School Gifts

It is finally the last day of school here. I think I'm every bit as excited as the kids are. I love having them home and having a more relaxed schedule. On the last day I like to do a little something special for the teachers and for some of the people around the school that don't always get the love. Now that the kids are at two different schools, that is a lot of people. Thankfully, I stumbled into a fantastically cheap and easy gift that has always been met with excitement. Chocolate covered strawberries!

This year I had 13 bags with one milk chocolate and one white chocolate strawberry in each bag. I found these super cute bags in a pack of 13 at Micheal's for $5.99. The muffin cups were also there for $1.99. Publix had the berries on sale 2 for $5. I already had the white curling ribbon and I made the tags using Photoshop. All total that works out to about $1 per gift.

The tags I made were 3 1/4 inches squared and had room for the kids to sign their names. Nix had 6 teachers this year, so I knew where her's were going, but JD only had 2, so we got to have a little more fun with who got berries. We went to his grade counsellor, the art teacher, the librarian, and one teacher that none of my children have ever had. She has a very unusual personalized license plate. For the past two years, while we wait in car line in the morning, we look for this car. It is a race, and a lot of fun. It starts our day off right. We tracked down the owner of the car this morning, and "Bug Bump" got strawberries for brightening our mornings.

The Moral of the Story

I just got back from JD's awards day. It was very entertaining. JD won an award for being the most honest student and for telling the truth even when it will get him in trouble. Then there were awards named after candy and he received the "Payday" award, which is the candy way of saying, "most likely to succeed", and a kid choice award for sportsmanship, which the children were told, means the kid you most want on your team and is an all around nice kid. I don't always put much stock in end of the year, everyone gets something awards. In fact, I believe I may have called it a celebration of mediocrity at some point. I'm finding myself a little teary eyed over this one though. All 3 of these speak to my son's character. I once read that we formed the bulk of our character traits by a very young age. I think it was age 8, but don't quote me. Aside from a few people who have serious life altering events in their life, people are primarily the same kind of person they were in the 2nd or 3rd grade. I am now praying to God that this line of thought holds true for my son. At age 7 his teachers and peers have already declared him to be a good man and that thrills me beyond words.
Along with the awards the children put on 3 mini plays with each having a moral. I was pleased that the moral of the first story, "The Little Red Hen" was if you don't put in the work you can't reap the rewards. This is an idea that we need to teach a little more faithfully. JD's play of "The Turnip" taught that you can do more with teamwork than you can alone. JD thought it should have been that you can accomplish more with teamwork than you can alone. I adore his vocabulary.

Day of Nothing

If you are a mom then you know there is no such thing as a day that you have nothing to do. There is always something in need of cleaning and the laundry, oh the never ending laundry. Then there are the things out of the house, dance classes, ball games, school events, and on and on. Every so often I like to look for a day when I can have a planned day of nothing...or a least, almost nothing.
Lately, I've been working, doing a lot of end of the school year events, and had a revolving door on the guest room. I've chosen all of it. I've enjoyed all of it. I've got a busy day tomorrow, but today is a different story. Today is the one day that I don't have any demands on my time. I'm sure most women would use this time to catch up on laundry or whatever else has been neglected around the house, but I'm saving that for Saturday. Today I am writing a little, reading a book, and wearing pants with elastic in the waist. It is delightful and refreshing. I'm sure some work will sneak its way into the day, after all my kids do like to be fed, but for the most part, nothing.
Try it, you'll like it.