Teacher Appreciation Gifts

Friday will be the Little Man’s last day of daycare/preschool. People do not know how much appreciation means to a teacher. Even a thank you note is appreciated. So, I wanted to do something fun and special for his preschool teachers and the daycare staff.

I got the main gift idea for his preschool teachers from Spoonful. I searched all over the web for fun little sayings to go with gifts, creating a couple of my own. Use "cute sayings for gifts" if you look on your own.

 

 

 

The gift idea for the daycare staff came from Jill’s Card Creations. However, I did end up creating my own template to fit the chocolate bars I found. We wanted better chocolate. ☺

 

Resurrection Eggs

I saw Resurrection Eggs in a Christian bookstore, but I didn’t want to spend so much money. So, I searched Pinterest for ideas. I saw several, which had the same objects as the ones in the store, but I decided in the end to put my own touch. I created an Excel document with verses and added pictures to the backs. If you would like a copy, I am happy to share. Then, I went ahead and put the objects in the eggs. I did find my main ideas from Secrets of a Super Mommy.

Iron Man Party

Having a birthday to celebrate the day before Easter is a little crazy for preparations, but I think everything went really well. We had it at Super Jump Party Zone, which was great because they do all the cleanup and help with the party.

The Iron Man cake was inspired from several different websites, but the inside was inspired by my mom. She suggested that I separate my white cake mix into 2 bowls and then add lemon Jello to one and strawberry Jello to the other. It came out very moist and matched the Iron Man theme. I promised the Little Man his own cake, but I did individual cupcakes for all of the kids. I double swirled the frosting for the cupcakes with the my new favorite frosting recipe, which I got from one of the parents in my class. It is not so sickly sweet as some frostings you get.

Iron Man Cake

Inside the Cake

 

Cupcakes

 

Inside the Cupcake

Butter Cream Frosting Recipe:

3 CUPS POWDERED SUGAR

1/2 CUP BUTTER (room temp)

1 tsp VANILLA
1 TBS WHIPPING CREAM (I used a lot more)

Whip Sugar, Butter and Vanilla. Then add Whipping Cream. You can add more or less whipping cream until desired consistency is reached. 

I made Iron Man marshmallow pops, inspired from Sugarena, but I put them in the gift bags.

 

To balance out the sugar, I made fresh strawberry and pineapple skewers, inspired from http://www.pinterest.com/pin/61220876158908627/.

 

Most of the gift bag items, including the boxes, came from Oriental Trading.

New Year's Eve Celebration

I haven't posted for awhile, even though we've done activities. It is New Year's Eve, and I wanted to do something special with the Little Man. I found several posts about countdown bags, but Spoonful had the cutest ones.  I created my own countdown activities, incorporating some of the print-outs from Spoonful. Hope the Little Man enjoys them and can stay up that late.



Here is my list for the countdown bags (clock templates from Spoonful):
5:00 Have a great dinner
6:00 Make a party hat and glasses (template from Spoonful)
7:00 Make special cookies
8:00 Make a noise maker (Adventures of J-Man and MillerBug) Tip: My husband helped me staple through the craft stick, too, so it would be sturdier. Also, stickers are great for kids who find it difficult to draw.
9:00 Decorate the house
10:00 Watch a fun movie
11:00 Make a wish list (template from Spoonful) or All About Me poster (see below)
12:00 Make a "toast" and Celebrate (pop bubble wrap)

There were many templates out there to review the year, but I created my own in Word. I inserted pictures into mine, too. I was actually surprised at some of his responses.

 

 

Avengers Birthday Treats

Today we did part 2 of birthday celebration with grandparents. I spent several days making the little man’s birthday treats.

Of course, we had to have a cake. I was inspired by 2 different sites. For the inside of the cake: Crafting with Freckles. And for the outside of the cake: Big Fat Cook. However, the little man (and I) like chocolate. So, I decided that red velvet, blue velvet and white chocolate cake would be oh, so much better than plain white with food coloring. I got my velvet recipe from Divas Can Cook. For blue velvet, you just use blue food coloring instead of red. The white chocolate cake recipe came from Oleander+Palm. The velvet cakes were supremely moist and truly the best velvet I have had. The white chocolate cake was denser but a nice compliment to the velvet cakes. I used a chocolate buttercream for the outside and a stabilized whipped frosting for the middle. Buttercream in the middle may have been too overpowering.

Here is my creation:

Outside of the cake:

 

Inside of the cake:

 

So, normally this would be the extent of birthday dessert. However, I really wanted to learn how to “flood” a cookie. This was a good opportunity, as the Avengers theme was a good inspiration for sugar cookies. I learned how to flood cookies from Sweetopia's video. She has a very nice tutorial and recipe for royal icing. The sugar cookie recipe came from Foodfolio. I freehand cut the cookies (not having Avenger cookie cutters), but the inspiration came from mommyGAGA.

Here is my creation:

The little man insisted he had to have the Captain America cookie. J

Superhero Birthday

Tomorrow is the little man’s birthday. We are not doing a big birthday party, but I wanted to do something really special for him. Right now, he is in love with anything "superhero." Searching Pinterest for superhero themed ideas, I came across Emily's Little World blog. I fell in love with her capes and masks. So, I called my mom and asked if it was feasible to make them for the kids in his daycare. I asked my daycare lady if she could get the kids’ favorite colors and first initials. Now, we just switched daycares, and I assumed there were about 10 kids. Turns out, there are 16, including my son. Oh, well. I really wanted to do the project. My mom made one extra cape to experiment with, so I made one for a special friend at church.

Here is our creation:
Little Man's Mask

 

His cape

Daycare Kids' Capes + 1 Special Friend

Daycare Kids' Mask

 

My mom made all of the capes, and I did all of the logos and masks. I appliqued the logos, so they would be sturdier.

I got the free mask template from Grosgrain. I used the Wolverine mask for my little man’s special mask and the Hulk mask for the other kids.

If you do an internet search, there are many free patterns for basic capes. We searched for one that was one whole piece, but choose the one that works best for you. I designed the logos, using Microsoft Word.
 

I am planning a special Captain America cake for our family celebration. Pictures to come. J

Disney Fun

My husband and I went to Disneyland without the little man. He is still too little to go on a lot of the rides, and we didn’t want him to be disappointed, especially with the new Radiator Springs Racer ride. We did bring back some great gifts. If you go, check out RideMakerz in Downtown Disney. They have awesome create-your-own cars and are the only existing store, according to the employees.

I love Disneyland and Disney World for so many reasons. This time we treated ourselves to things I don’t normally try. One was a Mickey Mouse chocolate chip cookie. Simple yes, but very good. So big that it took me 2 days to eat. I wanted to share a little Disney with the little man, so I searched for a similar cookie recipe. Love to Be in the Kitchen has a recipe which is not completely like the original but pretty satisfying. I didn’t take my time with the decorating. If I wanted it to look more professional, I would have used a bag or condiment bottle to stripe the cookie. The best part of making something like this, the little man helped me. He loves making cookies.

Here is our creation:

 

And of course, the little man loved it!

Next project: I didn’t try the caramel covered apples because the one store didn’t have them, but I plan to recreate the recipe in the future. This YouTube video from the Disney Parks actually shows how to make one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB35Cbs_kt4