Teacher Gift Idea

School is almost out for the summer here in GA.

With each end of the school year, we have Teacher Appreciation Week.

Each day of the week, the students (or parents rather) are supposed to do something for the teacher.

You know, to show their appreciation for all the time they have devoted to the classroom all year.

The week ends with a classroom gift for the teacher.

At the beginning of the year, the teachers are given a survey to fill out so the room moms can know a little more about them.  Some of the things they are asked are favorite places to eat, colors in their home, favorite books, favorite candy etc.  This helps greatly at the end of the year when you are trying to get a gift.

The parents are able to make a monetary donation towards this gift and the room moms go out and get the gift.  I was one of the room moms for my son's 5th grade class this year and this is what we came up with.

It was pretty easy to put together and we used a lot of the things she said she liked from her survey.

I started with all her favorite things.  The vases and straws were donated from the other room mom but we used money we received to purchase the rest.

I started by taping the straws to the back of the Twix.

I then dropped some Starburst into the bottom of the vase and arranged the sharpies around the edges.

After that I put all the Twix on straws into the container and arranged them so they looked good.  I continued to drop the Starburst into the base as fillers until they were all used.  The straws were bendy straws so I was able to bend some of them and hang them over the side of the vase.

Once I was done with all the Twix, I taped the gift cards to straws and put them in the top.

I love the way it turned out.  I hope our teacher will like it too.

I'm linking up to these parties......

Baseball is serious business - Part 1

I have always said that my youngest was born with a baseball bat in his hand.

It all started when he was 3 years old and was on his first baseball team.

He may not have been big in size but he was big in his love of the game.

We started him out in our church league but when it became apparent that he needed something more, we moved to the rec league at our local park.

The first team he was on was the Cardinals.

He was very proud of his first uniform.

Check out those practice swings.

When he first started out he was number 10 like his favorite player, Chipper Jones, from the Atlanta Braves.  I don't remember even knowing the names of professional baseball players when I was 4 years old.

In the Spring season of the same year, his team was the Atlanta Braves.  Go figure.

His daddy was the coach and they came in first place in the season that year.

The trophy is almost as big as he is.

After the Spring season, some of the players are asked to play on All Stars.

Zachary was asked and was very excited.

They even got to play some games at a local park that had astro turf on their field.

That was really cool to all these boys.

I think this is the smallest catcher ever!!

The next fall we were back at it.  This would be his last year in T-ball and they were the Cubs.

He hadn't grown very much since last season but look at the determination on his face.

In the Spring they were the Giants.

He rightfully earned the position of "circle" or pitcher as it is called when you get older.

Love the form.  See what I mean by being a natural.

End of year party with a very happy and proud daddy.  Who was, as you may guess, the coach again.

This concludes our T-Ball career.  Stay tuned for PeeWee, Minor and some of Majors, which is the level Zachary is playing now.