End of the Year Gifts

I love giving gifts, and I'm so grateful it's a love Kayci shares.  Teacher gifts are her most favorite gifts to give, which always challenges me to find something extra special.  I found the idea below at this cool site--check it out!  (If you don't feel like clicking on a link, the tags are from eighteen25 and I saw them on Tip Junkie).  The tag was a free printable, and the buckets are from the $2.50 (shall we call it the UN-dollar spot?) at Target.  What do you call that side, anyway?   I've been wanting to personalize something for Kayci's teachers and the awesome office ladies for a while now but haven't had the time--I don't know that I had the time this month, but it WAS time.  :)  I'm really happy with how they turned out, and I hope they'll enjoy mini ice buckets.  Or whatever you can use a bucket that size for.  :)  For the administrators and Nobles teacher, I used the fun sand pails from Target.  I love the colors on those!



















And for Kayci's "old" teachers (y'all aren't old at all!), a little happy since I was having so much fun with the paw print.  Kayci's kinder teacher told me yesterday, "y'all can stop!" but I don't know...we're so grateful for the experiences Kayci has had and the foundation of LOVING school and learning.  That is a priceless gift!  And Noble just LOVES Kayci's first grade teacher to pieces...I'll never forget last year when I didn't know her well at all and she saw us at HEB one day after school in the middle of a screaming 1 1/2 year old FIT.  It was bad, y'all.  She very calmly picked Noble up (and of course he stopped screaming) and carried him around with her for a while while she shopped.  I think he and I both needed a minute to cool down, and as a Mom of two boys, she recognized that.  While my pride wanted to be wounded that the boy would quit crying for HER and not me, I couldn't give in to that...it was a kind thing she did that day, and it cemented her place in our hearts forever.  Some of you teachers reading know that if you saw one of your parents in the store with a screaming kid, you'd judge first and try to get to know the family later...maybe, but you'd always hold that day against them.  But I digress...




These last two aren't from "us," but I know some of my PTO/PTA friends will be interested.  Jana F. had the great idea to give the t-shirt designs to Mrs. Nelson (our principal is retiring!) as a gift.  The more we went through them, the more it was clear that those are not just pieces of t-shirt art, they're love letters to the school and staff.  As a parent, it was such a blessing to see the school through the kids' eyes!  We gave a 2nd book to the new principal, Mr. Silvey.  :)




The school staff is always so kind to the PTO board; instead of writing a thank you for their gift that may not make it around to everyone, we put this in the lounge.  That way we're all covered!




I've got to get back to work, but I wanted to share the link to the "cool summer" tags since they're so much fun!  Happy Friday, y'all--it's the last day of school for Kayci!  She doesn't know it, yet, but we're all going to see "Kung Fu Panda" to celebrate after early dismissal.  I'm not going to lie, I'm not excited about the movie but I am excited about seeing the kids' faces when they realize we're going to see it.  :)