Best Teacher Appreciation Gift Ever

After years of giving gifts to teachers, we finally stumbled upon the perfect Teacher Appreciation Gift! Each year the gift has been accepted with tears of joy. 

We have shown our teachers that we really love them by making a homemade t-shirt with THEIR NAME on it! 

If I had the money, I would buy shirts for the entire class to wear. But alas, I don't have the money. What I do have is time, and creativity, to work on a gift for my child to give. This idea came to me when a friend of mine was decorating the door to their child's classroom for a surprise to the teacher. They came up with a witty saying, and set to work taping on construction paper letters and pictures. I thought, why not turn that idea into a shirt for my kid to wear!?!

A few years ago, I won a silhouette machine. This machine comes in handy! I made my own stencil. But you can always buy stencils with letters and pictures on them.  I taped my stencil to the front of a t-shirt, put some cardboard inside to protect the shirt from leaking paint through to the back, and got out an artist paintbrush and some acrylic paint. I painted the picture on the shirt myself. 

Most people never know the shirt isn't machine printed. The paint fades a little bit after washing, but it still holds the image. I have made all kinds of shirts for my kids this way. You can personalize a shirt for a birthday party! Or if you have a favorite quote or Bible verse, this is an excellent way to share it with the world. I have even made a shirt for my husband with his favorite computer game quote! One year I tie-dyed a bunch of shirts and painted a logo for our church on the front. I gave the shirts to all the elementary girls I took to a kid's camp. They loved that we were all matching!

All it takes is a little patience, time, and non-washable paint. I don't even use fabric paint. I use the cheap 50 cents a bottle kind from Wal-Mart. The ideas are endless and so inexpensive! You simply need a shirt, and paint. You probably already have some of this paint lying around your house... if you are a craft person. It's so neat how a little bit of time can result in a heart being touched.

Posted on Facebook by Mrs. Beauford

Posted by Ms. Jeffrey on Class Dojo

My son gets so excited for Teacher Appreciation Day! He can't wait to wear his shirt proudly into the classroom. This year he got a little sneaky and made sure to wear a light jacket. He gave the teacher a card which told her to look at his shirt for her gift. She LOVED it.

It's a very sweet surprise for a teacher and can be personalized in any way. Ms. Jeffrey is also a photographer and has used this talent to bless us parents with lots of photos of our kiddos this year. The camera saying was perfect for her!

There's all kinds of cute sayings for teacher appreciation day! Make up your own, or use one of these!

• From my calculations, Mrs. Teacher is the best - draw a calculator
• You're picture perfect, Mrs. Teacher - draw a camera or draw a Polaroid border around it.
• Mrs. Teacher you've made a mark that can never be erased - draw an eraser or pencil
• Thanks for helping me grow, Mrs. Teacher - draw a flower with it
• I donut know what I would have done without you, Mrs. Teacher - draw a donut
• Mrs. Teacher made me one smart cookie - draw a cookie
• Mrs. Teacher brightened my year - draw a sun
• You're the apple of my eye, Mrs. Teacher - draw an apple
• You're the pineapple of my eye, Mrs. Teacher - draw a pineapple
• I love you to the moon and back, Mrs. Teacher - draw a moon
• I'm nuts about Mrs. Teacher - draw an acorn
• Mrs. Teacher is one in a melon - draw a watermelon
• You've stolen a pizza my heart, Mrs. Teacher - draw a slice of pizza

You're In Trouble!

My baby is now 5 years old! I can't believe it. In fact, I don't want to let myself believe it. I miss the little baby I once held. Zechariah is one of my greatest blessings from God. I cannot put into words how much this little boy means to me.

We had beautiful weather for Zech's party. It was a perfect day to celebrate! I wanted to keep things really simple, so there wasn't much planned for the party. Zechariah invited all his friends over to play his favorite board game, Trouble. The twist on it, I made it life-size. I thought he would have more fun if we played outside and used people as the pieces. It was so much fun! I honestly thought the kids were going to get bored and I was going to end up disappointed with how little we used the game. I was very wrong. We played the game for over an hour and made sure to "help" a team end the game for us. Otherwise the game would have gone on for much longer.

Most of the preparation for the party was making the game board. It really was easy to make, however, very time consuming. The painting took me somewhere between 25-30 hours. It wasn't hard. It just took forever to paint because the fabric soaks up all the paint not allowing you to spread the paint much.

