Friday Five

Happy Friday!
Today I'm linking up with Christina, April and Natasha for Five on Friday!

One

I have a Canvas Factory Giveaway going on right now and I'd love for you to enter for a chance to win a 16x20 canvas for free! Just click here to enter.

Two

I recently had a sign party that was so much fun! You just plan a little get-together for you and at least 10 of your friends. You all choose your own sign ahead of time, from the many options they have, and then she brings everything to the party that you'll need to make the sign. It was with Mommy's Design Farm here in St. Louis. Check them out if you live in the area. Here's a picture of a sign I made at a party I went to back in May and a picture of the sign I made at my party a couple weeks ago. It was SO much fun!

Three

A few weeks ago I signed Avery up for Dance at a studio near our house. Over the Summer we had her in a little dance class at our city community center just to see if she'd like it. She LOVED it, so we decided to sign her up at a real dance studio. Her beginner class is every Monday evening from 5-6 p.m. and they'll have a recital in June. I'm so excited for her!! They had a special sign-ups event earlier in August where we could check out the studio. They had some of the Disney Princesses there and Captain America. They also had face painting and other little activities for the kids. Such a fun studio and I can't wait for Avery to start on Sept. 11th!

Four

The weather here has been cooling down some and it's been really pretty outside. I decided to take a nice long walk yesterday on my lunch hour and saw this pretty butterfly!

Five

With Jackson having lost 2 teeth now, I was thrilled when I saw that a woman on a local craft Facebook page was making these little personalized tooth fairy bags for only $5! I went ahead and ordered one for each of the kids. They are so much cuter than the plastic baggie we've been using. Ha. You can check her Facebook page out here.

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone and Happy September!

Canvas Factory Giveaway

I'm so excited for the opportunity to partner with Canvas Factory again! They are such a great company and I always enjoy working with them. They offered to let me review another 16x20 canvas here on my blog and to give another 16x20 canvas away as a gift to my readers.

This time around I chose to print a picture from our recent 10 year anniversary trip to Washington State. Our bedroom has been neglected ever since we moved a little over a year and a half ago. So I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get something to hang in our master bedroom.

I went to their very user-friendly website (www.canvasfactory.com) and chose the style, size and picture I wanted. It was all very easy and I was done in a matter of minutes. It took less than a week for me to receive my canvas and I have to say that I couldn't be happier with my beautiful new canvas. They did an amazing job and I love it so much. The quality is wonderful and it comes ready to hang, so it's so easy!

Canvas Factory is so sweet to give another 16x20 canvas away to one of my readers. Just use the Rafflecopter below and comment on this post telling me how you plan to use your canvas if you win! It's that easy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Few Ipsy Favorites!

I've been signed up for Ipsy since January of this year and I'm loving it. It's so fun to try new products and I love that little surprise gift to myself every month for only $10! So I thought I'd share a few of my favorite products that I've received through ipsy this year.

First is this fabulous Glacial Face Wash made by Skyn Iceland. They are a Vegan and Cruelty Free company and this face wash is amazing. I had a couple pimples on my chin that I could not seem to get rid of. After only a week of using this face wash they had started to go away and it wasn't too long after that, they were completely gone. Since I've been using it daily, I haven't had any more break-outs! So amazing! I love this face wash so much, that I decided to try a few of their other products and I'm loving them too.

Next, I just got this eye liner in my bag this past month and I love it! It's the Precision Tip Eyeliner in black by Steve Laurant. It goes on so easy and straight. I just love it.

Third, is this amazing 10-in-1 Hair Primer from Eva NYC Mane Magic. Its a one stop shop for so many things. This primer does it all: detangles, nourishes, strengthens, softens, cuts drying time, adds shine, reduces frizz, and protects against thermal, environmental and UV damage.

I just love this blush by theBalm! The color is Cabana Boy. It goes on easy and doesn't crumble and get all over the place like so many other blushes I've tried do. You can also get it at Kohls, which makes things easy. I'd really like to try some of their other products too.

I'm really liking this True Cream Aqua Bomb by Belif. It is so hydrating, but doesn't leave the skin feeling oily. It goes on nice and smooth and feels and smells so nice.

Last, but certainly not least is this amazing eye lash primer and mascara from Lancôme. My eyelashes immediately looked better from the first day of using it and now after over a month of using it, I can tell my eye lashes are longer and fuller than they were before. The primer is called CILS Booster XL and the mascara is called Definicils. They are both amazing, but I especially recommend the primer.

