Teacher Appreciation Gifts (With a How-To!)

Extra special teacher appreciation gifts take a lot of time, talent, money, and crafting skills.

First, get some Thank You cards. Cards left over from your wedding thank-yous work great.

2nd, have your student write "Thank you from Sophie*" in each one. *Please note in this step, you will substitute your own student's name for "Sophie". If you have a Sophie, leave it the same.

3rd, insert a gift card.

4th, seal the cards up in envelopes and have aforementioned student write each teacher's name on the fronts.

5th, let her (him maybe?) go to town with stickers.



6th, take pictures at weird angles and extremely close up to make a How-To blog post. A really good blogger would have a super nice camera and stop her student at every step to get action shots along the way.

(having the picture focused in the front and blurry in the back is a sign of a good photographer)

7th, blog. Oh, and make sure they make it into her backpack for school.

Troublemaker

When the house is suspiciously quiet, and the boy is nowhere to be found, this is what I usually find:

Sam reading quietly to himself. He does this in his own room, in the playroom, and most recently in Sophie's room since we got her a new bookshelf.

Such mischief.

Over the River and Through the Woods

We decided to take advantage of the last bits of nice weather we'll have this season before we all head into hibernation, only to reappear again in October.

First, we took a trip down the road to the river. The river isn't open for floating yet, so the water was really low and the crowds were nowhere to be seen. It was perfect! The kids could play anywhere because the water was so shallow.

Sam's favorite thing to do in any type of water is lay on his stomach and stick his ear in it. Don't ask me why.

Sophie liked exploring and working on her rock skipping skills.

And then, the next weekend, we headed up toward Payson and spent the night camping. We found a nice little spot that we had pretty much to ourselves, and had a great time as a family. The next day, we packed up and headed over to Natural Bridge.

It's quite an awesome sight, and has 4 easy trails that any family could do. We had a picnic lunch there, and walked to all the viewpoints to see the bridge.

Yay for family fun weekends! Now onto laundry.

Basement Sale - Take TWO

Sophie recently suggested to Jake that they buy me a dryer for Mother's Day, because "I like washing clothes". I think they may have better luck finding something I would like here:


I'll be there again, along with:

Mimi from Yasmin Photography

Amy from Folding Chair Designs

Mindy from Laurel Lane Designs

Debbie with her vintage stuff

Kathryn and Marily from I {heart} Mesa

Elyse and Ceri from Ellie and Fern

Beth from Le Petit Cheval

I bet you'll find something there too. See you there!

Wanna Buy a Pair of Cars?

It's time for our family to say goodbye to our matching cars.


Not only are we selling one, we're selling BOTH. I think we should sell them as a set. One to drive, one to keep around for parts. So handy!

We've moved on to something bigger for me, and something smaller for Jake.

Thank you, double Prizms. You've both been great.

I'm Flattered, Sam

Sam is really big on imitating right now. He loves to watch me carefully and do what I'm doing. He tries to eat with a fork when I do, dips his chips into salsa, and even fixed his hair in the mirror on the way out the door the other day, just after I had done the same thing.


But this is my favorite thing that he imitates, which he does every morning:

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Blockade

Sam has been Brother Blocked from the playroom this morning.

Second Friday

Today is the second Friday of the month, which means Mesa is holding it's Second Friday event. And guess who's going to have a booth there?

Yep, me.

With this stuff:



















So come visit and say hi! (please?)

The best part? It's Sci-Fi Friday, so I'm hoping to see plenty of people in full costume.

A Saturday Hike

On Saturday, we woke up early and headed into the Superstition Mountains for a little family hike. We chose the Hieroglyphics Canyon Trail. It's about 1.5 miles long with great desert scenery, nice city views (we could see all the way to the Phoenix skyline), and pretty cactus blooms.

Here we are getting ready to start

Sam is happy to be where he is

And here is what the end result is:

(photo credit)

Unfortunately those aren't my pictures, because we didn't make it that far. I would guess we got about a mile into it before Sophie was just too tired to go on. So we stopped at the highest point of the hike, before the trail leads into the canyon and called it good.














It was still a good first experience hiking as a family, and as you can see here, everyone had a REALLY fun and exciting time.

Spring Cleaning

Saturday at our house also brought new toys! We got a big yellow bin full of Duplos and a box full of cars. Both have been well-loved by two cute kids ever since.

And since we brought stuff in, I figured we should get stuff out of here too. So Sophie and I went through the playroom and picked out all the toys we didn't want anymore.

Look what we're getting rid of!

Out with the old, in with the new.

Spring Training

On Saturday, our family went to a Diamondbacks spring training game.

It was great to sit on the lawn, watch the game, let the kids run around, and see the new stadium.

The Brave One

Last week, we had some days with 90 degree temperatures. Since Sophie has been asking when she can go swimming for about 6 weeks now, we finally said she could. We sure weren't getting in there with her (Jake has about another 3 weeks before he's brave enough to do it, I have about another 3 months).


Let me tell you, the girl was EXCITED.


I don't have pictures of the full event, but she did get all the way in and swim around the whole pool in her blue floaty. Crazy girl.

7 Years

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful groom.
7 years of wedded bliss.

Look Ma! No Training Wheels!

Sophie got the idea yesterday that she was ready to ride "a 2-wheel bike", so she has been asking Jake to take her training wheels off since he got home from work yesterday.

He did it this afternoon, and this is what we had within about 10 minutes:

She's a pro! I think we have the no-pedal wooden bike that Cathy got her (for her balance skills) and her next door buddy Tommy (for the idea) to thank for the quick progress.

Go Sophie!

Looks Like We're Not Going Anywhere Today

Home Tour Wrap-Up

We've all been sickies around here - everyone with something different. So today I just wanted to wrap up my home tour with a few random pieces of art that have been added recently.

Fabric World Map
(discovered in my parents' attic)

Yellow Framed Art
(by Duane Armstrong, found at a thrift store)

Art Gallery
(a work in progress)