{The Polar Express} Winter Party

Well... Christmas is over, the New Year has come and we are wrapping up Winter Break at our house. 

Its been a really fun couple of weeks, but I am sooo ready to get back into our routine!

I wanted to share some things that I made for the boy's Winter parties this year. Last year I did a Rudolph party for Noah's class, which was a lot of fun, but Roman really wanted a Polar Express theme for his class this year. 

(And I wasn't interested in doing 2 different parties!) 

Doing The Polar Express happened to work perfectly because both classes were having a pajama party the following day as well as watching the movie, so our activities just added to that.

For favors I made packages of hot chocolate as well as bell ornaments for the kids to take home.

{I wish I hadn't waited so long to get the bells for the ornaments. I never thought all the craft stores would be completely sold out of silver bells! So red bells it is. Next time I will know better!}

{I poured Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate mix in some zip lock baggies, along with marshmallows, mini chocolate chips and red & green sprinkles. I just folded my label over the edge and stapled the top.}

{I designed tags for both that you are welcome to use! Just click on the picture, save it to your computer and print on card stock. The images are designed for 4x6 sizing.}

For Noah's Kindergarten class I found these FREE, downloadable, coloring sheets from a 123homeschool4me website. 

During free time they had the option to color, or take them home. 

{Next time I plan to scale them down to size and make a small coloring book.}

His class enjoyed their hot chocolate during snack time and took their bells home to hang on the tree.

For Roman's 2nd grade class, We had a complete breakfast bar. Every child brought in a certain item and we made Belgium Waffles right there in the classroom! The kids topped off their waffles with all kinds of goodies, and then made some Christmas tree ornaments to take home. 

For our game we played "BELL BINGO." I had come across the idea on Pinterest but was annoyed that I couldn't find anything for free- class parties have a budget, ya know! 

So I made my own!

Print the following 2 sheets on 8x10 paper. 

1 of each, per child.

{It could be card stock or construction paper, but regular printing paper would work as well.}

{I suggest having the kids use glue sticks for this project.}

{Really encourage the kids not to copy each others placement, this will help the game go longer.}

{I used the bell ornaments and hot chocolate packets as Bell Bingo prizes!} 

{Make sure you have LOTS of marshmallows to use as markers!}

The following are your 5x7 calling cards. 

{I do suggest printing these on card stock and saving them for another time.} 

I hope you and your kiddo's class enjoy!

{Happy New Year!}

Happy {Belated} Birthday

As the room parent, you are typically responsible for sending home birthday cards to your child's classmates on behalf of the PTA and class. I kept up with it fairly well (small special ed classes worked in my favor!) UNTIL this year. 

I promised Roman I would be his class's Room Parent since I was Noah's the year prior. When I let his teacher know, she was ecstatic. She said it had been over 7 years since she had one and stopped asking parents. This breaks my heart because if any class should have a little help, it should be in the special education classrooms. In general ed you sometimes have 2 or 3 Mom's who team together to help plan events and fundraising! But with the small class sizes and already overly extended families, the chances of a special ed teacher getting a Room Parent are slim to none. It certainly makes sense, but still a bummer.

School had started and Noah's new teacher was eager to tell me that she knew I was the room parent the year prior. She asked me if I was wanting to do it again this year. I couldn't say no, especially when she followed with "I have never had one in all my years of teaching!" Seriously, how could I say no?!

I have been so focused on keeping track of the birthdays of the teachers, parapros and classroom therapists that I didn't keep up with the kid's birthdays. So I thought to just give a card to all the kids who have had a birthday from the beginning of the school year until now and send them home the day of our holiday party.

Here's what I came up with for the Kindergartners:

And for the 2nd Graders:

Feel free to use for yourself! 
They will print as a 4x4 card and I recommend using a heavy card stock. 

...And go ask your child's teacher how you can help today!

Teacher Appreciation Week!

Long time no blog....
It would be nice if I was able to blog in real time. Maybe one day I will get there, but I don't see that day coming anytime soon. But that's ok. I'm happy to share when I can.
So summer is here and in full swing!!! My food bill has doubled thanks to these ever growing boys being home all day. I think a few more grey hairs have sprouted in the last few weeks with trying to keep up with all the kids, work part-time and not let my house collapse. We are a third of the way in and so far SUCCESS. (Shh... don't tell anyone but I am SO READY for school to start again!)

The week before spring break Noah's school held Teacher Appreciation Week. Romans school was doing "Sensational Teachers" and then a light bulb went off for Noah's class:

There are 5 senses and 5 days of the school week so this works perfectly! Each day of the week we focused on a different sense. I sent home to the parents the below examples of how to participate.
Here's what I came up with:

Monday: SIGHT
Let your teachers "see" how much they mean to you!
Suggestions
Have your child draw your teacher a picture of them together.
Have them write a letter telling their teacher how awesome they are.
Give your teacher a picture of you together for them to look at remember.
Optional
Buy you teacher your favorite book to add to their classroom. You can sign your name inside.
A gift card to a book store.

