It's important to show gratitude....with candy

First let me say that if you haven't gotten a visit from me very recently, it's not because I've abandoned you!  I have just been hanging with my bloggy turned IRL friend Sami.  And it was awesome.  And I will be posting about it soon.  But not today.

Today I'm going to share what we did for a quick, yet heartfelt thank-you a couple of weeks back.

You may remember that Bookworm and Pixie performed in the school talent show last month.  Sometimes it's hard to share your talent without the help of someone else.  For example, Pixie had just barely started taking piano lessons, but she really wanted to show what she had learned.  Her piano teacher Lisa (who also happens to be the musical director and Discovery coordinator at our school) worked with her on a new song, AND played a duet with her to help her showcase her talent.  Bookworm needed an accompanist for his violin piece.  It was REALLY fast, and Lisa's sister Emily (who also happens to be a founding member and former Board member at the school) volunteered to play for Bookworm at the last minute (when our other plan fell through), and had to quickly learn the piano part to his number.  Both of them took extra time out of their days to practice with my kiddos.  Letting us come over to their homes, and intrude on their family time, coming into the school early the day of the talent show to run through their performances and make sure they were both comfortable with their pieces, and just being generally kind, supportive and encouraging.

I think it's important to show gratitude when someone is generous with their time and talents, and I think it is extremely important to teach my kids to show that gratitude as well.  We were going to make some amazing treats (that I will also share soon), but then I remembered that my hand-mixer had broken.  And my Kitchenaid that I had inherited from my MIL when she was living with my BIL, had reverted back to her ownership when she got her own apartment.  So homemade treats were out.  Then I remembered the awesome candy bar Birthday invitations I made for Pixie's 8th Birthday, and thought they would also work well for some cute and yummy Thank-you's.

I stopped at the store and picked up a couple of the GIANT Symphony candy bars.

I had Bookworm and Pixie each write a thank you note to Lisa and Emily.  While they were doing that I whipped up a cute little "thank you" label.  

Each of the kids picked out some scrapbook paper (okay really Pixie picked them both because Bookworm is not into picking scrapbook paper).  After carefully removing the outer paper wrapper from the candy bar, they used that as a template to trace a label onto the scrapbook paper.  I had them make it a little bit longer, just because scrapbook paper is thicker, and I wanted a little more overlap so that it would hold better.

They wrapped the scrapbook labels around the candy bars, securing them with tape, and then glued the "thank you" labels on the front.  We paired the candy with the thank you cards from the kids, and dropped them off at their houses.  

They turned out really cute, and it was a perfectly "sweet" way to say thank you to some really sweet friends.

You can make these as simple, or as elaborate as you want.  I didn't have the time this time, but I also thought it would be cute to scrap the flowers onto the thank-you label, instead of just print them.

I made the label in MyMemories Suite.  I am finding so many awesome ways to use this software!  Remember you can purchase the software here, and use this code for a $10 discount, plus a $10 coupon for the MyMemories store! STMMMS392

What are some simple, yet heartfelt ways you have found to express your gratitude?

I'm linking this post up to Serenity Now's Weekend Bloggy Reading!