End of the school year gifts

Tomorrow is the last day of school for us and it's that time when we're showing our teachers again how much we appreciate all that they've done for my two favorite kids.

  Emma is absolutely in love with her teacher this year and says she wants to stay in first grade to stay with her.  We didn't know each other that well before this school year, but she has become a dear friend to me as well.  Chris decided she was "box-worthy."  In his spare time (haha, like a teacher and coach has much spare time), Chris loves woodworking and while he can build many things, he enjoys making boxes for people special to him or for special occasions.  Think of a box you might sit on your dresser to hold your valuables, but NOT a junk drawer.  He painstakingly plans out a box specific to the person he's building for taking into account their likes, dislikes, possible uses for said box and so on.  He decided on a large box for Mrs. P so that she could store jewelry or the like in it, but could one day pass it on to one of her sons or their wives.  They are Seminole Fans (we are most certainly not) so he went with a bloodwood and maple combination.  Bloodwood is a reddish wood and obviously maple is a light, creamy yellow color.  He then routed out a P and filled the hole with bloodwood shavings and epoxy mixed together.  I helped out by using my Silhouette to cut out the P he used as a template.  He had Emma write a message on the bottom of the box that he then sealed so her first grade handwriting will always be there.  Oren is always doing something down at the barn, so it was a full family affair to build this box for a wonderful woman.  I think it came out absolutely beautiful and Mrs. P did too!

This is the box.  The P is actually the same color as the outer box, but when the lid is closed it looks much darker.

Dinosaur not included...but Oren thought it was funny to throw it in there!  The inside has a removable tray.  The dino is standing in this tray.

This is the inside of the box without the removable tray.  Chris put flocking in the bottom to make it soft for whatever she'll keep in there.  He lined the inside of the box with the maple from the lid and added the dividers.

This is the removable tray.  Is he amazing or what?  Sorry, girls...he's all mine!  ;)

   Now Oren has 3 teachers since he's in Pre-K with a teacher and 2 aides.  And as much as we love them all, and we really do...3 boxes is a bit much.  But I wanted them to know they are appreciated too.  We got them gift cards to Cold Stone Creamery (which is in the big city about 45 minutes from here but what are you gonna do...).  Oren and I are about to make them some homemade bread and some bread dip mix like you get at Carrabbas.  But then I found this AWESOME website called Tagxedo.  Oh my goodness, if you have a thing for words as art then I have just effectively shot your whole day.  Go on, click over, but don't say I didn't warn you...It's like wordle but more awesome because you can continually play with the words, colors, layout, etc.  I made this little beauty for each of his teachers too and am going to frame it as part of their gift:

Well, actually not this exact one because I realized that door holder had been separated so it randomly said door and holder in separate places and that's a little wierd.  And, I don't know how to make it look exactly the same (or if that's even possible,) so it's a little different, but just as cool!

So tomorrow morning we'll pass out the gifts and spread the love because come 11:45...we're all free for the summer!