Tuesday: HEAR
Let your teacher "hear" how wonderful they are!
Suggestions
Tell you teacher how much they mean to you by saying a big Thank You.
Give them a singing/talking thank you card.
Optional
A book or stuffed animal that records your child's voice.
A gift card for iTunes or music store.

Wednesday: TOUCH
Let your teachers know how much they have "touched" you heart!
Suggestions
Give your teacher a big hug today.
PARENTS can make their child's teacher a list of all the ways they have touched their child's life.
Optional
A bottle of lotion, a soft blanket or a fuzzy stuffed animal.
A gift card to a nail salon or for a massage.

Thursday: SMELL
Let your teachers stop and "smell" the roses!
Suggestions
Pick some flowers to give to your teacher.
Buy her a single red rose.
Color her a picture in smelly markers or crayons.
Optional
A candle or body spray.
A gift card to a place similar to Bath & Body

Friday: TASTE
Let you teacher enjoy a tasty treat for all their hard work!
Suggestions
Bring in a treat for your teacher, or maybe even the whole class.
Optional
A gift card to Starbucks or a local coffee shop.
A gift card to your teachers favorite restaurant.

Here's just a few suggestions to help you long the way, should you choose to try this in your child's class:
Be sure all your families know about the weeks activities, that they are to be in a certain order and focused on one at a time.
If you are emailing your families and don't get a response from some, then call them. Sometimes they dont read or simply forget the notes sent home. (I do it all the time!)
Make sure when corresponding to your parents that they are very aware that they do not have to spend any money to participate, this is very important! Also that the above are simply suggestions- they can get creative and come up with their own ideas as well!

When I shared with the PTA they decided to do the theme for the entire school!
Here's how we incorporated the same theme into the week for all the staff:

Monday: SIGHT
The PTA decorated the teachers classroom doors with "Thank you for being a 'sense'ational Teacher!"
Tuesday: HEAR
During morning announcements over the PA system, the PTA read a poem and thanked the teachers for all their hard work.
Wednesday: TOUCH
We set up a booth in the hallway labeled "Free High Fives" and had some older students take turns working the booth. As teachers walked by they offered a high five for a job well done.
Thursday: SMELL
The PTA passed out raffle tickets to each of the classrooms that morning and announced the winners of hanging flower baskets during morning announcements.
Friday: TASTE
Everyone pitched in a gave the staff a wonderful breakfast that morning!

It was so much fun to see all the different and creative ways we honored our teachers through out the week. When the "sense of the day" was smell there were flowers all through out the school! Parents carrying them in, they were in teachers hands, on their desks, everywhere! It was so beautiful!

To all my special needs Mommy's who follow my blog:
I want to encourage you to get actively involved in your child's class this coming school year. Don't assume because the class is "different" that they would not appreciate parties and such like the general ed. All parents desire to see their child in typical class room doing the things that they themselves enjoyed as a kid. Help give those families the opportunity to take pictures, a reason to socialize with the other parents and an atmosphere that doesn't feel that different after all.
Unfortunately the special ed classrooms get over looked when the school is participating in activities that could be overwhelming for our kiddos classrooms. Get in there and help your child's teacher modify and participate. Those teachers deserve so much and often it goes unseen. Don't stand by and let that happen!

3 more weeks and school will be back in session again. I cant believe it! This last year was so much fun being a room mom, I hope I get the opportunity to do it again next year! I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer (Holiday Classroom Party)

I got to do my first party as "Room Mom" for Noah's class! I think it turned out really cute! Here's some of the details:

The theme was Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. Each Parent brought in a food item and we had a pretty nice spread! 

For the gift table I brought in a small Christmas tree from home and decorated it with the ornaments I made for each child. On Rudolph's scarf I put each child's name and the year. However the reindeer candy canes proved too tempting for some of the preschoolers! Needless to say some didn't make it home!

For some take home goodies I made these super cute, and actually pretty easy, cookie pops. I know everyone loves to make cake pops, and they are cute, but man are they time consuming! Here's what you would need to make your own Rudolph cookie pops!

So to make these you will need to buy some type of Oreo cookie. Place a popsicle stick inside the filling and dip inside your melted chocolate. Be sure to fill in the edges and around where you inserted the popsicle stick. Now add your broken pretzels for the antlers and mini m&m's for the eyes and nose. Place them on a cookie sheet, on top of some parchment paper and place them in the fridge to set more quickly. I used sandwich baggies to cover the cookies.

Another take home goodie I made for the class were these super cute Rudolph hot cocoa treats:

I used plastic sandwich baggies and filled the corner with a scoop of hot cocoa mix. On top I sprinkled some mini chocolate chips and then placed several marshmallows on top. I tied the top with some brown pipe cleaner "antlers." I glued on some eyes and a red nose and voila!

I made stations in the party room for the kiddos, but for the most part we moved from station to station together its a small class).

We first made Rudolph goodie bags to put our take home treats inside. I brought in my stamp pad and we were able to work on finding the letters to spell our names. I had pre-cut the the ears, nose and antlers for sake of time.