I started by shopping at Goodwill for some used white sheets. I love that store! I bought 4 flat sheets of various sizes for $6 total. The whites were similar, but not exactly the same. I knew once it was painted, the color of white wouldn't matter. I sewed all four sheets together into a giant 12 foot by 12 foot square.

Once it was sewn, I took it outside to draw the game board. The board was too large to lay out flat in any room of my house. I used our 1986 version of the game to copy. It's what Zech is familiar with, and I wanted him to recognize it when we played. The large circle in the middle of the game, I used a hula hoop to trace. The smaller circles that the people pieces stand on were a plastic lid to a giant bowl of mine. The game is primarily circles and straight lines. This made it very easy to duplicate.

Once the game was drawn, and my lines were taped with painters tape, I brought the game down to my basement. I put a vinyl tablecloth underneath to protect my floor and took it one color at a time. For the paint, I used the small craft bottles of acrylic paint from Wal-Mart. The bottles were 50 cents apiece, and I needed 3 for each color. The game was a total of $12. Not bad! The only other thing I needed to buy was the giant inflatable dice. I found some online for $10. It was a very inexpensive birthday party. I had found some of these life-size games online for purchase but they started at $90!!! I knew I wanted to make it myself. It was much cheaper, but the labor was very extensive.

To secure the game board down to the ground, I applied large eyelets around the edge of the game board. I then purchased golf tees to use as stakes. It worked really well! I didn't want the game board to be getting twisted beneath our feet and this solved the problem.

On our invitations we sent out, we assigned each person to a team color. I had picked out two kids for each team, and then split up the adults that were also invited to the party. Each person was supposed to wear a shirt of their team color. It made it really easy to tell apart the players on the board at any given time. If I use the game again, I might buy different color bandanas for the players to wear.

I think the most fun part of the game for the kids was throwing the giant die. They would send it flying high in the sky, and then everyone kept continually bumping it with their heads and body. Towards the end we had to restrict the kids from touching it unless it was their team rolling the die. It made it unfair for kids to bump the die when the rolling team had originally gotten a high number.

The green team won! They were also the first team to get anyone home. For the winning team I found some really inexpensive Popper Magic games, AKA Trouble. They were at Wal-Mart for only $2.50. The rest of the kids at the party were given a sack of candy and a couple card games.

My mom did an amazing job on Zech's cake. It looks just like the board game! She even made a flag out of the birthday invitation. It says, "Zech's been caught turning 5. He's in TROUBLE!"

I was so happy that the trick candles worked this time. When we used them on Zech's real birthday not a single one would relight. This time they did it several times and got a good laugh from Zech.

For fun, we made sure to pass out the cake color that matched their team color. It was fun to see everyone match their food so well. We also had the table full of small games for the kids to play while they ate. There was Old Maid, Pick-Up-Sticks, Blink, and Rock-Paper-Scissors.

It was such a fun time spent with friends and family. I don't think there's a thing I would have changed about the entire party. It was the perfect afternoon. I hope it makes a lasting memory for Zechariah. He's five years old now!!

30 Years...

A week ago I celebrated my thirtieth birthday; a milestone I always thought would make me feel older. I guess I'll be waiting some more. I still feel like a kid! I don't think I'm ever going to feel old enough to have my three children. God blessed me with eternal youth. I'm sure someday it's going to catch up with me, but for now I'm enjoying my "kid" status. Over the summer I had two different individuals think I was my 10 year old daughter's age. Now I know that's a bit extreme, but who am I to complain?

I am very fortunate to have such a wonderful family and friends. God knew exactly what He was doing when He placed me in the care and friendship of these fine people. I love them all so much!

A few days before my birthday, my family threw me a party. It was so weird for me not to be included in the planning, or the setting up process. All I did was show up, at my own house. The party was a BBQ in the backyard, along with an outdoor movie theater. Everything was perfect! They put so many special details into the entire evening.

One week before my birthday is Lucille Ball's birthday. If she was alive today she would have been celebrating 101 years! I Love Lucy! Last year, for her 100th birthday, I threw her a party. This year, for my 30th, my family put together an I Love Lucy themed party for me. It was so much fun, and I wouldn't have changed a thing about the entire evening.

My party started with a video. My sister mentioned that for someone who complains I never get my picture taken, there sure were a lot of photos of me. I had to laugh when I re-watched the video later because a large percentage of the pictures of my adult life, I took myself with a tripod. Some of the photos might look candid, but really, I'm great at running into my timed photo and pretending for a few seconds while the photo is snapped. That's not to say I don't have candid moments with my children. It's just a lot of the real moments are not photographed.

