Children’s Gingerbread House Decorating Party

Children’s Gingerbread House Decorating Party

DIY: Candy Cane Topiary Trees

DIY: Candy Cane Topiary Trees

combining my love of education with my love of planning...

another thing that keeps me pretty busy in life is my work in the public school system...it's been a long and bumpy road with LOTS of changes and since I never know what's going to be around the next corner, I take every opportunity that presents itself to me...that opportunity (last summer) was teaching summer school...at the middle school...most of you who know me know that i am much better suited to young ones...but i was up for the challenge...and i was delightfully surprised...i was scheduled to help with the summer reading program called Read 180 and got to work with some very special middle schoolers...part of the plan for their summer schooling included a few planned events and well, you know that was right up my alley...about midway through we created what we like to call The Bayou Book Bistro...

There is nothing better than seeing excitement for learning in the eyes of a junior high kid and we pulled out all the stops from the minute they walked into the door.

This is all done with plastic tablecloths and Mardi Gras decor off the clearance rack at Party City.  One of the teachers had also happened upon a garage sale where they had a box full of Mardi Gras party stuff for a couple bucks.

We placed "menus" at each set of tables which gave the kids a set of "appetizer" questions, "main course" questions, and "dessert" questions to discuss about their particular book.  Then they would rotate to the next set of tables and discuss some more.

We also fed them, which didn't hurt any :)

The other two teachers (Tesha & Charmika) had some down-home experience with cajun cooking...

A good time was had by all!!

way back at the end of May ~ where it all begins again

So in May as Summer was fast approaching, that's when I always get the itch to grow my event planning revenues.  During the year I'm a teacher and that keeps me busily occupied, but when summer is approaching and I know that paycheck is going to end for a few months, well, something about that just re-motivates me.


One of my good friends at school was going to be leaving our building to go to another and so we decided to throw her a small goodbye bash.  I put my thinking hat on and volunteered to make the favors and a banner.  I had been most recently seeing some darling party banners online and wanted to try my hand at one.  Here's what I came up with:

I hadn't gotten my fancier camera yet and so I was having a hard time getting it all in one shot, but it said Goodbye Kelly!

I was also having trouble with the sun cooperating with my picture taking.  This was my first attempt at a banner and I was pleased.  I used alot of different scrapbooking paper and some pre-cut circles from Archivers.  We have one very close to my home and I love visiting there and seeing all of their new products.

I also made some water bottle labels using Publisher and added some ribbon.  This was my first attempt here too!  I think they are OK.  I could do better now!  :)  I love adding the multi-colored ribbons.  They dress everything up!

All in all, she was pleased and we are all going to miss her bunches!! :)  Miss you Kels!

big things coming :)

over the next few days, couple of weeks, watch closely for some serious updating to take place...i haven't updated my events since last summer, starting with a Puppy Party in June...my goal is to get these all posted over  the break...so stay tuned :)

Teaching Heart Mom: T'was the Night Before Christmas Teacher Style

Teaching Heart Mom: T'was the Night Before Christmas Teacher Style

http://ping.fm/emoq9

A New Take on an Old Tradition

Every year since the girls were born, we have been giving them a nice hardbound book every Christmas and every birthday.  Now with 4 girls, the oldest being 20, that's alot of books.  This year I borrowed an idea from Colleen over at teachingheartmom that sounded interesting to me.  In order to keep the interest in books going from year to year she wraps her children's seasonal books and only brings them out during that season/holiday.  After digging the mounds of CHRISTmas "stuff" out this weekend, I thought I would give it a try.  Here's just a portion of all of the Christmas books that we own...

I wasn't sure how the "youngers" would react to this idea.  They are 9 and 11 and I was hoping hadn't outgrown all the mystery :).  So I brought Sadie over and had her see what she thought:

She was a little suspicious...

"I don't want to ruin the surprise but I think I know what's in here."

Well, she was partially right ~ the books from the basement.  But what she didn't know is that it is their Christmas books from all the years going way back.  I told them that each night they could unwrap one for their before-bed-reading and they thought it was a great idea!

This would also be a great way to add some mystery AND the love of reading to your Advent calendar for the year.  A teacher could even use this in her classroom to count down the days till Christmas break...after all we all need a little more excitement this time of year right? ;)