The number one reason I enjoyed doing this? 

That guy, right there^^^

We also made some Reindeer Sugar cookies at another station. So for this I really cant take too much credit! I found a candy kit with the pieces to make Rudolph's face and I bought pre-made sugar cookies from Publix as well as some chocolate frosting.

Noah's came out pretty cute! And he actually made it first instead of eating the pieces! That takes self control, people!

Lastly for our game station we played "Reindeer Ring Toss."

I constructed Rudolph's face and glued it onto a box wrapped in some packing paper. The antlers are cardboard and I had to reinforce them with some wood skewers.  The rings are just some small green paper plates with the inside cut out. Some of the kids tried tossing the rings, others just liked moving them around the antlers and decorating Rudolph. 

Over all I was a great success and I'm pretty sure the kids had fun! 

First class party as room mom: CHECK!

Noah's 5th & Lydia's 3rd Birthday Party!

I cant believe it... another party, and another two children, each a year older, just.like.that.

Not fair. I want them to be babies forever.

*Que whining to Husband about having more babies*

The kiddos were super hero's for Halloween, as were most kiddos their age. So I decided to do a cute super hero theme for their party. The primary colors fit well in the Gymboree Play & Music, where we had their party, and the equipment easily turned into roof tops and sides of buildings to scale.

 

 

I invited Noah's class to his party, and much to my surprise 4 of his classmates came. It was wonderful being able to spend some time talking to the other moms, more so then the "hi" and "bye" in passing at school. One mom just stood with her mouth open- Her son had never went to a birthday party before and she just couldn't believe how well he was adjusting and how much fun he was having.

Let me back up the bus.

Its a little bus. And it has some really, really cool kids on it :)

Noah is currently in an SDDPre-K4 (Significantly Developmentally Delayed Pre-kindergarten 4 year old) class. We say SDDK because
1. its easier to say.
2. it sounds a whole heck of a lot nicer.
He is in a class of 8 boys, all on the autism spectrum with varying needs.

I have had to bow out of a party or two because of Noah's meltdowns, but in the last 12 months he has been doing really well. So I understand this mommy's amazement. I was able to put my guard down because Noah was use to the party's surroundings (Hes been to Gymboree many times) and there were a lot of familiar faces around him. All the special needs moms huddle together, with intense eyes on their child. As they talked to one another, rarely the woman's eyes would meet eachothers because they were watching their boys. It was something that I know all too well. Just as if we were at anothers gathering and I'm in constant panic mode as to "Wheres Noah?" "Whats he doing?" and "Where is he going?"

Briefly we were able to talk about healing, and the many forms it can come, but how the Healer is the same. We talked about practicing wisdom in helping and assisting our children. We talked about "THE BOX" society tries to stuff our boys into. It such an wonderful feeling to know the secret language of a special needs mom and speaking in that language about God's love, mercy and grace.

Lydia, my little SuperGirl, had so much fun running with all her cousins and friends. She's so smart, so tiny but so feisty. Her ability to lead FEARLESSLY at 3 years old is something to marvel at. I'm learning how to nurture and maintain her confidence without raising a brat, lol. She has her moments, but so far, so good :)

Ok, so I had put on the invitations for little ones to wear their super hero costumes. And to fit the theme, I decided to make super hero capes for the party favors. I am so stinkin' thrilled as to how cute they turned out!

Just some felt, glue and scissors and I was able to whip up some SUPER HERO MAGIC!

*Insert Holly doing the Cabbage Patch*

I also had a Spider Man cape and Wonder Woman, but forgot to take a picture before they were snatched up at the party.

I would say to not skimp out on some quality fabric glue. Felt absorbs the glue quickly, so you need something tacky and thick to hold. I wouldn't suggest using a hot glue gun on felt, as it can melt the fibers and show hard patches through the fabric. When cutting felt be sure you have some super sharp fabric scissors. I like Fiskars Heavy Fabric Cutters. The one thing that bothered me, as the perfectionist I am, was that I just couldn't seem to cut the fabric perfectly straight, The scissors did such a good job cutting that it was easy to veer off my patterns. I'm sure there's some trick to cutting felt that I have yet to discover, If you have one, do share!

Speaking of patterns- I didn't really have any. I just printed images off the web and scaled them to fit my capes. Here are some you can use:

Max California is a great sewing blog where I picked up these stencils:

(via Google images)

TO THE BAT CAVE!

For food we just had pizza, pop and cupcakes. What Noah and Lydia would eat every meal, every day, if we let them.

For tunes I was able to put together a pretty sweet song list on my Spotify:
(Download and enjoy!)
Super Hero Party Song List (Spotify)


In true fashion, I was way to busy to take any blog worthy photos of the party. But since the party, the left over capes have been getting great use at home:

Superman LOVES left over Birthday cake!

"Hey Spidey Girl. You wanna climb the Christmas tree and I'll fly up to save you?"
"SURE!"