Ben, Becky, Kara, Kiersten,and Evie

Being in charge of staff appreciation this year has been really fun. We've made some fun things, and it's been nice to get to know the teachers and staff at school better. During teacher appreciation week, we set up a breakfast buffet. Evie was ready for school early, so I brought her with me to help out while the other girls were home getting ready.

We were both jealous of all the delicious options! It was also bring a flower to your teacher day, but I got busy, and forgot to get pics of the girls with their flowers. We had a great morning delivering flowers to all of the specialty teachers (music, PE, etc) from PTO.

Here is the sign we made for the breakfast buffet. I wish I'd cut out the letters slightly smaller. I already had the backing paper, so I had to squash them on there.

Later in the week, we also set up a dessert bar in the teacher's lounge. I didn't take a very good picture of the sign I made. It says, "Woerther teachers are the sweetest". The teachers seemed pretty pleased with the spread. My girls were going crazy with all these treats in the house for 3 days, but off limits. Even Ben asked me to put the brownies out of sight.

This is what I put together for the office staff for appreciation day. It says, "Thanks for being a shining light in our kids' lives". They turned out really cute.

The girls had a great time helping out with making these.

This is what we put together for principal appreciation. We filled the glass blocks with little puff balls in the school colors. Then I found some cute sayings to paint on the front.

For the assistant principal. "Of all the Assistant Principals in the world, ours is the best!"

And for our principal. "Behind every great school, is a wonderful principal". I had such a hard time finding the quotes I wanted to use, but I am happy with what I ended up with.

Here is a picture of the basket I put together for the raffle at the End of Year Bash. One of Evie's buddies ended up winning it, so that was really fun. My girls already have so many bows, that I don't make them very often any more. So I had a great time working on this, and ended up doing about 15 bows, I think.

I was also in charge of teacher appreciation for Evie's class. We had great parents that brought her breakfast and lunch every day of the week. We also had lots of donations sent in, so I was able to put together this fun gift of her favorite things. I wish I'd taken a picture of the 2 snoopy plaques before I wrapped them. They were super cute. She also got gift cards to Red Robin, and Barnes and Noble. I also had to go crazy including all of her preferred snacks. She has a teenage son, so I was not worried about all those snacks being eaten ;)

The kiddos were pretty excited/jealous when we brought the gift in!

Mrs. Shipman is an amazing teacher, and Evie has just loved being in her class this year. She is already getting nervous about having to go to a new class next year.

For the last day of teacher appreciation week, I made a small gift for all of the teachers from PTO. I wanted to do donut holes, so I made these little tags to look like donuts. Kara said they looked more like cookies.

On the back, I put, "Thanks a "hole" bunch!" I thought forever for donut quotes, but decided to go with the donut hole theme instead.

The lady at Donut Palace wouldn't let me pick up the donuts the night before, because she said they'd get stale. So I set everything up the night before so it wouldn't take forever in the morning. I put clear cups into bags with gift cards from PTO. Then I picked up the donut holes at 6AM so I wouldn't miss my workout with Ben at 6:30.

It still took quite a while to get the donuts in and the bags closed with tags on. I made 42 of these. I cut it pretty close, but we got to school just about 3-4 minutes after I wanted to. We had friends helping to pass these out, so we got it done just in time for the bell to ring. Then I took Evie to her class, and to deliver the gift basket to her teacher.

I decided to also deliver the cafeteria workers gifts while I was there that morning. I made these cute flower skewers, and stuck the gift cards from PTO right on there. I didn't get a picture, but I had taped them to a box of girl scout cookies for each of them.

Kiersten and Evie helped me deliver these, since Kara was in choir practice. The ladies in the cafeteria were very happy.

I had time to go home and shower, and drink a protein shake before heading back up to the school to set up for the End of Year Bash that afternoon. It was a long day, and lots of hard work, but totally worth it for how much fun all of the kids had. I made these fun ticket containers for Big Top and Snack shack. I thought they were pretty fun, and can be reused again.

I ran the Big Top this year, where the kids can use their tickets to buy fun stuff. I learned a lot, and have ideas/suggestions for next year. We sold a lot more than I expected, and sold very different things than I thought we would. I'm glad I did this, and tried something different than raffle baskets. It was fun to be outside around all the action this year! Ben took the girls around, so I don't have any pictures of them enjoying the festivities, but they had a great time!

The last Girl Scout leaders meeting was a mother/daughter pizza party. Our daughters made slap bracelets and posters all about us. Then we made a scratch off coupon for the girls and posters about the 10 greatest things about them. I was rushing to get 3 of them done, but still had more nice things than I could fit on the poster. That's the trouble with having such great kids, I guess. It's been a busy few weeks, but I'm glad we made it to this event, even if we had to drive home in a major thunderstorm.

Evie was helping out the other day, and suddenly stopped to ask if she could have a #1 helper badge. So I quickly made her one. She was quite pleased, and not ready to throw it away yet.

Just another week and a half of school, and life will hopefully start slowing down a little.

Kara got to go to a horse stable for a girl scout field trip. She was tired that morning, and considered staying home, but was very glad to be there once she saw all the animals.

The girls all thought it was pretty neat that there was a zebra there.

They got a tour, and lesson on caring for horses. They also got to see and learn about all of the animals.

Then we headed into the barn to get up close with some of the horses. There were only 2 horses for them to ride, but they all waited patiently for their turns. They were separated into 2 groups based on height, and the taller group got to ride Bella, and the shorter group got to ride mouse. I have no idea if there was a reason for separating them by height, but that's what we went with.

Kara was excited when it was her turn on Mouse the horse.

She hopped right up, and wanted to start trotting right away, but the trainer made sure she did a few laps walking, and went over the basics with her.

She really enjoyed this, and is dying to ride again.

She said this was a happy place. I thought that was a sweet thing to say.

Of course she found some cats there too. I told her to leave them in peace, but she wanted just one picture.

Last week she got her braces off. She was so impatient for about a week ahead of time. Here she is before, still a brace face.

Trying hard to contain the excitement.

They were pretty quick to come off, and we were on our way. She has only had them on since August, so that is pretty nice. I've been telling her they'd be off in no time every time she has complained about missing out on chips, pop corn, or sticky candy. And here we are, they're off!