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Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up soon (May 3-7), and my son's teacher will know she is loved. She's a real gem -- patient and caring, but firm when necessary. She taught me how to be a better parent and my son's social and fine motor skills have improved immensely under her care. The school year started with my son refusing to write his name and now he loves writing (in addition to drawing). Kindergarten here we come!
All the parents are getting together to give the teacher one big basket of goodies. None of us have money to spend though we all want to give thoughtful gifts.
Here are 10 great thoughtful gifts ideas:
1. A gift certificate from Restaurant.com (7%) to the local fancy dinner place. (You can get a $25 certificate for $10 or less.)
2. Bath products like some rosemary mint bubble bath from SkinBotanica.com (10%). (I'm sure she'll like a relaxing bath after a day with 20 young kids!)
3. Movie tickets from Fandango and some candy for a fun date night.
4. One mom is making her chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and putting them in a decorative tin.
5. She loves to garden, so we're giving her tulip bulbs from Bloomingbulb (8%).
6. And she's a coffee fiend so a gift certificate to Starbucks (5%) was a no brainer.
7. Personalized notepads, since the teacher is always sending notes home with us. I love this one from AmyAdele.com (4%)- it has a picture of a teacher with her class, and you can choose your teacher's hair and skin color.
8. Some children will make a card or draw a picture for the teacher.
9. School budgets are tight this year, so I know school supplies, like crayons, paper and pencils will be appreciated. (She often has to pay for them herself.) Staples has a great selection, and a list of school supplies recommended for different grades.
10. And a photo book from Photoworks (8%) will be a lovely gift to help her remember this year's class. We're going to order one for each family too. Now save 20% on new studio books through 4/30 with coupon: EASIESTBOOK.
It's true that kids learn more from example than explanation and they learn mostly through play. So, our kitchen is a playground.
Top 3 benefits of cooking with my son:
1) He is more likely to eat something healthy if he helps makes it.
(And of course I guide him towards yummy and healthy vs. everything is tasty with chocolate chips added. ) He's gone from eating mostly macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets to a diet that includes grilled salmon (with a sweet teriyaki sauce - we use white grape juice instead of wine) and lasagna with vegetables.
2) He's gaining lots of skills that'll help him in school, such as:
* patience and how to follow directions
* math skills such as counting, sorting and using fractions
* greater hand strength from stirring (which is important for writing)
* knowledge about our family's culture, and different cultures around the world (He loves Thai, Chinese and Mexican food.)
* science lessons, such as how food reacts to heat and why bread rises
3) It's also a fun way to create family traditions.
We make waffles on Sundays, fruit smoothies after school (I sneak in some wheat germ or protein powder), and always do creative cookie decorations for holidays and birthday parties. For an ocean-themed party, we made fish and sailboat cookies, and got the cookie cutters from Sur La Table (3.5%). They have more cookie cutters than you've ever seen.
Most of our favorite recipes come from the children's cookbooks "Pretend Soup" and "Salad People" by Mollie Katzen. (She's also the author of the vegetarian Moosewood cookbooks.) They feature lots of simple and healthy recipes that kids will want to make. The hide and seek muffins (with a strawberry in the middle) and polka dot rice (brown rice with soy sauce and lots of chopped veggies) are a big hit in our house. You can buy them at Barnes & Noble.com (2%).
To keep my son tidy in the kitchen, we bought him an inexpensive apron from Misterart.com (3%) (plus Save up to 75% on Art Supplies at MisterArt.com) and let him decorate it with paint and iron-ons. (I bought 3 more as gifts for both boys and girls...big hit)
What are you doing to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? My son's pre-k class is having a family potluck with all green foods. I'm honoring my Irish roots by indulging the kids with homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. And what's a St. Patrick's Day party without the following goodies that the other families are bringing:
1) Corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread
Foodnetwork offers 'Classic Gaelic Grub' for St. Patrick's Day. Terrific recipes. And I'll have all the food delivered as usual from Vons or Safeway. (First time Safeway deliveries offer $15 in free groceries PLUS free delivery.)
2) Lots of green drinks
The kids will have ginger ale while I'll add a few drops of green food coloring to my husband's beer and pour myself a Bailey's Irish cream (yes the potluck is at dinner time for families not just kids!)
3) A treasure hunt for the children and families
Century Novelty (6%) has lots of treasure chests, gold coins and other things I'll need. And now they are offering 10% off all St. Patrick's Day items.
4) Green t-shirts for everyone (I don't want to get pinched!)
I ordered fun green t-shirts for everyone in the family from Zazzle (7.5%). They offer 10% off T-shirts through 4/1 plus the LiliDeal's 7.5% cash back.
5) Flags for the St. Patrick's day parade
For a full list of parades, times and location throughout the U.S., Canada and worldwide, visit St. Patrick's Day.com.
