Even as a kid, I always knew Crayola was the best. Can you just imagine the smell of a new box of crayons? The 64 pack with the sharpener on the back, was a thing of my dreams. A whole box of joy just waiting to be put to good use. Did you know you can now customize your own 64 crayon box? You can choose your colors, choose your theme and even add your own picture to the front.

As a teacher, I always shopped the back to school sales to stock up on the crayons, markers and colored pencils to make sure we’d be able to get through the year with the good stuff on hand.

As a parent, I discovered even more amazing products. We still reached for the crayons, markers and colored pencils, but I also discovered the Color Wonder sets.

Have you tried these yet? If you have little people living with you, these are a must! These markers ONLY draw on the paper that comes with the sets. You can take these in the car, to doctor appointments, out to restaurants, on your couch…ANYWHERE and have the peace of mind to know that they won’t draw anywhere else. With my three wonderfully wild boys, this was a life saver! They have all kinds of themes now so there’s one that’s sure to please your little people. Seriously, if you haven’t tried them, grab a set. It’s a game changer!

They also have adult coloring books. At the end of a long day of life, these have been so nice to relax with. There is just something magical about creating a beautiful picture, one that is uniquely yours. There are many options and themes so you can color to your heart’s content.

Crayola has been a life long friend. Their products stand the test of time and hold up well to lots and lots of use. Here is the Code for a flash sale! 9/26 Flash Sale – 20% off $30+ Order with code FALL20

GO! Go check out what amazing things are on this website and use coupon code ‘FIREWORKS’ to save!

https://www.dpbolvw.net/click-100655707-15273894

Let me know what amazing things you find to try out. I have my eye on those stinky marker sets, as I know my boys would think they were just gross enough to be awesome.

*The above article has affiliate links, so I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

We love quesadillas at our house! We make them for breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon. We make them for lunch with olives or ham and cheese. Sometimes we even do it for dinner with pepperoni for pizza flavors or chicken and peppers and onions for a fajita style. The possibilities are endless!

I love that everyone can make theirs however they choose and everyone enjoys! We have some keto folk at our house and you can make it with keto tortillas. We have some gluten free people here too and you can use gluten free tortillas. It truly is the easiest meal!

One year for my birthday, Dan came upon this quesadilla maker at a garage sale and grabbed it for me. I had never seen one before and it has been an amazing find! It makes your job so much easier and there’s no more flipping the tortillas on the stove. We even take ours with us on vacation every year so we can feed all 13 people quickly.

You definitely need one of these in your house if you like quesadillas too!

You can find it here at our link: https://amzn.to/3ORzfdT

Years ago, my Dad sent me a link to a penny pincher website article about homemade gifts. With three little kids at the time, I loved the idea of homemade gifts and was always happy to find a new idea. This gift idea is SO simple and easy and yet is sure to please!

Here’s what you’ll need: Glass jars, labels, vodka, vanilla beans…TIME!

Go to the store and buy a bottle or two of vodka. I usually go with Smirnoff, but you can get away with any brand. You want to find some really good vanilla beans. You may be able to source them locally, but I have had to go through Amazon. I got these here: https://amzn.to/3OxF5S6

Simply open the vanilla beans and use a sharp knife to spread out the inner goodness. Put the whole beans and the inner bits in the vodka jar. Give it a good shake and viola!

You want to keep your jar(s) in a dark place so the vanilla has a chance to seep into the vodka. I keep mine in my pantry. Your main job is done. From here you just want to shake the jars every so often to really keep mixing up the vanilla beans. Since mine are in the pantry, I notice them periodically and give them a good shake.

The only thing that makes this a little tricky is the time it takes. The process is simple, but it takes about 4-6 months to get the vanilla truly infused into the vodka. So if you start now, your vanilla will be ready for Christmas gifts!

