Let's Dare to Share!

 

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share!

Last week I mentioned we were going to be out of town for a few days, but I did not mention where.  Now that we are back, I can share with you that we went to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. We had a wonderful time with beautiful weather for most of our trip.  It was not busy as it is still early in the season, so we got a great deal on our hotel and did not have any lines.   I am going to be writing a few blog posts, about our trip.  A few things happened that were definitely memorable! 

 Over in my Etsy Shop, it feels like Easter, as it is just a few weeks away.  If you are in need of an Easter Treasure Hunt  I several available. I also have my St. Patrick's Day Pot of Gold, and Leprechaun Hunts if you are looking for a fun St. Patricks Day activity. 

Also on our trip this week, we had our first chance to visit a Buc-ees.  While they are several of them in Texas, they are starting to open in states a bit more too the north.  They are just starting to build one in Ohio.  Over on Instagram I shared a reel that shows how amazing a Buc-ees is, and why you should stop by one while traveling. 

If you follow me on LTK, I have several new items I am uploading to the shop this weekend. I found the cutest Easter Plush especially if you like chickens and roosters.  

Now that you know what I have been up to this week, I would love to see what you have been up to.  Link up, and HAVE FUN! 

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It's Party Time! Let's Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Welcome to March! This month is going to be a very busy one for me and D. This upcoming week, we have a week off from work for Spring Break.  All the teachers at the center are looking forward for a week off.  D and I have plans to go somewhere for a few days.  I am not going to share just where we are going just yet, because I plan on doing a blog post or two about it when we get back from our trip. Later this month, I am also going to be attending a nieces wedding, which we are quite excited about. The location looks like it going to be a very beautiful wedding.

On the blog this week, I shared a post with St. Patrick's Day Party Ideas including these Leprechaun Marshmallow Pops. I had so much fun making these pops. 

Over on Instagram, I shared several reels of my Dollar Tree finds this week, including one with some really cool St. Patrick's Day items for only a $1.25.  I am loving this shamrock tray! 

Are you excited about the upcoming Solar Eclipse? It is definitely in the news where I live, because it will be going right through Ohio. I remember the eclipse from 2017, which was exciting, but only a partial eclipse. I know from teaching elementary and preschool students the last few years, the eclipse will definitely be a topic of learning in the next few weeks. Over in my Etsy Shop, I added a fun Eclipse Activity Sheet for kids to complete about the eclipse.  Also don't forget if you are looking for an activity for kids for St. Patrick's Day or Easter, I also have several games and treasure hunts available for those holidays in my shop as well. 

Over in my LTK Shop, I have been adding fun Easter items like these Peeps from Walmart.  I personally bought a few of the mini peeps that are listed. I love my mini rock bunny, he looks a lot like Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy. :) 

Now that you know what I have been up to the last week, I would love to see what you have been up to.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

 
 

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St. Patrick's Day Party Ideas

One of my favorite St. Patrick's Day projects over the years has to be my Leprechaun Marshmallow Pops . Not only were they easy to make, but they taste good as well.  

 My favorite way to display my leprechaun pops is in the Pot of Gold I made with a cauldron from Halloween, and some Dollar Tree craft items.  If you do not have one already available, I found this one on Amazon.

Isn't this a cute way to display the pops for a St. Patrick's Day party?!

A fun St. Patrick's Day favor box are these Leprechaun Treat Boxes  made from cardboard tubes, paper, and a little bit of paint.  I filled the with "gold candy".  

Lucky Cupcakes served in plastic Leprechaun Hat are a fun festive dessert that is perfect for a party.  

 Looking for some party games?  I have two St. Patrick's Day hunts in my Etsy Shop.  In this one, the clues lead you to find the Pot of Gold,

In this St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun Hunt you actually search for three leprechauns, which is a lot of fun. 

Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?  

 

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It's Time to Dare To Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what the means..

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Sorry the party is getting a little bit of a late start, I am doing my monthly visit to Michigan this weekend.  We just got home from the dance, and I was not able to pre-write my party post. 

Over on the blog I know I said I was going to share a St. Patrick's Day post this week, well I had a belated Valentine's Day post of sorts. The St. Patrick's Day post will be up this week. 

 

I had planned on doing this Easy Heart Charcuterie Board for Valentine's Day, but ran out of time. Instead, I made it on Monday for when we were watching the Bachelor. It was fun and easy to make, and tastes good too. 

Over in my Etsy Shop I have a new listing.  If you have a child who tries to find and trap leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day, I made a Leprechaun Letter Printable. I am also working on a Leprechaun Trap Kit, which I hope to have up in a week or so. 

If you follow me on Instagram this week I shared some great new Dollar Trees. If you like to to shop at the Dollar Tree and find great deals, give me a follow.  

Well it is getting to be that time, so let's get this party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN!  

