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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Teacher Appreciation

Teacher Appreciation week is one of my favorite weeks of the year.  I love spoiling all of the teachers in my life!  I want them all to know just how much I appreciate them.  Teacher Appreciation week this year falls on May 7-11.  I work at a preschool and I coordinate Teacher Appreciation.  I decided to move it up a couple of weeks because May is notoriously crazy in the preschool world.  I wanted to share with you a few of the ideas that we came up with to appreciate our teachers.


Monday-I hosted a lunch at my house for the teachers.  
It was really fun...except for the snake that visited my back deck at the beginning of my luncheon!



Monday/Tuesday-I had the children bring in a flower to add to a vase that I made.  Funny story...my mom and I were trying to figure out what kind of large container we could put the pencils on and she remembered that the church had green beans the night before.  So we went dumpster diving for these cans and I hot glued pencils all around them.  This was a bit time consuming, but they turned out perfect.  I had a super crafty parent at the preschool create their signs.  They turned out perfect!


Wednesday-We hosted a breakfast for the teachers during their chapel time.  The teachers got to scoot away and enjoy a breakfast provided by the parents.  I think they really enjoyed this break!



Thursday/Friday-I made these magnetic boards for the teachers and they turned out great!  I used my Cricut to cut out their initials at the top of the board.  I hot glued (apparently I use hot glue on a daily basis!) the ribbon onto the boards.  I printed out each of these words onto a printable magnetic sheet to emulate those magnetic words that you put on refrigerators.  This was super time consuming, but I think that it was worth it! 




Some of the kids said really funny things.  My favorite quote was this one from the above board, "reads books and tackles us".  Really?  That is funny!

Please make sure that you appreciate the teachers in your lives!  It will mean a lot to them.  I have a lot more ideas of to share, make sure that you check back soon!

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Spring Break

I have to be honest, I am really sad that spring break is over. I have had sooo much fun with them. My kids are at a great age...they sleep in! I have been waiting for this day for 11 years! One day Taylor (my 6 year old) slept in until 9:45. Ahhh! I love to sleep in! But we did more than sleep in and I thought that I would share about the fun things that we did!

We went to Busch Gardens with my in-laws and had a blast! See the one picture of my mother-in-law on the ride...she is terrified of rides and heights and had to wait a very long time at the top of this ride. She was a good sport. Thankfully, Taylor kept her entertained!

They have chocolate covered cones at Busch Gardens. I started craving these when I got home, so we decided to make some. The kids loved them and even helped make them! So good!




Crafts, lots of crafts!


We went to Blue Bird Gap Farm. Check out that peacock in the background! So beautiful.

I hope that you had a great Spring Break, too! Bring on summer!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Get Your Head In The Game!



What a great week! I love spring break. This whole week, I focused on getting the kids ready for Easter Sunday. You know, getting "their head in the game." I really feel like it is important for us as parents to teach our kids! Whether it be about the Bible, grocery shopping, managing money, etc. Far too many people do not take the time to take a time out and teach their kids important life stuff. So, each day we discussed a little bit of the Easter story and I tried to do alittle something every day to reinforce what we learned.

Monday-we read Matthew 21:1-11 (The Triumphal Entry). We waved glow sticks as our modern day palm branches during the story. I also thought about having a dance party as a celebration, but they were too tired! We didn't get any pictures because it was...well dark!


Tuesday-we read Matthew 26:1-5, 14-16 (Plotting of Jesus' death & Judas' betrayal). We talked about what a sticky situation this was and we made gak or goo (you can google those words and find tons of instructions to make it).


Wednesday-we read Matthew 26:17-30 (The Last Supper). We watched the Prince of Egypt so that they would understand the Passover Feast and then I actually talked through the Lords Supper with bread and juice. Brayden's idea was to flattened the bread for us so that it looked unleavened (ha!).


Thursday-we read Matthew 26:36-56 (The Garden of Gethsemane). We read this Scripture in the our little garden. I think that this was my favorite thing that we did.


Friday-we read Matthew 26:57-67, 27:11-66 (Jesus' Crucifixion). We made these beautiful pictures using oil pastels and watercolors. The kids loved these!

Saturday-we read Matthew 28 (Jesus' Resurrection). We made Resurrection Rolls. We put marshmallows inside of croissants and after you bake them, they completely melt into the bread. The kids loved the taste (Brayden ate 3 of them) and I loved the picture that they made!


One last thing, church yesterday was amazing. Stuart did such an amazing job presenting the gospel! Many accepted Christ! It was very powerful and I think that it meant that much more to us because we had prepared as a family...we got our "head in the game." I was so amazed at our WEC staff and volunteers, too. One of our volunteers even changed a tire for a family while they went into service...khaki pants and all! I feel so blessed to be apart of such an amazing movement of God with such amazing people. I can't wait to hear about the stories of those lives that were changed yesterday. He is Risen!! They will never be the same!


Sunday, April 8, 2012

Love is in the air!

Happy Easter everyone. My mom is guest posting this blog, enjoy!
At Easter time, I always think about how much God loves us. Not the “Valentineee” love but, the sacrificial kind of love and today it made me think of my children. I love my girls very much and through the years they have made me very happy. I love to just BE with them. I am happiest when I know that they are just going to hang out with me. That’s called “Quality Time.” It’s my love language. They don’t need to buy me things. They don’t need to do things for me…just hang out a bit.
I learned about The Five Love Languages at Waters Edge Church… (Side note right now, if you don’t have a church and want a message that is relevant to your life, Stu’s messages are always meaningful. You can come to a location in Hampton Roads or listen on line @ watersedgechurch.net. You WILL NOT be disappointed.) And then I discovered that the same writer explaining adult love languages also wrote one for parents of children. The book is titled The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman, PhD & Ross Campbell, M.D. (ISBN -13: 978-1-881273-65-3). It’s an easy read and I highly recommend it.
The five loves languages are quality time, physical touch, acts of service, words of affirmation, and gifts. The book explains that children around age 5 begin to have preference over one act of love to another (even though we/they need all five). Then, it explains each love language and gives practical examples for making that child feel loved. I was even surprised that it threw caution to some of our practices as parents. I gave a parent workshop about the book and moms & dads were nodding approval the whole time. They could see their child’s preferences and loved the ideas.
I have some ideas for my grandchildren that I will do soon. Emma, age 9 (gifts), will get a little present in the mail from me. For children that like gifts, it’s not as much about the gift as it is the surprise…the unwrapping. Brayden, age 10 (quality time), will soon be asked to come to my preschool and teach the little ones a lesson for me. It will take us some time together to put that lesson in order and he loves to teach. Anna, age 10 (words of affirmation) will get a note from me that I’ll send to her teacher to read to her and I’ll praise her for doing so well on a presentation (or something) that she has worked hard to accomplish. Taylor, age 6 (quality time), will be picked up from school and taken for an afternoon of making her feel special. None of the things are hard or costly to accomplish but, I oh so want them to always know that they are loved by me.
What about you? Would it be worth your time to read this book? If you have children/grandchildren or will have children/grandchildren, you’ll gain lots of ideas for showing love. What I’ve provided is the BOOK REPORT and not the detail. Make the book an Easter gift to yourself. Happy reading and most of all Happy Easter!