Last Day of School 2011

I always try to make the last day of school special for the boys. I remember how fun it was and how excited I was when I was in grade school. I did some of the same ideas that I did last year for the boys. They woke up to breakfast parfaits. They were basically just yogurt (strawberry and vanilla) and granola, oh and you can't forget the whipped cream and a cherry. I did them a little different last year.
Lincoln downed the parfaits like nobody's business. He even finished his brothers parfaits.
Palmer was ticked because the yogurt had strawberries in it (the kid loathes strawberries). So he wasn't too into it.
Hunter wouldn't taste it, threw a big fit about how he didn't want to eat it, then he did taste it and decided that he liked it. I have the PICKIEST boys!
These are the gifts that I made for my boys' teachers this year. I got the lemonade labels from here. I bought "Simply Lemonade" to put inside them and made the tags on Photoshop. The graphics I bought from this shop of etsy.
I just added some ribbon and stripey straws and voila, a cute teacher gift.

The bottles I got for around $4 at IKEA. They were my favorite part. I just stuck the labels on with tape so that the teachers could use them again for whatever they want. I need to go back and get some bottles for me :)
We also gave all of the kids in each of the boys' classes a bunch of Otterpops.
We did this little gift last year too. I really like it, and will probably do it every year.
I just made the labels once again in Photoshop and bought the graphic from this Etsy shop.

Hunter actually had his "Goodbye Day" a couple of weeks ago, but I figured I would wait and do them all together. I have to be honest, I had a harder time with this Goodbye Day as I am fairly certain that we will not be back at this preschool (although parents drive here from Farmington, so maybe I will :).
We have loved every aspect of this preschool and especially how much the teachers love our boys. They really do treat the boys like rock stars.
Hunter and Jacque were good buddies.

I am no less sad to say goodbye to my boys' teachers this year. The entire year has been perfect. Full of fun and learning. Palmer's teacher has been better than I ever imagined a teacher could be. She has been supportive and fun, but at the same time has given great rules and set boundaries. Palmer learned so many valuable things this year.
He has loved his class as well. There are so many good friends in this room that Palmer will miss like crazy.
Lincoln's teacher has been the perfect Kindergarten teacher. We also couldn't have asked for a better one. She is EVERYTHING I think a Kindergarten teacher should be. She was perfect for Lincoln and he will definitely miss her.
This is Lincoln's class. He has also learned such good lessons this year and become so much more responsible. Lincoln is reading so well now. He always surprises me with what he can read. He is also do so well at basic math. I am excited to work more with him this summer.
I made the "Welcome to Summer" banner that I also made last year. I got the idea from here. We had my niece Savanna with us this year.
They always love to get to run through it.
This one was actually pretty sturdy and so they just ran under it.

I had surprises waiting for them on the couch. I did a little bit more last year, but I like to mix it up (I don't want to always have to top myself). The boys each got a new swimsuit, and swim shirt, some water shoes, sunglasses, water gun and silly string. I also had some silly string and a watergun for Savanna.
The boys were so excited to get their new swimsuits and wasted no time in putting them on.
Lincoln came home with the cutest diploma and graduation hat. I LOVE the crayon for the tassel.
They were all ready for the silly string fight. We started this tradition last year as well. Palmer was a little impatient to wear his sunglasses. He couldn't get the tag off, so he just wore them with the tag still on.
And boy did they go crazy. Poor Hunter just gets nailed over and over. He just runs his little heart out and totally forgets that he also has silly string!
Palmer is by far the most aggressive. The best part about it is that he ran out first so the kids all ganged up on him. He loved it.
The boys' friend Cody came over for a watergun fight. Last year was so cold on our water party, that I decided to just do water balloons and water guns. The funny things is that it was really warm!

This is serious business.
And the guns serve a dual purpose.
Then we had water balloon volleyball. Savanna had to go to her uncle's graduation party (she came back the next day for more water fun).
They didn't quite get it at first, but eventually they figured it out.
They each got one water balloon at the end to throw.
After that we had a sundae bar.
Mmmmm ice cream :) They loved getting to pick their own toppings. We actually don't have ice cream very much , so it was a huge treat.

Let the summer begin! It is going to be so wild for the next few weeks as we are moving, but I have lots of fun ideas for activities and crafts. Hooray summer is finally here!

Teacher Appreciation Idea-Ice Cream Cupcakes

Looks like an ice cream sundae doesn't it?  Crazy enough, it is a cupcake and frosting!

We tried to do something little each day of the week this year for our teachers during Teacher Appreciation week. On the first day my boys drew pictures for their teachers. Palmer's was so funny. It was of him and his teacher climbing a pyramid. Tuesday got away from us...but the rest of the week we just did something small each day. Hunter has 3 teachers at preschool so it is a little expensive to get all of the teachers really big things. I was so excited about this idea because I could include our Preschool teachers in the Teacher Appreciation festivities, and they are phenomenal teachers.
I got this amazing idea from this site. I ordered my ice cream cups from here, but if you live in Utah they actually carry them at Orson Gygi, So glad I found that out AFTER I ordered them online and paid shipping...lame.
You will need ice cream cups and spoons, cupcakes, frosting (recipe below), chocolate melts, sprinkles, red gumballs, printout (found here). Don't forget that we are now thinking of my poor table as "rustic" instead of beat up.  Serious refinishing project as soon as it is warm and I have time!

Frosting:

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons milk
• a few drops of ivory gel food color

1. In the bowl of a mixer, mix butter, vanilla and milk until well blended and smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar and mix on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for a minute or two, until fully combined and fluffy. Place frosting in the refrigerator for an hour to chill.
2. Remove the frosting from the refrigerator and spoon it on top of cupcakes. It looks just like ice cream!

Bake cupcakes and cool. Place in cups. After frosting has chilled 1 hour spoon over cupcakes. Melt chocolate at 20 second intervals and stir. When melted spoon over icing, sprinkle the sprinkles and place gumball "cherry" on top while chocolate is still wet. I glued the printouts on the front of the cup and on the wooden spoon that came with the cups.

Wrap with cellophane with ribbon.

School Summer Gifts

I made these little dittys for the boys to give out on the last day of school. These are the ones I made for Lincoln's class. Just some Otter Pops (you get 100 in a box) tied together with ribbon and a note. Easy peasy.

Once again an easy thing to make and the kids loved it.

Chocolate Covered Marshmellows

I have been making these babies like crazy over the last week. We have been giving them out for Everything! The boys gave them out for soccer gifts, I gave them for teacher gifts, and even to my visiting teaching ladies. I love how they look.

They were so easy and so fun to make. The kids thought they were AWESOME! I went the easy route. You can make them harder if you want. Just take marshmallows (you really do need to use the Jet Puffed brand if you want them to turn out pretty, I started with generic Winco marshmallows and they were all smooshed and weird, so I started over), put a stick in them (I used the extra long popsicle sticks from Orson Gigi and they turned out so cute), dip them in melted chocolate (I used chocolate chips, but you could make some seriously good ones with nice chocolate), and then dip them in sprinkles and you are done. I had them set up in the fridge and kept them there until we gave them out. They melt pretty easily.

Isn't that cute? And they are delicious, believe me I have "sampled" my fair share of them.

I made this label with Photoshop Elements. I wish wish wish that I had the full version of Photoshop, but until then, my little Elements does a great job.

Here is a view from the back.

These were so fun and easy to make and the boys felt so cool handing them out to their soccer teams.