Teacher Appreciation Week

This week, it's Teacher Appreciation Week at K.T.'s daycare (or as we refer to it, "School"). The director had sent out a list a few weeks make that gave parents a rundown of the weekly festivities and each child was asked to donate $5 towards costs associated with the celebration.

The list basically included the following:

1. Monday: "Message in a Bottle" - write your child's teacher a note telling them how much you appreciate them. Put in bottle in classroom.
2. Tuesday: "Favorite Things" - bring one "favorite" item for each of your childs teachers. We were also sent a list of "favorite' items for each teacher.
3. Wednesday: Pre-K famlies provide a dish for a luncheon.
4. Thursday: "Beach Day" - bring a beach item to add to your teacher's beach bag in the classroom.
5. Friday: Infant and Toddler families bring a sweet for all staff.

Did I mention KT has FOUR teachers in her classroom? Yeah, things COULD get out of control pretty fast, if I let it. I wanted to be creative and crafty, but not get out of control on costs. So I tried to be as resourceful as possible and here's what I came up with:

Monday's Message in a Bottle - I designed a 4x6 gretting card in InDesign with a picture of KT on it and printed it on my home printer. I hand wrote the note part of it, rolled them up and tied them with some ribbon I had purchased 6 months ago off the $1 rack at Target.

Tuesday's Favorite Thing - From candy, to lotion to drinks to what type of magazine they liked there was a lot to choose from. So I improvised! I found these cute baskets in the $1 section at Target (score!) - Instead of buying a soda for $1.29, I found these cute cups for $1.59 that they can use over and over and over again. And instead of buying them a gossip magazine for $2.50-$3.50, I found these cute notebooks on sale for $2.50. Toss in a 2 pens each (pack of 10 for $1.99) and a bag of their favorite candy and voila! I also designed/printed the gift cards in InDesign at the house.

I got a pass for Wednesday as KT is not considered part of the Pre-K group. But tomorrow, it's on:

Thursday Beach Day - So, I scored for this one and found these towels on sale for $5 each - awesome! I also found some goggles in the $1 rack at Target and added them to each gift and again, put one of the gift tags on each one.

Friday Sweet Treats - I'm planning on making Paula Deen's Oooey Gooey cake for Friday's festivities. It is in no way healthy for you at all, hello!!? All you have to say is Paula Deen and you can't jump to that assumption. BUT, I want them to know I can bake and not just buy something, so I need to start off on the right foot! :) I have already told myself that I WILL NOT even sample the batter. Not even a little bit. I'm planning on designing a little card saying what it is that matches the gift tags and thank you note format.

And, there we go. My first arts & crafts project for KT - and she's only 3.5 months old!! When do they graduate again? Oh right.... only 17.65 more years of this. Lol!

And just for good measure, here's a shot of my two cuties after her bath one night :)