Friday, December 7, 2018

Tween Girl Gift Guide

I have had so much fun shopping for my 10 going on 16 year old this year.  Its such a great age because they are right on the cusp of being a teen, yet still a kid.  Here is my 2018 gift guide for tweens!




1. Unicorn Slime Kit

I don't know about you, but both of my girls are crazy about slime.  They are constantly making up new recipes for different version of slime.  I love this kit because it comes with everything you need to make several different kinds of slime AND a nice container to put everything in when they are done.  Minimal mess with easy clean up is my kind of thing!

2. Watercolor Crush

My tween is really into art right now.  She wants an easel and all sorts of art supplies.  I thought this would be a fun addition to that!  It has high reviews where people say they bought it as a gift and ended up keeping it for themselves because it is that great!

3. Gumball Machine

This is such a fun gift idea!  What tween doesn't love gum, and the thought of having her very own machine makes it even better.  Plus, it doubles as a piggy bank, right?

4. Ear Buds

Unfortunately, I think that with the teens comes the inevitable ear buds.  If they have to have them, at least make them cute!  I absolutely love the case that these come with!

5. Karaoke Microphone

My daughter has this Karaoke microphone and loves it!  She and her friends stayed up late into the night playing with it at a recent sleepover.  It has been our go to birthday present for her friends recently! Plus, this one is rose gold, which makes it a winner.

6. Razor A5 Scooter

This scooter is bigger than the typical scooter and comes with a kickstand.  My tween has outgrown her old scooter and this is at the top of her list.


7. Echo Dot--Alexa

Okay, I know this is on every single tween gift guide out there, but y'all!  It's because it is just.that.great!  My tween uses it for literally everything!  Right now, she is listening to Christmas music on it.  She checks her homework, sets her alarm, asks it to tell her a joke, and asks it all sorts of questions that I don't know the answer to.  It is amazing.

8. Pineapple Roller Skates

My tween wants to learn to roller skate and has been asking for a new pair.  She specifically requested these pineapple ones, which I think are simply adorable! These are also really cute.


9. Nail Art Studio

My daughter loves to paint her nails.  I while back I bought her a nail paint pen from Target and she is obsessed with it!  I like the fact that this comes with several different options!

10.  Sleepover Bag

We have started the age of sleepovers. This bag is absolutely perfect for them! Its cute, its roomy, and can be wiped clean.  Its not fabric.  We have this brand and love it.  There are so many other patterns to choose from, too.


That's it for now!  I will be back with a tween boy gift guide and a 6-8 year old girl gift guide very soon.  Happy shopping!!

*This post does contain affiliate links.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Giftcard Wreath

I must have been crazy back in August, because somehow I thought being room mom for both of my older two classes was a great idea.  Now that December has hit, I am feeling the pressure!  Christmas party number one is done, after a very late night last night. I can breathe a little easier now!

For my son's first grade class, I had to come up with a class gift for the teacher.  I love Nathan's teacher.  She is so sweet and good with him, so I knew I wanted to do something extra special for her.  I asked each parent to donate a gift card to one of her favorite places and then racked my brain to come up with something cute for her.

I ended up making a deco mesh wreath using different tutorials online and then I used red glitter clothespins to clip each giftcard to the wreath.  I figure she can easily take the cards off and use the wreath in her classroom or at home.  I am loving the way it turned out and cannot wait to give it to her tomorrow!




Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Stocking Stuffer Ideas

It is truly a miracle!  I am 100% done Christmas shopping and it isn't even Christmas Eve!  I think its a first.  Wrapping...now that's another story!

When I was a kid, stockings were always one of my favorite parts of Christmas. My brother and I always opened our stockings first, before opening any gifts from my parents.  My husband's family always opened their's last.  I caved, and now our kiddos open them at the end of the big present extravaganza.  I must admit, I like it!  So, what do you do?  Do your kids go through their stocking before opening all their presents, or after?  I'd love to hear!

Since we're talking stockings, I wanted to share with you 50 fun stocking stuffers for the kiddos. I'm including links for some of them, because Lord knows that Amazon Prime has been my best friend this Christmas!

1. Play Doh --what kid doesn't love play doh.  One of the only things my 2 year old wants from Santa is pink play doh.  I think he can swing that.  ;)

2.  Disposable Camera

3.  Spot It--My kids love this game, and it is small enough to fit in a stocking

4. Glitter or gel pens

5. Bookmark

6. Snake Flashlight--my son has this and LOVES IT!  He lays in bed and reads all the time with it.

7. Nerf gun--Love the new pink ones for girls.  They have small ones that will fit perfectly in a stocking

8. Nail Polish--Love Piggy Paint

9. Lego Mini figure Mystery Pack

10. Bubbles

11. Dry Erase Window Markers--all three of my kids LOVE these. nbsp; They go to town on my windows, and then clean them.  Its a win/win situation.  They have fun, and I get clean windows out of it!

