Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! The weekend leading up to the 4th of July is one of my favorites weekends of the year. I love holidays, but the 4th of July is one of my absolute favorites. We have been getting in the sprit by making some fun breakfasts and crafts. I seriously can't wait for Tuesday! If you are in need of some fun inspiration, or if you love this holiday as much as I do, I have you covered. I've rounded up some of my favorite photography, food, drink, crafts and fashion ideas. I hope you find something you love!


Kids Crafts

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The boys and I got busy this week and made fun hand and footprint crafts. Check out this post to see what we made last year, plus my tips and tricks for making them!

Popsicle Stick Fireworks
Fireworks Made From Straws
Popsicle Stick Flags
Tin Can Windsocks


Photo Ideas
DIY American Flag Backdrop
Flag Flying
Stars & Stripes On The Beach
Kids Watching Fireworks
Watermelon Fun


Fashion
Chambray Shirt & Red Shorts
Blue & White Striped Shorts
Red Kimono & Denim Shorts
Red Dress & Denim Jacket
Cut Off Jeans & Star Shirt


Fun Food
Donut, Strawberry & Blueberry Skewers
Patriotic Ice Cream Cones
Firecrackers Popcorn
Rocket Hot Dogs
Red, White & Blue Coconut Parfaits


Drinks
BombPop The Champagne
Summer Berry White Wine Spritzer
Blueberry Mojito
Watermelon Moscow Mule
Italian Soda Bar


To see what else I'm loving, for the 4th of July, check out my Pinterest board!
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
XOXO


Linking up with Andrea, April, April, Lauren and Katie

Tips For Making Handprint Art + 4th Of July Crafts

One of my favorite things to do for holidays, is make festive hand and footprint art with the boys. I love watching their hands and feet grow, and displaying their art project's every year. I get so excited when it's time to get them out and put them on our bookshelves. Even if I don't get much decorating done, their little hands and feet make our house so festive.


These first two prints are what I made with the boys last year. Kai was 8.5 months old and Kona had just turned 3. Their hands were so small, and I remember thinking at the time how big Kona's hand looked. I'm sure I'll be thinking the same thing next year.

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For Kai's handprint flag I used:
A canvas I had, painters tape, red, white and blue acrylic paint.
I taped off the corner of the canvas, measured out the stripes and taped them. With taping off the whole corner I didn't have to worry about Kona painting the wrong spot. Even with the painters tape and little bit of paint spread, but I love the character it adds. After the red paint was dry, I took off the tape in the corner and let Kona paint the blue. Once the blue was dry, I painted Kai's hand and tried my best to press his little hand down. Getting a baby to open their hand all the way is hard!


For Kona's hand and footprint flag I used:
Cardstock cut down to fit a 8x10 frame and red and blue acrylic paint.
For Kona's I started with his feet so I knew how big he could make his handprint.


These last two prints are what I made with the boys yesterday.

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For both of these I used cardstock, a black sharpie, red, blue, yellow and orange acrylic paint.
I cut the paper, before I put their hand and footprints on, to fit a 8x10 frame. Kona wanted his hand and footprint, so that's what we did, and I love the way it turned out!


I wanted to share my tips and tricks for making hand and footprint art with kids, because getting them to cooperate and open their little hand can be hard!
1. When the boys were really little I tired to only do their footprints. I found it worked really well to put them in their highchair with lots of snacks or toys and go outside. This provides for lots of distractions, which make painting their little toes a lot easier. If your baby is really small, waiting until they are asleep and relaxed is my best trick!


2. If you are wanting to do a handprint with a little one, it works best to put lots of paint on their hand. This way when they squish their hand together, and trust me they will, there is enough paint to get a good handprint. After I get their hand painted, I hold their wrist close to the canvas and when they open their hand wide I press it down as fast as I can.


3. Use a paintbrush to paint their hand or foot instead of dipping it in the paint.


4. If you use acrylic paint make sure you have your work space covered and clothes on that can get ruined. Acrylic paint doesn't come out of clothes so be prepared! It also dries very fast so make sure you have enough paint on their hand and foot. When I think I have enough I add a little bit more.


5. When you press their hand and foot down, roll it from side to side. Make sure you have pressed down on all fingers and toes.


6. Have a wet paper towel or sink nearby to clean off the paint. My boys love playing in the sink while I wash them up. I'm pretty sure it's their favorite part!

I hope these tips help with your next hand or footprint craft. If you are looking for more ideas check out these posts!

Father's Day Gifts
Dr. Seuss One Fish Two Fish
Easter Bunny and Chick Print

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Friday Favorites

Thank goodness it's Friday! It has been a crazy week and I'm so glad the weekend is here. We don't have any plans and I can't wait to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather we're having.  Before I sign off for the weekend, I wanted to share some favorites from this week!

