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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

[CHRIST]mas gifts for school





I wanted to send home really cute [Christ]mas cards and gifts with my Kindergartners. However, my dean informed me that writing "Merry Christmas" or giving out Nativity scenes was not advised and I could possibly be sued, I decided against it. If I can't write "Merry Christmas," then I won't say anything at all.... After brainstorming I figured I would send home cute little gingerbread people holding a candy cane and pencil. They were super cheap, and easy! I made them during my prep!








For the teachers at work I decided that I would "risk it" and attached super cute Nativity gift tags with "Merry Christmas" on the back to the bags of chocolate I bought at Target (on sale!).










I am VERY blessed to have community helpers in my room from 3:00-3:40pm. I have 5 8th grade students who come in and help around my classroom. It's awesome because they can stack the chairs, which is required for each class, but my 5 yo's can't do it. They also cut out lamination, prepare work and centers for the kiddos and help in anyway I ask. I gave each of them 3 packs of Orbit gum tied together with a cute Christmas gift tag and "Thank you!" written on each one.

















































(photos later)







































































I know it is after Christmas and these gift ideas won't help this year, but maybe next year!















































-e

Monday, November 7, 2011

Classroom *Math* Games

I have been having a blast making games that my Kindergartner's can play after they are done with centers. Most of these games I use as a center one week, then put in the "after center" rotation the next week.






I try to *trick* them into thinking they're playing! Feel free to copy and print any of the following!





Buying Treats- put the correct coin in one column then write the number and cent sign in the next column.




Domino Parking Lot- put dominoes with the correct dots in each space.
Piggy bank- students have to match coins to amount on this cute little piggy.



*enjoy!

















Saturday, September 3, 2011

[Michigan] Football Season


This week marks the beginning of college football around the country. Today is the University of Michigan home opener. My husband, my brother-in-law and myself are heading out to Ann Arbor today to watch the Wolverines take on the Western Michigan Broncos. To commemorate the beginning of football season I made my husband a "Go Blue!" surprise basket.

I stopped by Dollar Tree, Kroger, and Value World to pick up materials.
* Winged helmet- $0.30 from Value World [super score!]
* Candy - about $5 from Dollar Tree & Kroger
* Helmet & Football- die cuts
* "Go Blue" & Block M - I drew, then cut out
* Straws [to hold up cut outs] - I had in a draw at home

- I cut, colored, laminated then tapped images to straws
- Stuffed upside down helmet with newspaper
- Stuck in cut outs [taped to helmet]
- Drizzle in candy
- Ta-da!



LET'S GO BLUE!
-e

Friday, August 12, 2011

Welcome [Summer]


... you don't need to tell me summer is almost over, I know...

But here is a summer wreath I made this week. It was obviously *super easy* to make!


[I got these push pins at a dollar store]



[Felt I had in summery colors]


[I used different size circles to cut out felt.
I used the inside and outside circles of the canning lid]


[I cut leaves out of green felt, I just eyeballed it]

[Layered circles] [Add leaves] [Glued on to wreath with HOT glue gun]



[Added "welcome" paper]
To make the "welcome" sign, I cut out letters using my Cricut, glue them on a piece of scrapbook paper, then spray-painted them with clear glossy paint


Fun and Easy!

-e

Thursday, August 11, 2011

you bring {JOY}


This week while babysitting/nannying I made some cards. I found the cutest little stamp at Joann's/Michael's... it says "you bring joy." I immediately had to get it!

Things that bring me {JOY}
* Jesus
* my husband
* crafting
* sending & receiving cards
* making food that people enjoy
* making someones day
* writing encouraging notes
* [any kind of] teaching
* sleeping
* rain on the tin roof of our apartment window
* cool autumn days
* being on the lake

What kind of things bring you {joy} ?

Make a list and post it on your wall to remind you!

-e

Friday, April 22, 2011

Dessert Auction Fundraiser


We had a Dessert Auction at our church this past month as a fundraiser for our Youth Group to go to camp. The event was after our evening service.

We ask people to sign up (starting 3 weeks in advance) to donate desserts, they bring them in the day/night of the auction. The sign-up helps to limit the number of desserts. Sometimes the event goes for 2 hours or longer and starts to drag. If you're thinking of doing this MAKE SURE YOU LIMIT THE NUMBER OF DESSERTS.

During church we set up the tables with all the desserts displayed. Right after church everyone walks around for about 15 minutes to look at all the desserts.

Our youth pastor (my hubby) auctions off the desserts, starting anywhere from $2-5. Most of our items go for $10-20. ($20 for cookies is A LOT!!! Especially when it is all profit!) Some of the more "famous" desserts go for close to $100 each.

