Saying Thank You!

As each year passes I am finding the last week of the school year to be more and more difficult! We have been so blessed to have such wonderful teachers to enrich the lives of our children, and I am always the parent standing in the classroom on the last day of school with tears in my eyes, trying to find the words to thank another amazing teacher for putting her heart and soul into teaching my child. This year is no exception!

Jenna had the most incredible experience with her pre-K teachers this year. They were fun, enthusiastic and had more energy than all of us parents put together. Jenna loved going to school every single day and thanks to Miss Robin and Miss Marietta, she is heading to kindergarten confident and ready to take on the world.

Joey was also fortunate enough to have an amazing 2nd grade teacher! Ms. Kodish made learning fun and exciting, and did everything to meet each child right where they were academically and help them succeed. She nurtured Joey's new found love of reading, and made school a place he wanted to be! As a parent, I couldn't ask for anything more!

Today, we surprised Ms. Kodish with this fun little album I put together with the help of the kids in the class. A few weeks ago I sent home a letter and a 4x6 piece of cardstock, and asked the students to write a note to Ms. Kodish. It was so fun to see how their personalities shined in these notes. From the creative girl who added a cute 3-d flower and wrote in pink glitter pen to the sweet boy who wrote something to the effect of "Even though I don't like school, you are a great teacher. Thank you for helping me with my math!" Each note, whether long and detailed or short and sweet was truly written from the heart!

One day last week I "borrowed" each of the kids for just a minute during class and took pictures of them to make the album complete. With a little help from Close To My Heart's Simply Snapshots, this treasured 9x9 album was done in just a couple hours.

Ms. Kodish couldn't read the kids' notes through the tears, but when she does read them I hope she will feel the love and appreciation we all feel for her!

Thank you Ms. Kodish, Miss Robin and Miss Marietta for helping my children grow! We will miss you all next year and will always remember how much you enriched their lives!

Teacher Appreciation Week!

A couple week's ago, my son's school spent an entire week showing our wonderful teachers just how much they mean to us! What better way to do that than with gifts and goodies! They were treated to a luncheon and a breakfast hosted by our PTC as well as little goodies brought in each day by the kids.

A friend and I got together and made 4o of these cute little water bottle toppers for our teachers and staff. They are so easy to make - and so fun to give!

Here's a quick how-to...
-Start with a piece of cardstock 3" x 10 1/2". Score each short end at 3".
-Use a circle punch or a coluzzle circle cutter to cut a circle in the center of one of those 3" ends.
-Fold the other 3" end up to create the pocket. We simply held the pocket together with brads.
-Cut a 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" square out of a coordinating B&T paper to cover the pocket and decorate to your liking. You'll notice we used the scalloped circle we punched out for the top as part of the design on the pocket.
-Place a single serving tea or lemonade packet in the pocket and hang on a water bottle!
As easy as that!

We used my very favorite paper of all time, Let's Get Together (X7083B) along with two fun stamp sets, Thank You (D1361) and Delight in Everything (D1204).