ideas

Thanks to Groupon for this great partnered guest post! If you’re like me and will be on the hunt for last-minute Father’s Day gifts this weekend, you’ll love these suggestions:

Dads are so special and unique, and a man with amazing qualities deserves a special gift to highlight his Father’s Day. We want to honor the guy we think is so perfect, and who helped raise the perfect kids…but sometimes we’re not so perfect. If you slacked on getting a Father’s Day gift this year, don’t worry too much! Here are four great last-minute (and/or belated!) gifts available to let him know that you care (and won’t wait so late to shop again next year):

#1 Kiehl’s Starter Kit is a nice, manly personal hygiene kit. It consists of Facial Fuel Energizing Face Wash, White Eagle Shave Cream, Facial Fuel Moisturizer and Ultimate Strength Hand Salve.

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Note: We received a variety of Hasbro toys to facilitate this post. I was not compensated monetarily for this post. All opinions are honest and are my own.

When it comes to stockings, I like to fill them with things I know my kids will play with for a long time. It’s easy to be tempted by all the knick knacks that fill the aisles at Christmastime, but I think we all know those end up breaking or being discarded within a week or two after the holidays.

Hasbro has a ton of toys and games; I know we’ve already got many Hasbro items in our house. But did you know they have a lot of stocking stuffer options perfect for your kids?

Since the kids don’t read my blog yet (I’m sure one day they totally will) I can share with you some of what they’ll be getting in their stockings.

J, our 7-year-old, will be getting a Transformer from the new Age of Extension Transformers movie – it can convert from a great robot action figure into a vehicle in just one step, which is great and frustration-free! These retail for $9.99 each. He’ll also be getting Star Wars Rebels action figures, which he’ll be thrilled about because he loves that show!  These also retail for $9.99 each. He’ll love playing with both of these toys for a long time to come!

C, our 5-year old, will be getting a Transformers Rescue Bots set – it comes with a robot and a female character from the show. I love the idea of him having a great female action figure to play with! These retail for $6.99. He’ll also be getting the classic game Barrel of Monkeys. I loved playing this growing up, so it’s fun to pass it along for our kids to play too! I can imagine there will be a lot of creative play with the monkeys, too. This game retails for $4.99.

The boys will love playing with this Marvel Battle Masters Challengers toy, too – we got Captain America but there’s also Spider-Man, Wolverine and Thor to pick from. These retail for $14.99 each.

Hasbro also makes wonderful stocking stuffers for girls, too, like these:

The Littlest Pet Shop animals are just $2.99 each and are adorable fun! There are 24 pets to collect. And the My Little Pony POP starter kit lets kids pop out and build any of four My Little Pony Pop characters; they can personalize each pony with pop-on manes and stickers. These retail for just $3.99 each, making them a really affordable choice!

Hope these ideas help you with all your last-minute stocking shopping! Happy holidays, everyone!

Carving pumpkins is always a fun idea in theory, but once I get started with it I always remember what a HUGE task it can be. Thankfully there are plenty of other ways you can decorate your pumpkins that don’t involve hollowing out pumpkin goo, and they bring a new level of creativity and fun to your Halloween decor. Click each image below to go to the step-by-step how-to instructions on Hometalk.com, who graciously provided these ideas for me to share with you.

Word Find Pumpkin – so simple and easy! Just paint your pumpkin with chalkboard paint, add letter stickers, and put out chalk for your friends to have fun at a dinner party.

Plaid Pumpkin – I love this homey, cozy look, and you could use a variety of colors to personalize this for your style.

House Number Pumpkin – This is definitely a personalized item, and such an elegant way to add to your porch decor.

Color-Drip Pumpkin – All you need is crayons and a hairdryer for this colorful, artistic look!

Chevron Pumpkin – I couldn’t get over how easy this one is to make – I’d love to do it with black paint for a really graphic statement!

I can hardly believe Spring is right around the corner! We’ve survived the time change, and now we’re looking forward to warmer weather, longer patches of sunlight, and lots of fun outside.

It also means it’s about time for my next Great Value baking party! I am looking forward to another excuse to get together with friends and bake some delicious goodies – and without spending an arm and a leg on supplies.  This party I’m going to focus on some good crescent roll recipes. I’ve loved crescent rolls for a long time, and they definitely add a great flavor to all sorts of recipes, both sweet and savory.

One thing we’re going to make is some mini, bunny-shaped sopapilla cheesecakes. I bought this silicone mold at Walmart:

What we’ll do is take small pieces of crescent dough and coat them with a cinnamon/sugar mixture, then press them into the bottom of the molds. Then I’ll put a dollop of sweet cream cheese filling in the middle, and then top with another piece of crescent dough. I’m excited to see how these turn out, because I think they’ll be adorable AND delicious.

