Advent Season!

I don't know about y'all, but when I was growing up I had an advent calendar for the Christmas season every year. It was one of those that had the chocolates hidden in an image of Santa and every day we got to open a little "window" and eat our one piece for the day... It was great! I had NO idea that, that was a calendar. I had NO idea what it meant. I just knew that during Christmas I got to eat a piece of chocolate with breakfast every day until Christmas morning, it was great!

I have found and implemented a new advent calendar into our lives this year. One that it not chocolate, but one that will help your child grow! I think I originally found this on Pinterest, but I can't be too sure.

Above is a picture of the first 6 days in my advent calendar for Joc. What's inside them you ask? BOOKS! Yes, books! Small, inexpensive, books. I fell in love with this idea when I first saw it, wherever that was, and had to make this happen! I'm not sure I'll do it every single year, but I may do other things with a similar concept to them. This did get a little costly and had a good bit of work into it.

Most of the books I bought were right at $1.00. I would look everywhere I went for books that would interest her! I found a ton of them at Target, in their dollar section and a few of them at Michael's, Walmart, and other random places.

So far she has loved opening these every day! That's something else great about this calendar. You know that once you start putting gifts under the tree the kids start to get super antsy and excited and are dieing to open a present because they are there! Well, this way they get to open a present every day until Christmas!

So, what you need to make this happen for next year is:

25 small books

wrapping paper

tape

marker

tags, paper, stencils... ect. (optional)

1. I started out by organizing my books by what day I wanted her to open them on. I have a special book for the 25th of the month and I had a few others that are Christmas themed, so I wanted her to be able to enjoy those during the season, so I placed those stragically throughout the 25 days. And I had a group of three books that I wanted to give to her continuously.

2. I would then just wrap my books how they were, I did use a few gift bags to mix it up a little.

3. Then I used stencils and a large permanent marker to number the books 1-25 right on the packaging! I did not on my gift bags, however! I stenciled those onto some stock paper and then cut out the number and taped it on the appropriate bag.

 Here is Joc on day one of our calendar!

And here she is day three!

We have been taking pictures everyday of these as well, just to document it as we go! It has been such a fun experience for all of us here so far! We open a new book in the afternoon and then that's what we read before bedtime every night! So far she's opened two My Little Pony books found a Target a while back, a Winnie The Pooh book and Treasure Island! (We are slowly starting to incorporate "big books" into her collection for us to read together here soon!)

I strongly encourage you to try this with your family next Christmas! It was been such a fun blessing so far! The kids love it and it gives them something to do every afternoon, and it's not chocolate! Haha!

- Stephanie

Christmas Food "Hacks"

I hope that you all had and awesome Thanksgiving yesterday with your family and loved ones! I know we sure did at our house. I'm still cleaning up from it! :)

However, it's officially Christmas time!!! I adore this time of year! Everyone is always so cheerful and nice and the weather is wonderful (in my opinion) and then don't get me started on all the Christmas decorations that we get to put up and see!! I love it! Along with all those wonderful things comes a busy, busy few weeks as well... Especially for moms. We are constantly planning and prepping and cleaning and cooking and entertaining and wrapping and the list goes on. 

So, to make lives a smidgen easier this holiday season I've found some pretty creative hacks to share with you all! Some of these we've all seen before and some of them I've never even thought of doing! (And those that I haven't thought of before, were pretty spectacular in my opinion.)

Here you freeze chocolate into tree shapes and then add some icing to the backs and place them on a flat white cake to make it shine a little!

Fill empty condiments bottles with icing for decorating sugar cookies with the kids!

Dip cookie cutters in flour first to help the sugar cookies retain their shapes!

Look at this simple center piece! White candles and peppermints! Love it!

These are frozen dollops of coolwip/whipped cream to put in your mugs of hot cocoa! Such a great idea!

Three small candy canes glued together makes the perfect place card holders for your holiday tables!

Use the bottom of a crystal glass to make a unique design in your sugar cookies.

These were just a sampling of the hacks that I found on Buzzfeed! 

You can check out the rest of them over here: 38 Christmas Hacks

I hope that some of these come in handy throughout your busy holiday season this year and help you cut some corners!

-Stephanie

A Little Summer Treat

I came across this fun treat that you can make with your little ones the other day. They're called Ice Cream Pops! We actually made ours yesterday and they turned out fantastic! They were SO yummy! And, of course, very fun to make. Joc enjoyed doing all of the sprinkling.

What you need:

1. Ice cream, we used vanilla. But I was informed next time we have to use chocolate. :)
2. Chocolate syrup or Nutella. We used the syrup for ours.
3. Caramel sauce.
4. Crunched up toffee bits or hazelnuts. I found a bag of Hershey's/Toll House toffee and chocolate for baking that I used. It worked great.
5. Chopped up chocolate bits. We used Hershey's morsels.
6. Chopped almonds.
7. Paper cups.
8. Popsicle sticks.

Once you have all the ingredients that you want for your pops, alternate each dry ingredient with a layer or your ice cream of choice into the cups. Once filled to the top, stick in your popsicle stick and then place them on a tray in your freezer. Keep them in there for about two hours and they should be ready to enjoy!
And, of course, you don't have to follow my ingredients. Be creative and use your own set of tasty ingredients for your pops! I think next time we're doing a chocolate themed one with all chocolate ingredients! Chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate chips... ect. I can't wait!

A Candyland Kind of Halloween

Such cute ideas to add to your Halloween parties this season!! I adore the skeletons they made here! Maybe some of these will inspire y'all to get super creative with your Halloween festivities!! This is from a "Halloween Candyland" party on Catch My Party!! The rest of the photos on there are to die for!!! Seriously wish I had thought of this one first... I love the party theme and their decorations for it are so cute! I am loving all the bright colors they used here, too!

Go check out the rest of these incredible decorations here: http://catchmyparty.com/parties/whimsical-halloween-candyland

-Stephanie

Star Wars

So... Here is a really cool cake for a boy's birthday party!
It's Star Wars! And what little boy doesn't like Star Wars?!

Credits go out to: +Ness Hoffmann from One Perfect Day

Thanks y'all! :)

- Stephanie