 

So these are just a few of my very favorite products that I've tried in the last few months from ipsy! I highly recommend trying ipsy. For only $10 a month you get to try 5 new items and you get a cute little cosmetic bag every month as well. It's such a great way to try and find new products that you may not even know about. Here's my referral link if you'd like to give it a try. You won't regret it. :-)

*this post contains affiliate links*



Pink Baby Shower for My Sister

This past Saturday my mom and I hosted a baby shower for my sister at my house! This is my sister's 4th baby, but first girl, so we are all so excited!!

With it being the 4th baby, we decided to keep it simple and easy. We had the shower in the morning and served a ham and a sausage breakfast casserole. (Recipe here.) My mom also picked up a tray of Danishes from Sam's and a co-worker of mine has a daughter who loves to bake, so she made us the most delicious strawberry cupcakes!

It was such a nice shower and she got so many cute and much-needed gifts.

Here are a few pictures I took of our fun morning.

 

Happy Friday

Happy Friday!!

It's been a while since I did a 5 on Friday so I thought I'd jump back on the bandwagon this week!

One

Tomorrow is National Dog Day, so don't forget to give your dogs a little extra love tomorrow. ♥

Two

Tomorrow morning my mom and I are hosting a baby sprinkle for my sister and her sweet baby girl Addison. We are hosting it at my house. This is her fourth baby, but first girl. We are all so excited and can't wait to meet baby Addison in just a couple more months!!

Three
I know everyone is so excited to have Fall right around the corner, but I'm over here like, can Summer just last forever? I love Summer and I'm sad that it won't be here much longer.

Four
This sweet boy has had a great first full week of Kindergarten! He's still loving school, his only complaint is that his day there is too long. Ha. He's used to half day at preschool, so full day kindergarten is going to take some getting use to. Otherwise, he's loving school and that makes me so happy.

Five
I will be having another Canvas Factory Giveaway either next week or the following week, so please check back as you won't want to miss it.

Have a Great Weekend!


Saturday at Six Flags

This past Saturday, Jake and I took the kids to Six Flags for a super fun back to school surprise. Jake was able to get free tickets from a customer at work. We also got free breakfast and lunch with it too so it turned to be a free day minus buying a few drinks to keep us cool and hydrated... it was really hot!!

We told the kids we were going on a surprise adventure so they had no idea where we were going. Jackson has been there a couple times before (when he was 2 and 3 years old), but Avery had never been. They both were so excited when we turned in and they realized where we were going. :-)

Jackson was tall enough to ride all but 3 rides. He could even ride the ninja, which is a roller coaster that goes upside down. He was so excited and rode many of the rides multiple times. Thankfully, the lines were short and it wasn't very crowded at all.

Avery was still too small to ride a majority of the rides, but she rode everything she could and spent a lot of time in Bugs Bunny Land where they have a lot of rides just for little kiddos. She was sad when she couldn't ride the bigger rides like Jackson could. :-(

It was a great day and I can't wait to go again. Maybe season passes are in order for next year. It's only about 20 minutes from our new house so it would be easy to just go for a few hours here and there.

Now onto the few iPhone pictures I took that day. :-)

Avery and I riding the Shazam together.

Jackson and I riding the Ninja together.

Riding the Screaming Eagle.



Total Solar Eclipse 2017

So as all of you know, yesterday was the Great American Solar Eclipse. Living in St. Louis, MO we were super close to totality so it was quite the event around here. I had been looking forward to it for months and it didn't disappoint. It was AMAZING to say the least.

Jackson's school really went all out. They had t-shirts for sale leading up to the day and they invited us parents up to watch the eclipse with our kiddos. Jake had to work, but my mom, Avery and I went up there at around 1:00. Totality was at 1:18 so that gave us plenty of time to get there and settled.

Jackson's class gearing up for the eclipse.

They had glasses for us and another mom in his class had made the glasses for the class even safer by adding a paper plate to them so that they couldn't look over their glasses by accident. Jackson loved it and just stared up at the sky for most of the time. He didn't say a lot, just soaked it all in I guess.

It was such an amazing experience and one I won't soon forget. As the moon moved closer over the sun, you could see such cool reflections of the sun if you went under a shade tree.



You can see them here too where Avery was sitting.

Avery didn't really understand what was going on, but she looked up a few times wearing the special glasses with my help and thought it was pretty cool.

I brought my camera along with my 70-300mm lens. I didn't have any special gear so I just took pictures during totality, but I'm pretty happy with the couple that I got. :-)

It was an amazing event and one I will not soon forget. It got so dark that we heard the crickets and locusts start to make their evening noises and the dusk to dawn lights all came on outside the school.



Yesterday evening Jackson's teacher sent me this cool picture of him. It was such an amazing day!