Strawberry Shortcake Thank You Basket

Strawberry season is closing in. Are you as excited about that as I am? Where strawberries are there is strawberry frozen yogurt, strawberry lemonade, strawberry pie, strawberry spinach salad, strawberry jam, and of course Strawberry Shortcake. I recently had a few friends do me the biggest favor ever. They watched my three older little men while my littlest man and I went on a week long trip. There is no feeling like not having to worry about where your kiddos will be during the day while you are out of town. That kind of peace of mind deserves a really a big THANK YOU. A BERRY special kind of Thank You if you will. Hahaha. We all have people in our lives who are BERRY sweet. There are teachers, neighbors, friends, moms, and so many others all awesome enough to be thanked with Strawberry Shortcake.

Making your own Thank You Strawberry Shortcake Kit is really easy.

Just gather up all the stars of the show. Starting of course with the leading lady. Strawberries.

Then we have whipped cream.

Now introducing the strawberry glaze and cakes of the shortcake variety.

Everything is store bought. I simply prettied everything up just a tad. I put the strawberries in a fun paper berry container. I added a paper doily and yarn to the whipped cream. The store bought strawberry glaze found a new home in a fun textured mason jar.

I printed out the Thank You tag and attached it to the basket with a cloths pin.

 

 

Download Berry Thank You Tags HERE

It has never been easier, prettier, and yummier to say thank you to that awesome person in your life.

Now I can say thank you to my berry special friends with a little Strawberry Shortcake Kit. I am pretty sure they will be my friends forever now.

Father's Day Poster (Funny)

Father's are just as special as Mother's. Seriously they are. Knowing that then, why do I always tend to migrate toward funny, if slightly inappropriate gift ideas for Father's Day.

On Mother's Day the gifts are highly sentimental and very warm and fuzzy. I have made sentimental Father's Day gifts before, for instance, these Framed Scrabble Photos for The Hubs. One year I also made my own dad a set of t-shirts with sayings attributed to him on the front. You know like Chili Dogs Only Bark at Night. 

So yes, sometimes I go warm and fuzzy and sometimes I lean more toward humor.

This would be a funny year. My dad is in public service. He deals with a lot of people day in and day out. As you can imagine sometimes those people are less than pleasant. Heck, he deals with us, his children a lot, and as you can imagine sometimes we are less than pleasant.

So that lead to this poster. I had pinned something similar to my Gifts for Others board. I wanted a poster and I wanted it to be a little more simple. I opted for navy and white, because yes we all know I love blue and white.

Right click on the image to save it to your computer. This poster is best printed off in sizes 8x10 or larger. I printed off a 16x20. The ladies from the print shop thought this poster was quite witty. They even mentioned maybe they hang one up there.

Sorry ladies, this one is for my dad so that everyone can see it the minute they walk into my dad's office. Hopefully this will preempt a lot of turdy behavior.

Happy Father's Day to all the funny dads out there.

Spider-Man Spider Web Spray Cover (Printable)

Last week I shared all about our recent Spider-Man Birthday Party we had over here.

One of the activities was a little spider web spray off. We sent all of the kids out back and had them attack each other with Spidey Web (aka silly string).

I wanted to hide the generic silly string label with a coordinating party themed one. So as I normally do, I went over to PicMonkey and whipped up a label. Can I just say how amazing all of the superhero overlays are?

They are amazing.

There I said it.

It can be a bit tricky to make sure that you get the label to fit the silly string can, so I am providing two different printing options.

Above is the original JPEG that I made. You can right click and save that to your computer, open it in a Word document and adjust the size accordingly. Then print it off on card stock.

The other option is to download the pdf document below and to print if off on card stock. This image cannot be adjusted so depending on the size of your can it may be too small or too big.

 Download Spidey Web label HERE

Cut out the labels and hot glued them in place.

Now we are ready for a pretty epic Spidey Web battle.

Not only was it epic, but it was the favorite activity of the party.

I hope you aren't bored of all this Spider-Man partying. I might have a few more things to share. Oh the excitement!

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St. Patrick's Day Teacher Appreciation Gift (Printable)

Sorry I am sharing this St. Patrick's Day Teacher Appreciation Gift so late. I had the best of intentions to get it to you guys yesterday. That would at least give you half a day to whip something together if you wanted to. Alas, it obviously didn't happen.

My computer has seen better days people. I normally try and work on The Hub's computer after he gets home, but he has been needing it for work and that means I am back to Old Bessie here. After my card reader (yes that is how old my computer is) led me on a merry chase, I finally was able to get to my photos and edit them.

I debated still sharing these, but they are so gosh dang cute I just had to. Plus, thanks to Pinterest holiday ideas can live on past their actual holiday and be saved for the next year.

So here is my St. Patrick's Day Teacher Appreciation Gift.

I went to a local store and cleared them out of all their green soda. The cashier was all, "Wow! You must really like this soda." He seemed only a little less confused when I told him I was in PTO and it was for our teachers. Haha!

I created this tag in PicMonkey and used the "POPPED" as a play on words of the soda. You all know how I like a good play on words!

You know what else I like?

Color coordination.
Paper Straws.
Washi Tape.

So I had to use it all.

I hot glued the St. Patrick's Day label (CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD) to the bottle. Then I taped a paper straw to the side. Easy Peasy. You could tape these to green cans or bottles of soda if you can't find green colored soda. Any way you do it, it is a fun way to tell a teacher you feel lucky to have them.

For another idea, here is last year's St. Patrick's Day Teacher Appreciation Gift:

Lucky To Have Teachers Like You

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Good Morning, Good Food (Printable and Giveaway)

How do mornings go at your house?

