Summer is here! Wait, School is over??

Even though my 3 year old is only in 2 days of Mother's Day Out a week, I value those 10 hours a week and love having something new to help her learn and make new friends. Next week is the last week of school (eekk!), how I am going to entertain 2 kids all summer long?? I'm thankful for 3 long vacations so at least we won't have a ton of time to sit around staring at each other. The Mom in charge of Lily's year end party had the cute idea of buying buckets for each kid and each Mom bring something to put in the bucket for the kids to use this summer. I came up with 2 ideas (with a little Pinterest inspiration) that I thought turned out super cute and will add to the summer buckets of fun.

I used an envelope I cut out on the Cricut (5 1/2in worked perfectly) to go around individual Kool Aid packets and then tied them on silly straws. "Have a "KOOL" Summer!".

I also purchased inexpensive shovels from Target (with a large handle) and used paint pens to create a personalized shovel for each of the kids in the class.

No, I didn't forget the teachers! I think they need a fun summer gift too.... complete with a beach towel, flip flops and a few purse essentials like sun screen and lip balm. I'll attach a sweet card & a gift card too!

I am definitely looking forward to lots of time by the pool, at least the water tires the kids out! Happy Summer!

Lily's 3rd Birthday Flamingo Bash!

We had Lily's 3rd birthday at the zoo this year and wanting to go with a zoo theme and also keep it "girly", my wonderful husband (yes, I am actually going to credit you hun!) came up with the great idea to do it flamingo themed. I did most of my decor & invites using one pad of scrapbook paper & the "Life's a Beach" cricut cartridge. All the kids had a great time and I loved how it all turned out!

Thank you Sweet Treats by CC for the fantastic cake. She hand cut all the flamingo fondant pieces, find her on Facebook. :) 

Rice Krispie treats made with breakfast cereal, yum! :)

I had a flamingo craft for all the kids too! 

Lily Crafts

I tried to think of a good name for some of the crafts I do for Lily's and I am so original that I thought I'd call them "Lily Crafts" ha.

I really want to have a way for Lily to look at pictures of her friends on a daily basis and remember certain moments of her life. I did the memo board thing, even took a lot of little frames and had them in her room but I think I finally found something that we both love. You all know I love unfinished frames and the endless possibilities so I took a few and painted them to match her new Ikea bookshelves (spice racks!). I did some mod podging of a few cut outs that represent Lily, stabled some ribbon on the back and hung them up! They are easy to change out pictures as often as possible and at a great height so Lily can look at her friends & family anytime she wants!

Also, my daughter loves spices, and she can reach the spice rack in the pantry and she always wants to play with the containers. As I emptied the diced garlic, garlic salt, fresh garlic (I really like garlic, but I'm kidding!) containers I saved them to make spice containers for Lily's play kitchen in her room. I washed them and removed the labeling, covered them with scrapbook paper and used packing tape to holding them in place. I filled them with paper pieces and glitter to give them a nice shaking noise but look pretty in the spice jar. I used packaging tape at the top, under the plastic so that no glitter can get out but Lily can unscrew the top or flip it open to make it seem like she is really adding something special to her concoction of plastic veggies! Of course I labeled them "Sugar", "Spice", "And Everything Nice...".