before, sad playscape area.







Once the mulch was delivered, Dad worked all morning moving the mulch into the playscape area being careful not to block where the new monkey bars would go.

Like so...

As soon as the kids came home from school, they climbed the (remaining) mulch mountain.

Once Chad got home from work, he finished moving the mulch with the help of our new neighbor.  Less talky, more worky boys!

Chad measured and attached the monkey bars.

Dad trimmed the vines that were slowly taking over our fence and tree.

Molly stayed near Dad and happily chewed any vine or stick he tossed to the ground.

Next, they cemented four posts into the ground.

And then added the already assembled bars and attached them to the posts.  They added handles and steps for climbing.

Finally, Dad evened out the mulch and we were done!

Here is the final result!

The kids were so excited to test the monkey bars out!  It was torture for them to wait while the cement set.

They have even shared snacks while sitting on the top.  This particular snack was iced animal cookies and slim jims - which they proudly picked out all by themselves!

And a BEFORE:



And the AFTER:



Thanks Dad for all your hard work!  Thanks Chad for making this fun change to the playscape!

Exciting things happening around these here parts!

I read on a blog that you should only post "awesome" things.  That readers want to read and see good, positive things. Anything not awesome should not be posted.  So, I kind of backed off on blogging because my life doesn't always reflect awesome.  Homework, toys, laundry, more toys, dishes... not awesome.

I have been thinking a lot about it.  MANY of the blogs you read only show awesome and I don't like it.  I think a lot of them aren't being honest by only showing the good.  I want to see real life.  And I think my readers (all 6 of you) do too.

So, not every post will be awesome.  Some will be awesome.  Some will be boring.  Others entertaining.  Who knows?!

Here is a post about what we are working on now.  I am proud to say that I have crossed eight items of my project to do list.  You will see the progress in posts soon.  I promise.  I am still trying to figure out how to declutter and organize my entire house... any ideas?

That is what is going on inside the house.  Outside is another story.  Texas is hot.  And dry.  And our poor yard has taken a beating.  Add in my kids and neighbor kids playing daily in our backyard and on our playscape  - it's not looking so good.  THEN, add in a puppy that likes to shred any plastic toy she can find and dig up roots and it's looking even worse.

We decided it is time to do something.

We ordered 12 yards of kiddie mulch to add to our playscape area.

We are also revamping our playscape.  Nothing major, but the kids use this everyday and we want them to continue to.

The biggest change...

We are getting a sprinkler system installed in the front and back yard!  We have talked about this for years.  We have tried just moving our own sprinklers around, but with our water restrictions each summer, it hasn't worked.  Plus, our yard is big and our lot is not square, making moving hoses impossible.  Our grass is dying.  Some areas are now just dirt.  The dirt turns to mud (when it does rain) and then Molly tracks mud through our house.

Our yard used to look so green and now it is just sad.  We are excited to get it back to green!