Advent Calendars!

I love a good advent calendar and now's the time to make them! There are so many fun and beautiful ideas out there. We have shared a few of ours in the past.

Musical Advent Calendar Garland is so easy you can make it in an afternoon AND the commitment is pretty low. Can you sing a song a day? Then you can do it!

Jordan's Felt Advent Calendar reminds me of the advent calendar we had growing up. Oh the fights we had over whose day it was to hang up the ornament.

Countdown to Christmas is almost an advent, so it should be included =)

Are you counting down the days yet?

Hashtag alert and Progress Report: Wrapped and Done by Dec 1

Hey everyone, how is your holiday prep going? It's still my goal to be Wrapped and Done by December 1! We've been posting some on Instagram but we want to see what YOU are working on for your holiday prep! Please post using the hashtag #HolidayPrepYall so we can see what you're up to! Plus we will feature you on Instagram!

 Now, here's some of what I've been doing:

Ordering my Christmas cards! I just bought this Groupon to Staples, 100 cards for $19--that's the best deal I've seen ANYWHERE by FAR! But it's EVEN BETTER, knocked down to $8 for 100 because it's been shared with enough friends. There's also a deal for 50 cards Get the deal too before Sunday! Here's one I liked:

(Thanks Brooke, for sending me the link!)

Painting--making my own gift tags!

Wrapping

Bing-ing (Searching using Bing to earn rewards. I've earned $25 for Christmas presents so far. Read more here)

Ibotta-ing (Rebate app, I've earned $18.25 so far )

Shopkicking (App to scan products in store, I've earned $15 to Target so far)

Ordering: presents from Amazon using my Bing Rewards! Win!

(no picture because I can't ruin the surprise!)

Getting our pictures taken, here's my favorite face I made:

Things that still need to be done: Christmas cards addressed, holiday baking, holiday decorating (I refuse to do it until after Thanksgiving, but the day after is just fine), ordering, wrapping and sending more gifts.

So let's see YOUR photos!! Use the hashtag #HolidayPrepYall and we will re-gram it on Instagram!

Getting Facebook Notifications

Do you follow us on Facebook? Why would you want to follow us on Facebook?

• We post updates about our posts
• It's a great place to ask a question or for advice (so is email, Twitter, or in our comments section)
• It has a link to the pins for each post
• We are trying to post more often on other social media so we can engage with you more (hence the push for Instagram and Facebook).

Do you already follow us (or any other page) and don't see our posts? Here is the simple fix that will take a couple seconds.

1. Head over to our page. 
2. Click "Liked"
3. Click "Get notifications"

That's it!

Teddy Bear Picnic 1st Birthday Party

A few weeks ago we celebrated KZ's first birthday. Her nickname is "Bear Bear" so we decided to have a teddy bear picnic. It was one of the last warm weekends (even though it was mid-October) before fall has fully set in. It was the perfect day! We had the picnic in our backyard with some of our family members and everyone had fun!

The best part of this party was I only had to purchase a few things! The decorations were all the teddy bears, mason jars, and baskets we could round up in the house. I did purchase the tablecloths (from Party City) but the flowers were leftover from events we attended earlier in the week.

I served sandwiches on kaiser rolls, pickles, chips, teddy bear crackers, and red and green apples. We also served lemonade.

 I had big plans for a beautiful cake but I opted for a simple cake. In addition to the chocolate frosting I used 4 vanilla wafer cookies, and half a pink Starburst. 

For the favors I ordered flavored honey on Amazon, and had gummy bears, and Bit of Honey candy.  The papers said "Thank you for BEE-ING sweet and coming to my party"

Those are some happy people having fun!!

This was one of my favorite parties that I have attended. Mostly because it was the most simple and I got to have fun enjoying the party without the stress!