Chocolate-Lovin' Teachers

If you have a chocolate loving teacher on your shopping list, here are some great ideas that can be shipped fast in time for next week, Teacher Appreciation Week.


Mrs. Beasley's Pearl Basket, Filled with cookies with Ghiradelli chocolate, brownies and truffles.


Chocolate Lover's Gift Basket, Filled with chocolate chip cookies, chocolate espresso beans, chocolate-covered sandwich cookies, a chocolate-covered graham dunk, English toffee, Ghirardelli cocoa and an assortment of Ghirardelli chocolates.





Double Chocolate Layered Towel Cake, Relax and eat chocolate...does it get better?


Give Chocolate and Make a Difference!


Set Includes:*Women's Bean Project's assorted Jelly Beans *Dark chocolate covered espresso beans *Cindy's Sinfully Chocolate Brownies.
The Story Behind the Art: Women's Bean Project is a Worldstock partner and a nonprofit organization that teaches job readiness and life skills for entry-level jobs through employment in our gourmet food production business.


Quick and easy? King Size Hershey's Bar with a handwritten appreciation note. Cost, priceless.

What not to buy? I Love Chocolate t-shirt, Make Mine Hot Cocoa mug, etc. Go with the real thing and a note. There's nothing more fun than receiving a delivery at work. Stop by the local flower shop and order a bouquet to be sent to the school and give them the teacher's favorite candy bar to stick inside the bouquet.

All right, all of you chocolate lovers...what would you like if you were the recipient?

Gift-Basket Ideas That Won't Break the Bank!

Here are just a few ideas to add to a nice teacher gift bag or basket. Remember we want to put things in here that are consumable--the teacher will USE them versus dusting them or regifting them. What other ideas do you have?

#1 Thank you note: Handwritten by child, parent or both.
This note can be a plain piece of paper that your child folds in half and draws a picture on the front of. It can also be a homemade card you made or something from the local card store. Which one is cheapest? The plain piece of paper folded in half. Which one does the teacher want? The plain piece of paper folded in half with a drawing by your child and an appreciative note from you. Practically free!

#2 Teacher's favorite candy or lotion.
Notice, I did not say your favorite candy or the newest scented lotion you love to give out on this special occasion. It is so wonderful that you'd like to do that for the teacher, but instead take one extra minute and print this out. Hand it to your child's teacher or send it in their folder/backpack (whatever your communication system is with school) with a note that says, "Please fill this out and return it back to me. I'd love to know more about you!" Or "I'm working on a little surprise for you. Please return.) You'll enjoy knowing you spent your hard-earned money on what they like and they will too.

I say this with love, because I personally know people that are allergic to nuts, chocolate, milk and whatever they use to make card candies that are sugar-free. If I smell any type of lotion or hand soap that is scented with anything remotely floral, I will be sneezing nonstop for the rest of the day and will probably get a headache. I know you would feel awful if that happened.

#4 Hand sanitizer
There is never enough of this to go around...and look at this cute guy! The kids can't help but see this cute little guy sitting next to the tissue box!
PURELL® 9600-PL1 Pal









#5 A very small or very large gift card. If you are buying a gift card just from your family, do what you can afford. No teacher wants a family to spend outside of their limits. Now if you're pulling up to school every morning in your fully-paid-for Escalade, by all means spend what you'd like. Another great option is to get together with a few other parents in the classroom and each put a few dollars together to get a nice gift card.

I was at OfficeMax this weekend buying some extra Pentel pens and there was a rack near the checkout filled with every gift card you could possibly want. The Visa gift card I turned over--thinking that would be nice and versatile--said "$3.95 fee will be added at the checkout." Crazy!

All of these gift cards below have free shipping, no fee and no expiration date. I don't have to drive anywhere to get it and no ridiculous fee. Saved gas money + saved time= Happy parent and happy teacher!

Best Buy GC $5 Gift Card
Borders Gift Card $25
Kitchen Collection and Gadgets and More Gift Card

Sweet Irony

Have I mentioned that the runner up in my long list of blog names was "Not One More Apple"? But I have a special love for a nice, crisp Granny Smith, so I went with my sunshiney name that I loved!

Living in a smaller community (population of 3,500 population), it's normal to run into people you know. However, today I was running errands with my two daughters 45 minutes away at the closest WalMart so I was expecting to see a lot less familiar faces. It was a fun surprise to run into my eldest daughter's teacher right as we were finishing up in the produce section. I was letting the girls choose a few of the varieties of apples they wanted to sample and her wonderful teacher leaned over to get her own...juicy red apple. She said they're her favorite snack!

I guess it was just a little reminder to me that it really is all about finding out what it is your own child's teacher likes and not what you think they would like. Because if you bet $1 million that this mom was definitely not going to get her child's teacher an apple for a treat, you'd be one happy person this afternoon.

Mental note, it was a Braeburn that she said was her favorite. Okay, who am I kidding, there's not such thing as a mental note after two children...I'm off to find a pen. Then I need to get some pictures taken of my finds and progress of my gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week. Twenty-five cents and thirty-seven cents, which was the price for the pack of gum I got each teacher and which was the price of the adorable, little blue metal buckets that hold two cups of goodies???

Personalized Pens...the homemade way!

I've been on the hunt looking for something cheap and non-cluttery (yes, I just made that a word--see the link in the left column to find out more about these types of gifts) to give out with the teachers' sweets. I came across this great tutorial on making very economical personalized pens for the teachers and staff. I just happen to have some cute scrapbook paper leftover from our Christmas notes to the teachers. I think it will work out great and I'm off to shop for some of these pens tomorrow. Personalized Pens

St. Patrick's Day Appreciation Ideas

Last year for St Patrick's Day, our staff received a note with a $1 gift certificate attached to the back that said the following:

We are lucky to have you helping our children learn and grow each day! All of the hard work and love you put into your work is very appreciated.

Lucky to be partners in education with you,

(Signed your group or committee's name)

I used the rainbow graphic to the left on the front of the note and stapled the small gift certificate to the back.

Our gift certificate was for the local bakery and $1 was just right because we have a staff of 69. That includes teachers, teacher aides, support staff (secretaries), physical education teacher, art teacher, school psychologist, crossing guards, etc. That means with paper to print the notes on and the gift certificates, I stayed right under my budget of $75.

Sometimes the monthly or bi-monthly surprise is as simple as a note with a piece of candy and others it's a $3 gift certificate when I've pinched pennies (even more than I already do!) the previous month.

What ideas do you have for St Patrick's Day? Or March? Or even creeping into Spring?