Another Easter Gift (Perfect for Teachers)!

Not only is it fun for my children to give gifts to their little buddies at school, but we also love to spoil their teachers...especially around a holiday!  So, we came up with this cute and festive teacher gift this Easter.  You can never have too much chocolate!  Here's a closer look...

So simple!  Found these polka dot bowls in the Target Dollar Section.  We also picked up some cute spring dishtowels to add some color and pattern.  And then we filled those bowls up with some yummy Hershey chocolate eggs.  This was a fun one to give to our preschool teachers.  More big smiles all around!  Any cute teacher gifts that you used this Easter?
Pin It

An Easter Gift for Little Buddies!

I love gift giving and I love teaching my children to be excited about giving gifts.  One way we have a lot of fun teaching this is by making gifts for their friends at school.  Right now my "big boy" is in preschool and there are only twelve kiddos in his class which makes gift giving easy and not too expensive.  Sometimes I like to collect a bunch of ideas and ask the kiddos which idea they love and would like to help make.  Well, when I showed them this idea using cute little marshmallow peeps...it was a hit!  I mean marshmallows are yummy and it's fun to see a seasonal candy appear in the store aisles.

I found this darling "peeps topper" from a favorite blog called Eighteen25 and downloaded it for free.  Here's the link, in case you'd like to make your own.  After printing them out on cardstock, the rest was a piece of cake.  I purchased some packages of peeps (pink and yellow is what I found).  We placed four peeps in each snack sized bag.  And then I glued the printable onto a folded piece of cardstock, in another spring color.  We stapled them to the top and it was finished! 

He loved handing them out to his friends at preschool today.  It was the perfect way to end an egg hunt and I love to see the smiles on his face when he gets to give gifts...as well as the smiles of his little buddies when they receive a gift from my cutie pie!  Did you come up with any cute goodies to pass out before spring break?
Pin It

Spring has Sprung in our House!

Well, we had some gorgeous weather that got us all excited about spring and then the rain came in!  And the rain has been on and off for the past couple of weeks.  I am ready for full-time sunshine.  But no worries...I have added a touch of spring to our home, in our entryway to be exact!  I think it's a fun way to enter our home and greet guests, to keep our entry table decorated for the season or holiday.  So, my spring decorations are up and it makes me smile to see the pastel colors and the cheerful designs.  Here is a bit of spring to make you smile...

Pin It

My "R" Wall...

I know this sounds funny...but I have always wanted a spot in our home to display a collection of the letter "R" personalized for our family and our last name.  I must have seen the idea somewhere on a blog or in a magazine and I love anything personalized.  So, having a wall with lots of R's seemed kind of fun!  All different sizes, styles, and so on.  I began to keep my eyes open to start this new collection and also began hunting around the house for the perfect spot to display them. 

And as silly as this sounds...I decided the perfect spot would be our master bathrooom!  We had a large empty wall over the bath tub that I never knew what to hang there.  We didn't need another mirror...we already had large mirrors over the sinks.  I had been on the lookout for some artwork but nothing ever struck me as the perfect thing for our bathroom.  Photos were an option but we have photos all over the rest of our home.  And then it hit me...this might be the perfect spot for my new, fun collection.

So, while my hubby was at work...I got to work.  I spray painted one or two of them.  Added a ribbon to another and started arranging them on the floor.  Once I found a display that I liked, I began hammering them on the wall!  It didn't need to be perfect.  And when it was all said and done...I loved it!  It really is the perfect thing for this space. When my little guy walked in to see what I was doing, I asked him how he liked our letter "R" wall.  He told me it was okay but he would have rather had a "P" or "M" wall.  Hmmm...so cute!  Do you have any fun collections you've displayed in your home?
Pin It

A Fun Way to "Pretty Up" Your Drawers!

I love spring cleaning...and organizing...and decluttering...and adding a little bit of "pretty" to it all!  So, here's a quick, easy, and cheap way to give your drawers some color and fun while organizing them.  I decided it was time to go through our bathrooms and clean our expired medication, toss items I no longer use, and just condense a few things.  Time to simplify!  While I was at it, I wanted to line those bathroom drawers since I didn't do it when we moved in.  This way they would be easier to keep clean and it might add a fun touch to the bottom of them.

So, I headed to my favorite store on earth...Target...and browsed the clearance aisles for some cheap plastic placemats.  And there at the end of an aisle I found a bunch that had just recently been marked down to 48 cents and I snagged a dozen of them!  I took them home and knew they would make perfect drawer liners for my bathroom organizing project.  They were cheap, easy to trim to the size I needed, could be wiped and cleaned easily, and added some punch!  I love that I don't have to deal with taping them, sticking them perfectly, or worry about what it will do to the bottom of the drawer if I ever wanted to rip them out.  These can easily be removed, cleaned, and changed!

I took everything out of our bathroom drawers.  Did some tossing, some condensing, and some grouping before putting it all back in on top of my new drawer liners.  I love them!  I love seeing some color and it helps me not to fill those drawers up and be cluttered.  I like to see the pattern and cute touch.  So, keep your eyes open for cheap placemats as they really do make excellent drawer and cabinet liners!  Do you have any cute ideas you use to "pretty up" your drawers?

