Pencils, Cards, and Stolen Bucks

What a day! Today my kids have inspired a list I'll undoubtedly be adding to in the future.

Things my Fifth Graders Have Taught Me
For When/If I Have Kids of my Own

# 1 Don't waste $$ on expensive school supplies.

I wish I had a counter on the pencil sharpener to count the number of pencils I've sharpened this year. Boy have I seen a lot of interesting pencils too. The kids eat chew on their pencils, cut them with their scissors or karate chop them with their hands, break them in half, leave them places, misuse the lead, take them apart, or over-sharpen them. They get new pencils, and the pencils are gone in the blink of an eye. Just like that. Most of the kids just don't take care of their supplies.

I will say that becoming the queen of the pencil sharpener really helped this year. We went through two pencil sharpeners before I had this revelation, but, hey, who's counting? Right? Fortunately my pencil sharpening days are numbered for 2010-2011, and I'm not a bit saddened by that. Bring on summer vacation!

Today we celebrated how absolutely amazing and wonderful our school secretary is. Last year we made a beautiful card that I loved [see above] and I think she liked (loved?) it also...

So this year I tried to do something similar. We wrote our "[Name] is..." sentences, I typed them, the kids made illustrations, and we glued everything into an accordion-style book. The kids enjoyed it.

In other news on the Western front, we had an incident involving stolen SOAR bucks today. While they were actually stolen a few days ago, they turned up today in the hands of someone who purchased them for $5 (real money). Unfortunately, my little lady didn't mark on or put her name on all of her bucks, so I wasn't able to return all of them. (Only 15 out of 155.) We'll see what happens to the perpetrator(s) tomorrow, I guess.

Twelve Days to Christmas

Christmas is almost here yet again. My, how fast the year has gone!

Our Christmas tree is up. A pile of presents has begun. There's actually more gifts there than you see. I have a trick up my sleeve this year... we'll see how the family enjoys it.

Some presents we haven't even started yet! The countdown is on. We better get to work!

The Christmas cards haven't been made yet either. Hopefully I get them sent this next weekend... otherwise they'll turn into New Year's cards like a couple years ago.

Don't worry... I'll be getting rid of the background.
Pets and husbands can be difficult when taking a picture sometimes!

That's ok, right? It's the thought that counts!

Creations

I like creativity. I like making things look great. It's difficult for me to throw things together and call it good. That's not enough for me.

One thing I love to make is cards. In fact, I've stopped buying cards for my family members on their birthdays, Mother's Day, or Father's Day. Maybe I should develop my own card company...

front

back

I really enjoy personalizing them and sometimes even try to add pop-ups. Ok, so maybe creating a card company wouldn't work after all. This particular one I made for my grandmother's birthday. My husband likes to 'sign' celebrity names on birthday cards sometimes so I decided to add a picture of a celebrity. (Turns out it was a celebrity my grandmother used to look up to and adore.) Fun times!

I also enjoy making gifts too. Last Christmas I tried to make as many gifts as I could. I'll think I'll do the same this year. It definitely takes more time, but I think it means more and makes me feel good!

Below is the gift I made my grandmother for her birthday. She's a Red Hat member, but doesn't have any accessories to wear to their get-togethers. The crazy thing is that she thinks I might be able to sell my little creations to some of the other get-together-ers. I've never made anything worthy of selling before... I'm kind of excited!