12.  Movie Theater Gift Card

13.  Rainbow Loom Bands--these are all the rage here.

14.  Candy, candy, candy--can't go wrong with sugaring them up!

15.  Stickers--I just found some scratch and sniff stickers that my daughter is going to go crazy for

16.  Super Snow

17. Crayons

18. Bath tablets that change the water different colors--can be found at walmart or target

19.  Coloring book

20. Pipsqueak markers

21.  watercolor paints

22. Joke Book-- I found this Knock Knock joke book that my son will love

23. Toothbrush

24. Bubblebath

25. Silly String--We have a Silly String Fight every Christmas afternoon.  Weird tradition.

26.  Hotwheels

27. Glitter Glue--my daughter is obsessed with it.

28.  Glow in the Dark stars

29.  Fun bandaids--with three kids, I ought to by stock in bandaids!

30.  Elastic Hair Ties

31. Felt Clippies for a little one's hair--Etsy is the place to find these!

32. Sun Art Paper--this was a big hit with the kiddos last year

33. Temporary Tattoos

34. Jump Rope

35. Dinosaur Fossil Dig

36. Book Light

37.  Silly Putty

38.  Baseball

39. GoGo Squeeze Applesauce Pouches

40. Beef Jerkey

41. Jacks

42. Old Maid

43.  Fun, wacky socks

44. Christmas Mad Libs

45. Scented Pencils

46. Hexbug--I think the fish would be perfect in the bathtub. No?

47. Brain Quest

48. Toobs--My kids love these.

49. Sippy Cups

50. Disney Princess Clip Dolls and Dresses

Monday, December 9, 2013

Elf On the Shelf Breakfast 2013

George the Elf brought our annual North Pole Breakfast back on December 1st.  We were sick with the flu that week, but I still tried to make it as special and as fun as possible!  You can see our past Breakfasts here and here.

First up, the table.  I am not sure exactly why I didn't take a picture of the entire table.  I blame it on the 104 degree temperature. Each place setting had the matching plate, napkin, and mailbox.  Inside the mailbox was a Christmas shirt for each kiddo and a lego mystery minifigure pack.  My kids go crazy over those!  There was also a cup stuffed with hot chocolate, a Peep Christmas Tree Kabob, and George's note to the kids.


 




 The kabob was super simple.  I had some of the little sticks left over from another party.  I dipped the tip of the stick in water and the marshmallows slid on super simple.  Then I tied on some left over red ric rac.  All three kids loved these.



George the Elf was sitting in the middle of the table, watching all the action.  He had sparkly sugar cookies sitting in bowl fulls over snowballs (mini marshmallows).


 






George always leaves a note for each kiddo.  I love seeing their faces when they read them/are read to them.



 


The kiddos all had a blast at their North Pole Breakfast, chowing down on sweets galore.  

  


Thanks George for such a yummy breakfast and wonderful memories! 

Sunday, November 24, 2013

ABC Family 25 Days of Christmas

I don't know about you, but on those cold December nights there is nothing more that I love to do than curl up with my kids under a big blanket and watch Christmas movies. There are so many good ones out there, and we each have our favorite. Our go to channel to catch all of our top Christmas movie picks is ABC Family.

 I couldn't be more excited that this year they are showing The Little Mermaid!!! I know its not a Christmas movie, but it is probably my absolute favorite Disney movie. I'll be DVR'ing that sucker for sure!

 Anyway, check out the full schedule below to find out when your favorite Christmas show comes on this year!


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Are You Ready for Some Football??!!

I have a tiny confession to make. I am not a huge football fan (hiding my face in shame).  Yes, I am from Texas, the land of high school and college football.  Yes, I am an Aggie, home of the 12th Man, but I just never really got into it.  I know, its horrible!  

Planning a party around football, now that's another thing!  I can do that and I can do that with a smile!  This fun party would be great for your smallest tailgaters before an important game or even to celebrate the Super Bowl at the end of the season!  

The amazing printables and many of the party supplies were courtesy of Party On! Designs.  Amber is simply amazing!  

So, without further adieu, I give you my little football party!












The delicious chocolate suckers are courtesy of Suckers by Steph. They were amazing!






Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Ellie's Elmo Party

We celebrated Ellie's second birthday last weekend and I am just now finally getting to all the pictures.  This mama needed to take a break after all the party business had ended! Ellie had so much fun at her party, so it made all the late nights and hot glue gun burns worth it!  ;) So, grab some coffee,  sit back, and get ready for a picture overload!

