Meet-The-Teacher Gift: Step Up Your Apple Game
There are a lot of things said about apples:
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
“As American as apple pie.”
“A bad apple.”
“Apple of my eye.”
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
And a favorite, especially this time of year, “An apple for the teacher.”
The tradition of giving an apple to the teacher dates back to the frontier days when that was all the payment attainable by parents. Ah, the good old days! But it’s 2016, so let’s up our apple game.
What you need:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Apple
Canning jar
Decorative bag and tag
First, make the homemade caramel dipping sauce. And if you trust your kids stirring the ingredients, let them be part of the process.
Step 1 – Combine sugar, milk and softened butter in a heavy pot.
Step 2 – Turn the heat to medium high and continue stirring until smooth.
Step 3 – Bring to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes.
Step 4 – Turn off the heat and stir in vanilla.
Step 5 – Pour the caramel into a jar and let cool.
Then place the jar of caramel in the bag, place the apple on top of the jar seal the bag and add a tag.
Your meet the teacher gift is done and your kids will be proud that they helped, under adult supervision of course.
Horror Story
Occasionally when my seven year-old and I are playing, I like to sneak around the corner and hide. When he comes looking for me I jump out and scare him. He screams, I scream and it’s fun.
Azul was reminiscing, telling a story about me, his sweet innocent loving mother, being scary (that’s really more like it). Using his advanced vocabulary he chose the most frightening word he could use. “Horror” was how he described me.
“Mommy, you’re a whore!” Of course my first instinct was a terror, did I really hear what I thought I heard, and then laughter, because really, denial never works.
I did like his word choice, so I countered as clearly as I could, emphasizing the two Rs.
“It’s hor-ror.”
“I know, whore.”
The horror story was in full-effect, both of us giggling through wide eyes. Azul doesn’t know why, so he repeats himself for being rewarded with laughter.
“Whore.”
“It’s horror.”
“I know! You’re a whore.”
Him scaring me was just as fun as me scaring him.
Ice, Ice, Baby
One of the best elements of being a parent is … experiments! Testing and investigating, if and how things work with the curiosity of a child is like reliving your own innocence. Of course, some work better than others, and when they fail, there is only one certain reaction.
Carmelina Hart 