Teacher Appreciation Week: Days 4 and 5

So, uh, yesterday I was working away on the couch and around 10am it suddenly dawned on me that I sent Sam off to school without his teacher gifts for the day.  Geez... and I seriously was losing sleep the night before trying to figure out how I'd wrap them!  So how did I not give it ONE thought the next morning?  Pregnancy brain, I guess.

Anyway, the hubby was running back by the house mid-morning, so he grabbed the gifts on his way back out.  Sam's school is not even a quarter mile from our house, which is nice when we forget stuff!

Yesterday's theme was "pampering," so I wrapped up a couple of fun summer nail colors with a cute nail file...

And Sam's out on Fridays, but I wanted to drop gifts by anyway.  Last minute again, of course.  I literally went through the Starbucks drive-thru for giftcards ("favorite thing" was the theme today) and then wrapped them in the school parking lot.  Ha!  It was my outing for the day...

Maybe I'll be a little more prepared next year?  No promises.

Teacher Appreciation Week: Day 3

Today's theme was "the gift of smell."  They didn't say it had to be a good smell... but I figure they get enough not-good smells in the classroom. 

We got a list of Sam's teachers' "favorites" to help us with ideas, and one of his teachers listed her favorite perfume scents as Dolce & Gabbana or Gucci.  Pretty sure Dove would've been next on her list...

I'm not a perfume person, but I do like these Dove body mists - very light and feminine.

Teacher Appreciation Week: Days 1 and 2

Here we are at Teacher Appreciation Week again... and this time I had more than like 3 days notice!  However... being banned to the couch makes it hard to get uber creative and make multiple shopping trips.  So Sam's gifts for his sweet teachers are a little sub-par this year, but hey... I think they'll still be a hit even though they were thrown together in the 11th hour.  (And I'm sure teachers love anything and everything - I am only comparing my stuff with what I did last year!)

Monday's theme was flowers.  And I got *uber* creative with that one...

Today's theme was favorite food/drink...

Giftcard to our local Mexican joint inside!

I had some more fun packaging ideas for the restaurant giftcards, but neither panned out.  Note that both gifts were assembled within minutes of delivery... yeah, 11th hour I'm telling you!  No pre-printed labels this year, sheesh.

Hahaha....  I've got the rest of the week planned out a little better so we'll see how those shape up!

Teacher Appreciation Week: Pampering

Last one, kids! Sam's out on Fridays, so today is our last day of gifts.  And Sam's sweet teachers deserve a little pampering!

There are lots of fun ideas for a "pampering" gift, but I wanted to steer clear of bath gels and candles... I figure teachers get a ton of that stuff.  So I found these super soft neck wraps at Kohl's that you heat up in the microwave.  Regular price was $14 each, but are things ever not on sale at Kohl's?  These were 60% off, plus I had a 20% off shopping pass, so they ended up being less than $5 each.  Then I wrapped those up with a magazine and secured it with fun ribbon and a tag with a cute poem.  By far the easiest gift of the bunch!

And though Sam won't be there tomorrow, I did want to contribute a little something for Friday's theme - which is "something for the classroom." I mentioned this CD in my list of favorite baby items.  I know every dang word to every stinkin' song on this thing.  It's awesome. And I may or may not listen to it at work sometimes when I'm missing my little man.  So we got a copy for the class!

I had such fun coming up with these fun gifts and putting them together.  Not too shabby for our first run... especially on one week's notice!  You can bet your britches it's on my calendar already for next year.  And it's also got me thinking about other occasions when teacher typically get gifts... Christmas... birthdays (?)... when else?  He's in daycare year-round, so there's not really a beginning or end of year yet (as far as gift speak).  What else do I need to prepared for?  This is all new territory.

Teacher Appreciation Week: Fun

This stuff is a blast, but it's wearing me out, y'all.  Phew!  Thankfully, the most labor-intensive gifts are done.  Today and tomorrow's stuff was pretty quick to throw together.  I struggled a little coming up with something for the "fun" theme for today, but finally landed on this...

It's a survival kit stashed full of little goodies to help Sam's teachers make it through the day with all the sweet rugrats. I raided the section at Walmart with all the travel size tolietries and grabbed a few other goodies like Starbucks Via packs, Tazo Herbal Tea, a Luna Bar, and a 5-Hour Energy Drink.  My friend suggested throwing earplugs in there - that would've been hilarious, but the only ones I could find were like $4 a pack. Um, no.

I think these are my favorite so far this week.  Super easy, fun to shop for, and a breeze to put together.  I already had these favor boxes on hand.  I bought a bulk pack of these years ago from Bags & Bows.  Friggin' love that site... And side note - I have exactly 25 of those boxes left and I'm saving them to use for Sam's 1st birthday party!  They'll be perfect for the kids' treat bags. 

The ribbon and labels I of course already had on hand.  I used to run a small stationery biz if you remember, so I have ridiculous amounts of this kind of stuff.  It comes in handy!

Tomorrow's theme is "pampering!"  Ahhh... God bless Kohl's for helping me with that one.  More to come!

Teacher Appreciation Week: Food

Today's theme for Sam's teacher gifts is "food." I told y'all about my BBQ rub favors last week.  That was such an easy food item to put together (and cheap), so it was a shoe-in for one of our teacher gifts.  Of course I did a much bigger portion for Sam's teachers and put the rub in mason jars (um, Paige... I owe you two mason jars). 

I love this one... as I said, cheap and easy, yet totally cute and practical.  I had some burlap yardage and cut squares to top the jars and secured those with ribbon and a gift tag I made...

The tag is a little too big for the jars, but whatever.  That drives the libra in me nuts.

AND as if that wasn't enough... I told y'all I was baking! There are a few other helpers in Sam's room at school that work part-time and I didn't want to leave them out.  So I did a batch of chocolate cream cheese cupcakes for the whole gang... 

Wednesday's theme is "fun."  Thankfully, I've already got that one assembled cuz this Momma is BEAT.  Stay tuned!

Teacher Appreciation Week: Favorite Thing

Especially since this is our first go ever at Teacher Appreciation gifts, I thought I'd show you our goodies day by day this week.  I finished up all the shopping at Wally World this past weekend, so now I'm down to just assembling everything.  Monday's theme is a "favorite thing" of the teacher's... and both of Sam's teachers love Starbucks. 

A sweet friend of mine shared an idea of giving Hershey's Hugs and Kisses with a note saying something about Sam's teachers needing lots of hugs and kisses... so I incorporated that with Starbucks.  Sure they need hugs and kisses... but I'm bettin' they need some real caffeine too. 

I'm curious to see what other mommas bring... I just have no idea what the "standard" is, but whatever.  I had fun with it and yeah, probably went a little overboard.  But I love this kind of stuff and I really DO appreciate all the ladies that love on my sweet boy everyday.

So the basics of this one... a clear glass mug ($2.50 at Walmart) filled with Hershey's Hugs and Kisses, with a $5 Starbucks card.  Tied up with cellophane and ribbon and this label...

Mmm... what's not to love?

Tomorrow's theme is "food" and yes... I will be baking.  Look out!