High Five for Friday

Hello! I'm linking up with Jennie today to share some fun stuff from the past week.

1) On Saturday, Grant started swimming lessons! He was really excited about and is even more excited to go back tomorrow. He's definitely the least experienced of his group but I think he'll get the hang of it. He didn't want to go under water at all and by the end of the first session they had him sticking his head under!

2) Also on Saturday, I got to make an elephant themed baby shower cake! It was a for a good friend's brother and his wife. I've been able to make all the baby shower cakes for their family :)

When I saw this fabric, I had to make them a blanket too!

3) Grant loves to demonstrate his "ninja moves" for us. 

4) Isn't kids artwork the best?? This elephant made my day!

5) One of Grant's favorite teachers turns 21 today, so we made her a cake to help her celebrate! ("We" meaning Grant helped me add a couple things to the batter and then told everyone at school that he made the cake.)

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Hello again! Today I'm linking up with Jennie to share some fun stuff from the past week. 

1) Friday was Grant's preschool graduation! It was absolutely adorable. The teachers did an awesome job working with the kids and the kids just too freaking cute. AND I only cried a tiny bit! 

2) On Saturday, me, Husband, and my in-laws took Grant to Chuck E Cheese for lunch to celebrate graduation. Grant had the best time! He's been wanting to go back since we went for a birthday party and this seemed like the perfect thing to do. The best part was when he put a token in one of the ticket "jackpot" games. He said "Did I win?!" and when we looked, tickets werejust pouring out! 

He won over 100 tickets off one token!

3) One of the things I really wanted to sew this year was a dinosaur tail for Grant. And I did it! It's not perfect but it's damn good for a first try. And Grant loves it!

4) There was more slip-n-slide action over the weekend!

5) I found cheese curd! It's one of my favorite things from back home and practically impossible to get here. But I randomly found it at a Super Target! It's not from back home, but it'll do for the craving :)

It's been a pretty good week and I'm looking forward to nice weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Hi there! Today I'm linking up with Jennie to share some fun stuff from the past week. 

1) Saturday we were supposed to go see some hot air balloons but we found out when we got to the parking lot that it was too windy for them to fly (or even inflate). It was a pretty big let-down. But I did score my first ever trip to Hobby Lobby (and I can't wait to go back) and we hit the new Cabela's for the first time too.

Grant and I really enjoyed Hobby Lobby! Husband behaved
himself and tolerated it while silently willing me to leave.

Cabela's was fun to explore. Grant loved the aquarium
and the camping section made me want to go camping so bad!

2) I started loom knitting. Usually when it comes to yarn crafts I am completely inept. But this loom knitting thing is great! I started my first scarf Saturday afternoon and took it outside to sit at the picnic table while Grant played in the sandbox fought bad guys. Just as I was getting done with my first thingy of yarn and was about to head in to attach the second, a bird pooped on my head. But at least it didn't get on my scarf! I'm currently working on my 4th scarf, I love it!

Grant fighting bad guys while I figure out the knitting.

My first scarf! 

2nd scarf! (This is not for him but he was
 tolerant of being my model.) 

3rd scarf! (My 4th one is going to be like the 2nd one
 becauseI bought more of that yarn)

3) Sunday I knew we were going to throw something on the grill for dinner. So I enlisted Grant's help in making some mac & cheese.

He's a very good helper (just ask him)

4) Before dinner on Sunday (after getting the mac & cheese ready) I decided to bust out the slip-n-slide that Grant got for his birthday last year. To the best of my knowledge, this was a first for him and he was a bit apprehensive about it (strange for a boy who is constantly throwing himself around the living room to demonstrate his "ninja moves"). For the life of me, I could not get him to slide on his belly. Even after I demonstrated - several times - how it's done.

It didn't matter, he had fun anyway!

Monday afternoon I decided to forgo cooking dinner in favor of another afternoon on the slip-in-slide. And FINALLY got Grant to slide on his belly! Because I take  bunches of pictures of him, he insisted that he take one of me. It seemed only fair. We had so much fun playing on that thing! I hope the weather is nice this weekend so we can do it again (I don't care how old you are, slip-n-slides are fun!).

Mama on the slip-n-slide!

Finally sliding on his belly!

5) I had a sick boy on my hands this week. It came out of nowhere and didn't last long. By Wednesday afternoon this was happening in my house:

Pirate fireman Leonardo, at your service.

 6) Yesterday our first full sized Kiwi Crate arrived! We had a blast with the mini one I tested so I'm excited to explore the box this weekend and see what we get to do.

