Teacher Appreciation Week- Don't Forget!

Next week, May 3-7 is Teacher Appreciation Week.  I personally think that teachers are some of the most important people in our kids lives and we should do everything we can to help make their jobs easier and show our appreciation.  I'm not sure about in the past but this year the celebration happens to fall on the same week as Mother's Day.  So if you are like me you are probably feeling a little pressed for time and money.  I hit the stores today with a couple of ideas, but no real direction.  I figured I would know a good idea when I saw it.  I also had five teachers to buy for.  Sweets has two teachers in her class room and a music, art and P.E. teacher who she sees on a daily basis.  I couldn't leave anybody out, she loves them all and they enrich her life so much.  So after walking around aimlessly for an hour or so ( I had to decide on Mother's Day gifts too)  I finally stumbled upon some cute reusable water bottles.  Oh, I should also mention that part of my criteria included no junk, nothing with apples on it, no mugs or anything else they have an abundance of and no big boxes of candy.  I figure they probably get a lot of crap every year ( no offense, it's the thought that counts) so I wanted to get them something they would use.  These were really nice bottles but they only had two and the price wasn't really affordable enough for me to get five of them.  So I bought the two for her classroom teachers, picked up some individually wrapped chocolates and some energy jelly beans ( who knew?) and headed off to the dollar store.  At the dollar store I found reusable water bottles that were just plain and grabbed three.  I then got some packs of gum which came five for a dollar, some boxes of individual packets of lemonade which came ten for a dollar and some granola bars ten for a dollar fifty.  I then headed home and added some individually wrapped tea bags, some packets of stevia and  individual packets of coffee.  It filled the bottles up perfectly.  I had bought some little bars of chocolate to add to them but they didn't fit through the opening.  So next I went to Avery Print and Design  which is a free site where you can design cards, flyers, stickers whatever and print them on Avery products.  I had some double sided business cards so I used a template for that with cute little flowers.  I then changed the text to add the teachers names and a message which reads "Just a little something to get you through the week".  I printed them punched a hole in the corner and tied them on the handles, then I added some pretty ribbon and done!  I think these came out cute and are perfect if you have a lot of teachers to give to, they would also be good party favors.  I'm going to really have to come up with a good idea for next year when Bug starts school and we have nine teachers total to give gifts to! Sorry about the photo quality, I took these on my craft table and apparently the lighting in there is the worst ever!