an apple for the teacher

Last year, for the first day of school, I gave my daughter's teacher a chrysanthemum. I attached a note that read: "Looking forward to a great year. Let me know if I can do anything to help! Love, N's "mum." This year I thought it would be fun to do an apple theme. I found these tiny apple pies- they are only about 2 1/2 inches in diameter- and I included a napkin and fork and tied them up with some red/white twine. A small gesture to let them know just how much they are appreciated.

back to school dinner

As I mentioned in the post, I had a back to school dinner the night before my daughter's first day of school. I used white butcher paper as the table cloth and my kids had fun decorating it while they were waiting for dinner. I used apples as the centerpiece and mini chalkboard for the place cards. I served ABC soup (the recipe can be found here) and grilled cheese that I cut into letter shapes using cookie cutters. For dessert my daughter helped me make "kissing hand" cookies. I love the book "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn and thought it would be fun to make hand shaped sugar cookies with a chocolate kiss in the middle. We gave our daughter a new backpack with a few treats inside and hung it from the back of her dinner chair. Teacher gift ides to come!

back to school

(photos courtesy of Barnes and Noble)

My daughter started pre-school last year. Since it was her very first experience with school I wanted to make sure that it was fun and so I did everything I could to make sure that she had a smooth transition. Luckily her school organized home visits but, I also asked her teachers if she could go to visit her classroom before school began so that she could also become familiar with her new space. In addition to becoming familiar with her teachers and classroom I also read her lots of books about going to school (a few of our favorites are pictured above.) I also had a special back to school dinner the night before her first day, that I will share later in the week, along with a teacher gift idea for the first day. I thought for sure that there would be some tears on her first day of school....but there weren't- from either of us!

alphabet adventures

Two years ago I thought it would be fun to start teaching my toddler about the alphabet. I choose one letter a week and we did activities and took field trips ( alphabet adventures) based on the letter. For "A" we went apple picking, stamped with apples, baked with apples, etc. For "B" it was a trip to the butterfly museum (notice the butterfly on my daughter's shoe). "C" was for cows and chickens at our local country fair and "D" was a trip to the dinosaur museum. I tied in books, cooking, and crafts and I think we both had a wonderful time. My son was just a few months old when we started, and so we never ended up making it through the whole alphabet. I didn't mind. Maybe some day I'll try to start it all over again or do a word of the week instead.

**I even used this idea for my Christmas gifts that year. Luke got a gift certificate to go see the lions at the zoo and Teaghan got a gift certificate to make a teddy bear. I also included small activities to go with the gifts. **

bubble fun

One of my clients asked me to make party favors for her daughter's summer themed birthday party. I found these giant bubble wands and attached some bubble gum to them with pretty ribbon. I displayed them in a clear glass bowl that I filled with the left over gumballs. While doing some research I found this fun bubble themed birthday party from Family Fun. A perfect theme for summer and who doesn't love bubbles?