"Jelly Beans for Sale!!"

Forgive me. I started this post a few weeks back and never finished it.

I'm finally finishing it now.

Not long ago, Whit decided to open a road-side jelly bean stand.

Not lemonade.

Not ice cream.

Jelly beans.

Innovator.

I train 'em right.

So, he went about preparations for opening his store.

He made a store front sign.



He gathered supplies.


He finessed some investors (aka Papa Joe and Hon).

And, he purchased his first pack of jelly beans to sale. Not just any ole' beans, either; only Jelly Bellys for Whit's shop ('cause we're high class like that).


On Thursday afternoon, the timing was right for the official grand opening of "Whit's Jelly Jumpe Shop." (Jumpe is pronounced Jump-ee, just in case you were wondering.)

He "hired" his sister as his assistant to set up shop. He bossed her around and told her what to do. (This must come naturally to some.) Then the strangest thing happened.

She followed his orders and did as he instructed.

{Insert cricket noises here.}

Finally, they were ready to open.


He had the signs, the product, and the assistant.

Lucky for him, he also had time to kill.


Poor kids sat there for 30-45 minutes before anyone even noticed they were there. They alternated between walking up and down the sidewalk screaming "Jelly beans for SALE!!" and sitting in the chairs.

Here's the view from my seat on the porch.


Then it happened.

They had their first customer.


They were so excited, I thought they were going to wet their pants. Truly.

They scurried around and bumped into each other.

Whit assured me they had it under control and wouldn't let me come out to the curb. The customers gave me a reassuring nod and so, I sat back down and watched the events unfold.

At one point, Olivia got so confused, she almost gave the dollar bill back to the customer.

That is, until Whit realized what was happening and quickly put a stop to it.

When the jellly beans were scooped and packaged up, I heard Whit say, "Thanks for stopping by our store! Come back this weekend, the jelly beans will be FREE!"

Wow. A marketing scheme. At six years old. Just wow.

It was really too, too cute. They were as proud as I've ever seen them.


And, honestly, I think I was as proud of them as I've ever been.

Since that initial opening, we've opened the jelly bean shop once or twice more.

We've had a few more customers.


We've added a few more workers/volunteers (they get paid in jelly beans).


And, if we can just keep from eating the profits, we might just make enough money this summer to donate to the relief efforts in Haiti.


Because that's how we roll in the summer time.

Teacher Appreciation Day 5

We did it!

We spoiled our teachers for 5 full days!

Just a small price to pay for the love and dedication they pour into their classrooms 180 days a year.

{Not to mention all they put up with each day!}

Speaking of pouring, Whit took these to his teachers:



I bought the carafes at Wal-Mart and used my Cricut to cut the vinyl letter for the front. I used this kit by Chelle's Creations to create the tag:


I think they were a big hit!

Since we made those same gifts for Olivia's teachers back at Valentine's Day, I had to come up with something different.

I really wanted to get them something fun they could use on THEMSELVES! Not on the classroom and not on their kids or families...just on THEMSELVES!

So I went to our local Fru-Fru, Girly-Girl Store and got them each a gift card. I made a simple teacher-y cup to go with them.






We love you Mrs. Sophie and Mrs. Catherine!! You have truly made our year the best it could be!


So that's it!

Teacher Appreciation Week is officially over!

I hope you found some inspiration to do something fun for the teachers in your life!

I wonder if you guys would enjoy having access to the tags I made each day? Are the downloads helpful? Did you enjoy getting the previous downloads I posted? Do you know how to use them? Let me know and I'll see if I can get permission to post them. Some of the tags would be great to use as End-of-the-Year teacher gifts, too!

Thanks for tuning in!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Teacher Appreciation Day 4

Almost there, guys!!

Only one day left!

ONE DAY!

I can TOTALLY do this!

Alrighty...so today's gifts went down like this.

Whit's teachers got these:



And, Liv's teachers got these:



Since we already talked about the Blockbuster gift cards and toppers in my last post, I'll skip right to the plant.

We stopped by Lowe's and picked up a simple potted plant. It was just a small plant and I paid about $3 each for them.


I created a little banner for it using Here Comes the Sun by Kaye Winiecki.


I stuck the banner onto a longer piece of cardstock and wrapped it around the plant.


And, that's it! Ready to deliver!


Only one more day of festivities! Stay tuned!