Outside in the backyard, there was a photo booth set up. We all wore black & white in honor of I Love Lucy being filmed without color. This made for some great photos since we all matched. If you remember, I donated all my summer clothes, so I had to make a trip that morning to my favorite store, Goodwill. I found a black & grey shirt for $2!! I love the deals you get there! (I have to say, I also found the brand new Muppet movie for only $3! Happy Birthday to me!)

During the opening credits of I Love Lucy you will often see two cartoon characters representing Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. My husband and I tried to mimic this pose. We didn't get the pose quite right the first time, but this is still my favorite picture of us from the evening.

By the time all our photos were taken, and we were all posed out, the BBQ was ready. The food was amazing! They chose all my favorites! The only thing not pictured on my plate was deviled eggs. They didn't last long enough for me to take their picture. I had to sample them quickly!

During the movie we had snacks to share, cotton candy and caramel popcorn. Very delicious! By the end of the night I couldn't have eaten another bite. I was so stuffed!

Before we settled in for my favorite funniest episodes of Lucy we all danced to some oldie music. "Come on baby let's do the twist."

The atmosphere was enchanting! I loved it. I think the lights added a lot to the charm of the outdoor movie theater.

"Time and Tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a Woman of Thirty." -Robert Frost

Cars

Four years ago today, I was due to have my little baby boy Zechariah. He had an agenda of his own, and came a couple weeks early on September 28th 2007. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. I can remember holding him for the first time, and now I'm lucky if I can at least get a hug out of him as he runs across the room.

On Zech's birthday this year, a good friend of mine forwarded me this email that I had sent out four years ago, when I found out I was having a boy. It made me cry when I read it, and I thought it would be appropriate to share it now.

Date: Thursday, May 31, 2007, 1:47 PM
To all my friends and family, :)

We are having a BOY!! We had the ultrasound this morning, and I am very happy to report that everything looks wonderful. I started out this pregnancy with a few complications, and today everything looked perfect. "God can do anything, you know...". :) Eph.3:20

Jaime and Ariel came with me this morning to see the baby. Ariel was very excited and couldn't wait to see if it was a boy or girl. The lady doing the ultrasound was very nice, and made sure to ask us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby, or should we try to stay clear of that area. I told her, YES, we want to know. So she asked Ariel what she was hoping for. Ariel of course, said a girl. And then the lady laughed a little, then said, well, I think there's a little bit more between the legs of this one.

I'd been pretty certain we were having a little guy again. I have always felt from 7 weeks of pregnancy, this was a boy. Titus and I were discussing names. We had been to a music program at Ariel's school and there is a little boy name Malachi, Titus really liked that name. I wasn't too fond of it, but I said, hey I kinda like the name Zechariah. (I think we've both always been drawn to Bible names.) And Titus agreed with me. I am very big into meanings of names, so I told him I would look it up the next day.

Zechariah means "God has remembered" It was perfect for us. At that point we had been trying to get pregnant for a couple of months, and we loved the idea that God had remembered us. Then when I had bleeding on a couple different occasions that name just kept coming back as a promise to me. God has not forgotten this baby. He cares so much. So to Titus and me, this baby has always been and always will be Zechariah.... because God remembered us. We are blessed so much!

Thank you all for your prayers! I love you all!
~ Amanda

... Just in case you didn't know the estimated due date is: October 7th ...

This year for Zechariah's 4th birthday, I tried to talk him into a cowboy party, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it. I thought it would be fun to plan, and dress up for. He said, "NO," very decisively. He actually suggested, "Maybe you can have a cowboy party for YOUR birthday, Mommy." He wanted a Cars birthday.

I've never done a Cars party, as his older brother Gabe isn't a big fan of toy cars. Zechariah on the other hand, loves to drive his cars for hours around the house. It really was the perfect party for him. He doesn't care if it's Lightning McQueen or any of the other characters, it just needs to have four wheels and he's good with it.

For awhile I kept teasing Zech that we were going to have a cowboy party because a car party was too boring. When a friend of mine was over, and we were talking about his birthday, I said again, "We're going to have a cowboy party, right, Zech?" He was upset with me, and shook his head, "No. I'm gonna have a boring Cars party. I like boring Cars parties."


I don't think I can do boring or small. Every year I try and say I'm going to keep it very simple, and every year it turns out big and elaborate. I love to party. And there's nothing wrong with that!