This year we told the teens that 1. they had to make their own desserts in order for the money to go directly into their camp account and 2. they had to auction off their desserts- surprisingly the teens had a lot of fun auction off their own desserts. (all the donated items were put into a general fund for all the teens)

We also auction off the teens in groups of 2. The teens can be bought to help with house work, babysitting, cleaning, yard work, etc. Instead of the teens going out to try and raise money on their own, the amount they are "bought" for goes into their individual camp account.

It was a lot of fun and we raised $1300 in one night!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

[WHATS LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?]



We are going to a local [YOUTH RALLY]: "What's Love Got To Do With It?" We are looking forward to hearing about what God has to say about love, dating and relationships. Should be interesting since God is the one who created us to love, and we are able to love because He loved us first!

I am so thankful that God protected me during high school and college, because I definitely had the opportunities to be stupid or for stupid things to happen especially when it comes to guys. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted in a man and it took an even longer time for me to figure out that what God created in a man for me is [MOST] important.

Now that I have married the one that God created just for me I know how [AWESOME] God's plans are and how awesome things can be when I trust in Him.


I'll let you know what we learn about God and love at our up coming youth rally.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

[LOCK IN] Joy Baptist Church

My husband and I are the teen leaders for a small Baptist church in Westland, Michigan. Our usually has about 100-150 on Sunday mornings. Westland is about 20 minutes west of Detroit. It is a middle class area with a lot of blue collar families.

Currently in our HS (high school) group we have about 5 "kids" that come regularly. In our MS (middle school) group we have about 10 "kids" that come regularly. We usually only work with the HS-er's but sometimes do "combo" nights. A lot of our big events are both groups together.


[Joy Baptist]


Recently we had a [LOCK-IN] or an "all nighter." We were planning on about 20-25 kids since we usually have about 20 on Sunday nights + a few friends. We ended up with 40 kids! and 5 adults. AWESOME! The event started at 9pm and went until 8am the next day. We had a lot of fun.

Below is the flyer we made using [PICNIK]. I like to think I'm a pro... but I'm not really... Teens also had to have a signed permission slip to attend the event.



[ACTIVITIES]
more are listed on the flyer, i'm just highlighting a few.

We made [T-SHIRTS], which I thought were a lot of fun. We bought t-shirts from Joann Craft Store and Michael's using store sale promos, cheap black spray paint.

Rented a [BOUNCER] from Time To Play
The kids LOVED it. It was rented for $200 for 8 hours and well worth the money. The only issue was the tiny child size opening, but we made it work!

A lot of the night was spent in the gym (with the bouncer set up) playing [BASKETBALL].

[MINUTE TO WIN IT] We looked for stuff around our apartment and church, bought some things from Dollar Tree and improvised a lot. We had 2 people compete against each other for each game. The winner chose from the [1st PLACE] bucket and the looser chose from the [2nd PLACE] bucket. 1st place prizes were movie size candies from Kroger and Dollar Tree and some other $1 items. 2nd place prizes were fun size candies and 5 piece packs of gum. [TEENS LOVE GUM]

[FOOD]
I was super panicked about not having enough food- but I actually had to take some BACK! YES- KROGER DOES RETURNS!!! AWESOME.

We bought tortilla chips from Kroger- $1 a bag and cheese from GFS to make [NACHOS]

Bought candy and chips and stuffs from Kroger, all Kroger brand, kids didn't even know!

Served [ICE CREAM] after the Bible lesson... was a little disorganized... but we made it work.

Ordered 10 pizza's from [HUNGRY HOWIES] the guy thought we were pranking him. We had a 25% off coupon from our $5 "damaged" Entertainment Coupon Book.

We had more than enough food, because as the night went on people were eating less and less.

[IMPROVEMENTS] for our next Lock-In
Scavenger hunt
More structure (for younger teens. they did a lot of wondering)
More, More, More- it would be better to be over prepared... at some points the night dragged a little bit.

Overall it was fun and hopefully we can do another one soon[ish]

[Re-do] Starting my blog again

Well, here is try number two. After thinking of a cute name and laying out my blog my summer went pretty quickly. I spent the months leading up to my wedding at the poolside and with two action packed kids. I spent a lot of time getting ready for my wedding and trying to find a job after I had been laid off.

[2011 UPDATES]

[JOB] Currently I worked for a charter school in Taylor. I am a parapro (a kind of teacher assistant)

[LIFE] I have been HAPPILY married for about 4 months now. It has it ups and downs, but we couldn't be happier.

[CHURCH] My husband and I are working with the high school teens at church now and trying to figure out how to get that all under control and organize and EXCITING for the "kids."


I'm not sure what the goal or audience of my blog is yet. I'll probably just be posting updates about things we do with our teens at church and how we are getting our lives started as newlyweds!