Here, the mornings can get a little hairy. With four boys, there is one thing that morning produces: hungry grumpy little men. They are hungry because well, you know they haven't eaten in the last 30 minutes since the whole they were sleeping thing. They are grumpy because they are hungry.

Let me tell you, some days it just isn't too pleasant. So what is a Momma to do to get a good sunshiney morning? 

The answer is simple. Get them yummy food and get it to them fast. Like, faster than a speeding bullet fast. Throwing cereal at their open mouths is not going to cut it either. They need something delicious, hearty, and packed with protein that will combat the hunger grumpies and will fuel them for a full day of learning and playing.

Enter Jimmy Dean and these Sausage, Egg and Cheese Croissant Sandwiches. Man did these yummy sandwiches make my hungry grumpy monsters happy. Since they are done all warm and delicious in less than three minutes, that takes care of the whole faster than a speeding bullet thing. 

Oh the happiness that happens when my little men eat these sandwiches. They would eat these anytime of day. Pair them with a glass of juice and they are the perfect way to start the day for four growing boys.

Now we have one good morning after another.

I mean look at these happy let's-start-this-day-off-right-faces!

Jimmy Dean offers a wide variety of quick, warm and delicious breakfast options. To learn more about Jimmy Dean and to see a complete list of product offerings visit Jimmy Dean's website or check out the brand on Facebook.

I often greet my boys with a cheerful, if tired, "Good morning Sunshine!" We are having all kinds of good mornings thanks to yummy breakfasts.

Go grab some Jimmy Dean breakfast for an awesome weekend flavor on a busy weekday morning. Also, print this sweet little Good Morning printable to hang up on the fridge.

Download HERE

That's how we start our days around here. What’s your favorite way to start the day off right? Tell me in the comments for a chance to win a $100 VISA gift card.

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Love You Like A Love Song Valentine

Whenever the middle of January roles around I start getting all giddy and lovey eyed for all things Valentines. I start writing out ideas for possible classroom Valentines and I start dreaming up possible ideas for the boys' Valentines shirts.

Guess what!?! It is the middle of January. So I am thinking we should get all Valentine's Day up in here. The first of three classroom Valentines are done.

I need to give mad props to my very favorite one of my favorite songs, since it was the inspiration for this Valentine. Oh Love You Like A Love Song, you were just asking to be turned into a Valentine. I had the idea for the printable sitting in my back pocket, metaphorically speaking of course. Of course. I just needed something to go with the idea. Then I saw these plastic toy whistles at The Mart.

Well if that isn't just perfect, I don't know what is.

So I made up a Valentine with Love You Like A Love Song (get the printable HERE). I taped the whistle to the card with some washi tape.

As simple as you please, one pretty cool non-candy classroom Valentine. I am pretty sure Little's kindergartner teacher is gonna just love that I gave 20+ kids whistles. Best. Parent. Ever.

Now I just need to whip up the other two boys' Valentines. The ideas are in place. The materials are bought. Now I just need to find the time to get them done. Do you happen to know where I can get some of that?

Here are some of our previous classroom Valentine ideas.

Outta This World Valentine

Meant to Bee Friends Valentine

Minecraft Be Mine Valentine

Nacho Average Valentine

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Santa Thank You Tags

This year for Christmas we have been trying to do a lot more little acts of service and kindness. There are so many people who serve us and deserve our thanks. A lot of them we really hadn't thanked. So we made a list of people we wanted to thank for Christmas.

One of those people was our Mailman.

I gathered up a few cute paper bags, some washi tape, and a gift card. I also made up these cute Santa Thank You Tags using PicMonkey. PicMonkey has some ridiculously cute holiday overlays. I have used them in our Garbage Man Thank You and for our Dear Santa Letter. Basically I can't get enough of all the holiday goodness.

paper bags: Zurchers Party Store

I also threw in a few pieces of chocolate, because well chocolate is always a good idea.

These Santa Thank You Tags are generic enough that they can be used to thank anyone. All you need to do is right click on the photo below and open it in a word document. Then print and cut out.

Now all we had to do was leave it for our Mailman for a little holiday cheer and thank you.

Who do you want to thank this year?

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Dear Santa Party

Last week we wrote our letters to Santa. I decided to make a party out of it. So the boys had a little Dear Santa Party. They wrote letters. They sipped cold milk. They ate yummy treats.

Last year I made up these Dear Santa letter printables.

The letter to fill out is super fun and is easily used for older kids and younger ones. I made changes to the envelope image I made last year. Last year I found an address online that I had been told worked. Well, false. SO this year I did a little more research and found several options that work great.

The address I used:

Santa Claus

PO Box 1

Santa Claus, IN 47579

This address goes to a museum in Santa Claus, Indiana, where they have volunteers who receive the letters and will write a response back to any letter written before December 20th as long as the return address is readable. 

SO I made a new envelope image with that address.

You can still use the first envelope design if it doesn't really get mailed. However, the new address can be mailed.

With letter and envelope in hand we were ready to start our party.

I found these adorable paper products at Target in the Christmas section.

I matched up the straws, Santa plates, and napkins with a few things I already had around the house.

We served Oreos and cinnamon Santas.

I think everyone had fun.

From the littlest Santa believer.

To the oldest believer in the Spirit of Santa, goer along to keep the magic alive for his younger brothers.

This little party was waiting for them when they got home from school. I had so much fun just putting together this simple festive Dear Santa Party. I think we have a new tradition.

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