A Posy of Purses

I know I promised details of this year’s teacher gifts over a week ago, but better late than never right?

First I needed to decide what to make. Easy enough usually, except that C’s SLT has been on my gift list for several years and has therefore received several bags, a personalised pencil roll, a couple of bookmarks and Christmas decorations of various kinds. She always thanks me effusively, so either she genuinely likes my work or she’s a great actress.

This year I made purses:

The boys helped out as usual by choosing fabrics and matching purses to recipients. In particular, C was adamant that his SLT should have the chocolate purse on the basis that he loves chocolalte and he loves Miss J.

This one was selected for C’s SLR teacher. She’s only been at the school since May half-term, but he likes her very much. This was my favourite and I was very tempted to keep it for myself, not that I really need a new purse, but C was very clear that it was to be for her.

He’s had three resource teachers this year because the previous one (who was also lovely) left at Christmas and he had the SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) covering until they could find a suitable replacement. C chose this purse for her because it’s nice and bright and he thinks she needs cheering up.

C’s mainstream teacher was selected to receive the purple purse. She’s another one that has received several gifts from me before. She was L’s teacher in Y1 and has been teaching C for two years (with a maternity leave in the middle).

And finally, L’s teacher is a man, so he got a more manly card holder rather than a pretty purse.

These all went in to school on the last day along with a whole load of cookies for all the staff. Both boys have a lot of input from TAs and much as I’d like to give individual presents to them all, there are just too many. So I baked three kinds of cookies (choc chip, fudge, and white choc and cherry) which hopefully showed that nobody was forgotten. I didn’t take pictures, but they really did taste better than they looked anyway.

I really enjoyed making everything, but especially the purses. They’re all sewn in lovely straight lines which is possibly my favourite kind of sewing. I think I’ll be making more purses for my shop soone enough.

Almost There…

We’ve almost reached the end of another school year. Term ends on Friday for my sons, but this year along with the approach of six weeks without school runs and mostly without alarm clocks, we also have to say some goodbyes. My boys are moving schools in September which is thrilling and exciting on many levels. They no longer need the intensive support of the speech and language resource at their current school (number one son actually left the resource last year) and have made tremendous progress through sheer hard work. I’m very much looking forward to a school run of only one mile instead of 8.5, which goes nowhere near a main road, let alone a motorway. However, the flipside is that they (and we) will be saying goodbye to most of the wonderful people who have helped them make this progress. The effort that the boys have put in has been matched by the teachers, TAs and SLTs who go above and beyond their job descriptions on a daily basis and I have been lucky enough to get to know some of them quite well over the past four years.

These are people who know my sons well enough to choose perfect leaving presents for them. Star Wars Lego for L last year and a Sonic the Hedgehog pencil case filled with Sonic pens and pencils for C today.

These are people that my boys want to hug and who not only tolerate this, but laugh about the ensuing chocolate stains on their clothes (and the matching ones on mine).

These are people who encourage and support all the children in the resource and won’t allow any of them to put themselves down.

These are people who allowed my older son to attend the tea party even though he’s not strictly supposed to, because I mentioned that he was disappointed that he was no longer invited  and they didn’t want him to miss out on the chance to say goodbye to his friends in the resource.

These are people who are genuinely fond of the children they teach and are almost as proud of them as their parents are.

And all of that is just from today…

Today was the speech and language resource tea party. They hold one at the end of every term which means that my first one was in December ’07 when L was 5 and C was not yet 2. Fast forward to today (and sometimes it feels like we really did zoom through those years) and my last resource tea party. I think I laughed and cried in equal measure this afternoon.

Yesterday I asked C what he thought I should bring for everyone to eat and predictably enough he chose chocolate cake. So this morning I made a couple of dozen chocolate cupcakes.

It’s a good job I took a photo because they disappeared very quickly when the children were let loose on the food. They were the main source of the chocolate stains that my younger son was leaving in his wake. Oops!

I have also made, but haven’t wrapped, the presents for their teachers and C’s SLT (I’ll blog about those in a day or two) and I need to write a host of thank you cards for them all (more tears probably). Then on Friday we’ll be saying our final goodbyes to everyone.

July Already

It’s July and I’m finally here to blow away the tumbleweeds. I’ve been busy with all the usual things, plus new school forms and visits for the boys. The big move from their current school to the local school is almost upon us now and I have very mixed feelings. I’m thrilled that the school run will be considerably shorter and won’t involve any motorway driving or mileage claim forms, but the boys have been happy at their current school and I’m feeling some guilt about separating them from their friends. C has a best friend that he likes to walk with out to his taxi after school. Watching them walk together holding hands is so adorable and plucks at my heartstrings. Then again, they seem to fall out and make up with each other at least once a week, so maybe it isn’t the perfect match.

The school reports have just come home. L’s is glowing as usual and C’s is pretty good considering, but with very clear signs that his teachers know him well. Comments about avoiding tidy up time at all costs and being aware of the rules and mostly following them are not a surprise to me! It takes me back to the days of writing carefully worded reports for the more ‘interesting’ members of the class. Both reports have comments about them leaving, and how much they will be missed, that brought a tear to my eye. I’m sure I’ll be blubbing before the term is over, but so far I’m holding it together. Just.

So, crafting time has been scarce and my custom order list is moving a lot slower than I’d like, but I do have a little something to show off at last.

The story of this bag involves a couple of attempts at the embroidery thanks to my own stupidity. I really need to learn to avoid using scissors when tired or in a hurry, or worst of all tired and in a hurry. Thankfully I could fix the problem by starting again and the second version is actually better than the first. I love a happy ending.