Merry Christmas!

This is another holiday party where I failed to take any pictures! But I would much rather live in the moment than trying to find moments to take a picture of. :) Today we had our family Christmas party at my brother's house, and his wife (my sister-IL) cooked an amazing meal and I loved it! I had a lot of fun...and the food was amazing...and the company was even better! :)

This picture was taking a few minutes before we left to go home. My brother-IL and my sister had to take KaiBoy home since he was getting sleepy, and so they left my DollGirl here so that we could finish the Gingerbread house that we were making and decorating sugar cookies....and then we had a little bit of SUPER yummy, homemade apple pie and cranberry cider!

I love my family. I know that no matter what happens in the years to come, we will always have each other. My prayer is that I will find someone that I can spend the rest of my life with that my sister and brother can be happy that he is their "in-law." I love my brother-IL and sister-IL...and I want my sister and brother to be able to say that about the person that I will marry into the family. But for right now, my family, is my family and I love them.

Keiki Gifts.

I had mentioned to my TA that I was getting worried that the gifts that I had gotten for my preschool keiki weren't going to be here in time...so she brought me something to cheer me up because I was getting super stressed about it! This Volcano candy is just like pop rocks...and I ended up sharing them with my keiki, and they loved it! But I seriously was getting nervous because the last day of the school for this 2016 year is Friday, and the books that I had ordered like on the 6th of this month still had not come in! Then a few hours later, Jami, our office lady walks into my classroom with this box of books! They came it! I stayed after school wrapping them so that I can send them out tomorrow with the kids!

So I wrapped 20 of these babies, and I had to wrap them fast because I did NOT want to be stuck at the school when it was getting dark and it has been getting dark earlier and earlier...but I'm glad that I was able to wrap them...that was a load off my back! Now to other things to get done before this week is done!

Gift Wrapped and ready to go!

Today I finished! I finally finished with the keikis gift to their parents! I though that I wasn't going to get it done in time, things were going SUPER slow! But with the kids help, we got it all done! :)

And there it is! I think that they turned out great! The keikis decorated their own everything. The bag, the bell, and I love how it all turned out! :) Yay, to getting things done early...so now I can have fun with the kids. Oh wait. I always have fun with the kids! :) I love my job!

Target surprise gifts!

Today my friend (and co-worker) came into my classroom this morning before the chaos of lovely darlings came in and gave me some things that she got me from Target! I keep telling myself that I need to go there when I have the chance...I absolutely love their $1 section in the front of the store!

So "I" came into my classroom and gave me some washi tape and stickers...! I love it! I love surprises! I love how she thought of me when she saw these things!

I used these same stickers for my DollGirl and KaiBoy's Advent Calender...but I wanted to go back to get some for me...I love these stickers...they are fun and there are a variety of stickers that I can use!

And guess what!? Each 500+ sticker book was only a dollar each! You can't beat that! They are fun, festive, sparkly, and Winter-y...perfect! I am planning to use them in my planners, letters, journals, and DIY cards that I am planning on making. I can't wait!

She also got me some washi tape! Oh, how I LOVE washi tape! :) These are 2 yards a roll and they are fun and festive! (I find myself using that word festive a lot!)

And I love how each roll was only $1! How awesome was that?! :)

And there are close ups of the washi tape that "I" had given me...and LOVE them all! I'm glad that I have friends who give me random surprises! :)

For Cheyenne.

My teacher's assistant (T.A.) came into my classroom telling me about this young girl named Cheyenne Urban from Illinois. Her birthday was yesterday, and all she wanted for her 16th birthday was some aloha love from Hawai'i. According to her mom, Cheyenne suffers from severe anxiety and she is not able to travel to Hawai'i because of it. "...up until three years ago Cheyenne was an honor roll student and ahead of most in her grade level. That was until Cheyenne slipped and fell in the parking lot, after football practice one day, resulting in traumatic brain injury." I know that it's a day later than her birthday, but I still wanted to send her some postcards of pretty places here in Hawai'i. So, Mrs. A, my T.A. bought a lot of postcards and I had a lot of postcard postage...and I had my preschool keikis decorate their own postcards for Cheyenne. I told them about the girl that they will be sending the postcard to and let them watch this video.

This is one of my favorite postcard designs, so I decided to write on this postcard and explain what my class (and several other classes in my school) was doing.

"Happy birthday Cheyenne! My name is Charity and I am a 2-year-old preschool teacher on the island of Oahu. I heard that it's your birthday and you wanted some cards from Hawai'i! I hope you enjoy this postcard and all the other postcards you should be getting from my 2-yo class and some from the other classrooms. :) We tried to pick some with the pretty pictures of our state for you to see and look through. We are praying for you and we hope you get your dream of one day coming here to Hawai'i. The kids enjoyed drawing and decorating their cards for you with stickers. We send these cards with positive vibes, warm hugs, loving kisses, and aloha. Stay strong, Cheyenne! <3 (I wrote this on all the cards from us: <3, Kailua Methodist Preschool. Aloha, Charity" And of course, I had to add some stickers! :) I know that you can see the address, but I'm going to leave it there, so in-case any of you would like to send her a postcard. I have a feeling that even if you aren't from Hawai'i, a card of encouragement can go a long way. :)

This is the postcard that my T.A. decided to send to Cheyenne. Another of my favorites! :)

"Cheyenne, Keep looking toward the horizon, there will be something at the end, that one day your wish will come true. Aloha, Mrs. A"

Here are some of the keiki's in the process of decorating their postcards. I let them choose their own set of stickers...and I had pens out for them that they can "write" her something. I hope that she understand that they are only 2-3 year's old...and that even though it's just "scribbles" they mean something. They also practiced fine motor skills taking the stickers off the sheet and putting them on their own postcard. I took a picture of the postcards that they did...but I wasn't able to take pictures of the ones that the older keiki did, but that's okay...another teacher volunteered to take them down to the post office to send them on their way. :)

Oh, and on the left side of the postcard, I wrote the child's name and their age.

And there they are...those are only a few that I had a time to take a picture of...but I hope that she is able to "see" between the "lines, scribbles, and stickers" that the children did this with heart. And Cheyenne...we send these postcards with love and aloha.