I put mine in these cute little jars and label them. Just about everyone who cooks will use vanilla in their kitchen, so it’s a pretty safe gift to give. It’s all I use in my own kitchen and it’s sure to please those on your gift giving list. I have played around with bottle size and shape and have landed on these: https://amzn.to/3A9RoQ8

Let me know if you try it!

I remember it so vividly. It was my first day at my new job at Seattle Yachts. I was learning the phones and it was a busy day. In the middle of the busyness and feeling like my brain was on overload, I got a text that slowed down time. “It’s Cancer.”

My Dad had had some blood in his urine and had been to see a few doctors. They treated him for a UTI but that didn’t change the bleeding. So, this appointment on this day was the one we held our breath for…the one that would change our lives.

That appointment went smoothly and he was told the cancer was minimal and it would not be a problem to remove. Surgery would be scheduled and it would be a day procedure. While knowing it was cancer was really hard to cope with, the news sounded encouraging and the outcome good.

Nothing about the last year has been easy and it’s all been hard to cope with! That initial surgery was a nightmare. The tumor was huge and in the process of trying to remove it, his bladder was nicked. He had to be rushed to the ER to check him out. He had to have a blood transfusion and a few day stay to let the bladder heal. Those moments of not knowing what was going on were excruciating. We were just told the bladder had been punctured and he was going via ambulance to the ER. They didn’t even wait for my Mom to hop on the ambulance. It was only about 30 minutes before we found him and she could be with him, but it was an awful 30 minutes.

What has followed has been more surgeries, so many anxious moments, scans, lots of travel and decisions to make.

As with everything in life, it’s so hard to see someone you love suffer, knowing you are not able to ease the pain. Both of my parents have been superheroes through this whole ordeal and they are battling this beast head on. My Dad is tired, but is able to do what he wants to do most of the time. He is active and will tell you he feels fine. For that I am so grateful!

The latest scans don’t show much of a change, so it’s decision time once again. There are two clinic options that offer an alternative to the traditional chemo method. So we will find out soon what the CA clinic recommends. So far he’s been doing 10% chemo and it seems to be holding the cancer at bay, but not reducing the tumor load. There is a local clinic that recommends a higher chemo dose as well as radiation.

Thank you for being a part of our journey over the last year. We definitely feel your prayers and appreciate your check ins and kind words. There have been soo many difficult moments and so much stress for all of us. However, we are trying to find moments in each day to take a breath, find joy and be grateful for the moments. This is a formidable beast and we continue to fight.

Avocado oil! We love us some avocado oil and we use it a lot. It has the highest smoke point of all the plant based oils, so it’s not as easy to burn. I used to get mine from Costco and loved it, but our Costco has switched up the way they do their oils and started putting their avocado oil in plastic bottles. I don’t love the idea of plastic and it’s soo big for my cabinet!

So when my Mom told me about this one I knew I had to try it. Now I’m hooked!

This avocado oil is so tasty and easy to use. It is the perfect little size so that it fits on my shelf and is in BPA free cans. Check it out!

You can find it here at our link: https://amzn.to/3yoBxMr

If you know me at all, you know that Amazon is my jam! I order a lot from there…from clothes and shoes to kitchen gadgets and games. Today I want to share with you one of my most recent purchases that I love!!

I don’t know what your charging station looks like, but ours is always a hot mess. We have iPads and phones and watches that all need to be plugged in and we can never keep the area organized! We’d go through, put all the cords tied up in this little box and plug things in, but it never stayed tidy! It would end up looking like this:

I just happened to find this little box on Amazon and I am already in love! This little box, allows you to plug in 8 things at once…without the need for the cubes! So one plug in is all you need to be able to charge ALL 8 things! You still have the cords, but it saves from having the big power strip with all the cubes hanging around.

