'Preciate cha!

The past week has been heinous.  It was teacher appreciation week at the elementary school, and for reasons not completely fathomable, I kind of ended up as the room mother of my 2nd grader's class.  It was my goal, when planning this week, to not have a bunch of things the kids had to be bringing in each day.  We asked the kids to bring in a funky "punny" item to put on a poster on Monday, (does the teacher make you laugh?  Bring in a Snickers bar.  Did he "turn you on" to science?  Bring in a lightbulb.  Stuff like that.)  We asked the kids to wear the teacher's favorite color one day, and if they want to donate to the gift basket to the teacher, to bring something in for that. That was all that was required of them.  Some friends of mine have complained that every day there's something else they're supposed to be sending in with the kids...  So I was pretty determined to keep this low effort on everyone's part. 
On Monday another mother and I went in and did a project with the kids using their items from home.  On Tuesday one mom brought in donuts for the whole class (we DONUT know what we'd do without you!) on Wednesday another mom brought in apples for everyone - the teacher's favorite snack, and on Thursday another mom brought in fruit snacks for everyone - the assistant teacher's favorite snack.
On Friday was the culmination of teacher appreciation week, and we threw a valentine party too.  In the planning meeting we came up with some games and things that worked at the Halloween party, then one mom suggested we have a chocolate fountain.  A what?  A chocolate fountain, that you dip things in, strawberries and stuff.  These are 2nd graders! You want to put them in a room with moving chocolate? 
I was just fine with all of the party, but the chocolate fountain really had me spooked.  I've never seen one before, and it turned out I was the one buying dipping items for it.  Which also didn't thrill me...
But it all worked out just fine.  Well, sort of, considering the chocolate fountain didn't work, and we ended up microwaving some of the chocolate, and then the kids just dipped stuff into the chocolate sitting in the bottom of the non-functioning chocolate fountain.

 

Kids at the food bar.  The non-functioning chocolate fountain is on the right.

Notice my valentine attired co-hort behind the table.  The chocolate fountain is hers.

She wore red sparkle shoes that matched her apron.  

She brought cream cheese spreaders that

were Valentine themed.

The posters that we made with the kid's items worked out well, the games worked out fine, everyone had fun.  The chocolate fountain would have been just fine, I may have to have one at my next party.

 

The poster for the teacher with each kid's 8.5 x 11 contribution.

This is what Thing 1 made for the teacher.  

She came up with the whole whoopee cushion idea.

And no, she didn't sign it Thing 1 - I doctored that.

One of the more brilliant game ideas was a "Heart Attack" station.  The kids wrote something they like about the teacher, then slap it on him with double stick tape.  He was a real sport about it.

I was just so terribly relieved when it was over, because we left for California that afternoon.
We had done a doggie drop with my sister on Thursday, meeting her midway between her house and our house to give her the dog for the week.  We've been trying to get ready for this trip.

The original plan was for us to leave for California about an hour after school got out - early release on Fridays would have had us on the road by 2:00 pm.  Of course we didn't make it.  It was closer to 4:00 pm.  But considering what we had to get done before we left, how long we were going, I wasn't terribly upset by this, except that we did hit some rush hour traffic around 5:00.
We made it to Vegas around 10:30 pm local time.
This morning we had a continental breakfast at the hotel - that makes traveling with the kids so much easier than doing breakfast at a restaurant.  We made it to Oceanside by 2:30 in the afternoon.
The girls were out on the beach by about 3:00.