The Week In Pictures

This morning marked the end of the Teacher Appreciation Week at the preschool.

Everyday the teachers were greeted with a breakfast buffet and a new table theme/setting. Once they got the hang of that there was a new theme every day, they would come in before it was all set up and ask "what's today's theme?" in excitement.

They all loved it and thanked me and the other mom many times over. Here are a few pictures from the week.
Unfortunately, I didn't snap any pictures of the table on the tea party theme. But every day the table looked great and the teachers complimented and many asked if I could come decorate their house. LOL.

I'm glad this week is over. I've gone to the preschool everyday this week to set up and make things nice. Makes for a little extra running, which was all worth it for making the teachers week. But I'm sure glad Rachel doesn't go to preschool five days a week. I wouldn't like all that running! LOL.

I have a week's break and then Teacher Appreciation Week begins at Hannah's school on the 18th...where our 'staff and teachers ROCK!" ...our Theme for Teacher Appreciation Week this year. :)

Thursday's Thoughts...

Today was day 4 of setting up and providing a nice breakfast buffet for our preschool teachers. The support and outpouring of home baked goodies, as well as store bought, from the preschool families has been overwhelming. The teachers have very much appreciated the spoiling they've gotten thus far and I think today was the best yet. Today's table theme was a Garden theme (I'll share pictures soon). I've been going straight to the preschool every morning after dropping Hannah off at school and setting up the tables. It'll be nice when we get back to our normal next week. Myself and the other Mom who's coordinated all this did get a nice basket of flowers today as thank you from the director, that was nice!

So yesterday afternoon held quite the event for us, Hannah had four teeth pulled. There are pictures and details on her blog. My hate for the going to the dentist is lessening in recent months, especially since my last visit was so 'memorable'. LOL. Both our girls have long roads ahead of them dental wise and I pray I can be a good example and a good support when we are at appointments.I will admit, I had to look away when Dr Hoffer pulled out her tooth extracting tool and started going to town on Hannah's mouth. No thanks. LOL.

The last few days have been HOT here in Southern California and it just confirms that summer is around the corner. It's been 95+ the last couple of days and it shows no cooling down for the Mother's Day weekend. I CAN'T wait to go camping at the beach over Memorial Day Weekend.

Oh yeah, did I mention that Licehead , the child in Rachel's preschool class was sent home with Lice on Tuesday...AGAIN! Hello! This is at least the 4th or 5th time she's been sent home in the last two months! Thankfully she wasn't in class today. But there's always Tuesday for trying to sneak her back in!

Tonight starts a new Bible Study at our church, The Truth Project, and Steven and I are going together. I'm looking forward to going. Although, I hope someone remembers to get there early and turn on the air conditioning, or it'll be be uncomfortable. LOL.

Well, it's that time again. To load up into the car and go wait for Hannah to get out of school. I haven't heard from the school today, so she must be doing well. Although, she's not going to be happy to hear that her dentist just called and her impression broke this morning and she'll need to re-do it!

Must Have Candle

I brought this candle out the other day and I think it's my most favorite Yankee candle in a very long time.

It's Juicy Peach. And it smells so good, it makes you crave a peach. It smells exactly like a real, in season peach.

Changing out the Decor

Every few months, depending on the season, holiday, or time of the year, I change out the decor atop my kitchen counter.

For the past month or so, I've had out my Spring flowers and my beautiful Winnie the Pooh Spring tea pot with its matching sugar and creamer. I've had my Spring table cloth on the dinning room table with my container of silk, but oh so real looking, tulips. Well Spring has Sprung and it's time to move on...

Time to move on to my "May/June decor". LOL. Brightly flowered place mats on the end of the counter bar, one having a vase of fake brightly colored gerber daisies, the other end a white plate with a coordination ribbon that sometimes has a written message on it. I also brought out a new Yankee jar candle I'd gotten on clearance. It's peach and to have it burning makes me long for a good, juicy peach. The smell is amazing and yet again Yankee has conquered a scent right on! That's sitting atop the counter as well.

I love changing out the decorations in our immediate living area, i.e. the kitchen and the family room. It changes things up every few months and you don't get tired of the same ole' things sitting out all year long. Anyone else do the same?

Summer Nights Are Gonna be AWESOME!