Teacher Appreciation Day 3

HUMP DAY!!!!! Wooo hooo!

Today we took these to Whit's teachers:




They are Chinese take-out boxes (purchased at Michael's) filled with fortune cookies!! They turned out verrrrrry cute and were not expensive at all! I just hope the teachers like the cookies?!? They both have kids, so even if they don't eat them, hopefully the kids will! To find info about supplies, visit here.

And, for Olivia's teachers, we took these:



Yep! The Sonic drink holder is back! This time I filled it with a gift card to the movies and lots of candy to smuggle into the theater eat on the way to and from the movie in the car!!

Here is a closeup of the front tag.


Cute, no?

And, here are the inside goodies:




And, here is the child chomping at the bits (can I go now?...how 'bout now?...PLEASE!! NOW???) ready to deliver them to her awesome teachers!


I'll be back later tonight to link you up to a FREEBIE of this treat topper:



Thanks for tuning in and I'll be back in a jiffy!

Teacher Appreciation Day 2

Today the kids took their teachers gift cards.

Of course, they were little teeny, tiny gift cards, but hey...it's money you can spend on yourself, right?!? Who doesn't like that?

I wanted to get gift cards to Starbucks, but we are a tad limited on Starbucks Stores here.

*Ahem*

We. Have. One.

And, it's in the Barnes and Noble store.

Not even a drive through.

Pffft.

Sooooooo, I settled and bought them Barnes and Nobles gift cards that they could use either in the bookstore or at the coffee shop.

Best of both worlds, I guess?

Here's the package (click to enlarge the pic):



I found travel coffee cups - nothing fancy - at Wal-Mart (yes, I know...very glamorous).



Actually, my friend Sophie found them, bought them and delivered them to my door at school because she is my partner in crime in all of this teacher appreciating.

(Only one problem here: Sophie is Olivia's teacher. This little detail has become quite complicated while trying to keep TA gifts secret. More on that later.)

Anyway, I stuffed them with brown krinkle paper (see the coffee resemblence?) and stuck the gift card on top!



I wrapped them in cellophane and added the tag and ribbon. (I used Cafe Break and Iced Coffee by Kaye Winiecki to create the tags.)



I asked the kids to sign the tags.





And, VOILA!



A cute, inexpensive gift for our favorite teachers!

I did have to make a tiny little revision in my plans, though.

Remember Sophie?

I couldn't make her one of these since she knew what I was doing (she made them for her teachers too). So, I bought her a gift card to Michael's and placed it in this little gift card holder I made just for her.




I used By My Side by Shawna Clingerman to create the gift card holder.

So, that's it!

Day 2. Done.

Only 3 more to go!

Stay tuned!

Teacher Appreciation!

Today is the first day of Teacher Appreciation Week - one of my FAVORITE weeks of the whole school year!

Since we wanted to thank all of our teachers for their hard work, we took these:




Today is the only day that I will take gifts to EVERY teacher (art, music, Spanish, PE, etc). The other days, I am only giving gifts to the head teachers and assistants.

Since I needed so many gifts, I chose to use my favorite Starbucks Frappuccino bottles filled with bubblegum. I have so many of the bottles, it's embarrassing. I have to use them somehow to justify my consumption levels!

I painted the lids, made a cute little tag and off they went.

Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that simple, but it was *fairly* simple and definitely worth it in the end!!

I used a little freebie kit by Pamela Donnis (unfortunately it is no longer available).

The kids were really excited to give them to their teachers. They helped me pick which gumball colors to put in each jar and then helped me sign all the tags. It was really cute to see them so excited. I hope they will always appreciate the hard work educators do!!





The picture of Olivia was from last week when she gave her gift to her gymnastics teacher. She was so excited, she wouldn't even wait for me to come with her to her classroom today. (Maybe tomorrow??)

We got SOAKED with rain on the way into the building, so she was ready to split when we got in the door.



This year I am also in charge of TA week at The Charter School. I made little gifts and tags for the teachers' desks for each day this week.

Here are a few of the things I came up with:


Tags created using Tea for Two by Dani Mogstad.



We have more lined up for the rest of the week, but some of the items I didn't get pictures of...imagine that?!? ME! NOT GETTING PICTURES!! I know you're all shocked!

Stay tuned for the rest of the week, though because I have a lot more goodies up my sleeve!

Hope you have a great Teacher Appreciation Week, too!