For the savory side, we’re going to make some veggie “pizzas” in the shape of carrots, an idea I got from Hungry Happenings. So cute, easy, and it’s a way to sneak some veggies into your kids’ diets.

I bought my veggies and cream cheese along with the crescent roll dough, so I’m all set!

And last but not least, since crescent rolls are pretty delicious all on their own, we’re going to make some “bunny buns”; all we have to do is roll the dough into a rope and twist to make a cute addition to meals your kids will love. I’ll show you the trick to those in my next post, along with photos from the party! Be sure and check back for the pics, recipes, and tips for some great Spring snacks and treats – I’ll share a cookie recipe with you, too, so you can use your Great Value cookie dough for some adorable desserts. Can’t wait!

Note: I am participating in the Great Value program with The Motherhood. I have been compensated for my time.  All thoughts and opinions are honest and are my own.

Our house just has three bedrooms, and we’ve always had one of the bedrooms set up as a play room. When we found out we were expecting baby #3, we decided at the time that we wouldn’t set up a nursery. Both of the boys slept in a pack n’ play until they were 6-8 months old, and I’m sure it’ll be the same this time around too.

Of course, now that the nesting phase has hit me full force I have changed my mind and it now seems very crucial to have at least some space dedicated to baby E. Thankfully Brian is pretty laid-back and just went with it when I suggested we go ahead and get a crib. We’re going to make the play room partially a nursery, while still keeping some of the toy storage for the boys.

We put together a crib this weekend, although we still need to put in the mattress – I love this crib! It’s modern and light, and it even came with a bed rail to turn it into a toddler bed down the road – beautiful and practical!

I’ll post more photos as the project progresses – we’re doing letters for her name (thanks to my lovely sister-in-law Lauren for finding the idea for what we’re doing!) and I’m attempting to make a valance for the window (was going to make curtains, but don’t have enough of the fabric – whoops).

We’re also hoping to add a little bit of storage to the room, but I haven’t 100% decided what to do. I am leaning toward saving up for the changing table that matches the crib (it’s sooo pretty!) but I’ve also been scouring a variety of chest of drawers to see if there’s an option there that could work as a changing table & still provide the storage we want. Right now we’ve cleaned out a few drawers in our room for baby things, but that’s not going to work long-term.

I think the room will turn out really cute, and it’s fun having a reason to be crafty (seriously, can’t wait for you to see the letters once I finish)! Do you have any nursery ideas you just love that I should try? Share them in the comments!

Here are five date night ideas for having a fun evening at home (whether you’re there by choice or not!):

1. Your own private cooking class – Take our idea of a nice dinner one step further, and have your own cooking class. There are tons of cooking videos available online. Find some recipes you’d like to try, shop for ingredients beforehand, and have fun with your spouse cooking something new. For videos, try YouTube, Gourmandia, or Savory.tv.

2. Game night – We love to play board games, but rarely do so unless we have friends around. Back when we were in college, though, we started amassing our collection by buying a game instead of going out to dinner and a movie. We’d play it that night, but also knew we’d get years of use (& fun) out of it. Get out a stack of games, or if you don’t have many, each of you could go pick one out at the store ahead of time. It’s a great opportunity for conversation, and a little healthy competition is always fun!

3. Picnic Inside – We do this with the kids all the time and they think it’s a blast. Lay out a blanket on the living room floor and set out a spread of cheeses, breads, and other easy-to-eat foods – or you could even grill up some burgers and hot dogs to enjoy. Once you’re done eating, clear everything away, pull out some pillows and watch a movie together.

4. Get a favorite TV show on DVD to watch together – I think this can be more fun than watching a movie! We’ve done this with several of our favorite shows, or even with ones we’ve always wanted to watch but never had the chance to. It’s nice, too, because you can watch it over the course of several nights. Pick something you’ll both enjoy, and take breaks between episodes to talk about what you’ve watched.

5. Make/Build Something – Get a canvas and some paint, and create a work of art for your living room. Or if you’re really handy, find some free furniture plans online (ana-white.com is my favorite place to look) and build something you can both enjoy. Being creative and working together is a great way to bond, and you get the added benefit of enjoying your creation afterward.

So see? There’s no reason your date night can’t be a blast just because you’re stuck at home. In fact, you might have more fun than if you had a date night out – you’ll be trying new things instead of doing the same old dinner & theater routine, and you might just learn something new about each other along the way. Have a GREAT date night, whether it’s “in” or “out”!