If you've read some of my other blog posts, you know that I love to have something out in the yard to greet the guests.  Who better to do the job than a life size, wooden Elmo! My hubby tolerates my crazy ideas and even helps me bring them to life. The kids loved the giant Elmo and even swiped his balloons at the end of the party.


I had three main indoor areas that I decorated.  We'll start with my favorite, the dessert table!  This was seriously a labor of love.  I've always wanted a ruffled tablecloth, but just couldn't bring myself to shell out the money for one.  One night when I couldn't sleep, I had this wacky idea to make my own, except with a twist.  I ended up sewing velcro to the ruffles so that I can switch them out for each party theme.  I have to tell you, it was a lot of work, but I am in LOVE with the final product!  And now, I have a ruffle tablecloth that I can make to match every party that I throw!

We had lots of fun sweets for the dessert table, including Elmo cakepops that I made, rice krispie treats on swizzle sticks, push pops filled with matching M&M's, cookies, chocolate Elmo pops, and the most beautiful, delicious cake ever!





The beautiful push pop containers are courtesy of I Have A Favor.  I filled them with pink and aqua M&M's and put them in a pretty pink suitcase I bought from Land of Nod.  The suitcase is actually a teal inside, but it didn't match my colors perfectly, so I covered the inside with polka dot scrapbook paper.  It turned out so cute!

I made the square cookies below myself.  I took a print out of one of the printables that Party On! Designs made to my local grocery store bakery.  They printed it out on edible paper and I just set that paper onto my royal icing cookies.  So pretty and they made a big statement!



These cookies by Kima's Konfections were so delicious and they matched the colors perfectly!  There wasn't a crumb left after the party!


My husband made this huge Ellie Street sign to go near the dessert table.  Loved it!


I also had these great little bags from Party On! Designs that the guests could use to take home treats from the dessert table.  I always seem to have lots of sweets left over after the party, so these ,mwere perfect to get them out of my house


My little birthday girl had a hard time staying away from the dessert table.  She may have snuck a treat or two!  :) Isn't her shirt the cutest? Its from Sweet Threads Clothing Company and it matched the party perfectly!




Next up comes the food table, yummy!  I pulled out my sewing machine again and whipped up some pretty ruffled streamers.  I tied them to a thick, red ribbon and then topped it off with a banner that said "Ellie"  I bought some plain, white gable boxes and embellished them with a pretty matching sticker.  I packed each kid their own little lunch inside, with chicken nuggets (they went inside the little fry containers,but were still in the oven when I took this picture), an applesauce pouch, and goldfish.  Next to the boxes were the cutest little Elmo cups ever with matching straws.  The kids loved these!





The third station that I set up was for the take home favors.  Each child could get their Elmo bucket and fill it with whatever goodies they wanted.  I think they loved picking and choosing!





I had a few different activities set up for the kiddos, but the main one was the massive bounce house and waterslide combo, which turned out to be the only frustrating part of the day.  They were supposed to deliver the bounce house/waterslide  and kid tables and chairs more than an hour before the party.  They didn't get there until about 15 minutes AFTER the party started.  I didn't get my tables decorated the way I wanted to, which was disappointing. I still think everything turned out pretty, though!  Anyway, back to the activities...

The first one I had was the edible beading station.  I put Fruit Loops in pretty pink cups courtesy of Party On! Designs and then precut some twine for the kids to make edible necklaces.  This was perfect for the kids who wanted to take a bit of a break from the waterslide!



I also set up a little coloring station for the kids who needed a bit of time to warm up.  I simply printed out an Elmo I found online and decorated a metal bucket with ric rac and filled it with crayons.  Simple fun.


I had an Elmo bean bag toss, but I didn't get a picture of that!

I couldn't have been more thrilled with the printables that Party On! Designs made for me.  They were absolutely perfect for the look that I was going for!  I printed out a few to stick in the flowers that I put throughout the party.  I loved the blue Mason jars, too, and you'll never guess where I found them!  My grocery store!!!

I am so happy with all the vendors I used for the party!  I just wanted to say thank you very much to everyone who made this party fun and beautiful! Here is a list of my wonderful vendors:

Party Printables, paper straws, party fringe, paper nut cups, and other party supplies: Party On! Designs
Round Cookies: Kima's Konfections
Cake: Mindy May's Cakes
Push Pop Containers: I Have A Favor
Elmo Drink Cups: Signature Avenue
Ellie's Shirt: Sweet Threads
Ellie's Hair Clip: Posies Handmade
Favor Hair Clippies: A Market Collection
Favor Hair Ties: Enchanted Felt

This party has been featured on:
Kara's Party Ideas

This party has been shared on:
Lil Luna
Bloom Designs
Seven Thirty Three
A Glimpse Inside
House of Hepworths
The Girl Creative
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