One
We spent this past weekend celebrating some of our favorite people! We had Kona's 4th birthday party on Saturday and celebrated J.D. and our Dad's on Father's Day. It was a wonderful weekend filled with family, friends and so much love. Kona has been in love with dinosaurs for a few years now, which made this party to fun to plan and pull together. Seeing Kona's face light up with pure joy made my heart melt. He had so much fun and keeps insisting that we are having another party this weekend!

You can see all of the party details here!

My best friend from college and her family came down this weekend for Kona's party, and we loved getting to celebrate Father's Day with them. They are like family and we love them all so much. It has been a honor to watch her family grow, and see her wonderful husband become an outstanding father.  

I have a hard time putting into words how amazing J.D. is as a Dad. He is loving, kind, patient, hands on and everything a dad should be and more. I'm not sure how we got so lucky.

TWO

J.D. had Monday off so we spent most of the day at the little wading pool by our house. It was such a relaxing day playing, eating a picnic lunch, riding bikes and swimming. These are the types of days summer is made for.

Three

Tuesday evening a thunderstorm rolled threw town, which meant jumping in the rain puddles! Seeing my boys run through the rain puddles, takes me right back to my childhood. Warm summer nights spent stomping in the water, it doesn't get much better than that!

You can find their rain boots here.

Four
Watching little kids play baseball is one of my favorite things to do. I love everything about it and couldn't wait to watch our neighbor play. She did so good and the boys loved cheering her on. Kona can't wait to play next year and asks me every day if it's time for him to play. He won't believe it next year when it really is his turn!

Five
Here are some of my favorite Pinterest finds this week!
I want to make this corn hole set pronto! It is so cute and I know we would have a blast playing.
This weekend I'm planning on making these paint monsters with Kona. I know he will love it!
I made these pineapple teriyaki meatballs this week and they were delicious.


You can follow me on Pinterest here if you want to see what else I'm loving.


I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!
XOXO
Linking up with Andrea, April, Amanda, Lauren and Katie




Kona's Dinosaur Theme Birthday Party

It's hard to believe our sweet boy is going to be 4 in a few days! This past weekend we celebrated Kona's 4th birthday with a dinosaur themed party. Kona has been loving dinosaurs for a few years now, so this party was super fun to plan to pull together. He was so excited and had lots of ideas about the cake, decorations and fun things to do. I've also had tons of ideas in my head, because I assumed we would be having a dinosaur party last year, but Kona surprised me and wanted a water party. I love the way everything came together, but most of all I loved celebrating the little boy who stole my heart 4 years ago.

All of the decorations were made from construction paper, streamers, and dinosaurs we already had. Making everything out of paper kept the cost really low and I was able to decorate a larger space. For the food table I cut out leaves from 3 different colored paper, used orange construction paper for the roar and used 3 different colors of green for the streamers. For the table decorations I cut out more leaves and placed different sized dinosaurs around them. I also cut out foot prints and had them all over our back patio.

 

For food we had sandwiches for carnivore food, veggies for herbivore food, fruit for "dino spikes" and "dino eggs", different salads, chips for "dino claws" and "dino bones", dip and green Kool-Aid and ice tea for "swamp water."  I made the food signs out of construction paper and a stamp I got at Hobby Lobby. I also used the stamp and stamped all the napkins for a fun little element.

I forgot how much I love Bugles. I couldn't stop snacking on them!

Kona loves talking about dinosaur bones and pretends to dig them up in our garden area, so I knew he would flip over this cake. I made the bones using these molds and white chocolate. The molds were so big I could only use 6 out of the 10 pieces, but I still love the way it turned out! To make the bones I melted white chocolate in the microwave, poured it in the molds, let them cool for 30 minutes or so and placed them in the freezer. When the chocolate was solid, Kona helped me take the bones out of the molds and dust coco powder on them, using a paint brush. He was beyond excited at this point and couldn't wait for his party! After I made the cake and frosted it, I sprinkled crushed Oreo cookies all over to look like dirt.  

After cake and ice cream this happened! Ha! One of my younger cousins got this T-Rex costume from Amazon and ran around with the kids. About half of the kids loved it and the other half weren't sure what to think. It was definitely a big hit with the birthday boy! A huge thank you to my cousin for doing this and making the party so fun!

Kona had to put on part of his T-Rex costume from Halloween and have a roaring competition with the T-Rex. It was so cute!

The evening ended sitting around a fire making s'mores, telling stories, and lighting sparklers. It was the most perfect day celebrating our dinosaur loving (almost) 4 year old. Thank you to all of our sweet family and friends for coming out and celebrating with us.

Happy birthday, Kona! We love you to the moon and back!

XOXO

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You can see more of our parties here.

Summer Bucket List

Happy Tuesday and happy first day of summer, Friends! Even though school has been out for a few weeks now, today kicks off the official first day of summer, and we couldn't be more excited. I think mother nature got the memo because it's going to be 90 degrees here today, which will be so nice after having a week worth of rain. We are celebrating the first day of summer, by having some friends over for a little ice cream and pool party!

