Open House 2013

How is it July already?!  I swear, the summer flies by when I'm not looking. Guess what's 3 weeks from today exactly?  Dun dun dun...OPEN HOUSE.  Doesn't seem possible, does it?

I don't know what Open House is like at your school, but at ours it's...well...usually a little disappointing.  It looms over us for all of pre-planning ("OPEN HOUSE!  We have to have our rooms ready for OPEN HOUSE!") and then when it arrives, I don't usually have that great of a turn-out.  Last year I think my co-teacher and I had 8 or 9 parents show up and that was a record.   It's okay, they all turn out EN MASSE the next morning bright and early.  I have accepted this.  (I can't call parents ahead of time to remind them because usually class lists aren't printed until right before Open House starts due to students withdrawing/registering/etc..  One fabulous year our lists CHANGED IN THE MIDDLE of Open House because they goofed up the inclusion list.  That was fun.)

Anyway, I still like to have a little treat to hand out at Open House for the kiddos and parents who do show up.  I do something a little different every year...I've done the cute kindergarten goody bags (with the penny for good luck, the eraser because we all make mistakes, etc.)...the popcorn bags...Starbursts ("because we are all first grade stars!")...and last year my creativity was ebbing low so I passed out cupcakes.  This year I'm doing Tootsie Pops.  The hubster and I went out to eat last week at a restaurant while we were on our 5th anniversary minibreak and they give you a Tootsie Pop on your way out the door.  I couldn't remember the last time I had a Tootsie Pop!  Turns out, they're pretty good...and I realized I could use the cutesy "Thanks for popping in!" slogan that I used on the popcorn bags a few years ago.

So, this afternoon (during the baby's naptime) I got to work.  Well, I guess I should backtrack...this morning she and I went to Target.  Here is a picture of my goodies:

Aren't you impressed with the restraint I showed?  The only things I needed for this project were the neon paper and the snack size baggies.  I don't know how the polka dotted and galvanized mini buckets and that chevron/polka-dotty dress ended up in my cart.  I blame Little Miss.  (THE DRESS IS SO CUTE....it has a purple polka dot bow!  Ahem.)

Next, I printed out these tags that I made.  They say "thanks for popping in!" if you can't read them.

 Oh yes, and I ordered these from Amazon.  I ordered the minis-they were $12 for that big bag (200 pops).  I figured I will use these for bribes treats for the first few weeks of school.  (Confession: I bribe reward students for bringing back their beginning-of-school paperwork, especially their lunch applications!)

Then it was just a matter of putting the tags in the baggies and dropping in a few Tootsie pops!  Easy peasy, lemon breezy!  And look-my bag of mini Tootsie Pops came with a surprise!  (That's a Blow Pop, in case you can't tell.)

 Ta-da!  From start to finish (not including the Target shopping trip) this took me less than 20 minutes.  I only made 18 bags because I sincerely doubt I will have more than that show up, even if I give treats to sibilngs and parents, too.

Ready to go!  I can check one thing off my to-do list, at least!

PS:  If you want the tags, I uploaded them here!