Teacher Gifts

This week is the kids' last week in their current rooms at daycare.  Kate will be moving from the Preschool room up to the Junior Kindergarten room, and Jack will be moving from the Infant room to the Toddler room.  So I wanted to show their teachers our appreciation for all they have done over the last year.  As usual, I resorted to gift cards because they are easy and I know they will use them.  But rather than just tuck them inside a thank you card, I decided to do something a little more creative.


I'm really into pinwheels right now.  I have no idea why.  I think I'm just longing for the summer that doesn't seem to be coming to Seattle.  So I thought it would be fun to make some colorful wheels to accompany the gift cards.


I started with some really colorful double-sided patterned paper:

Fun paper makes me happy.


Then I cut them down into 6X6 inch squares and made cuts from each corner towards the center.  And then I poked holes in every other corner and the center.  

I purchased a pack of foil-covered pencils to use as the sticks (since they are for teachers and all).  For the centers I used straight-pins (map pins work best because they are shorter) which I stuck into the erasers of the pencils.  I put a couple of beads in between the pinwheels and the erasers so they would spin better.

I wanted to display the pinwheels like a flower arrangement, so I purchased these small vases from the garden aisle at Fred Meyer for just a few dollars each.

I then filled them halfway with glass rocks to hold the sticks in place.

For the gift cards, I created cards with holders out of the same paper I used for the pinwheels.  I printed out little pictures of the kids and wrote each teacher a little thank you note (Kate wrote her own).  

I then taped the cards onto the outside of the vases and voila!  I think they turned out nice and are much more fun than just a thank you note.

I had so much fun with my pinwheel project, I made these beauties for the upcoming 4th of July holiday!  I think I'll put them out in the flower bed in front of our house.  Hopefully these will bring out the sunshine!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful fathers out there; most of all my dad, my father-in-law and my husband!  

We had a very relaxing day at home today.  I had originally planned to have Dave play golf with some of his buddies, but due to a hand injury, he had to bow out.  So we had to come up with other ways to spoil him.  

His first treat was letting him sleep in both days this weekend (well as much as you can sleep in with two rowdy toddlers downstairs).  We also attempted to take him out to dinner last night.  We tried to take him to Jaks Steakhouse in Issaquah.  But after over an hour wait, with no end in sight, we ended up at the XXX for burgers and shakes instead.  Not a bad compromise, but not exactly what I had in mind for his special dinner.

This morning we gave him his gifts.  I got him the usual assortment of clothes from REI - I love shopping for him there, especially since I get a discount :).  I also got him a special pan for grilling vegetables on the barbecue.  Kate got him a gift certificate for wine.com (so thoughtful of her).  And Jack got him a certificate to Pro Golf Discount.  Both complements of Living Social, which, along with Groupon, is one of the greatest resources when it comes to gift ideas!

   

The kids also made him nice gifts at daycare.

I love that Kate thinks Dave is 10 feet tall and weighs 25 pounds.  Especially since she weighs 38 pounds herself!  She also made him a nice frame made out of tongue depressors and buttons but it is currently in need of some repairs (after getting accidentally smashed on the way home from daycare) so I don't have a picture.  

After presents, Jack and I went to Starbucks to pick up some coffee and breakfast.  Dave watched the US Open for a bit and then went out for a long bike ride.  With our weather being so bad and just being busy with the kids, he hasn't gotten many opportunities to get out riding.  So that was a nice treat.  

When he got home, Kate asked him if he would like to come to her tea party.  While considering if he wanted to (as he sat in front of the TV watching golf), Kate said "I'm serving wine, now do you want to come?".  How could he pass that up?  And of course, she wanted to have it outside on the deck, despite it being 50 degrees outside.  

Speaking of the deck, we just got new furniture for the section of the deck right outside our bedroom.  I love it!

We ended the day's festivities with dinner at The Rock with the Larsen family so we could wish Poppa Dave a Happy Father's Day too!

A Colorado Weekend

My best friend Andrea had a baby girl way back in March and I have been dying to meet her (and so has Kate).  So when my parents said they could use some help with some organizing at their house, I took the opportunity for a quick girls weekend in Colorado to help them out and get some quality time with the Fulton family!  Jack and Dave stayed home for some male bonding time.  