Disney announced their new summer promotion this past week and it's focusing on nighttime! The promotion is called "Summer Nightastic!" and from the looks of the videos I've seen, summer nights are going to be AWESOME!!

Disney is known for it's outstanding firework displays and this summer is predicted to be the best yet. "Magical" the new fireworks will debut Friday, June 12th and run through August. This will be the first new fireworks show since the 50th Anniversary fireworks debuted four years ago.

Broadway star, and former Disneyland Cast Member, Eden Espinoza, will sing featured songs from Mary Poppins, Dumbo, and Pinocchio. We saw Eden Espinoza play the part of Elphedra in WICKED last November and it will be a real treat to hear her sing the Disney songs. For the first time ever - Dumbo is going to fly, high above Sleeping Beauty's castle! Imagineers are working hard behind the scenes to put the finishing touches on the flying elephant and they promise it'll be a sight to see!

The other nighttime spectacular not to miss this summer will be the revamp of Fantasmic! It's been 18 years since Fantasmic first debuted and the time has come to upgrade it to the times! The images of Fantasmic will now be projected in HD, high definition, which is really going to make the experience all the better. There's a new 40 foot dragon, a new crocodile that follows Captain Hook, and a couple new cast members to join the Fantasmic cast, Flotsam and Jetsam from The Little Mermaid. Some great improvements are being made to an already favorite attraction and it's for sure on our list of things to see at least a few times this summer!

When the Electrical Parade returned to California Adventure in 2001, it returned without a couple of floats familiar to the fans. The coal mine float from Snow White and the two floats from Pinoochios' Pleasure Island. Those floats are :::finally!::: making a comeback to the Electrical Parade this summer! There will be a new addition as well. With the outstanding success of Tinkerbell, she'll now have her own float that leads the parade! This parade is a favorite of Rachel's and we'll for sure make an effort to see this nighttime parade a time or two this summer!

All these new things are going to be awesome! And we can't wait to see the new things and the improvements made to some already pretty amazing attractions. We can't wait for Summer Nightastic!

How The Swine Flu Started...

Teacher Appreciation Week - at the Preschool

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week at the preschool. Years past, it's been pretty simple, kept at the classroom level, as far as I know. But this year, another Mom had the great idea to put on a breakfast brunch every morning in honor of the teachers, assistants, and other important staff at the preschool.

Having been a part and seen the effort and creativeness at our elementary school for Teacher Appreciation Week, I joined in on the efforts to make each morning special and memorable. And it's shaping out to be a great week for the teachers!

Every morning, we are having parent volunteers bring in breakfast-like things - muffins, bagels, donuts, fruit, etc, etc, etc. We're setting up a buffet table pretty and doing it up different everyday. I've come up with these clever little sayings that I've printed out and will put into an 8x10 frame, along with creative 'party' favor treats for everyday. These are what I've come up with for the week:

Day 1:
"Just as a cup of tea is soothing and realaxing,
so is the environment our ::insert school name:: teachers create".
The table will have tea cup napkins and I plan on bringing one of my pretty tea pots in and decorating the table pretty, as if for a tea party. The favor for that day is a tea bag taped on a pretty piece of paper.

Day 2:
"::Insert name of school:: teachers have an endless supply
of Hugs and Kisses.'
Table will have pink plates and leftover cups from Valentines Day. The favor for that day is little treat bags with Hershey's Kisses and Hershey's Hugs.

Day 3:
"There are NO tarts at our school, all our ::insert school name:: teachers are sweet!"
Turquiose table cloth, polka dot napkins, Bright fun colors. The party favor, little packages of Sweet Tarts tied together with curling ribbon.

Day 4:
"::Insert School Name:: teachers help our little seedlings blossom..."
The table will be all in green...green table cloth, napkins, cups, plates. I hope to have potted flowers. The party favor will be a garden tool with a packet of seeds attached.

Day 5:
"Just as a bookmark marks a place in a book,
so do the teachers at ::insert school name::...
They mark a special place in our little ones' lives."
The table will be decorated in pastel colors. Party favor for the day are bookmarks made from craft foam with the above saying typed and printed on the back.

I think the teachers will be blessed, surprised, and made to feel special. I can't wait for the week to come and see how it all goes. Meanwhile, I'm also starting to work on things for Teacher Appreciation Week at Hannah's school the week of May 18th!