OH, EVERYONEEEEeeee…

IT’S THE END OF THE YEAR!  OPEN THE SUNROOF, GRAB YOUR SHADES AND HIT THE BEACH!

UHHSRRY… DIDN’T HEAR YOU.  WHAT DID YOU SAY?

Not a teacher = still work through the summer??

oh, uh, ok.  ya, no, great, uh, that’s awesome. perfect.  thanks.

No really, golf claps for all of the teachers out there… I wish you many summer days filled with sunshine, cool breezes and ocean waves (jealous, so mad, bitter.bitter.jealous).

Okay, okay… time for some serious teacher praise – you are all to be commended.  Happy days, rotten days, snowy days and funny days… you guide our little ones through them all.  The joy that is felt when our kiddos come home with stories of cool projects they got to work on, or new words they now “just know how to read,” is unmatched by most anything.  It’s easy to get lost in the smile that it brings us, without thinking about the teachers that taught them the skills they need to move ahead in this world.  From teaching them the basics (ebooks reading, tying on iPads writing, calculating on iPhones counting) to supporting them through the emotional rollercoaster of making new friends, learning the rules of the school and making their way towards becoming a “grader” (anyone not in kindergarten, as my little one served to me along with a nice side dish of rolling her eyes), you are the ones that are right there, front and center, through it all.  You give out the high-fives (or pompoms…that pompom jar has far more clout than I) for accomplishments, fix up the bumps and bruises on the playground, and inspire these little ones to want to grow and learn.  It is far beyond “a job” – you are life changers.  Keep at it and thank you to the moon and back.

On to the baking portion of this… I had a need for more cookie dough in my life, so I decided to bake up some apple cookies as a small thank you to our teacher.  This is not a post with recipes, although below are the links to the components of this projects… rather, it is an easy post with just pictures for reference.  It’s summer time – wouldn’t want to bombard you with more reading than necessary.  Consider this “summer reading” –  the kind that you briefly scanned at the end of summer and prayed your new teacher never asked about during the first week of school.  You know, you know.

Step 1:  Whip up some Cookie Dough, cut out, bake and cool completely.

Step 2:  Whip up some Royal Icing and Pipe and Flood the cookies.

Step 3:  Wait at least 1 hour before adding detail on top of flooding.  Use piping consistency for detail work.

Step 4: Package and deliver.