This part doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, but it also is able to do this: Intelligently detect and deliver the appropriate charging current for each device, with high-resolution LCD Digital Display screen, now you can visually monitor the current and the charging status through your naked eyes. ” If that’s important to you, it does it! 🙂

Amazon for the win!! If you want to try it, you can find it at our link here: https://amzn.to/3bsW3SS

A number of years ago, I saw a post about a Memory Jar and I knew we had to try it. I found a big glass jar and made a little label for it and we were off!

The whole idea is to keep the jar out on your counter and add in any fun memories from the year. Every movie we go to, I save a stub to put in our jar. Every time we go to the Fair or a trampoline park or anything we get a ticket for, it goes in the jar. If we go on a big hike, I write it on a 3×5 card and in it goes. If we go to a restaurant or find a new ice cream shop, I write it down and put in in the jar. If someone learns how to do something new, it goes in the jar. If we visit a new playground or park, in it goes. This year I started to add in a little picture to the jar if we took a selfie. You get the idea!

You will notice we still have the same original paper around the jar from when we started years ago. I just change the date. It think it’s fun to see it age and know it’s growing with us.

The cool part is, it collects in there as memories from our year. Then every year on New Year’s Eve, we pour our sparkling cider and take turns reaching into the jar and pulling out a memory. It’s has been a fun tradition that the boys ask about as it gets closer to NYE. We have a very real scrapbook of sorts as we reflect on our year.

It’s officially summer and we are going to sit down to do our bucket list for 2022! The last couple years have been doozies for so many reasons so I am really looking forward to seeing what we come up with this year.

Here’s how we do ours: We have a big roll of white paper that we put up on our wall. Then we each write on sticky labels what we’d like to do this summer. Now that the kids are old enough to write, I have them write the ideas down so they are invested in it. We hang those up next to our Bucket List Sheet and then we can move over what we do as we do them.

It’s been a tradition for years and so much fun!!! Here are some of our ideas:

go on a bike ride

go to the beach

camp in the backyard

make dinner for someone

go to chuck-e-cheese

go to kayak point park

go geocaching

visit a new park

play with playdough

build a tower

make ice cream

bake cookies

go to a circus

go fishing

play hopscotch

run in the sprinkler

go swimming

make smores

cook over an open fire

go to the library

go bowling

jump on a trampoline

do something nice for someone

pick flowers

finger paint

make musical instruments

learn something new

have a sleepover

watch fireworks

see a parade

eat a popsicle

visit the ice cream truck

make a pillow fort

donate some toys

go to the Dollar Tree

draw with chalk

blow bubbles

have a water gun fight

make a snocone

do a watercolor painting

Skype with a relative

see the stars

go to a splash pad

go to a farmer’s market

make a bird feeder

go to a movie

go hiking

swim in a lake

have a picnic

have a beach BBQ with family

play with our cousins

go to a fair

dress up silly

go to a new restaurant

play the cheeto game (just shaving cream on your head and have someone throw cheetos to try to get them to stick)!

play with shaving cream

fly a kite

feed the birds

go to the zoo

mail a letter

do a puzzle

have a family game night

make a marshmallow structure (marshmallows and toothpicks)

play in the sand

make a puppet show

go to a garage sale

design new sheets (get old sheets and have the kids color on them)

play drip, drip, splash (think duck, duck goose with water)

make a bike obstacle course

go on a bug hunt

make a marble launch (cut up pool noodle and run  marbles down the middle)

go night bowling in our yard (stick glow sticks in water bottles and bowl)

go to a drive-in

build with legos

do a home depot workshop

play in the rain

make water balloons

help make dinner

make homemade pizza

have banana splits

climb a tree

play croquet

play mini golf

eat fro yo

play freeze tag

wash the car

visit a waterfall

ride on a boat

go to a baseball game

eat something from the garden

have a dance party

pick berries

do a pudding painting

have a gratitude journal

go on a scavenger hunt

play charades

paint rocks

paint our own pots

have a bean bag toss

play hide-n-seek

try a new recipe

go ice skating

make suckers

Here’s our finished list. You’ll notice we leave some stickers blank so we can add the amazing things that pop up over the summer. Maybe there are some on here for you too!

