that's a wrap

Next week will be my eighth wedding anniversary!!!  I am still trying to get my gifts and movie organized.  The traditional gift is bronze and although I didn't get a bronze gift I was hoping to at least wrap it in something bronze.  After doing some looking online and in stores I couldn't find any plain wrapping paper that I liked.  So, I decided to make my own!  I bought a bronze stamp pad at Michaels and have a variety of heart shaped stamps.  I originally thought I was going to use brown craft paper, but now I am leaning more towards white.  We are going to the Cape next week so I will be offline, but make sure to come back so I can show you the finsihed package and my gift ideas!

that's a wrap

Today was my daughter's last day of kindergarten.  Sniff, sniff.  All year the children in her class have been working on "filling up their classroom bucket" with kind deeds and good citizenship.  The idea was inspired from this children's book. I thought it would be nice to get her teacher a personalized bucket and have all of the children from her class write down one word about how she fills up their bucket.  They wrote the word on a white circle and I attached them to a potted hydrangea.  We also included a gift certificate to a local garden center since her teacher is an avid gardener. We spent the afternoon at swimming lessons and are having ice cream for dinner so I would say we are definitely ready for summer!

the big yellow bus

I saw this cute idea and pinned it to my Pinterest Board a while ago. I decided to make some for our bus drivers as an end of the year gift.  I used my daughter's school picture and scrap paper.  Inside is an XL Hershey bar and a gift certificate to Subway.  A little thank you to them for getting her to school (and home) safely for the entire school year. 

dad

We have had a very busy day.  It included crepes and coffee delivered to my husband in bed this morning and lobster rolls, carousel rides and ice cream for lunch.  Some friends came over to join us for a lovely BBQ dinner.  My own dad met us for the lunch of lobster rolls at our favorite seafood joint and I gave him this fun tray with brownies that I cut into the word "dad" for dessert.  He got his graduate degree from Oxford and always holds England as a special place in his heart.  Hope your day was filled with as much fun as ours! 

a "whale-y" good summer

Today was my son's last day of pre school.  I went in on the class gift, but wanted to give them each a little something else just from us too.  The school mascot is a whale so when I saw these adorable whale ice cream scoops I knew that they would be perfect.  I also included a small gift certificate to our local ice cream shop and a note that said "hope you have a whale-y great summer"!  I am still working on my daughter's teacher presents.  Her last day is next week!

that's a wrap

I saw this idea on the web somewhere and knew that I wanted to start this tradition with my own children.  When they finish kindergarten I will purchase this book for them.  At the end of each year I will ask their teacher to write them a message, eventually filling the front and back covers.  By the time they graduate they will have a keepsake of memories from all of the special people who helped them get to whatever place they are going.  This year I purchased one for my daughter.  Her sweet teacher already signed it and I can't wait to show it to her on the last day of school.  Do you have any fun traditions that you do on the last day of school?  I would love to hear more about them.

that's a wrap

Recently, we went to a 40th birthday party for a friend.  We gave him a $40 gift certificate to a local golf course.  I packaged it in a clear pillow box with some golf tees and a card that read

"Happy Fore-Tee-Th".  I am also thinking of giving this to someone as a retirement gift and writing "Hope retirement fits you to a Tee"!

calling all superheroes

On Sunday we had my son's fourth birthday party.  As I mentioned last week it was a super hero ice cream party.

For decorations I made bunting out of a vintage super man comic book that I purchased off of Ebay.

Our signature drink for the adults was Super Sangria.  I made star shaped ice cubes with the sangria and also froze the orange and lemon slices to keep it cold during the party without watering it down. 

I also used red star shaped balloons all over the house to decorate.

The main activity for the party was a super hero bouncy house.  But since it started raining ten minutes before the party started I had some other activities lined up.  The kids decorated their own masks, played with super hero Lego's, super dough (playdoh) and we had the Incredibles playing in our home theatre.  Luckily it was a quick rain shower and we all headed outside to jump!

I used wrapping paper for the tablecloth and taped down the plates so they wouldn't blow away.  It was also very helpful when we had to pick up the tables and run them inside before the rain!

The kids ate hero's on a stick, lightening bolt chicken nuggets and watermelon stars.  We got a five foot hero for the grownups and I also had some "POW'sta salad on the side.

For dessert the kids made their own ice cream sundaes. I served the ice cream in red beach pails (that I ran through the dishwasher).  I ordered tiny super hero spoons to use with the toppings with and some large red ice cream cups to serve the ice cream in.  This was a big hit!

                                      I made some sugar cookies and stamped them with "super finn".

And some cupcakes ice cream cones.  I forgot to put the cherries on top, but nobody seemed to notice or care!

For the favors I ordered some adorable candy bags and filled them with lollipops, gumballs and tiny candy coated chocolates!  We all had a lot of fun and I especially enjoyed planning a party around this theme.  I tried not to do anything too comercial, instead I used colors and stars to create a super hero theme.