I think we're going to have a really great weekend, if I survive tonight. Tonight is Grant's preschool graduation and I've already been in tears over it! We plan to do a little celebrating with him tomorrow (a special lunch at Chuck E Cheese) and have lots of fun over the weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Hello there! Today I'm linking up Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) Last Friday, Grant got to spend the day at his Gramma & Grandpa's. Since Husband I would be out late for the concert, Grant just spend the night Thursday and then all day on Friday. He had a lot of fun and we all met at IHOP that evening for dinner and to pick up Grant. That's where he got to show off his new hat from Gramma & Grandpa (and eat up all the compliments he got at the restaurant).

He's requesting cowboy boots now.

We even got Husband to try it on :)

2) I made a blanket! With my sewing machine. Most of you may not know what a huge accomplishment that is for me, made even bigger by the fact that I really didn't throw any hissy fits during the process. Not only have I never made a blanket with my sewing machine, but I've also never used my sewing machine without having an absolute meltdown over how awful I am at sewing (or stabbing myself several times with pins - no tears and no bandaids make this quite a success for me!). I'm looking forward to gifting my craftiness :)

3) We have a lot of birds in our backyard and my favorites are the cardinals. I love to watch them when they get brave enough to hang out on the deck and every once in a while, I manage to get a picture.

4) This week I shared a fun little Teacher Appreciation gift idea (Teacher Appreciation Week is next week - thank a teacher!).

5) Costume day at school! 

6) Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs! The boy is obsessed. The Land Before Time (classic!) doesn't doesn't leave the DVD player anymore and we watch it several times a weekend. And recently discovered the TV series is on Amazon Prime and Grant has become a fan of that too. I think he has a hard time believing that Husband & I watched that movie as kids too. And the dinosaur book he got for Easter is read a lot. One night before bed we read it cover to cover (this is not a small book people!). Me reading the book, Grant telling me if the one on the page was a plant or a meat eater. He LOVES dinosaurs!

The one millionth showing of The Land Before Time

Reading the huge dinosaur book

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

"You're the 'balm'!" Teacher Gift Idea {with printable}

Grant loves his school. We were so lucky to find this daycare/preschool when we did. Grant has been there since he was about 6 months old, when we moved him from a daycare we were less than thrilled with. Most of the kids he's friends with now he's known his whole life. That makes me sad because he so loves his friends and this year when kindergarten starts, they won't all be together anymore. 

And Grant so loves his teachers! He's already asked us which one will be his kindergarten teacher. He looked confused and a little sad that none of the teachers he knows will be his kindergarten teacher. It kind of broke my heart. But it makes me happy too, because he's so happy at preschool and that is an awesome feeling. 

Every year for Teacher Appreciation Week (this year is May 4th-8th) I bake some stuff for the staff at school. They all work so hard with all the kids and definitely deserve a week of appreciation (though I hope they know we appreciate them every day)! This year I wanted to do something a little extra for Grant's teachers. While I've always felt like he's getting an early education where he is, with this year being preschool I've really noticed a change and can tell how much his teachers are doing to ready him for kindergarten.

I thought this was a fun little gift idea and I wanted to share it for anyone who might want to use it too.

What you need:

• lip balm (you can use any kind, I used eos)
• cellophane treat bags
• filling (mine is shredded paper but I think tissue paper would be great too)
• twine or twist ties to close the bag
• gift tags 
• optional: I added some fun hair ties as well

You just put it all together and add your gift tag when you're tying it closed. 

I think it's so fun and a nice little way of saying an extra "Thanks!". I tried several times to get Grant to write his teachers names on the backs of the gift tags but he still writes a little too big and kept running out of room. So we settled on me writing their names and he signed it with "Love, Grant". 

How cute are those tags?! I love the chalkboard look. Want to use them? You can get them HERE (for your own personal use).

I mentioned hair ties above. All of Grant's teachers are females and what woman doesn't love a good hair tie? So I added some hair ties on a 3x5 index card to the package.

These are hair ties I made because I found some adorable school themed elastic (but you could use any). I tried to personalize it to each teacher. For instance, the ones in the above picture are for a teacher that loves the beach. He has another teacher that loves tie-dye so I ordered some tie-dyed elastic for her hair ties. 

This is an easy little gift to put together and it's a nice little extra thank you to go along with the treats I plan to send to school that day. Grant can't wait to give them to his teachers. Since I made them early - to share this post with you - he asks often when he gets to bring them to school!

Linking up for
Made by You Monday!