In honor of National Teacher Appreciation month in May, Ivar’s and Kidd Valley restaurants are calling on all kindergarten through eighth grade students to nominate their favorite teacher for a chance to win 2012 Teacher of the Year honors. Here is more info from Ivar's:

A top teacher will be selected as a grand prize winner by both Ivar’s and Kidd Valley. Each grand prize winner will receive a $500 gift card for school supplies and the title of Ivar’s Teacher of the Year or Kidd Valley Teacher of the Year. Plus, the nominating student of the grand prize winner will receive either a classroom chowder party (including a visit by Ivar’s famous Dancing Clam!), or a delicious Kidd Valley burger party.

To nominate a teacher, students 14 years of age or younger may visit any Puget Sound area Ivar’s or Kidd Valley location (excluding stadiums and Eastern Washington stores) to complete an official entry form, or go online to Ivar’s Teacher of the Year or to Kidd Valley Teacher of the Year. All entries must be received by May 20, 2012. The official Teacher of the Year rules can be found on Ivar’s and Kidd Valley websites as well.

A hotly anticipated expansion of Corina Bakery is set to take place this week.

We first broke the news last month that Corina Bakery and owner Molly Ott had taken over the space next to the Grand Cinema that most recently housed Mineola and Mavi Contemporary Art Gallery. Now, Ott says the new space is ready, and will open this Wednesday for business.

The new location, just around the corner from Corina's current home on S. Sixth Ave., will nearly double the bakery's seating capacity and is hoped to double or triple the bakery's ability to fulfill wedding cake orders.

"One of the primary reasons to do the move is we didn't physcially have enough space to do wedding cakes," Ott told us last month, adding that the bakery is currently maxed out at about 10 wedding cakes per weekend.

Ott says she hopes to be able to do more collaboration with new next-door neighbor the Grand Cinema, from staying open until the start of the theater's final showing each evening to potentially offering specials related to the movies currently playing at the Grand Cinema.