Blogging Away Debt

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Day, but our school actually did a Teacher Appreciation Week back in early April! I’d meant to write a post about it at that time, but it escaped me until now.

I pride myself on giving pretty decent little teacher appreciation gifts without spending a bunch of money (see a previous teacher gift here, and a classroom gift idea here). This year was no exception. Since we did a full teacher appreciation week (not a single day), I spread things out a bit across the week. It helps that our school posted online a list of our teacher’s favorite things, and that they had a suggested calendar of things you could do to help celebrate the teachers. So here’s how our week looked:

Monday – We brought our teachers’ favorite foods (we have 2 teachers): one said her favorite snacks were cashews and the other said bananas. To make it work, we brought bulk cashews and dehydrated banana chips (both bought in bulk bins at Sprouts). I had the mini mason jars already at home and made a quick note and tied a ribbon around the neck from stuff we had on-hand. Maybe a $3-4 total cost (I can’t recall at this time, but couldn’t be more than that).

Tuesday – I volunteered to come help during lunch time while the teachers had a special luncheon. Free for me, plus I got to each lunch with my girls! Wins all around!

Wednesday – nothing special
Thursday – I brought a homemade dessert (this recipe for churro cheesecake that’s incredible) because the teachers were having a dessert party in the afternoon. PRO Tip: I always buy stuff that we frequently use at Costco when it goes on sale, even if we don’t necessarily need it at the moment. Doing so meant I had all the ingredients on hand for this dessert because it’s made with mostly staples. The only “odd ball” thing, for us, would’ve been the crescent roll dough but I’d recently bought a Costco pack of it so we had plenty for this dessert.

Friday – I wrapped up the week with $10 gift cards (per teacher) to Target along with a nice note of appreciation using thank you cards we already own.

A gift or act of service nearly every day of the week (for two teachers) for a total of under $25. You can’t beat that!

What do you normally do for Teacher Appreciation Day?

How many gifts do you typically give your kids’ teacher and/or class in a year? At the beginning of the year we did a class gift, we did a teacher holiday gift around Christmas time, and now a teacher appreciation gift. Do you do an end-of-year gift, too??? Any other gift-giving occasions I’ve missed (we don’t know the teachers birthdays, for example).

Happy Mother’s Day

by Ashley

Happy Mother’s Day all!

We’re having a pretty low-key Mother’s Day this year. This is our first full weekend back from the cruise. I flew in late last Sunday night, but hubs just drove back with his mom & the girls on Tuesday so we’re still dealing with the unpacking and tidying up that comes after any trip.

I was really mad at myself this year because with all the cruise hubbub I really let Mother’s Day get away from me! Every year I like to do something for all the special Moms in our life (of which we have 5, between Moms/MILs and grandmas). I should’ve planned something before our trip but I didn’t and was left scrambling last-minute for some idea that wouldn’t cost much, like online Mothers Day cards . However, I wanted it to be homemade by the girls and yours truly, and able to be pulled together QUICK given that I knew it was definitely going to be late (womp, womp!) I’ll be the first to admit that this year’s gift was a little lackluster. Here’s a picture of one of them:

Yep. The traditional homemade M-O-M card.

This is our first year doing this style of card. In previous years (see here or here), I always put a little more effort to having the item be handmade by the girls, with my help assembling things. But now that the girls are learning and growing by leaps and bounds (I started blogging here when they were just 20 months and they’re now almost 4 years old! *tear* ), I wanted to put their ever-expanding vocabulary to use! So I wrote the Moms’ names (Grandma, Nana, Grams, Mamaw, and Nan), then I helped the girls to brainstorm words that started with the letters in the person’s name. After that was done, I wrote little notes to each person on the back and the girls signed their own names!!! Well….kinda. They’re SOCLOSE to writing on their own, but they do better with tracing so I did the dotted outline and they traced over the top. I made a little note to make sure the recipient knew these were authentic signatures! A fun milestone for the littles to celebrate! : )

I hastily ordered a few recent pictures of the girls from Costco (basic 4×6 size) and slipped everything into an envelope. Dropped it off at the post office on Saturday (yup – I told you they were gonna be late!) and we were DONE!

I know our grandmas love kid crafts and pictures, and they are always welcomed gifts! Plus the special touches (e.g., the girls picked the words themselves & signed their own names) make it all that more meaningful. I still feel a little guilty that the gifts are going to be late and it was so rushed in its execution but I always think it’s the thought that counts, and better late than never! A lot of love went into these gifts!

What are your plans for Mother’s Day this year? What do you normally get the special “Moms” in your life?