We kept Zechariah's real birthday pretty simple. I think it was so simple, he didn't even understand that he was already four. I took him out for lunch at Olive Garden (his choice), and we told the waitress he was 4 today, and his response to her was, "No. I not four today. I not have my party yet."

According to Zech, you must have cake with friends in order to have a birthday. When we were out to Olive Garden we asked the waitress if they could sing to him. She gathered several other waiters and they all sang "Happy Birthday." Later that night as Zech was telling his dad about his birthday lunch, he very excitedly said, "I had A LOT of people at my party. I don't member their names." So maybe the trick to having a birthday is the song, not the cake.

I gave Zech a choice of what kind of birthday cake he wanted, and he simply chose ice cream sandwiches. It's kind of hard to put candles in a cake like that, so we made him an ice cream pyramid complete with tea lights.




Since we put so much money into our birthday parties, and the kid's friends usually give presents, along with grandparents, we often don't do much for birthday gifts. I got a great deal this year on Zech's present. I found some roller skates at Kohl's that I only paid $3.50 for! They were 50% off, and every month Kohl's sends me a free $10 gift card. All I have to do is spend over $10 to use it. I'm pretty proud of that sale. A funny fact about the skates, I actually bought them the same day Zech broke his arm. I was so glad he got his cast off in plenty of time to use them on his birthday.

Zech got his own real key for his birthday too. I brought him to the machine in Wal-Mart where we were able to personalize his key chain. He also was able to choose a key of his own in the automotive section. I was a little surprised to find they don't have Cars keys. I mean, wouldn't it make sense to have a Cars key more than any other Disney character???

He loves it! Every time we leave the house, he must have his key in the car, and then when we arrive at our location, he requests it be put in my purse for safe keeping.


Before Stefanie left for Colorado she took Zech shopping for his birthday gift. He picked out a nice green water bottle. It wasn't exactly kid proof, so Stefanie exchanged it for a better green bottle that came with a straw. This one worked for a couple weeks then water started seeping out the straw. On his birthday, we went and exchanged it again for the shark cup.

He really likes it, but it's a little complicated for him to understand where it came from. I tried to tell him it was still from Stefanie, but he thinks I bought it for him. He doesn't understand since she wasn't there how it could be from her. I kept asking him over and over again who gave him the cup. Every time he would say, "NO, Steffie got me my green cup. You got me my shark cup."

One time he answered the question right, and seemed to get it. A couple hours later, he came running over to me and yelled with his mad face, "I get so mad at you, Mommy!" I wasn't sure what I'd done.

"You keep saying Steffie buy me my shark cup, but YOU did."

Now if I want him to answer the question right, I ask, "where did the money come from for your shark cup?" And every time he will answer, "Steffie." I guess you just have to think like a kid. Don't confuse them and say that someone else bought it for them, when they know with absolute certainty you drove them to the store and picked out that cup!


Now... it's finally party time!

We thought it would be fun to have Zech's party at our church. They have a great big parking lot, and plenty of room for "car" games.

My mom put together Zech's birthday cake. Originally I planned on her making him a simple stoplight cake, but when we asked him what he wanted, he had a plan, and we didn't want to disappoint him. He said it needed to be a race car with a party on it. This is what my mom came up with. She did a great job!


Zechariah planned all the food at his party. He really wanted candy corn to be there. Since they look a little like traffic cones, we decided they could be "cozy cones" like in the movie. I don't have any fun candy dishes, so I made a cardboard car for the candy to sit in. Zech loved it!


Our party favors had a black and white checkered flag in it, a car air freshener, some Cars fruit snacks, and a fun candy car. I think the candy cars were the cutest with the peppermint wheels; however I know a lot of kids don't like peppermint candies. I tried to make all of theirs with Lifesaver wheels, and then had a bunch of peppermint cars on the table for the adults.


The biggest hit of our party were the box cars. Not to be confused with Matchbox cars. Zech and I designed a fun kid car. I had everyone's car ready and waiting for them. We had Lightning McQueen eyes on the front, two windows on each side, and a gas tank on the right. The back of the car had red cup brake lights, and a license plate holder.

When all of his friends got to the party, the first thing they did was choose wheels for their box cars. We had red, green, and yellow plates for the wheels, and large black plates for their steering wheel.


After their tires and steering wheels were attached, they got to design their own license plate. There were lots of Cars stickers available to help them decorate with. Some of the kids colored on their cars too.


