Teacher Thank You Gifts

Today is the boys last day of school (hooray?) and I spent a little time making their teacher a small thank you gift.  Both boys had wonderful teachers this year and deserved something special.

I took these simple wood frames.

And painted the edges to match the paper I had already selected.

Then I glued the paper to the frame without making any cuts.  I used Mod Podge.

Then I took my craft knife and cut around the outside of the frame, then the inside.  Sorry, no pictures of that.

After that I used the embellishments that I had to finish it off.  I used coordinating paper, some stickers that I found at Hobby Lobby(with a 40% coupon, of course), and two sizes of circle punches.  I also cut out the apple shape from the one paper because it looked good on the other.  I used glue dots and pop-up dots to give the project dimension.  To finish it all off I put in pictures of the boys and their teachers that I had taken earlier.  This was my finished project.

Here is a closer picture of each frame. 

(Please ignore the fact that I cannot take a straight picture.)

I am so thankful for all the work and effort these fabulous ladies put in this year for my boys.  They are so much better off after having them as teachers.  Thank you Mrs. Gale and Mrs. Parks for a great year!!

If you want more ideas for techers gift check out this link where you will find my idea and many MANY more!

busy busy me

I had exactly 11 days off between my last final and my first day of the summer term, which is tomorrow (if you don't count my internet class that started today). What did I do for those 11 days? Here is a little bit of it:

I went to the Zoo with Josh's class.  The Polar Bear (I guess that there is only one these days) was pacing back and forth forEVER.  Not sure what that was about, but the kids loved it.

This is Josh's friend that we spend the day with.  They had a lot of fun playing around.

On a different day I went to Josh's class for his ice cream sundae party.  All of the kids who learned their math facts got an ice cream sundae.  Josh, and the little cutie above, finished first in the class and received a book for their reward.  Way to go!

Today I went to Eric's class to have lunch with him. 

I made a blanket for my fabulous friend who is due VERY soon with her third baby (second son).  I picture him as a monkey boy, hopefully he will be a good monkey to his Momma!

I fixed some jeans that Kate had wore holes in.  They came out quite cute, but I don't have a picture and they are currently in the wash.  Leading to the assumtion that I did some laundry over my break; LOTS OF LAUNDRY.

I also spend a lot of quality time with this little imp.

I also did ~ a large amount of cleaning.  Putting in the floors from this post made a big mess

               ~ painted a wall

               ~ repaired some of the trim damaged in the removal of my baseboards (still have plenty more to go)

              ~ attended 5 baseball games

              ~ made a second pair of shorts for Kate out of another pair of torn jeans

AND...

Okay, I think that's it.  Now, on to school tomorrow.  Maybe that will slow things down a bit.  YOU THINK?

THE GREAT WHITE SHARK by Josh

Josh had a science project on the animal of his choice.  He picked the great white shark.  He had so much fun picking out the fun facts and pictures.  He did not have so much fun cutting out the kazillion pieces of paper that he had to put on his poster.  I, too, had a hard time, but only because I was trying hard not to take over the cutting and gluing.  Josh did an excellant job and was rewarded for his hard work with a 100% from his teacher!  He is so good at school and I am really proud of him for all his effort!

Relax during our "summer" break?  Nah, not us.

We are finally laying the laminate wood flooring that we have had in our garage for MONTHS.

Thankfully we have the help of some wonderful friends.  They made it go very fast and I would even say enjoyable.

This is just a preview.  The final product will be posted soon.

Random Thoughts

I am stitting here watching The Biggest Loser (yes, it's Wednesday, but I don't actually watch live TV) thinking that I should blog. But since I am not capable of really focusing on anything specific right now, the title is random thoughts...

1. Eating rocky road ice cream while watching The Biggest Loser is counter productive
2. I was was wondering if I could compare finals to labor without getting lynched.  Labor is harder, I have done it three times, you know.  Twice without an epidural.  But finals are bad too.
3. I thought that my History 330 teacher was telling a joke when he said the final was optional if you were happy with your current grade.  Well, I am not exactly "happy" with my grade, but since it would be impossible to get 115% on the final I am thinking that I might have to happy with my grade.  And he was not joking about not having to take the final.
4. Why can I only sleep in on Sunday's?  Not the day that I have the opportunity, but instead on the day when five people have to be ready before 9 am.
5. I like riding the bus to school.  I am starting to hate driving to school.  Traffic sucks.
6. I love my ipod.  It makes my morning nice.
7. I miss my kids when I have to spend all day on campus, but it still bothers me that they are home early on Wednesday.  Not sure why.
8. David Boreanez (Booth on Bones) is really nice to look at.
9. My house needs a make-over.  But I lack the energy to do it.
10. The warm weather is nice, but here it means all the hoochie-mommas come out.  Who wants to see that?
11. I will graduate two years from next weekend, provided I retain my sanity through it all.
12. I think that my family is pretty great.