And last, but not least...
We will put the exhausted kids to sleep and watch a movie that features one of my favorite, incredibly talented (okay- attractive) Irish actors: Daniel Day Lewis (In the Name of the Father -- at least this one is about Ireland), Colin Farrell (Minority Report) or Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (August Rush). Buy.com (1%). I already own these DVDs but you can get them on sale for Up to 60% Off Top TV DVD & Blu-ray at Buy.com. Exp 3/26/10.
This Sunday, March 7 is Oscar night. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are hosting, and I'm a fan of several of the movies that are nominated (like Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, and the Hurt Locker to name a few) so it's going to be lots of fun to watch and a great excuse to invite some girlfriends and a few kids over for an Oscar bash. No husbands allowed.
Here's what I've done to plan the last minute event:
1. Used Evite's pre-created Oscar awards invitations. (It only took a few minutes to send these to my friends.)
2. I'm printing out ballots listing all the nominees so my guests can vote on who they think is going to win. You can find the list here: http://oscar.go.com/nominations/.
3. Great munchies make the Oscar party. Check out the movie-inspired menus at Epicurious.com. I'm a huge Avatar fan, so I'm going to make all the blue foods (the kids will be particularly gaga for these delicious bites). I'll also get lots of finger foods and drinks and have the groceries delivered by Vons or Safeway to make this easier. (If you're new to Safeway deliveries they offer $15 in free groceries PLUS free delivery.)
4. Taymark Giant Party Store (4%) has some terrific decorations to make your home red-carpet ready. I'm ordering a red carpet to place right inside my door (to make my guests feel like movie stars), and plastic gold trophies. I'm giving them out as prizes after my friends choose the winning nominees.
5. For favors, I've ordered some popcorn bags from Cost Plus (2%) (Very inexpensive and worth running over there if you have a store nearby. They have everything you'll need in a pinch.) and I'll fill them with bags of unpopped popcorn and some movie candy (Red vines and milk duds are my favorites) so my guests can enjoy a theater-like experience at home.
Have fun at the Oscars and I hope your favorite films win.
My husband once treated us to a luxury hotel in London. After spending the days sightseeing, I couldn't wait to get back to the bathtub! It was more luxury that I could imagine. Each day I would soak in a bath made with these incredible Dead Sea bath salts that came with our room. My skin felt great, my mind was at peace (even after a day of running around London) and my whole body just felt relaxed.
I just found these same bath salts online! They're available at the Best Bath Store (10% additional savings at LiliDeals).
Now when I want to feel pampered at home, I add these bath salts to some warm running water and soak my way to relaxation and no longer feel left out when my friends go the fancy spas. I feel good about supporting this company too- they are very environmentally conscious. Plus they give away lots of free samples of all their luxurious bath products.
Gotta run...before someone else jumps into the tub.
I’m obsessed with keeping my lips from drying out and doing it with a little color. After hunting for years I finally found the perfect lip gloss which is also the cheapest one I've ever bought. (That doesn't happen too often.) Revlon Super Lustrous lipgloss makes my lips look shiny and luscious, comes in 12 terrific colors, and stays on a long time. I wear it alone during the day, or over a lipstick at night for a more dressy look. So far my favorite colors are Nude Lustre and Cherries in the Snow, but the gloss is so inexpensive that I'm going to try a few other colors. Plus Revlon recently improved this lip gloss by adding SPF15 to it. You can't get better than that...
50% off the 2nd item when you buy 2 Revlon products at Beauty.com (5%)
Yesterday I bought my son a GEO Puzzle of Europe from Barnes & Noble.com (2%), and he was crazy about it. Geo Puzzles are large, bright puzzles that are available for all 5 continents. Each piece is shaped like a different country, so you learn geography as you put it together. The first puzzle he received over the holidays was such a hit that we decided to buy all the other Geo Puzzles in existence. Now my son's geography skills are better than mine (he knows where Uzbekistan is located. Do you!?). While mastering the puzzles he asked me lots of questions about the people who live in the different countries. (What do they look like, what do they eat, what do they do?)
My search for answers led me to the book "Children Just Like Me" by Anabel Kindersley and Barnabas Kindersley. It's a huge book with gorgeous photographs and interviews of children from all over the world. You learn about each child's school, favorite foods, home, religion, and interests. I was so intrigued, that I read the whole book myself before my son could get to it. Of course my son also loved it. Reading it with him led to many interesting discussions about other cultures. His favorite child in the book is Celina, a little girl who swims and plays in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, and never has to wear shoes. He also enjoys looking at the
National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers, 3rd Edition. For his birthday this year I plan to get him a subscription to the National Geographic Children's magazine. Both are available from the National Geographic Store (4%).
Barnes & Noble.com (2%)
National Geographic Store (4%)