  

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Easy Heart Charcuterie Board

While I actually bought this heart shaped charcuterie board for Valentine's Day from Dollar Tree Plus, I was not able to put together the board until this week.  Every Monday I watch the Bachelor with D, so I decided to make my heart snack board to eat while we were watching the show. 

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

I bought this XOXO heart board that came with a cute mini serving knife for $5 in the Plus aisle.  It was with the Valentine's Day items that ranged from $3 to $5. If you like the heart board, I have also seen other shaped boards the last few months for Thanksgiving and Christmas for well. 

 

I also picked up this spatula and heart cookie cutter set at the Dollar Tree. While I am not using the spatula for this project, I did want to use the heart cookie cutter. 

I used the cookie cutter to cut out heart shapes from hard salami and our favorite cheeses.  I used the bit of salami left over to roll up into tiny roses.   The tomatoes I had on hand, did not quite work out.  If they were bigger and a little firmer, I could have made them look more like hearts. They were a little bit too small and soft to cut. I used mini cucumbers and sliced them to form hearts and secured with toothpicks.  I also cut the tops off the strawberries in the shape of a small V, so they too look like hearts. 

I was able to make this board in just a few minutes with about $10 in snacks. I really love how it turned out, and will definitely been making one again.   

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It's Time to Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means..

It is time to Dare to Share! 

I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day. I had a really good one. We had a fun party at the center that pretty much all the kids attended, and then after work D surprised me with these beautiful flowers and candy.  

The night before our party, I made these cute dinosaur cards for the kids, and attached them to dinosaur fruit snack bags. We celebrated both friendship and Valentine's Day with the kids. 

I am working on some new listings for my  Etsy Shop that I will be adding soon.  Now that Valentine's Day is over, it's time to think of St. Patrick's Day.  Last year this Pot of Gold Treasure Hunt was pretty popular, and so was my Leprechaun Hunt.  I remember when I was a kid looking and watching for leprechauns all day.  I never did spot one, but I had a lot of fun trying.  I made these hunts because of memory of my childhood. :) 

I will be posting some new St. Patrick's Day posts on the blog this week, so watch for those in the upcoming days.

Well it looks to be time to get the party started. I would love to see what you have been doing this week.  Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Let's Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means..

It is time to Dare to Share! 

If you were at last week's Dare to Share Party you read that my family was getting together for my uncle's celebration of life last weekend.  While having a service like that is always a bit bittersweet, it was really nice to see family members I am not able to see on a regular basis due to distance.  I also reunited with my cousins, and are hoping to get together again real soon. Another update, we were able to get the freezer!  D was able to fix the hitch lights, and we were able to rent the trailer.  It only took a couple of hours and $25 to pick up a full size upright freezer. 

Over on the blog, I shared my Unicorn Valentine Box, that is perfect for a class party.  I actually made this a few years back. I still have it in my craft room, because I love it so much. 

While I did not add any new listings this week, I do have several last minute valentines and other Valentine's Day listings over in my Etsy Shop for those celebrations this week. 💓

If you follow me over on Instagram, I had two Dollar Tree reels that have had a lot of views this week. One is Save Money on Brand Name Items at Dollar Tree and You Won't Believe These Dollar Tree Finds. If you are a fan of tiered trays that second reel is a must see. 

It looks like it is time to get this party started.  I would love to see what you have been up to this week. Link up and

HAVE FUN! 

 

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Class Party Unicorn Valentine Box

 

One of my favorite Valentine's Day crafts is my Unicorn Valentine Box.  I have always loved unicorns, and this unicorn box actually can be used for other things in addition to Valentine's Day.  It can be used for birthday parties, fun kids room decor or  even storage.  The best thing about is, it is super inexpensive to make, all of the supplies (except the box and cardboard tubes) came from the Dollar Tree.

* This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

You will need a medium size box to make the body of the unicorn.  A shoe box is a great size if you have one.  I found this nice, sturdy box on sale for just a few dollars at Meijer a few years ago.  I  have also seen them at Target, and craft stores. If you do use a box you already have you will need to cut a slot in the top of the box.  This box was already white, but depending on your box you can either paint it or wrap it in colored wrapping paper.  

You will use four cardboard rolls for the legs. Paint them your desired unicorn color.  I had considered painting mine purple, but decided to keep it white.  

In the wrapping paper aisle of the Dollar Tree, there are many different ribbons and bows that can be used for the mane and tail. I chose the multi-color ribbon on the right in this picture. 

I also found a few items that would be good to make the unicorn head.  My final choice was the round pink tumbler. The foam block will also work if you prefer a more square shape.

I wrapped both the cup, and the foam block with white paper and sat them on the box to see how they looked. Personally, I felt the round cup looked more like an unicorn head. 

I attached the legs to the bottom of the box with hot glue. 