Kate and I flew out on Thursday evening and got in fairly late.  I don't think she got to bed until close to 11:00 (only 10:00 Seattle time).  But for some reason managed to wake up bright and early at 6:30 AM on Friday.  How come the later kids get to bed, the earlier they wake up?  Makes no sense at all and is very hard on mommies who like to sleep in!  

We started the day by helping my parents go through boxes of some of my old things that were down in their basement.  Kate got bored after a while so Poppa took her to the park while my mom and I finished up.  We filled up multiple trash bags with garbage and things to donate.  Very productive!  We even went and sold some of the baby things we no longer needed at a consignment store.  

Kate and I then went to Andrea's house to finally meet baby Georgia Jane.  She is cuter than the pictures do her justice and a very sweet baby.  Kate kept telling me how cute she was.  Kate also had a lot of fun playing with Jackson who will be turning 2 in just a few weeks.  He reminds me a lot of Jack.  They will have lots of fun together the next time they see each other!

We walked from their house up to Chipotle to have dinner and then down the street to get some ice cream.  We then walked back and sat out on their patio to enjoy the nice weather.

Baby Georgia

Kate and Jackson at Chipotle

Jackson, Andrea & Georgia Fulton

On Saturday Kate and I joined my mom for a race she had signed up to do in downtown Arvada to benefit the Ralston House, an organization that counsels abused children.  The race was a .5K.  No, that is not a typo.  .5K.  It was literally around the block.  Now that is my kind of race!  Kate had a great time because there she got a fake tattoo, a balloon animal, her nails painted, a medal for finishing the race, and a goodie bag full of candy and all kinds of other stuff.  All my mom and I got were a bunch of coupons.  

After the race we did some shopping and purchased Kate her first pair of flip-flops.  This is very exciting because I've had a hard time convincing her to wear anything except her lace-up tennis shoes that light up.  I really wanted to get her to wear some slip on sandals that she could easily take on and off.  We also got a pair of Crocs so she is all set if summer ever decides to come to Seattle!

After shopping we helped my mom with some more organizing and then we crashed a Fulton family dinner for a little bit.  I was able to see Andrea's sisters, nephews, parents and grandmother which was a lot of fun.  Some of them I haven't seen since she got married about 8 years ago!

And then we topped off the day by going out to dinner at Hacienda Colorado (one of my favorites) with Uncle Josh.  Kate went home with my parents and Josh and I went to see the X-Men movie.  It was really good - definitely recommend it if you like the other X-Men movies.

Today we met Andrea and Miss Georgia for coffee near their house.  The weather was wonderful so we sat outside and enjoyed the sun for a while.

Kate with Georgia

We then met Uncle Josh at the Denver REI Flagship store to do some birthday & Father's Day shopping.  Kate had a lot of fun playing in the little creek that runs out front and on the big climbing rock. (which made me very nervous).

 Can you see why I was nervous?

We then returned home to spend a little more time with my parents before heading to the airport.  We took a nice walk by their house and got some more good pics of Kate.

Kate with Grandma Linda & Poppa Mark

It was a really quick trip and very busy but I'm glad we got to do it.  It was wonderful to meet Georgia and to have some one-on-one time with my best girl Kate.  Happy to be home.  Our flight got in early so we even got home in time to see Jack before he went to bed.  So happy to see both him and Dave.  I missed my boys!  


Goodnight all!  

Zoo-mania

We had beautiful weather this weekend and spent lots of time playing outside.  Today we decided to take advantage of the weather and visit the zoo.  This was the first time for Jack.  So it was really fun watching him experience the animals that he has only seen in pictures until now.  

In their wagon getting ready to enter the zoo

 Jack with Daddy pointing out the animals

Hippos snoozing in the water

The highlight of our visit was getting to feed a giraffe.  Well worth the $5.  Both kids (and I) got to feed her 2 bunches of leaves.  It was really fun to get that close to her and have her eating out of our hands.  Kate was scared at first and wasn't even going to go.  But she changed her mind at the last minute and held the leaves right up to her mouth.  So brave!  Jack would hold out the leaves and then let go of them when the giraffe started getting close.

Here are some more pictures from the rest of our adventures at the zoo:

 Elephant!

Jack and Daddy watching the elephant

 Kate posing with the dragon

Komodo Dragon

 Holding hands

Bears!

Daddy and Kate watching the bears

Jack running free!

A ride on the carousel

 Penguins!

Cool Dude

 Pooped after a very fun day!