Tuesday May 3rd- Getting Crafty and a Birthday

Today is my oldest daughters 14th birthday. I still cannot believe she is 14, it seems like just yesterday that she was born! She is growing into such an amazing young lady and I am very proud of her! She hates having her picture taken but here is one taken last summer. This photo was taken by Shannon at Sweetpea Memories Photography if you are looking for a local photographer check her out!

I have also been getting crafty this past week. I keep getting comments of trying to be "super mom" or an "over achiever" LOL but really, I love to craft and making things myself is MUCH more cost efficient!

This week is staff appreciation week at our school. Volunteering is important to me especially in our church and at the schools. For staff appreciation I volunteered for two things I knew I could do, take photos of staff for the bulletin board and bake cookies! My daughter and her friend helped me frost and package them. Making these cookies vs buying them was a huge cost difference. Here are the cookies ready to be delivered.



Every year I also make a gift for each of the younger kids teachers. Google is a great tool to use when looking for fabulous and fun teacher appreciation gift ideas! This year I found this Box of Teacher Goodies which I thought was super cute! I picked paper that matched each teachers likes and had fun with filling them with goodies! For me the personal touch to these types of gifts is important.

 And then there are cupcakes. The younger kids are not able to take homemade goodies to school anymore on their birthdays due to too many allergies in classrooms. The middle school and high school however, are different. My daughter wanted to take 30 cupcakes today. If I had bought them pre made it would have cost me at least $20 just for cupcakes. We made them ourselves at home. I bought cute liners, orange frosting tint, 2 cake mixes and frosting for about $7. That is a huge savings.

So, sometimes, it is more of a financial factor in doing the things I do than trying to be "supermom". Although I do have four SUPER kids that I would do anything for! :)