Pin It

Family Meal Time!

No, this isn't a post about menu planning.  Although I have big plans for organizing that aspect of my life very soon too!  Rather I wanted to share some ideas for how to sit down and enjoy a meal together as a family.  I have a few things we use...and actually keep right on our kitchen table as part of the centerpiece.  It's decorative and useful, all at the same time!  Here is the centerpiece on our table.  Doesn't really change unless it's a special occasion or holiday.  But other than that, I always keep the same several items in the middle of our kitchen table. 

So, what do I keep here in the center of our family meal time?  Let's take a peek!  First of all, I have found that keeping the napkins on the table and easily accessible is a life saver with three little ones.  I don't have to run to a drawer to grab a few more and I don't have to hop out of my chair to pick them up off a shelf.  They are in the middle of our eating area and even the kiddos can grab one when they need it.  The salt and pepper shaker are here also...just because it makes the most sense!  I love having flowers where we eat.  And while fresh flowers are beautiful, the silk ones work just fine also.  Aren't these pretty?  Yellow just makes me smile!

Another item you might notice is our "prayer popsicle sticks."  This is my newest item that I have added to the bunch.  My two oldest kiddos love to pray before we eat.  And these popsicle sticks add a little variety to the prayers.  They can each grab one and see what it says to pray for.  Then while praying they can make sure to include a prayer for that person, or that need, or that praise!  Ideas for your "prayer popsicle sticks" might include:  pray for our neighbors, pray for your teachers, thank God for something good today, pray for the child we sponsor in Honduras, etc.  Choosing a stick adds a bit of fun to the dinner prayer time!

And last but not least, one of favorite items in our meal time centerpiece is the "table talk" jar.  I added a few sweet words and cute touches to the jar with some mod podge and then printed out a bunch of questions on strips of paper.  I just looked up some ideas for family time questions around the dinner table and found lots of them!  I chose my favorites.  The kiddos each get to pick a question from the jar and we all take turns answering their question during dinner time.  You can decide if you want to take the question out of the jar, until all of them have been chosen or maybe it's okay with you if they get reapeated throughout the week.  The questions range from thoughts like "What's your favorite book?  Let's read it together tonight!" to "What do you want to be when you grow up?" to "What was something that made you happy today?"  The questions act like a spring board to talk about your day and have fun sharing together.  This is a family favorite!

Hope you enjoyed some ideas on how to organize your family meal time with some fun!  And of course, I would love to hear if you have any other ideas you use or would like to share with me.  Enjoy your dinner together tonight!
Pin It

A Place for Everything!

This year has been all about organizing and simplifying for me. The word I continually come back to is "intentional." I am learning to be intentional in many areas of my life...intentional in how I talk to my children, intentional in what food we put into our bodies, intentional in how I spend my time, intentional in loving my husband, and the list goes on! So, I am really learning to be intentional in how I run our household and how I take care of my home and family. Little by little I am getting rid of the excess, simplifying our home, and learning to be content and thankful for all that we have. My motto continues to be... "Finding a place for everything!"  In my home, I believe that everything must have a home.  What I mean is that if I don't know where to find something or where to put something, it means I have too much stuff!  I like to be organized and have a spot for all that we use, and all that we have.  I have been making my way around our home for the last two years (the length of time we have now lived here) and I have probably two more BIG areas that need my organizational help.  I will try to share with you some systems I already have in place, and some systems I have been busy organizing recently.  The garage is my most recent.  Would you like a sneak peek of what I have been up to?  (I am addicting to labeling!) It's not done yet...but we're getting closer!

I'll leave you with a little tip that someone told me once and it's stuck with me.  It was a simple idea but it makes so much sense.  A friend said that if we all just slowed down enough and took the "5 seconds" it takes to put something away in the right place, instead of making a pile or tossing in in a cabinet...we would have a lot less clutter and a lot less to organize later on.  Does that make sense?  I shouldn't be so rushed that I can't put something away neatly or at least, in its "home" because the consequence will be I can't find it, or my life has become unorganized.  So slow down a bit, take that extra 5 seconds, and start looking around your home to see if there is "a place for everything!"
Pin It

I'm Back!!

Yes, it's me again!!  I've been busy loving up on our sweet and newest addition to the family...our baby girl!  And while she isn't a newborn anymore, I truly can't believe how quickly the last five months have flown by.  It almost makes me a bit sad how fast they grow up.  But I am loving being the mommy of three kiddos.  Life is just busy and taking a break from blogging is what I had to do.  But lately I have been missing it.  I miss writing, taking photos and sharing with everyone little ideas here and there that I use around our home and in our family.  A few friends recently said to me that I needed to start blogging again because they needed my help organizing, celebrating holidays with their little ones, and other ideas.  It gave me a kick in the behind...and I realized that while I might not be very consistent, I am ready to begin blogging again!  So here goes...
Pin It