With Summer officially here, I wrote out a bucket list and we can't wait to start checking things off immediately! With J.D. gone a lot for work, having a list always helps us make plans and make the most of our summer. Kona will be starting preschool in the fall, which doesn't seem possible, and I'm determined to make every minute count. I'll be soaking in every moment of having my boys with me, and attempting to make this our best summer yet!

1. Go To A Concert In The Park.

2. Have A Water Balloon Fight.

3. Celebrate Kona's 4th Birthday And My 30th!

4. Camp In The Back Yard.

5. Go To A Baseball Game.

6. Go Fishing.

7. Make Ice Cream Sandwiches.

8. Watch A Movie At The Drive In Theater.

9. Make Sno Cones.

10. Go To The Splash Pad.

11. Take Donuts and Coffee To The Park.

12. Go To The Farmers Market.

13. Get A Treat From The Ice Cream Truck. 

14. Make A Pizza On The Grill.

15. Jump In The Rain Puddles.

16. Take Kai On His First Fair Ride!

17. Watch Hot Air Balloons Fly Over The City.

18. Build A Sand Castle.

19. Try A New S'more Recipe.

20. Run Through The Sprinklers.

21. Sip Margaritas And Watch The Sun Set.

22. Watch Fireworks.

23. Definitely last but not least, I want to enjoy every single crazy, messy and beautiful moment this summer has to offer!


I would love to hear what your plans are for this summer!
XOXO



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Kona's Water Party

With Kona's 4th birthday party this weekend, I figured I should share his 3rd birthday party! It's been almost a year, but like they say it's, better late than never. :) Since his birthday is in the summer I knew I wanted to have a big water party in our backyard. We had the best time, and I'm not sure who had more fun on the slip 'n slide, the adults or kids! Even the Grandparents got in on the action!
I got the invitations from this Etsy shop and loved them. The shop owner was great to work with and they were exactly what I wanted!

I kept the decorations pretty simple with blue table cloths, lei garland on the table's and hanging up around our patio, summertime decorations above the food table, pineapple salt and pepper shakers,  and umbrella and pineapple straws.

I had so much fun planning out water themed food. We had watermelon as "shark teeth", white "shells" and cheese, "fish and chips" with pineapple salsa, a veggie tray to "to take a dip", "seaweed" that was spinach dip, starfish and shark gummy candy, and "sand" pudding cups with bears floating in inner tubes.   

The cake was my favorite and I love how it turned out! I dyed the frosting blue for water, put teddy grahams in peachie o's for the inner tubes, added some goldfish and crushed graham crackers for sand.


For water fun we had a slip 'n slide, water balloons, squirt guns and the sprinkler going.


It was such a fun day celebrating our sweet boy and acting like a kid again!
XOXO  

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Mom Confessions

 Mom confessions are some of my favorite posts to read from other bloggers. It makes me feel like I'm not alone and that we all struggle with something related to parenting. It has been a rough week over here, so lets dive right in!

One. I have serious anxiety about Kona going to preschool in the fall. I know he is going to love it, and I have nothing to worry about, but I can't shake this uneasy feeling in my stomach. I think it's because I know after preschool comes kindergarten and he won't be with us all day. What I have known, for almost 4 years, is about to change and I'm struggling with that.  

Two. Every night I struggle with staying up late, to have some me time, and going to bed. I usually stay up too late and regret it the next morning, only to do it again the next night. You would think at some point I would learn and go to bed at a decent time, right?!

Three. Some days I load everybody up in the car, just to get coffee and go for a 15 minute drive. When the boys have been fighting over the same toy all day or Kai won't let me put him down, a coffee and drive saves the day.    

Four. If it has been one of those days, and Kona picks the longest book to read before bed, sometimes I skip sentences and pages.

Five. J.D. and I went on a date the other night! It was the second one we have been on since I was pregnant with Kai. I'm thinking we need to work on that.


Six. Kai can be extremely clingy and whiny, and some mornings I find myself losing patience with him right off the bat.

Seven. I struggle with finding balance. I either want to do all the fun things or lounge around all day doing nothing but cuddling my babies.

Eight. Kona hasn't napped on a daily basis for a really long time, but we still have him do quiet time in his room to unwind and relax. Lately he won't stay in his room and is constantly coming out to check on me, go to the bathroom, tell me a story, etc. etc. I love having a little bit of me time in the afternoons, but having him stay in his room is becoming more of a struggle than anything.

Nine. Some days I lock myself in the bathroom, with a snack I hid for myself, just for a few minutes of piece and quiet. Yeah right, who am I kidding?! The boys are trying to come in and are yelling at me through the door, but at least I get a whole snack to myself.

Some days are crazy and I clean up more messes than I ever thought was possible, but I love my little crew so much and wouldn't change this life for the world.
Alright, it's your turn! Please share your mom confessions!
XOXO