Happy Fri-YAY.

one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine / ten / eleven / twelve

Hello! Happy Fri-YAY! To celebrate this wonderful day I rounded up a list of all the things we are loving lately! I mean seriously those little pink and gold star sweat pants totally make wearing sweat pants tendy, am I right? If you have the chance stop over Destination Nursery & see Charlie's cute poncho I'm loving this summer!

We're off to the pool & taking a fun class at Paper Kite Shop with Gunner & Lux!

Playhouse House Warming Party

So we just threw Charlie the funnest kids summer party! Once we finished building playhouse we threw her, her first house warming party, we shared the party over here at Destination Nursery & all the details on supplies + links, but I just wanted to show some photos of the event + we finally put a door on the playhouse, 30 days later!

But this kids party was seriously so fun, and lets be honest any reason to have a party is a good reason! We had water balloons, pool, the playhouse, a tray with waterbeads, outdoor painting, and a slide! I have to be honest it was 101 that night with 80% humidity, so the reason why the food didn't make it out is because we ate inside, and we partied outside later when the sun was going down.

My best advice have a party in outdoor June & have lots of stations for the kids to play at!

HAPPY 4TH!

 Bug Repellent Bracelet / Romper / Shoes / Hair bows

Happy 4th of July, or Happy Birthday America!
We are so grateful to live in this country where we are able to have our freedom, so thankful for all those who have and still fight for that!

I just wanted to stop by and let you know about Buglet bug repellent all natural slap wrist bracelets. I was on the hunt for a bug repellent that didn't involve me putting chemical all over my little's skin, and voila, a little google search and this is what I found, Buglet!

It's an all natural oil product, similar to essential oils that you place a few drops of the oils onto the slap wrist bracelet, the bracelet is adjustable for any size of wrist and stay on snug! Super easy, plus this seriously works, no joke, this is 100% my own opinion! I send charlie to daycare where she spends 6+ hours outside, and she hasn't had a single bite, and she leaves it on, it never bothers her.

Okay so enough of the details, but Destination Nursery is giving away 4 bracelets & Buglet is offering 20% off with code CELEBRATE

So go get your kiddos a "buggie" as Charlie calls it!

Mini Cupcake Donuts

Today I'm sharing these FUN donut cupcakes! Let me first day, I'm not a bake from scratch cupcake lady, I'm a buy the box, alter a few things, and always homemade frosting! So I'm sharing how to make these EASY fun donut cupcakes. Keep in mind, it does require a few steps since making the donuts is a step withing its self! 

So here's the recipes:

Cupcakes

White Cake Mix Box (chocolate is similar just use chocolate cake mix)

4 Large Egg Whites

1 cup Unsalted Butter (melted)

1 cup Whole milk

1 tbsp Vanilla

1 tsp Almond Extract 

Whisk together, Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup Crisco

1 Cup Butter

1/2 Cup Karo Syrup

1 Tbsp Vanilla

8-10 Tbsp Milk

4-5 Cups Powdered Sugar

Cream butter, crisco and wet ingredients together, slowly add powdered sugar to mix. Place is piping bag, Cut the bag about 1" from the bottom, make flat circle around the cupcake.

Donuts

White Cake Mix Box

1 Egg 

1/4 Cup of Vegetable Oil

1 Cup of Water

Place in donut maker (like this) or donut pan The donut maker is much quicker! around 5 minutes per batch

Icing:

3 tbsp Meringue Power 

1 tbsp Vanilla

1 tsp Almond Extract 

1 tbsp Water

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

Dip donuts in icing, let the icing dry for 20 minute or until hard before placing the the donut ontop of the cupcake.

Have fun! add sprinkles, add icing lines, add edible gold flakes, seriously the possibilities are endless, have fun, make the cupcakes head of time and place them in the freezer, this makes the cake really moist and yummy. 

Aloha retirement

Hello!
So my mom just recently retired from the school district after 23+ years, holy moly! She went back to work after I headed to kindergarten, and here we are! My brother and sisters threw her a retirement party for her & her co-workers! My siblings put me in charge of decorations, and what a better way to say adios work life & aloha retirement! So we tried to keep it tropical without too much of a cheesy feel! My favorite from the entire party was the pineapples we hallowed out and put a floral arrangement in! So here's how we did it!

Step one;
Cut the top of the pineapple off, and discard.

Step two:
Using a sharp knife cut a circle around the inside of the pineapple.

Step three:

Use a knife to cut away a small portion from the top, use a spoon and knife to hallow out. Leave at least 2" of pineapple at the bottom

Step four:
Use a small plastic cup to place inside the pineapple for the fresh flowers, add water to the cup, voila

We used Sams club for the fresh pineapples they were around $2 each, we used trader joe's for the fresh florals. I filled 6 pineapples with fresh florals for around $30, I arrange the flowers ahead of time in the plastic cups, placed the hallowed out pineapples in the fridge overnight, to keep them fresh, the day of the event I pulled them out and placed the cups in the pineapple. 

Playhouse.

umbrella / chalkboard / light / brushes / playfood / stool /  chair / planter bench / bowls / basket

Hello!
With Charlie's room being complete, time for a new project, and right now we spend 90% of our evenings outside, except for dinner + bath. Springtime in Iowa is seriously, the best, well except for falls, those can not be beat around here, that's why we're still here, we live for fall. With that aside I know the summers get pretty dang warm here and the humidity feels like it might kill, but evenings are usually better. So now that I'm getting to my point, we are building a playhouse for our girl! Oh and planting our garden.

I'm sharing a little inspiration for this project! And wish me luck I'm going to try to keep it under $400 TOTAL, we have some scrap lumber left from our old deck we torn down & a few pieces that were extra from our new cedar deck + fence. Our plan it to paint it all white, since we're using scrap pieces of wood! Here's some drawings I put together of the outside, I'll have to take some photos of my husband building it, and after we get it complete. I think everything looks better painted white so we'll see! We have the smallest backyard, since our house is on a corner lot we have a fairly big front and side yard, and our "backyard" it only about 15' wide. So we are going to tuck this little playhouse right next to our house.

Wish us luck! This might end up being a couple weekends, but happy memorial day weekend!

Charlie's Big Girl Room Reveal.

Details over at: Destination Nursery

Hello!

Friends, I'm so excited to share charlie's room reveal with you! You can head over to Destination Nursery to see the full room + details on where to find the products! But I had to share some photos of her clearly enjoying her room, or at least shes a HUGE fan of climbing over the bed rails, haha!
This room was a so much fun to put together. Little did I know how quickly they grow the first year and half and that we would be transitioning into toddlerhood so quickly. I felt like her room needed a little fun and sophistication from her nursery!

For now I don't have any tips for transitioning to a bed because well we haven't done it! The side rail from the bed came broke so we had to send it back for a new bed so for now we're still in the crib, and I'm a-okay with that! When she's ready we will get the new replacement bed back out! So maybe it's a good thing her bed broke in the process of shipping? haha, we'll go with that!

For the full room reveal check out  Destination Nursery