End of School Year Gifts ... Plus Helps with Dead Brain for Summer Time

I wanted to do something special for Caden graduating Kindergarten and I found on pinterest and idea of a basket full of things to prep them for First Grade (forgive me for the life of me I can't find my link I saved, so if it is your's PLEASE let me know and I'll add).  Well I couldn't do one just for Caden I have have one for Cole to so I made a end of 3rd grade basket also.  This was a very simple one to make but the boys were so excited to dive into it. My plan is each day they are to do one or two pages out of the workbooks to keep us from hitting the dreaded Summer Dead Brain as my mom use to call it.

For these I hit up the dollar store, yup it really is packed with activity books and you can load up and make a great gift with out going bankrupt.  I did also add some fun Memory books for the kids to fill out so I can put them in their scrapbooks (yup when I get around to making those).

Caden's Basket!

Cole's Basket

What you Need:

Activity Books (Reading, Math etc)

Flashcards

Puzzles

Reading Books

Coloring Books

Colored Pencils / Crayons / Pencils

Bins

I had some extra bins from a project I did a while back (I'll show that one soon).  I fanned out the material so the kids could get a glimpse of everything in the bin.  Cole will be entering 4th Grade so I found material for 3/4 grade and he LOVES mechanical pencils so I bought him a whole pack (I think he was the MOST excited for those).  Caden will be entering 1st Grade so I found material for 1/2 grade and he LOVES color pencils so I bought those for him.  He is my reading bug like me so I put in an extra book for him.  If I had more time I would add a little ribbon and a tag but I they loved it!

Kindergarten Graduation Gift Basket

3rd Grade Gift Basket

I wanted to do a little some fun for the kids to fill out and I'll put in their scrapbook (ummm humm ... reminder to self get those done).  I went to my favorite site that I used when I was doing newsletters for the PTF, Teachers Pay Teachers Website.  I found these super cute books that I printed off on my home printer and stapled together for little books.  The ones I picked were FREE downloads but you can always use the pay for one's also and they are really reasonable.  The 3rd Grade Memory book I found HERE.  The Kindergarten Memory book I found HERE.

Easy gift to do and makes summer learning fun!

Hope you all have a GREAT day!

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.

And again I volunteer ...

LOL I just can't help myself!  But at least this time I volunteered to bake!  The boys school is having their Spring Fling this Saturday.  I said I would bake the cupcakes for the cake walk!  Of course I couldn't do just store bought cupcakes or box cupcakes.  So on the search for what I wanted to do ... lol.

Our School colors are Red, White and Black and the theme is Nascar.  I thought it would be fun to do red & white cupcakes and frosting and see if I could find a flag to put in them.  ON to Pinterest and Google Images I went.

Wish me luck!  I was going to make 200 mini cupcakes.  But I think I may just make 100 or so regular cupcakes since they now have asked for people to bring desserts and it's not really fair if one person gets a pie and one person gets a mini cupcake!

So here is my plan, and Thank God my friend said she will help me!

The inspiration:

This sturdy Frosting

Using this trick

This Cupcake (with out the peppermint flavor)

Thinking a few of these Stickers cut out and put on a tooth pick.

Wish me luck!

We interrupt the Weekend Wrap for …

Ok so that is not me but that is how I looked this am … because you may ask?  WELL today is the first day of school … yup that is angel’s singing!  Cole is off to his 1st day of SECOND grade!  I’m so excited and he was actually happy to go with a ting of being afraid I wasn’t coming back . After promising that I would be back to pick him up he was set for a day of school.  He has his same teacher from last year.  The nice thing about private faith based school, even with the perk’s of faith he has smaller class rooms.  His class is 1st and 2nd grade with the same teacher with a total of 23 kids! 

Here we go getting back in the school groove and checking out our new seating and checking out the friends from last year! Caden even had to check out his new desk.  Yes Cole got on the bike and said he was going to peddle to school … lol.

Because I’m a nutty mom (as you all know by now) I wanted to make a fun treat for the class I did some google searching and found several recipes for a cupcake like an apple.  I made a brown sugar cupcake mix (thank you Marth Stewart & Your Home Based Mom) and then made these Apple Themed Cupcakes.

I’ll have to pack in our weekend tomorrow but I couldn’t wait to show off my big boy and these cupcakes!  Enjoy! 
So did anyone make something fun for the going back to school kids?  Or something you use to make for your kids?

And the race continues ...

Really I think I do my best when I'm running, now only if all this running around would help loose weight. Now if I could figure that out we would be a head of the game! Yet another fun morning of 3 stops before I can get to work. Today was review day at work, do you ever feel like your having the "talk" with your parents when you have to go into a close door meeting with your boss. I get so nervous, start biting my lip and fidget like I'm a kid. I feel like I'm talking to my dad telling him I got all A's and he's giving me the look and saying you could have done better. I'm sure there is some Froidism in there, that I'm sure I don't want to know the answer. Well you take the good and the bad and work forward. Good news the proposal I did 2 weeks ago all by myself was short listed! Which is amazing since everyone here didn't really want or think we could get the job, let alone no one helping me do the proposal the hopes were VERY low I could even get anything that looked nice. I'm happy to say my first solo attempt has blown people away, let's keep the ball rolling!

Since my life is not crazy enough I found a toy box on craigslist that I just had to go pick up today. Well the address in Puyallup turned out to be out in the boondocks, it took almost 40 in heavy traffic to get there. Yup the $20 toy box was oh so worth the gas ... LOL. Sometimes my logic is totally off whack! So of course this is the same night the host people are coming to visit, I call and let them know we'll be late. The traffic actually wasn't bad at all on the way home so we actually made it home only 5 minutes after the time they were suppose to be there. We walk in the door to the wonderful smells of my pork roast, have I told you how much I love my crock pot! It had to be a busy mom that created it, because it's a life saver! We were able to sit down and eat, Roy even had seconds keeping this recipe! Oh wait it's one I made up in my head, maybe I should write it down, nah I won't forget it right? I even had time to do the dishes and wash the toy box before the host people came! Score I'm so on top of it! We survived the visit and think we're doing well!

Rick came home and took the boys to the store to pick up a few things. Leaving me and Caden to hang out, wow I don't know what to do when it's so quiet in the house. I think I'll turn the TV on loud to make it feel normal around here! Well today was a pretty good day minus the lessons of the day :). I'm rolling on and hey I even got the crock pot washed, now that is a gold star moment if I ever saw one! Tomorrow should be fun only 2 stops in the morning, Grandma is taking the day off and Dad is coming to stay with Caden. Oh boy cross your fingers he doesn't scream all day. Can't wait for this anxiety stage is over! Also cross your fingers my new Internet comes tomorrow, still hasn't arrived and I need to do my second job tomorrow before they get really upset with me!