Teacher Appreciation

Hello, loves!

The end of the school year is here...I'm talking my little girl will graduate from preschool in just 6 short days. Where has the year gone? I am filled with mixed emotions. I'm proud and excited -- and all the while I'm depressed and a wee bit weepy (seriously, I've been crying over everything lately! How can she already be this big and smart?!}

I'm just not ready to spend hours away from her next year while she's in class. I'm not ready to give up our lazy mornings filled with snuggles, playtime, Disney movies, late breakfasts, and story times. But I will...because she is ready. Because of her amazing teachers we have been blessed with this year she is prepared and she will be amazing and do amazing things in her elementary years to come.

She is so eager to learn and I just love watching her grow and become such a bright young lady.

Speaking of BRIGHT. Here are the teacher gifts I delivered today. Again, I cannot stress how amazing these ladies are. Mrs. Perigo and Mrs. Miller if you stumble across this you both are such gems and we couldn't have asked for better teachers for our Lillie. Thank you!

So here's the scoop, I am not a teacher but I am obsessed with pens, markers, anything I can doodle or draw with. Always have been. Always will be. It's in my blood or DNA or something! So, I have to imagine that when you are a teacher you are born with a gene similar if not even more pronounced than the one I'm speaking of.

I filled the summer time cups {from Wal-Mart} with BRIGHT highlighters and SHARPIES. Printed out some adorable tags that say "Thanks for a BRIGHT school year! XOX, Lillie" and colored them in with a few of the highlighters that I included in the cups. Ta-Da! Simple, yes, indeed. But hopefully something that they can  use while they are enjoying their summer break and then have some bright and colorful pens and markers for the upcoming school year!

Do you have any ideas for teacher appreciation / end of school year gifts that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them in the comments below!

Love always,
Mommy

Bikini Bottom Birthday Bash - Nijel turns THREE!

Oh the joys of party planning...You scheme and dream about all of the details for weeks {maybe even months!} and then it's all over in a blink of an eye. To say that I am exhausted would be an understatement but seeing the sweet smile on my little guy's face made all of the hard work worth it!

We really did have such a fabulous day, the rain held off, and we were surrounded by people who love us! We are so blessed and Nijel had a fabulous birthday! 

My little guy was old enough to choose his own theme this year and he chose none other than

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS! 

So without further adieu....

Welcome to Bikini Bottom!

Let's start with the healthiest menu item for good measure!

Spongebob Fruit Kabobs!

I cored a pineapple, skewed some delicious fresh fruit and voila! Adorable and oh-so-yummy!

 Close up of the pineapple and skewers.

Next up, Pearl's Pricey Oyster Cookies.So simple but they made quite an impression! These were definitely a favorite treat. Sugar cookies, blue raspberry icing, and candied pearls made up these adorable Oysters

 I used brown sugar as my sand just to fancy things up a bit and to help along my Bikni Bottom theme. A few star shaped sugar cookies and randonly placed pearls...and that was that!

It took me a day or two to figure out exactly how I wanted to represent Patrick. I decided a simple play on words would do the trick and these STARberry cheesecakes were a HUGE yummy hit!

Krabby Patties are a MUST at any Spongebob birthday bash.

I made these adorable Krabby Patty Cupcakes with a yellow cake mix, brownies, and some green and red icing! Yum Yum!

I am a worrier...I worry and I worry...and my worry was that I wouldn't have enough FOOD! Haha...so, because I like people to leave my parties in a sugar coma I also made some

FISH BAIT CUPCAKES!

I used the same yellow cake as in the Krabby Patties, topped with cream cheese icing and gummy worms. Easy peasy!

Another healthy item was this tray of Coral Bits and Kelp Dip! We love  veggies! 

   Sea salt and vinegar chips made the perfect

BARNACLE CHIPS!

Mini Nutter Butters, a dot of chocolate icing as my glue, and Hersey kisses made up these treats!

Yehaw! The perfect goody to represent our favorite Texas squirrel!

 

Yummy Stuff AKA blue chocolate dipped confetti cake balls covered in sprinkles. Delicious bite sized treats.

Mermaid Man's Ocean Water Punch! POW! So simple. Equal parts lemonade and blue raspberry juice.

Goody bags with the Main Man's mug on 'em.

And finally...a bit of a splurge but so much fun! The Spongebob Bouncy "Bubble" House!

The kids really enjoyed this. Well, the birthday boy sure was enjoying it until we had a minor mishap and it quickly deflated while he was inside...Uhh, needless to say he didn't re-enter the House of Bounce for the remainder of his party. Scarred for life? Possibly. 

Happy birthday, sweet Nijel! Mommy loves you all the way around the world and back and back and back! You are worth my achy feet and tired eyes. I hope your day was even HALF as special as you are to me. 

Love always,

Mommy

xox

Oooh, I almost forgot...The obligatory birthday candle blow out picture.

 

Homemade Valentines - S'MORE MIX

Hello, hello!

My gal has been having such a blast this year at Preschool and she has made some great friends. We wanted to make sweet homemade valentines to let them know just how much they mean to her! Apparently when she is at public school next year the option to hand out adorable, edible, homemade valentines will be no more. So sad. 

Anyway, this year we can make 'em and so we are taking full advantage! I knew I wanted something edible, something kid friendly, and something adorable. I think these S'more Mix treat bags hit the mark! What do you think?

I am so behind on the times and only have Word Pad and Paint on my laptop...so, I found a photo of the basic marshmallow outlines, copy/pasted them into Paint and made them my own little squishy masterpieces. {Changed the mouth, added rosy cheeks, and lovey-hearts floating around} Then I just copy.pasted the finished picture into Word Pad, type out my text and voila! Adorably and delicious valentines! 

There are some super cute pre-made s'more favor tags on Etsy. For example these here and these here are super cute! But for frugal ol' me... I decided to go fully handmade!

This is sooooooo easy to do with the kids! The S'more Mix ingredients are:

Golden Grahams {I used the off-brand. Told ya I'm cheap!}

Marshmallows {again...uhh...off brand!}

Milk chocolate chips {Got the real thing here...I don't mess around when it comes to chocolate!}

In a large mixing bowl add all of your ingredients. I found it worked best to pour a little of each in, mix, pour a little more in and mix, so on and so forth. You can use a big spoon or be like us and use our freshly washed paws to mix the ingredients. 

My gal enjoyed this part, I'm sure your littles will too!

After all was mixed I measured out one cup of the S'more Mix and divided it into several sandwich size baggies. Before attaching my cute little handmade favor tags I was sure to let my gal address the valentines to her classmates! 

After all, we may as well show off our newly learned printing skills, right?

We worded the ones for her teachers a bit differently...

"The world needs S'MORE teachers like you!" 

I am so excited for her to hand these yummy little cuties out!

Wishing you a happy Valentine's Day!

Love always,

Momma