Banana Split Party!!

As you know if you've read my very first blog entry, I am on the Staff Appreciation Committee at our Elementary School's PTO.  We had a blast doing fun stuff for the teachers during Staff Appreciation Week this year (it was in May...I know I'm late in writing!).  In my opinion, the most fun activity was the Banana Split Party. 

We ordered all of the ingredients - except the bananas (more later on that!) - from our local Bruster's Ice Cream joint.  To lure the teachers and staff to our secret celebration, we put these in their mailboxes early the morning of the event.  And by "we," what I really mean is my friend Jenna did it.  Love that Jenna!  What the invitation said was,

"Don't MONKEY AROUND after school today,

or you'll miss all the friendship and fun...

Bring this banana (it's your ticket!),

have a snack and see what you've won!

Come to the Media Center at 2:15,

be there or be square.

Give the PTO the chance to show you

how much we really care!

I saw the ribbon at Michael's and I simply could not resist.  It was perfect!

The funny part is that I think the biggest hit of the day was my handy dandy banana slicer.  Everybody was fascinated by this thing, which, by the way, was seriously ridiculed when I'd put on my facebook status that I was looking for one.  Really though, how could we keep our banana split buffet running without one of these?

It was *I* who had the last laugh.  Take THAT, Facebook friends who said things like "isn't that called a knife? (insert snarky attitude here)" when I asked if anyone knew anywhere locally where I could buy one. 

Hey, I really appreciate teachers!

My dear friend Kristy called me one day and said "Hey! I volunteered you for a committee at school! You'll be great at it."  As a card-carrying wallflower, on-the-fringe, type of girl, I was a LITTLE perturbed, but secretly thankful to her for making me get out and meet new people. So the volunteer job was to help out with the Staff Appreciation Committee for the new elementary school we've been redistricted to.

I was *so* nervous about the first test of me and this committee, because my cohort, Jenna, was going to be out of town for the annual Back to School Luncheon.  Yikes!  I didn't have any prior knowledge of the school, where things are, anything like that BUT I wanted to 1) let the teachers and staff know how much we appreciate them and 2) make a good impression! 

After the menu/catering was settled (Qdoba is the BEST! They include everything - even a little book of Qdoba matches to light the sterno cans they include!) I fixated on decorations.  I was working with an extremely limited budget, and wanted any decorations to be reusable and school themed.  Between the inspiration from my friend Kristy (yes, the same Kristy), who is the go-to diaper cake maker in our crowd, and Party Planning Mom, I ended up making a School Supply "Cake"!

I'm really proud of how it turned out.  We gave it away as a door prize to one of the teachers at the luncheon.

School supplies were crazy cheap at this time of year, and I was sure to use things that were on the supply lists for most grades at the school.  There are Hardback Composition Books (we call them cow books here), lots of 24-count boxes of crayons, 2-packs of glue sticks, spiral notebooks, sticky notes, and rulers.  There's even a structural part that also comes in handy at school - a roll of paper towels!

It was an exercise in desperation and recycling, to be sure...there are all sorts of things in the middle of it to help hold it up.  And those ribbons aren't just there for show!  They are pretty much the only thing (besides gravity) holding it together!  The teachers loved it, and I hope it served as the symbol of our appreciation of the staff that I wanted it to.

If you use my idea as inspiration, THANK YOU!  Please mention you saw it here!