I have started releasing digital Valentine’s Day Classroom Exchange cards in my Etsy shop this week! I have plenty more that I plan to release in the next few weeks, but I started out with more general ones that can be used with any treat or item that you want to pair with it. There are 6 different options. Each option comes with 6 designs. You can see them below. Click here to start shopping! Oh, and don’t forget the exclusive discount code to my blog readers - PGP15DISCOUNT!
For Thanksgiving this year, we stayed home and celebrated with my side of the family. Brad was lucky enough to come home from his work trip just for the week of Thanksgiving. His hours were all messed up, but it was really nice having him here to celebrate. Since he was home for only a short period of time, I hosted my family. We had lots of fun, and we enjoyed the time with the family!
Brad was lucky enough to make it to our Pumpkin Patch visit this year! He has missed the last few years, and he literally left for two months a few weeks after this. We had a lot of fun this year. And each year does get easier since Melody is getting older and can do more things by herself and has the freedom to do so. We go to Lyons Pumpkin Patch, and they also seem to also add things every year. And the weather was perfect this year too! And peep the picture of Melody on her first visit to the pumpkin patch! She has grown SOOOOO much!
Halloween this year was a bit different since Brad was traveling for work and missed it. He did carve pumpkins right before leaving as well as going to the pumpkin patch with us. But this year Melody picked Princess Leia as her costume of choice making it extra hard not having her Star Wars loving daddy there.
The last two and a half months have been busy, hectic, and full on chaos. Brad was actually out of town for two months himself. So for a good part of time, it was just Melody and me. We have been in full on survival mode. But I wanted to share some of our life lately. I still plan to go into all the details of all the things later too!
Back in June, we went to New Orleans to celebrate Brad’s cousin’s wedding. We got there on a Friday and drove home on Sunday. It was a really quick trip, but the celebrations were lots of fun. However, New Orleans is not a place I am necessarily looking to go back to without a purpose, ha!
Now that it has been almost one year, I am finally wrapping up all the posts to my Pumpkin Baby Shower that I had for my best friend, Emily. She had her third baby back in November of last year. So we hosted a diapers and wipes shower for her the month before. Seeing that it was fall, and my house was decorated as such, we opted for a pumpkin theme. Today I am sharing all about the invitation I made.
During our fall break trip last year to Dollywood, we stayed at a resort instead of a cabin. We actually had seen this resort on our trip last summer when we would drive to the outlets or certain parts of Pigeon Forge. Melody was obsessed with the slides coming out of the building. Well after doing some research, I discovered the resort was called “The Resort at Governor’s Crossing”. The rates were exceptionally reasonable, and all of the amenities were tough to beat. So we decided to give it a try for our short trip.
We celebrated Brad turning 40 back in August! We celebrated him over a few weeks, but this post is all about his special day!
I can’t believe I haven’t posted about my Silhouette projects since 2020! Of course these aren’t all the things I have completed in that time. But this are most of the ones I likely haven’t posted much about!
You may this post a little backwards than my usual trip report posts. Normally I post about what we did each day, THEN I get into all the details on individual posts about all the specific things we did on our trip. Well I am starting with a very specific thing we did on our early September trip because it is the Halloween party! It ends on November 1st, so I wanted to share our experience as soon as I could!
Hello! Should I reintroduce myself? Ha. Well August was fun but crazy and blogging was not high on my to do list. Here we are almost a month later, and I am finally updating you on all the fun we had in July! A lot has happened, and I can’t wait to share it all. But let’s talk about July. It was our last month of summer before school started. School started back so soon it felt like! Summer just flew by. But we had lots of fun, and we made the most of what time we had left before Melody went back to school!
Leading up to our Disney World trip in March 2023, we had tons of countdowns going. I love getting everyone excited, and sometimes I even overdo it. One countdown I made was a coloring sheet. I also did this for Brad’s parents as a easy way for them to participated 3 hours away!
During our Disney World trip in March 2023, we got to cross a fun experience off our Disney Bucket List…Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! Prior to COVID, Melody wasn’t old enough. We only went once when she was 3, and it was a quick trip. Then on our trips post COVID, they were not open. But they were finally open for our Spring Break trip, and after a lot of research and stalking, I found an ideal time for us during our trip.
Melody’s wanted her 7th birthday party to be unicorn themed. She had it planned for awhile, and she even knew exactly what she wanted her cake to look like. She apparently watched a video on YouTube Kids where they decorated cakes, and she saw one she wanted. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this, and my backup was to just use Publix. I knew they had a unicorn cake even if it wasn’t the “right” one. Well I talked with my cousin at Easter, and she apparently was starting a bakery. Melody was telling her all about the cake she wanted, and my cousin said she would love to make it! Her instagram handle is @bluebirdbakeryelkmont if you want to see her work!
During our trip to Disney World in March 2023, we took advantage of the Facebook group “Ear for Each Other”. It is where castmembers who were laid off during COVID could post different business ventures. One properly option is where different people deliver various goodies to your resort. After looking around on the page, we decided to reach out to Storybook Treats. We were uncertain if they could deliver to Shades of Green (they can!), and once we received confirmation, we decided to order some treats for the trip.
For my best friend’s baby shower back in October, we went with a pumpkin theme. It was a perfect theme for a fall baby shower (or event for that matter). When it came to the food, I tried to incorporate pumpkins, orange, and Emily’s favorite foods.
During our trip to Disney World in March 2023, we stayed at Shades of Green. Most people do not even know this resort exists. There is a list of criteria that you must meet to qualify to stay here. The two largest qualifiers is if you are military/former military (some special rules apply to the later) or a Department of Defense Civilian. We found out about the resort a few years ago, and we wanted to give it a try. It is actually located on two golf courses, so that was how we convinced Brad’s dad to come to Disney with us. It also gave us a great opportunity to try out the resort too!
When we went to Disney World in March 2023, we decided to drive. We had the time, and it would actually be dramatically cheaper AND we could add two nights to our trip. With this we knew we would be asked a million times “are we there yet?” or “how much longer”. So I decided to make a map. I made two copies, one for the drive down and one for the drive home. Once we left and we knew the direction we would be going, I placed 10 stars along with the name of cities along our drive. Whenever we came to a city, I would let Melody know. This gave her a good way to track, and we only got asked those questions a hundred times ;)
