Saturday, June 5, 2010

We interupt the regularly scheduled program.....for {Teacher Gifts}!

We made it!! YAAAAYYYY!!!! My boy's last day of school was yesterday and it was SO nice to not only complete the school year, but also to turn OFF my 5:40 AM alarm clock!!!! I cannot express how happy that makes me! :>

Yes, I know I promised to return with {Part Two}of the doll house with pictures of its completion and I'm sorry I haven't gotten that up yet. I was trapped in the kaleidoscope of the zany & zippy, Crazyland that is the last week of school! So, please pardon the interruption to the regularly scheduled program as I have some teachers, aides, and principal gifts to share! :>


We had two teachers, two aides, and one principal that we brought end of the year thanks and goodies too.  While these were the people who we wrote, created and packaged bits for, we do know that it takes many more people to make a successful school year for our children and we are grateful to all that contributed!!

Initially, we were thinking Gerber Daisies, as I had the tag's wording in mind.  But, when I went looking, I found these fabulous and fun plants!  They are Celosias and the flower is spiky, feathery, vibrant, and look like little colorful Christmas trees, up close.  They could not be more perfect!  You can read more about Celosias here and here.  I have uploaded two close-up shots of the flowers themselves on Flickr here and here.


I had fun playing around with my fonts when coming up with these simple, but very appropriate tags for each plant.  I made them in MS Word, matted them on brightly colored cardstock, used different colored eyelets, and layered on another bright color with a spiral paper clip.  (Click on the pics to enlarge them and make them easier to read!)


The Celosias were four inch plants in the standard green plastic pot....perfect for planting, not so great for gift giving.  So, wee girl and I made a quick trip to Jo-Ann's and bought some dark green burlap.  We cut it into squares and Princess helped hold the burlap folded up around the pot, while I tied on some twine from the hardware store that I had.  Tie on the tag and they are a sweet little gift!


Teachers definitely put in so much time and effort and these two teachers, in particular, we all appreciate so much.  We wanted to give them a little something extra to show that.  So, I wrapped up four cards (1, 2, 3, 4) and envelopes and tied them up in wide pink grosgrain ribbon for simple, yet sweet gift giving. 

As we were giving out our end of the year gifts, a teacher surprised me with an extremely thoughtful gift.  She took pictures of our son through his school day, with his friends, classmates, different aides & teachers, in the classroom, at lunch, and recess.  She said that she knew that I scrapbook and wanted to give me pictures to scrap.  How thoughtful is that?!?!?!!

We have worked with this teacher closely for the last two years and I do not have words to express how wonderful she has been.  I am sure that when any of us look back, twenty years from now, we will remember her very well and still be grateful for her.


This small set (1, 2, 3, 4) of cards were wrapped up in a beautiful bright green wide sheer ribbon and tied off in a bow.  These were going to his classroom teacher who is full of smiles, enthusiasm, and a passion for teaching!  Our boy says that she was funny, great at teaching math, super nice, and that he enjoyed listening to her read stories to the class.  We so enjoyed her being our son's teacher this year and she will be missed!


One aide in particular, had a special connection with our son.  He enjoyed her so much, thought she was funny, and absolutely idolized her thirteen year old son....so much so, that her son was kind enough to come spend time after and before school a couple times a week with my boy this spring to talk about Star Wars, guitars, and Lego's.  How cool is that?! 

Princess and this aide shared something in common......they both enjoy their accessories!  In the last weeks of school, Princess often noticed my boy's very stylish aide wearing statement rings.  So, when we were thinking about end of the year gifts, Princess was the one to come up with the idea of giving this aide a statement ring.......and so we did!  I don't think the picture does it justice.  Its really fun and funky!

They have worked together for the last two years and in that time they talked, laughed, learned and taught, ran together (she runs half marathons....good thing 'cause my kidlet is fast and doesn't stop moving!! :>), played, and shared stories every day at school.  We will miss her next year!

Sending a BIG shout out to ALL the teachers out there (including the ones in my family!).......THANK YOU!

Thanks for visiting, I love it when you do! Hope you are having a fantastic weekend!!


10 comments:

  1. Wow! KARE! These beauties were worth the wait! So glad to see you BACK on the old blog! You have been MISSED! Looks like you tied up the year with some particularly beautiful ribbon! Congrats! HUGE congrats to YOUR darling wee-ones! Wahoooo!

    IT'S SUMMER!!!!! Love ya, dear!

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  2. These are gorgeous Karen....both the cards and the flower plants! I'm sure the teachers all flipped, I know I would if I received these, esp that statement ring!!! LOVE it! That was really cool that teacher got those pics for you! wow!
    xOxO

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  3. Wowza!! Love your end of the year teacher/aide/principal gifts!! So creative! The card sets are beautiful (yes, I looked at every single card!) And shut up!! You MADE your own "nesties"??!! Again, wowza!

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  4. You are thee sweetest...I bet they all loved their goodies!!!

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  5. The flowers look amazing (loved your pics on flickr, too) and so do your cards! What a great way to show your appreciation for the teacher's work. So thoughtful of one of them to photograph your son at school. Sure something to treasure :-)

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  6. Wonderful teachers gifts you came up with here (love your cards!) Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today :)

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  7. Ahhhhh...use teachers do appreciate the LOVE and we really do miss our students so so much. Your cards and gifts would make any teacher thankful. xoxoxo

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  8. These are fabulous, Karen! I'm sure they were much appreciated!

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  9. Lucky lucky teachers! You always make and give the most thoughtful gifts. I know they will miss you and your family as much as you will miss them next year.

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  10. Hi Karen! I´ve been in hiding over at JS for a long while now, but I´m poking my head out of the sand just for a couple of minuts to come check out your blog! That dolls house is just stunning. I´ve been having my eyes set on one over at Etsy, but as I have no room, no kids and no close friends with kids, I´m finding it difficult to justify getting one...

    You teachers gifts are gorgeous as always. Giving gifts to teachers are not a tradition in Norway, but I think its a great thing! I might just start doing that when I have some tiny ones :-)

    Siri

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