The Chef and the Artist

I'm doing a couple of projects for school to raise money for our big auction. It originally started when Jake was in Kindergarten; his class did an original piece of artwork that sold for hundreds of dollars. The following year, we did another canvas painting for Maggie's class.

For first grade last year, I used Shutterfly and published a book of photography, titled "God's World Through First Grade Eyes." Each student had their own page of pictures they took, with a little profile of what they like. (Example: Jake Abrams..Favorite color: red, Favorite food: pudding, Favorite thing in nature: reptiles. When I grow up, I want to be an explorer. My favorite place to visit is the ocean and I wish I never had to eat salad.) The idea was to auction one off, but so many people wanted a copy that we sold them (adding fifty bucks a book to what printing costs were) and we made a thousand dollars for the auction. The first graders ended up being a "Corporate Sponsor," which they thought was pretty darn cool. (By the way, I don't think I've ever made Jake eat salad.)

This year's first graders are doing a book of original artwork. (This is a picture of one of the "artists"...isn't she darling?)
And her original artwork...
The second graders are publishing a cookbook - "What's Cooking? 30 days of dinners." (There are 30 second graders, so it works out perfectly.) They're all quite the little chefs.Each second grader chose an appetizer, main dish and dessert to publish - Jake's are "Fried Zucchini" (appetizer), Chicken Bundles (main dish), and Coca-Cola Cake (dessert). All very yummy and not very healthy.

And now I am realizing that I've created a monster. People are starting to expect a big project every year and while I thought of a couple decent ideas this year, I am fresh out and already fretting about next year. If you have any ideas for me, I'd greatly appreciate it...