Here is our amazon link for the paper roll: https://amzn.to/3OhIi8b

Here is the link for the labels: https://amzn.to/3HMh2fF

You know I couldn’t just post 5. I have a whole bookshelf of games! Here are 5 more fun ideas for summer practice that are guaranteed to please!

Number 1: Shark Bite! This is hilarious! The kids get to reach into the shark’s mouth and snag a fish before the shark bites! I add sight words to the fish and they can read the words as they play. Super fun and it’s sure to provide some giggles. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3OqPWg8

Number 2: Pop the Pig! Aww this one makes me so happy! This cutie eats burgers and eventually gets too full and he pops his shirt! You can write small words, letters or numbers on the burgers to turn it into a learning game. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3OcFM2P

Number 3: Quick Cups! This one is a good warm up for learning time. It requires you to try to put your colored cups in a way that matches the colors on the card. It’s a brain teaser! https://amzn.to/3zTbTAl

Number 4: Yeti in my Spaghetti! How steady are your hands? You have to move the noodles in this game without making the Yeti fall! Pre make a set of 3×5 cards with some type of content on them. Sight words, letter names/sounds, numbers, equations, etc. After each turn, have your kiddo read one of the cards you’ve created. https://amzn.to/3QFlErN

Number 5: Sequence! This is fun! Simply match the animals on the cards to the animals on the board. The first to get 4 in a row wins! After each turn, have your student read a content card. https://amzn.to/3NboMsq

(The above are affiliate links so I get a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

Are you looking for some fun games for your kids this summer? Look no further, I got you!

I have been a tutor for years now and love it. My whole goal is to make learning fun and working one-on-one with a kiddo gives me the perfect opportunity to do that. I try to turn any game into a learning game. Here are 5 of my unusual favs to try out with your own kids.

Number 1: Jenga! We love Jenga at our house. I love to add sight words, equations, vocabulary words, story elements…you name it! Simply add your content on the ends of the blocks and as you play, the kids can name the sight word, or give the answer to the equation, or if it says Characters on the end, the student can name characters from a recent book. You get the idea. Here’s our link for Jenga: https://amzn.to/3QEymac

Number 2: The Floor is Lava! This is such a fun way to add movement into the learning. Simply spread The Floor Is Lava tiles out in the room, or outside, and play as you normally would. Have a pre made stack of content cards and as you get to the end of the turn and are on the correct tile, show the student a content card and they can read the word, solve the equation, tell you the multiplication fact, etc. You can find it here at the affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Oy1tKr

Number 3: Banana Blast! This is so silly and you will most definitely hear giggles when you pull this one out. Have a pre made stack of content cards on hand and play as you normally would. If the student is to remove one banana, they read one content card. If it’s two bananas, two content cards. Take turns and I always make sure to show the content card on my turn so the student can see whatever is on the card and hear my answer. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3QOyYdN

Number 4: Pancake Pile Up! This game is really easy to add stickers to. Simply write out what you want your student to practice and stick to one side of the pancakes. Then race to finish your stack. After you finish, turn the pancakes over and read the content you’ve put on the pancakes. It’s a super quick and easy one. You can find it here: https://amzn.to/3HGKHqj

Number 5: Skee Ball! Ok, this one is on the list because it’s my favorite game of all time! I got this one year for my son’s bday and it’s been well loved. It is a crowd pleaser for sure. You will need to pre make your content cards as well as 3×5 cards with the numbers to match your Skee Ball set. In this case, 100, 50, 40, 30 and 10. Place some content cards under each numbered 3×5 card. After each person’s turn, they read whatever content cards match the numbers they got. I have found that when I’ve used this for sight word practice, the active movement and engagement helps those words solidify in the student’s mind. Find it here: https://amzn.to/3Ow5q2w

We hope your family enjoys these as much as we do! Let us know if you try one, which is your fav!