Thanks, Smiles, & Fabric

Today is the last day of school. Somehow this school year has flown by....and it has been a great one! We were blessed with amazing teachers for both Henry and Grant this year, and I just couldn't finish out the year without showing them our appreciation one more time.

I sent these really cute canvas bags for each of their teachers filled with a few happies and a gift card to Target:) The bags are monogrammed with an iron on initial that I cut out with my Cricut. Then I added a little tie to the handle for a little extra flair!

 Yesterday Eli and I went to eat lunch with our Kindergartner and 1st grader for the last time this year. It was kind of sad, but the boys are already saying they will be a 1st grader and a 2nd grader after today:) I think Eli is most excited because he will finally have someone to play with during the day!

 I've been working hard to finish up a few projects around the house before summer break starts. This bolt of fabric has been measured and cut and my re-upholstery project is about halfway finished...now I have less than 2 hours to get done before the madness begins:) Hopefully I can share the finished product with you one day next week...that is if we aren't already spending our days at the pool by then!

We have a birthday party on Saturday and a little trip planned for Sunday, but inbetween I hope to work on some new summer door decorations! Have a great one....and spend a little time working on a fun craft this weekend:)

Sidewalk Chalk Paint!

This SUPER fun project {Sidewalk Chalk Paint}was orginally posted over at Postively Splendid as part of Amy's Summer Survival Guide. I am reposting just in case you missed it, but please go over and check out all the other awesome summer ideas that have been {and will be} posted throughout the month of May!

We love regular chalk at our house. It's relatively cheap, not too messy, and it is the perfect outdoor activity! Basically the kids love chalk because it's fun and I love chalk because they are making a mess outside and not inside:) What I don't love about chalk are all the little broken pieces that pile up after a few weeks of use. I hate to throw them away, but they are just too small to use without scraping your fingers on the concrete!

Instead of throwing them out, we are going to turn those broken piece of chalk into paint! Start by sorting your chalk by color. This is a great teaching activity for any kiddo who is working on learning their colors.

Put each individual color into a zippered bag.

Seal up the bag and then break up the chalk using a small hammer. This should be done by an adult or a {very} well supervised child. Try and break the chalk into a fine powder to make you paint as smooth as possible.

One you have your powdered chalk, pour each color into small plastic cups.

Add a little water.

And stir around with a paint brush to dissolve the chalk powder. We used some inexpensive art brushes that are now our chalk paint brushes:) All of the chalk powder may not dissolve, but your paint should still work fine. Use a different brush for each color and then let the kiddos get busy making art on your sidewalk. The colors may be hard to see at first, but as soon as they start to dry the individual colors will show up well!

The best part about chalk paint is that if someones spills it, it isn't a big deal because all you need is a water hose to clean up the mess!

And that is how you turn broken chalk pieces into a ton of summer fun!

Wordless Wednesday: A Swinging Good Time

*Can you tell I was making them smile for the camera:)?*

Cookie Palm Trees

Summer is right around the corner and the cookies I am sharing with you today are perfect for all of those end of school/luau/beach/pool parties that everyone is sure to be having soon!

The beauty of these cookies is that you only need two ingredients. Pirouette cookies and green fruit slices...plus a few tooth picks to hold them together.

Using a very sharp knife, cut each fruit slice into three pieces as shown below.

Arrange three slices in a palm tree pattern making sure to overlap the top edge of each fruit slice. Push a toothpick into the fruit slices and be careful that you catch all three of the pieces with the toothpick.

Place the palm leaves {with toothpick attached} on top of the pirouette cookie and push the toothpick into the the fudgy inside of the cookie.

I added these Cookie Palm Trees to a Jello Island for Grant's Luau Party at school, but these Cookie Palm Trees would be really adorable on top of a cake or even cupcakes too!

I'm still trying to think of a way to display these without sticking them in another snack {because they are just that cute on their own}, so if anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them:)

Miscellany Monday

1. I have been doing the Couch to 5K program for the last couple of weeks with a few of my friends. We started out barely able to jog the 90 seconds and today we jogged for 20 minutes without stopping! It is hard for me to believe that we made it this far in just 6-7 weeks. I'm not sure how far we jogged because we are slow we have been more focused on time instead of distance...but I'm thinking we did around a mile and a half today!

2. Friday is the boys' last day of school and I don't know if I'm excited or nervous! Summer means entertaining 3 SUPER energetic boys all day long! Thank goodness my mom has a pool:)

3. Eli has decided that it is fun to ride his tricycle in the house. So now every time I turn around he is dragging it in the back door to ride. I would have never let Henry or Grant ride their tricycles in the house...I think I'm slacking with the third one!

4. Today I am sharing a fun spray paint tutorial at 3 Sun Kissed Boys. Go over and check it out, leave some comment love, and also check out all the awesomeness that is Yanet's blog too!

5. The rest of my week is going to be filled with making end of the year teachers gifts and working on scrapbooks for all 27 kids in Grant's class! I am totally not a scrapbooker, so I've been putting it off for a while but now that we only have 4 more days of school I have got to get  busy. Procrastination at it's finest I guess!

6. Don't forget about the Thank You Cards Shop giveaway that ends tonight! The winners {there are two} gets to pick 10 free cards of their choice...and let me just say the choices are all SUPER cute!