After their box car was finished, they could run around playing in it. We had a deluxe car wash they could run through made out of PVC pipe. Zechariah really enjoyed building this with me; it was simple enough for him to hook it together himself.


When I asked Zech what his favorite part of the party was, he said the gas. There was always a long line at the gas pump. If I had known this, I might have made a couple gas pumps for the kids to play with. We put a garden hose under the box, and made sure to have a spray nozzle for the gas to come out of. If we weren't worried about getting wet and ruining the cardboard, it sure would have been fun to design a real working gas tank that could actually hold water.

If you notice, gas only costs $2.869! I looked up how much it was the week Zechariah was born. If only we could go back to those prices!


We had a bean bag toss that the kids could play with. I asked my brother to bring his special racing tires, and I made some Lightning McQueen and Mater beanbags. It was fun to try to make it through the holes on the standing tire. It was much harder than it appeared. After the party was over, each of the kids were able to take home a beanbag.


All of Zech's friends were able to make it to his party!


Working on their cars so they could begin playing...


Zech is working on personalizing his license plate.



It was so cute to see all the kids in their box cars running around.

When we were getting ready for the party and unloading our things from the car we were very rushed for time. I worked on setting things up, while my mom and daughter carried everything in. We always keep jumper cables in Titus' car, and my mom thought they were meant for the party. So it wasn't actually planned for me to bring them, but it worked out and was fun for the kids to "jump" each other's car.


I think my brother was trying to charge Zana for her gas...

We had a few car crashes at the party! And even some flat tires, and one lost tire. This happened when the kids put their tires down too low on the box. It was pretty cute to see!


Our next activity was a relay game. We had two different teams, the red and the green team. The kids lined up behind their "oil pan" full of rice. They each took a turn filling the funnel up with rice. They had to run across the room to their matching colored car, and slowly funnel out the rice. They couldn't dump it into the car as the oil would get all over and possibly ruin their engine. Once all the "oil" was in their car, the game was over.




I had a lot of fun making things out of cardboard for this party. I was especially happy with how my red and green cars turned out!



I wanted to make sure we had plenty of activities going on so none of the kids would get bored. We brought some of our cars from home, along with the mat that the kids could play on.


It's so hard to get Zechariah looking straight forward. You can always have his head facing you, however his eyes are usually roaming around the room.



Another favorite of the party was the "gas" everyone got to drink. I thought it would be fun to use a real gas can. We, of course, bought a brand new one for the party. It was really cute to hear, "Can I have some more gas, please?"



I'm not sure how many of Zech's friends were brave enough to try a frozen banana, but Zech sure loves them. He put in a special request to have these at his party. Actually, he kept requesting things to eat there, and I thought about ignoring this one. I couldn't figure how I could relate them to cars. He reminded me several times before the party that we needed to buy our bananas, so I knew I had to make some whether we found the idea or not. They were simply frozen bananas... I came up with nothing.

If you've never had chocolate covered frozen bananas, you should! I think they are delicious and semi-nutritious! They're very easy to make too. You need to freeze your bananas, and make sure to dip them in lemon juice first to keep them from browning. Once they're frozen, you can drizzle chocolate on top. I usually heat my almond bark on the stove and add a few tablespoons of shortening to thin it out. Quickly add some sprinkles and you're done. The chocolate hardens very fast since the bananas are frozen.




The gas pump was really the hit of the party!

Our last fun of the party was the big race! The kids looked so cute all lined up in their cars.



On your mark, get set, GO!



These two boys were neck and neck the entire race, until the very end when one of them crashed and burned. He skinned his knees, poor kid!

I was a little worried that Zech would be really upset when he lost this race. He's much smaller than all his friends and I knew the chance of him winning was zip. We made the race 4 laps long, since it was his fourth birthday. He was clueless to the fact that he lost the race. He only made it two laps, when the winner had finished all four laps.


Our only thing left to do when the race was done was open presents! He got Cars stuff from everyone! He loved it!



Apart from all his new Cars paraphernalia he really loved his giant Mario. His first night having it, his brother begged him to be allowed to sleep with it. Zech told him no, and has slept with Mario every night since.


It was a great party! I think Zech really enjoyed himself, and I thought everything went perfectly.

We finished off the day with a couple hot pizzas, and settled down to watch Cars as a family. In a few short weeks, we're going to be able to have another Cars family night, as his grandma and papa gave him a gift certificate to buy Cars 2 when it comes out!


Happy 4th Birthday, Zechy!
I love you!