Teacher Appreciation Week--through a PTA Mommy's view

Wonder what I've been up to? Well I have been working lots first of all! Lots of decorating and 1-2 days a week helping a mortgage company organize and create new processes after a few years of neglected file and system management. But when I'm not working, I have spent lots of time this past month doing another 'job' I do--Hospitality for PTA at my children's elementary school!

I have held this position, co-chairing with my friend Kay, for 2 years and this was our last official event! We decided to do an Italian theme but dump the red and white checkered tablecloth and bring on a Tuscan bistro feel!

Here is the centerpiece on the drink table--tea, diet lemonade and raspberry lemonade were the options.

Focal point on the buffet table. I need to now refill these jars with my cotton, sea salt and sponges in my bathroom! The entree was lasagna made by an amazing local restaurant and salad with Olive Garden dressing. To my friend Kim if you read this, the sign in the middle says "Mangia, Mangia!" Thanks for the fast Italian help this morning!

Here's the start of the buffet-rolled silverware is just so much better than bins of silverware with napkins, don't you think?

The tables where our teachers and staff sat had fresh flowers and more food! Macaroni Grill bread, with pepper mills we bought from their local supplier and olive oil, was served hot to the table along with fresh grated parmesan.
When you were done with that, then you headed to the other side of the room where we had an ice cream buffet set up! Oh yes, how fun!!! I have done this for a couple birthday parties too and it's so fun and easy! I have lots of pieces from the Southern Living at Home, Gail Pittman Sienna collection and this is the first time I used this much of it and it worked so well!

Here is our president during the last week of her reign of two years! She was our hostess, handing out our gifts! She's off to middle school and we will miss her!

Here's the room (we took over the music room since there's no furniture in there!) with some of the staff on their break! No running lights were on--just lots of Christmas lights and it was a very nice atmosphere.


A few of us during a moment where we weren't running, enjoying ourselves as everyone on our board is awesome. Don't be crazy jealous, but we have lots of fun during our PTA event too! I know this isn't the case everywhere so had to tell you how lucky I am to be at this fab school! Oh and yes, we are crazy where we assign a dress code for our volunteers to fit our theme so the all black was on purpose. Don't they look great? Last holiday, we did a Christmas Morning Brunch and yup, we all wore our PJs! FUN!!!


Here is everyone, except Christine! Thanks for taking the picture!

Here are Kay and I, at our last event together as co-chairs! We work so well together as I just fret about all the decor and do nutty things like sew table runners and craft labels and fill all my jars with pasta and she works her tushy off pricing caterers and making schedules and lists and it was a perfect match! We will both be on the board next year but I'll be doing 1st VP (fundraising) with another friend and she will be doing newsletter! I have been asked to share pictures from our past events and I think instead of spending time emailing them, I'll spend time uploading them so I can share them with you all too! I know this isn't organizing but it is being creative so you'll deal with it right?

Oh, Kay got Macaroni Grill to give us tons of their paper! So we wrote a note to the teachers on each table, hoping they would scribble, play tic, tac, toe or do whatever and what did they do? Wrote us sweet Thank You notes! See why we do this?? I took lots of pictures but here are just a few examples of their notes to us!

We all read each one and many of us took pictures! Their sweet notes meant a lot to us!