Kids' lunches

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

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

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

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)

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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! : )