Saying thanks

by Holly

Today was a sweet day. I was crazy busy with my kids school stuff, but in the middle of it all was a sweet moment of thanking middle-man's kindergarten teacher for an amazing year. The room mom from the class had approached me about making a gift card bouquet for her. To be honest, I had no idea what this meant. I looked up some ideas online, and then remembered that one of my most fabulous friends, Courtney, had just let me borrow one of her new cricut cartridges that makes flowers. Here it is here...

If you have a cricut, I highly recommend this cartridge. I have made quite a few fantastic creations with this one. It takes a little effort to get all the layers cut, but the outcome is super cute!
Now I know that not everyone has a cricut, so you can also get various foam flowers at Michael's and other craft stores that would work just as well. Here are the flowers I came up with...

All I did was stick them to craft sticks (at various heights), and put cardstock on the back of each flower (taped on the sides and bottom, leave the top open) to be the pocket for the card.

Parents went out and bought gift cards to various places, and some even gave her cash. I stuck them in the flowers and had each child in the class sign their name on a piece of ribbon that I tied to each craft stick. Then I stuck the sticks in a piece of styrofoam that I placed in a hot pink, woven basket that I found on sale at Michael's. Everything stayed nice and tight. Yay!
The sweet part was that Missy, the room mom, found the perfect book to go along with the "bouquet." It is called "Mrs. Spitzer's Garden." It is about a teacher who is given a packet of seeds from her principal to take care of for a year. She waters them, feeds them, and tends gently to them until they grow and become ready to move on. Oh my goodness, I am getting teary just thinking about it. We asked the teacher if she would read the book to the class and all of us moms just stood in the back and cried as she read. What a blessing to have such a fantastic teacher for your child's first year in school. I have to say, my kids have had some amazing teachers. I am so grateful!
So, along with the "flowers" with the gift cards, each child also placed a packet of seeds in the bouquet. Here is how it turned out...

It turned out even better than I had hoped, and middle man's teacher was speechless. So, all I can say is (and this doesn't even do justice) "thank you" to Mrs. Schiefer and Mrs. Finley for taking such good care of my little seeds this year.

Happy Tuesday Everyone!