Month: September 2016

Baby Shower Tea Party

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Seems like just yesterday I was pregnant with my last baby… And while I already had all the hand me downs you could dream of, I knew my friends weren’t going to let me get through without a celebration so a “Sprinkle” Tea Party it was! 

Each friend signed up for a different finger food, all of which were displayed on mis-matched tiered trays on each table. There were three kinds of tea and mimosas served. And I swoon over these adorable printable napkin menus!


Petit fours were inside each of these beautiful boxes each with its own hand-stamped thank you tag…. By far one of my very favorite parties! 

Back to School Teacher Gifts

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At some point, I got it stuck in my head that I was going to make little gifts for Sierra’s teachers for the first day of school. Yes, I know not everyone does this, yes, I know I don’t have to do it, but once I decided I wanted to do it, and started looking at ideas online, there was no turning back.

While I wasn’t able to make it happen for the 1st day, I thought 2nd day of school gifts would still be special so I made it happen this morning.


After scouring Pinterest and looking at all the teacher gifts I could find, I decided $5 Starbucks gift cards were going to be it. So, all I had to do was print tags, attach them to ribbon and go to Starbucks. I got a $5 gift card for each teacher, and asked for the smallest cups they had with lids, placed the gift cards inside the cups and closed the lids on the ribbon holding everything together beautifully. I literally threw these puppies together in the parking lot and then got to watch S light up as she passed them out. It’s the little things that help me feel like I am “doing it all” even though I am a working mom. These kinds of little things make me feel like I am staying connected even if I have to sit at a desk all day and can’t be there to pick up after school. We each have to do what works for us…

Fellow Blogger Feature: Not The Average Mama

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Today I want to feature a fellow stepmommy who, from what I read on her blog, rocks the house as a stepmomma! So happy she is out there spreading the good word about how she approaches her role in her kids’ lives!

Not the Average Mama

Awhile ago I mentioned about blogging for The Huffington Post. I’m not a big star blogger. I have my own little corner here of the blogosphere and I enjoy sharing with all of you!

Today I am going to toot my own horn! *TOOT TOOT* I’ve been a busy lady this month and to add on to my Feel Good Friday — I’m feeling good that my first original blog post was published on The Huffington Post website!

Check it out! Tell me what you think! Next to my bio picture there should be a “Become a Fan” button! Give it a click!

7 Things I Didn’t Know I Was Getting Into as a Stepmom

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Stop Growing Up!

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One would think with S being our second child, we would be quite used to this 1st Day of School business but being the secondary house for K, even though she is almost 12, we have never experienced the ritual at all. So, of course, in my standard fashion I started preparing weeks ago… Made sure she had a backpack and lunchbox ready, ordered some bento-style plastic containers for lunch. Went to Costco late last week buying all sorts of lunchbox type snacks for my picky eater. Picked out her outfit weeks ago and stashed it away so it wouldn’t get ruined in the meantime… Rushed around last night cutting her name in vinyl for her backpack and lunchbox (because I could never just use a sharpie).

I packed a lunch that could probably feed 3 toddlers, just in case, to make sure she ate something. I talked her through everything I could possibly think of to prepare her. Is this really happening? I mean, I have always been a working mom but when I have to leave my babies, I am fortunate enough to have family they stay with. We’ve never done a daycare or school drop off before… Tears? Yes, there were many and they were all mine! How can this be happening? Why do they grow up so fast?

The Shady Lane has an adorable free printable First Day of School Sign that was too cute! I bought a white frame that I can use every year as I customize the sign.

 

So here is my big girl… So ready for the adventure ahead! I love that she is so excited when others might be nervous or afraid. She is ready for the world, I just need to catch up!

 

Alice in Wonderland 7th Birthday Party

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Since my blog features all the crazy that is me, and I have obviously been crazy for much longer than the last month, I wanted to find a way to take you all back through time and feature projects that happened before this blog was born. And for my 1st FLASHBACK FRIDAY FEATURE ~ Kylie’s Alice in Wonderland 7th Birthday Celebration… How cute is she? So small!!!

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On each table, I featured a teapot filled with fake flowers and to each flower I adhered googly eyes, of course like the flowers in the garden in the movie. I still have some of these flowers in my house because I loved them so!

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For all of my parties, I always make sure I have plenty of activities for the kiddos. Coloring sheets have become a MUST for all celebrations, I usually print off to match the theme of the event. There are always a few kids who want to stay close to mom and dad or big kids who want to color. These little tins always stay stocked and ready to pull out for each party.

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For the first time with this party, I really wanted very large over-sized decorations, especially since there are so many great characters in this movie and I didn’t want to leave any out. So, I borrowed a projector from work, pulled up character images on my laptop, projected each to the wall, traced the outlines onto poster board and then painted each character in (I know, so time-consuming). But they turned out beautifully and after all, at this time in my life I only had K so I had the time to do it. Nowadays, not sure if I could do all of this with three little ones. But that’s why nowadays I normally pay to print gigantic images for my parties and buy the cardboard stand up characters, when I can.

Who could host an Alice in Wonderland themed celebration without “Eat Me” cookies? My mother and sister-in-laws also made adorable tea cup look-alike cupcakes and a cake that was to die for!

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The favors for this party were fantastic but also a little bit of work! I found this tutorial  by Bakerella for homemade gumdrops. These things were yummy and so darn cute!

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