Our Favorite Teacher Gift!

This year Molly had the most amazing PreK teacher ever!  We feel truly blessed to have had her teach Molly this year, and don't know what we would have done without her.  When I saw this great teacher gift idea from Everything Pink, I knew I wanted to make it for Mrs. Kok.  Click here for the link to her great instructions.

About a month before the end of school, I sent a note home with all the students, explaining the gift idea and instructions along with 5 questions to have the kids answers, and then asked them to ask and write the kids answers and return to me with any money donation for the gift by a certain date.  I included that if you can not donate or have another end of year gift planned that is fine, but to still return the questions.  :)  I noted if each family donated $5, we would have $100!

The five questions I asked the kids were:

1. What I will miss most about Mrs. Kok is…
2. This year Mrs. Kok taught me…
3. What I will miss most about being in Mrs. Kok’s class this year is…
4. What I will never forget about Mrs. Kok is…
5. Mrs. Kok loves me because...

The kids answers were so adorable, I was even tearing up.  5 year old are so sweet!

I typed up the questions and answers from each of the students and then printed the boys on blue paper, and the girls on purple paper and then cut them each into the size of a dollar bill.  We ended up with $106 for the gift!!! So I got 100 new one dollar bills from the bank (you need to order these about a week before you need them), and used the $6 extra to buy a flower from the greenhouse to go with.  :)

Once I had each question and answer printed and cut, I made a title paper, and then put together the stack:

Title Page, a piece of cardstock cut the same size, then question and answer, dollar bill, question and answer, dollar bill..... every other until they were all in the stack.  Then I added a blank piece of blue cardstock for a backpage.  

Here is how think our stack was before the top got added.

 

After the stack was complete, I used hand clamps and two thin pieces of wood to clamp the top of the pages together. 

Then I used Pad Book Compound to put the book together.  

 

You simply paint on a coat, and then wait about 20 minutes.  It dries into a binding just like the top of a pad of paper has.  SO awesome.  This way, the teacher will be able to rip out and use the dollar bills and be left with a book of memories.

Molly's teacher loved it, and was so surprised and thrilled, and was a little teary reading the kids answers.  I would definitely make this gift again.  :)

 

It's Summer!

 

 It's been so long since I posted, I have to try figure out what I'm doing again.  :)  My last post was Molly's first day of school this year, so since today was her last day of school, I thought it could be the perfect time to start up again as we get ready for Summer.  I've had a nice blogging break, but friends and family keep asking for updates, so I thought I'd try to post here and there this Summer.

For the last day of school, I made an "It's Summer" bin to help the girls celebrate break beginning.  It's just a plastic tub filled with a few things for the dollar section that will be fun to get the summer started.  I included: Frisbees, Silly String, Sunscreen, Fruit Rollups, Squirt Guns, Water Balloons, Photo Stickers, Bubbles, Kool-Aid, Play and Go Packs, and Hand Sanitizer.

  
 I put a sticker on the top of the bin and tied 3 balloons to it.  Nothing crazy, but the girls LOVED it!  It made it extra special when Molly got home from school to celebrate.  She's been marching around all afternoon saying, "I can't believe I am in Kindergarten!  (Neither can I Molly).

DIY School Shirt!

 I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I have some fun projects I wanted to share!  For Molly's first day of PreK, we made this fun shirt "Lined Paper Shirt" we saw at Maybe Matilda.  It was SO easy to make, Molly loved helping paint.  Head over to UCreate, to see the full tutorial!  The only things I did a little different, was I used fabric paint, and Molly used a stencil brush to paint the lines.  :)

One of the best parts, (besides how stinkin' adorable she is :)) I was AMAZED how well it washed up!  Molly got some stains on the shirt and I had to use stain stick to try and get them out.  I was worried that it would take the paint off a bit, since the usual rule is Handmade=Handwash.  But, I washed it normal and the stains came out, and the paint stayed perfectly on!!! WIN!  :)

St. Louis

 Last week we went on a "last minute" vacation of sorts to St. Louis!  My husband was traveling there for work, and since he was driving all the way down this time, it worked for me and the girls to go along!

It was SUCH a great time!  I didn't realize how much my family needed to get away.  It was exactly what the doctor ordered.  We even enjoyed the long car trip that I was worried about taking with a 2 and 4 year old.

I have 142 great pictures from our trip, but so I don't bore you I tried to pick only a couple to share.  :)

 The first afternoon we arrived, Randal had to work so the girls and I just swam at the hotel and got some dinner.  The next day, Randal worked the whole day too, so I took the girls to the St. Louis Zoo (which is free, how awesome!).  Our hotel had a shuttle, so I didn't even have to worry about driving and parking.

 

That night we took the girls to The Magic House, St. Louis' amazing children's museum.  We could have easily spent days here!  Molly and Nora both love acting, so we spent a lot of time putting on shows in the stage room.  It was also a free night, every third Friday night the Magic House has free admission!

 We headed to Fitz's Bottling Company for dinner.  It was a huge hit.  We all loved watching the rootbeer and soda bottles get caps and labels while we waited for our food.  And the HUGE Rootbeer Floats we got free with these coupons I printed were AWESOME!

 I was even shocked that bedtime and naps went great in a hotel.  Both girls feel asleep so well, we must have tired them out!

 The next morning we headed to check out the arch.  Molly was shocked how big  it was, here we got up close. :)  I took SO many pictures out here, the whole area and park around the arch was beautiful.

 Molly showing off some of the park we walked through.

I have a million more fun things I want to share; like spending an afternoon on Grant's Farm, Museums, braiding the girls hair to make curls, to our picnics, but I don't want to overload you with "Vacation Slides..."  hee hee.  However, I will leave you with 2 funny pics that are just cracking me up...

 Molly was shocked the Rootbeer Float was so big!

 And yup, that's my Nora...

Happy 4th of July!

 I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating the 4th!

 

We had a great day, and survived the extreme heat here to head to an outdoor family reunion!

 Molly had a fantastic time making "new" friends, (since she doesn't remember anyone from last year).

 I made these fun fruit kabobs I saw the idea for at Weelicious, the kiddos loved them.  You just slide blueberries onto a bamboo skewer or wood stick.  Then top with a piece of watermelon cut out with a star cookie cutter.  Love them!

I also made these Jell-O Firecrackers from Jell-O.  They took awhile to make, but were actually pretty easy.  And I think pretty stinkin' adorable.  I quick took a picture because I was nervous they would melt in the heat, but they got nabbed up pretty quick.  :)

Good old fashioned Tracing!

I am always looking for easy, fun ideas to keep the kids busy during the Summer so I thought I would pass along one my girls enjoyed! The other day I was running out of energy to plan something, so I decided to bring out some paper and coloring books and see if the girls liked tracing.  I was surprised how much they LOVED this activity.  Molly spend almost 45 minutes on it.  

Since we don't have a light table or anything fancy, and I didn't even have tracing paper, here is our quick alternative.  I had them find a picture they liked out of a coloring book and then taped it onto the slider so the light would shine through it.  Then put a piece of white computer paper on top of it and start tracing.  Even Nora loved trying!  I am definitely adding tracing paper to the shopping list.

Rootbeer Floats!

Is there a better Summer snack than a Rootbeer Float??

 My girls would definitely agree they are at the top of the list!

Enjoying an after dinner snack outdoors!

 So go throw a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a glass, filler up with Rootbeer and enjoy!

Sometimes the simple things make the best memories!