Our Adventures with Ryan and Riley Cate

teacher appreciation week {2012}

may 7-11th is teacher appreciation week, and I have lots of great ideas for ways to appreciate the favorite teachers in your life!  (here is my post from teacher appreciation week 2011).

we love teachers around the bledsoe house (and we now have a daddy-teacher to appreciate as well!).  I am helping to plan events for teachers at both schools this year, and have found lots of great ideas on pinterest.  teachers love good food!  chickfila for breakfast!  yes!  catered lunch!  yes!  sonic drinks!  yes!  Any of those things are good ideas, especially if you are helping to plan for a group of teachers.  

Source: skiptomylou.org via Kimberly on Pinterest

  

Source: eighteen25.blogspot.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

Source: thecraftingchicks.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

 

 

Source: therachelberryblog.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

 

If you are strapped for time, pick them up a giftcard to sonic or chickfila (or something universal that everyone loves, or that you know they love in particular). 

And most important of all, YOU and YOUR CHILD tell the teachers in your life how much you appreciate them.  we did personalized cards this year with photos of the kids for teacher appreciation week expressing our thanks, and I love the way they turned out!

happy teacher appreciation week (may 7-11), now take some time to go appreciate those teachers!

pinterest love: {valentines treats!}

{1}:  rice krispie treats cut with a small/medium heart shaped cookie cutter into heart shapes and then dipped in chocolate, sprinkled and put on a stick. 
original link:  http://www.howdoesshe.com/rice-crispie-valentines-suckers

{2}:  maybe my favorite, the oreo "cakester: cut with a small heart shaped cookie cutter, and then rolled in sprinkles or colored sugar if you wish.  EASY and PRECIOUS!
original link:  http://www.bakerella.com/easy-and-easier-valentine-treats/

{3}:  how to make a heart shaped cake:  one 8" round cake, one 8" square cake, cut the round cake in half to make the top of the heart, and frost!

{4}:  love this cupcake for valentines:  bottom is brownie batter, top strawberry cake mix, and icing!
original link:  http://iheart2stamp.com/2010/06/

{5}:  easy peanut butter cookies with a dove chocolate heart.  SIMPLE and PRECIOUS!  I went searching for the dove chocolate hearts and instead found reeses peanut butter filled chocolate hearts about the same size.  I like a little peanut butter with my peanut butter.
original link:  http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2011/01/from-recipe-box.html

and there you have it!  my favorite valentine treats from pinterest.  I will be making some next weekend.  and I may deem all of february as valentine month, so I can eventually try them all!

30 day photo challenge (gratitude): wrapping it up

well, I didn't end up getting a photo for every day.  life happened.  but I am thankful that I set out to do it, because it made me look at things in a different way this november. 

I am thankful for the biggest blessings in my life: my husband, my children, my parents, my extended family, my health, my home, my faith, my job.

but am I thankful enough for the smallest? 
I noticed things (and was thankful about things) I have not specifically thought about being thankful for before now: my childrens artwork, 20 minutes of time before dinner is ready to play bingo, school field trips, beautiful weather to take ryan out to ride his new scooter, a closet full of clothes for everyone in my family, sirius radio, heat on a cold night, a sweet old dog with bad breath, a 24 hour pharmacy to pick up medicine for a sick child, a smile when riley wears my UGG boots after her shower, squeals of children on the biggest slide ever.

I may not have been thankful for those things before, but I plan to be now.

30-day photo challenge (gratitude): week two

7 {something funny}:  riley cate orders a sprinkle donut and then only eats the sprinkle topping
8 {favorite color}:  my favorite girl wearing my favorite color, pink!
9 {inspiring person}:  my inspiring husband, who teaches the children that others consider unteachable
10 {nature}:  my jungle animal, roar!
11 {something old}:  may be an exaggeration, but age 6 is feeling really old these days!
12 {hands}:  love when riley clasps her hands under her chin, it's her signature pose
13 {written words}:  a sweet note from a daddy to his girl, left in her play kitchen
14 {movement}:  sliding, sliding and more sliding!

30-day photo challenge (gratitude): week one

1 {favorite food}:  mexican food, and chuy's has some of the best tex-mex (and cute t-shirts)!
2 {smile}:  love this smile from my sweet boy when I brought him lunch at school on halloween
3 {happiness}:  bike riding in the cooler weather
4 {leaves}:  not a lot of fall leaves around in our neck of the woods, but I am loving my fall mums
5 {sky}:  a chance of rain today, and for that I am definitely thankful!
6 {books}:  my current read, nicholas sparks, the lucky one

30-day photo challenge: gratitude

I found this idea on pinterest and love it! 
I am planning to do a weekly post with all the days from that week throughout the month of november.  I am going to take the photos with the instagram app on my iPhone and am really looking forward to highlighting things I am thankful for this month through this photo challenge.

I am already working on this day by day and will post the first installment sometime this weekend!

pinterest: recent favorites, part two {recipes}!

more from pinterest, this time the food and recipe version!

 
soup that tastes like lasagna?  I know 2 little people who will love this!

 
rainbow cake in a jar!

 
homemade egg mcmuffins, the eggs cook up perfectly in a muffin tin!

 
these baked swedish potatoes look wonderful!

 
I love the look of these rainbow cupcakes, you could do any flavor, tint the icing, and I believe the rainbows are made from sour patch straws?

 
cupcakes baked inside an ice cream cone = awesome!
riley has a milk allergy, and will possibly not ever have ice cream cones on her menu, so this is a wonderful idea!  you simply follow the recipe for cupcakes on the box, and pour 1/2 c batter into the cone (flat bottomed cones), and stand in a muffin pan to bake!

others I have found are:  copycat cracker barrel restaurant hashbrown casserole, chuys creamy jalapeno recipe, crockpot mac and cheese, corndog muffins (cornbread with an all-beef weenie in the middle, baked, not fried, love this idea!), chicken crescent roll casserole, and the list goes on and on! 

follow me on pinterest (kbledsoe), and you can pin some of this deliciousness for yourself too! 

pinterest: recent favorites, part one!

never heard of pinterest?  read my recent post about it!
I am addicted!

my favorite recent pins:

 
snowmen donuts, super cute for the preschool crowd!

 
gingerbread men turned upside down and iced to make reindeer!

 
love this pumpkin and "stick" centerpiece!  so simple, but so fabulous!

 
did you know you could carve a pumpkin with cookie cutters and a rubber mallet?  I think we will this year!  (looking at the cutters we have, ours will probably have a heart, snowman, bunny, gingerbread man, but still cute!)

 
snowmen out of egg cartons?  genius!

 
I am definitely spray painting my pumpkins to look like candy corns! 
cost of pumpkins + 99 cent spray paint, it's a must!

 
ribbon organizer... need I say more?

 
store your folded sheets in their matching pillowcase... another super smart organizational idea!

 
and this one, laughter, love and sonic drinks, well, because it is true!  and the site has a free printable...  I believe this will be printed and hanging in my house the next time you come over!

I have some super-fun recipe finds on pinterest, so that will be part 2 of this post...  coming soon!