I was able to separate the curly ribbon bows into smaller bows, so they were easier to shape into the mane.   I used four of the smaller bows to make the mane. 

 

I then used two of the small bows to make the tail. I love how the curls look on both the mane and the tail.  

 Since the unicorn was going to be used for Valentine's Day, I added pink craft foam hearts on the snout. 

The last step is to add the eyes and horn. The horn is a piece of rolled pink cardstock. Dollar Tree now carries pre-made horns in the party section,  if you prefer to use an already made one.  

Your unicorn is now ready to go to school and collect all the Valentines.  

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It's Party Time, Let's Dare to Share!

It is Friday night, and you know what that means..

It is time to Dare to Share! 

If you were at last week's Dare to Share party you saw that we were able to have the Candyland party at my work last Friday.  On Saturday I was able to write more about it in my post  Our Candyland Party. It was a fun, busy party that took over our entire center.  I was able to get some pictures of the party, but not near as many as I would have liked. I was busy leading the Bingo game and helping at the  Lollipop Room Cookie Walk for the majority of the party. 

We also had a lot going on this week, so I did not have add an new Etsy listing this week. I have one that is about 75% done, so I hope to get it up soon.  This week were hoping to make a quick run to our home town to pick up a freezer from D's mom.  Since we do not have cars that are big enough, we were planning on renting a trailer.  I have a hitch on my car that we have not used before. (I got the car from a couple at my church a few years ago).  We went to pick up the trailer from a rental place that was in the next town over.  Everything was going great until they were connecting the trailer to my car.  They found that there was some sort of short in my hitch wire so we could not get back lights on the trailer. Since we did not have back lights, we were not able to rent the trailer. After being disappointed, we made ourselves feel better at a delicious pizza place nearby. :) We are going to see if we can fix the hitch lights, and try to get the freezer on Sunday.  My family is also in town for a few days this week for my uncle's Celebration of Life ceremony this weekend.  While I was not that close to my uncle who passed, I look forward to seeing family members I am not able to see often. Maybe next week I will get back to my normal schedule. 

If you are interested in joining my newsletter/email list, be sure to sign up in the upper right had corner of my blog.  I am currently sending out emails, once or twice a month, but hope to make it a week newsletter soon. 

 

Since it is getting late, and I have an early morning tomorrow, let's get this party started.   Link Up and HAVE FUN! 

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Our Candyland Party

 

As I mentioned during the Dare to Share Party yesterday, we had a Candyland party at work yesterday.  As the days lead up to the party, I helped with a lot of the prep work.  I created games and decorations online, I crafted several crafts and games, and helped decorate for the party.  While I did get some pictures, I was too busy during the party to take more than a couple of pictures while the party was taking place. I will share what I have so far, with more to possible come early next week, because we plan on leaving the decorations up for a bit. 

One of our parents is a talented balloon artist. She made the rainbow balloons in our entryway in the picture above, and at the entrance below.  

As you entered it felt like you were in a real Candyland. Each of the rooms were a different land. We had Lollipop Woods, the Ice Palace, Chocolate Swamp, and Gingerbread Land.

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I took these photos while I was setting up during naptime, so they are a little dark.  As you entered one of the preschool rooms Princess Lolli and several giant lollipops greeted you.  

In that room we had a cookie chair walk game.  It was a combination of a cake walk and musical chairs, but we did not remove the chairs after each round.  The kids and some parents walked around the chairs to the music, and when it stopped sat down in one of the numbered chairs.  If their number was called, they won a bag of cookies and some game tickets to use toward a big prize. 

The chocolate swamp mural was not completed yet in this picture, we were still working on it.  In the chocolate swamp room the kids had a chocolate matching game, and a maze.  

At the last minute I threw together this ice cream sundae.  We had hoped to play pin the cherry on the sundae, but ran out of time to finish making it. We will have the kids play it in class during a school day next week.  

In the second preschool room we had the Ice Palace. There was a big mural on the wall, and snowflakes all over the walls and hanging from the ceiling. 

In this room we had the punch cup game, and the penny toss game.  The kids won tickets and candy with both games.  I made these games by hot gluing regular size and mini red cups onto Dollar Tree foam board. 

I don't have pictures inside Gingerbread Lane room, but the kids who entered were greeted by Jip the Gingerbread man which I made for last year's party.  

In the center area, I play picture Candyland Bingo with a Bingo game I created that will soon be in my Etsy Shop.

At the end of the party the kids could turn in their tickets (hopefully they had a lot of them) for a variety of prizes.  Almost all of the prizes came from the Dollar Tree.  This is only half of the prizes.  There were just too many to get them all in one picture. 

Candyland is one of the parties we do for the kids yearly. We got a lot of good feedback on this year's party, so will have to wait and see what next year's party brings.   

  

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