I don't have a compiled list of "100 Things to do During Summer Break," but I do have this: celebrate Teddy Bear Picnic day! July 10th is Teddy Bear Picnic Day and it's a fun little holiday to break the kids out of their summer rut.

There are many patriotic themes and statements granted to the United States, but I chose to focus on this verse from our national anthem.

When I was in 5th grade there was an art contest held for Veteran's Day and the theme was "What does freedom mean to you?" My brother had recently gone to the Arlington National Cemetery for a  school field trip and told me I should draw the cemetery and answer the question with "Freedom isn't free." I got first place, not because my drawing was the best, but because of the message. The kid who got second drew a way better picture than I did, so I knew it wasn't because of my skills... But the message cuts deep because it rings true. Countless men and women over a span of over 400 years have sacrificed their lives for their country so we can enjoy the life we have now. My heart aches when kids aren't respectful during the national anthem or when people can't quit talking to give 2 minutes of respect to their country's flag.

I know things are bleak now, and frankly, many of us want to move to Canada, but we owe it to those who have painted this country red and given up all they had for the greater good. We owe it to them to celebrate and keep them in our memories.
I hope you enjoy this free printable to remind you of the wonderful country we live in.

I'm the type of person where if it's last minute and I don't have other things I need to get at the store, I don't go to the store. I make do with what I got. This rings true with cards. I don't know why, but even as someone who makes cards, I forget to get one along with the gift!
So here I've made it easy: Two Mother's Day cards you can print from the convenience of you're own home! Now you have no excuse not to have a card ready for Ma and you can stay home, bra-less in your comfy pants too!

Unless you've ran out of printing ink, then in that case, I can't help you there...
Both cards can be used for any type of Mother figure you may have, but the second design rings true to the woman who wasn't your real mom, but sure as heck could be!
Cards are 5"x7"

"What I am you helped me to be" printable download.
"I know you're not really my mom" printable download.

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Don't forget I have Mother's Day prints ON SALE for $7.60 shipped! A card and gift all in one! Check out this post for the variety of prints.

 ^^ My toddler's newest obsession: climbing on the table...
My favorite pages would be the both of the word search pages. I based them off of the cantina scenes  and used the different species as the words to find. Not many people know what they are, so maybe your 8 year old would appreciate knowing that Biths are the creatures playing the saxophones in the band and an Abyssin is a cyclops-like species!

Fun fact: My husband is a huge Star Wars fan, always was and always will be. He said he learned all of the characters and species names from a card game he had growing up. They've been engrained into his brain and I can never stump him!

Get the A New Hope Activity Pack here.

Get The Force Awakens Activity Pack here.

Want to celebrate even more? Check out my FREE Star Wars Party Printables! There are more games, fun food cards, photo booth props and more!

Also check out the Star Wars print I have in my shop! There is a print version and also a printable download if you want it in time for the holiday.

May the force be with you.

Tired of giving chocolate bunnies or are you preparing a basket for a guest or someone on a diet/food allergies?? Or are you strapped on time and can't make it to the store??

Give the gift of movies!

Everyone loves movies; you can never go wrong with giving the gift of TV!
Print off the free printables here. I've made a few different ones with 2-5 code lines so you can pick and choose how many to give to yo people!
These aren't just great for people with food allergies, but also teens who are too good for Easter baskets, neighbors, grandparents, teachers... any special person in your life who you want to give an awesome gift to!

It's finally Easter! I swear, one of the best perks of being a parent is celebrating each holiday with your kids. It's just so much more fun to buy candy and gifts for them! 

This Easter egg decor printable was inspired after reading an Easter book to my daughter about a giant, decorative Easter egg. I won't go into detail about what the book was about, but instead of a colorful giant egg, I thought a classy black and white one would be really fun. It's not as detailed as I was picturing, but I still love it.

Print it out to add to your Easter decorations too! Free printable can be found here.

I feel like with kid's allergies on the rise and parent's worried about too much candy, non-food valentine's are a way to go.

These little zoo animal valentine's are a cute alternative to the average candy hearts. I found these plastic animals at Target where there were also small tubs of sea animals and dinosaurs.
Print out my free printable here for the valentines, cut out, glue animals using hot glue or glue dots. Feel free to add some baker's twine before gluing.

I really like having unique parties. I don't like doing what everyone else is doing and even though florals and geometric shapes are super trendy right now, this color combination isn't which is how I feel it's different!

I was once told if you do something different, at least one thing needs to be familiar so people actually "get it." The example was if you're going to do a space movie and everything is all space-y with different planets and lots of new things, you need to keep the people human. Or the opposite route would be to have aliens on planet Earth - the aliens are different, but planet Earth is familiar. Makes sense, right?

Ok, off my teaching box.

So I love this color combination and how this baby girl birthday party isn't just PINK. Now without further ado, I bring you my baby's first birthday party.
I always need to have a date guests need to RSVP by. People seem to respond better when there's a deadline! ;) And it gives me the time I need to have a general idea of how much food to plan.
Time capsule. Read further for details.
This photo sums up my baby girl perfectly.
I made a time capsule and it was the best decision I have ever made. My husband saw that story, Letters from Heaven, which went viral about the girl who opened her time capsule when she turned 18 and she said it was the best birthday present ever, and he suggested we do it for our little girl too.

I wanted to create that same magical moment for my little one and asked the guests to bring a letter instead of gifts. Being the second girl, she already has everything she needs and the letters will be such a treasure when she's able to open them.
My floral letter "S" which turned out to look like the number "8" instead... (insert laughing/crying emoji here)

 Party favors!
I had an array of ages with the guests who came, so I decided to do different favors. I found some really fun ice cream lip glosses I got for the girls, toy rocket launchers for the boys, and just candy for the adults.
 Sweet baby. All professional photos were done by Xpressions Photography.

 Month by month photo banner, except with this one I decided to make a game out of it.
 I mixed the photos and the guests had to guess the correct order. Whoever got the most correct won!
I strung the pictures with twine and made the tissue paper flowers from a tutorial I found at Design Every Day.
For the flower banner I got my inspiration from A Practical Wedding, but instead of real flowers I used fake flowers and added knots of twine and crazy-fun pom-pom string.
It made for a great center piece and everyone seemed to enjoy the little game! It was a lot harder than they all thought it would be.
Guess Baby's Age free printable can be found here.

I also had her Baby Book and Baby Calendar (for milestones) laid out in case anyone wanted to look at them. If I was really on top of my game I would've made a little video of her with the videos of her first year. I'm going to try and make one for her time capsule.
I had the party at 3:00pm because that was after her nap so she'd be happy and rested. But because it wasn't at a meal time I just served snacks.

String cheese is her favorite food so I had to have that.
I made these little snack cups mostly for the kids, but everyone ended up enjoying them! They had Chex, peanuts, pretzel sticks and colored marshmallows.
 And then you can never go wrong with chips and guac.
 I made a cake for the guests to enjoy and...
 her own little smash cake because a one year old party isn't complete without a good cake smash!
Her time capsule box at the end of the party full of lots of lovely letters, party string, her hat and a dollar bill.

Here's the explanation for the dollar bill: another activity I love to do is this Korean tradition they do for their babies. I don't know what it's called, but you lay out 4 objects (paint brush = creativity, book = intelligence, string = long life, money = wealth) and whichever one the baby chooses will supposedly be what they become as an adult! And my baby chose the dollar bill. So it's just a fun little tradition and it will be fun to see if it comes true or not! (And it's also a great time filler because there's not a whole lot you can do for a one year old party!)

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If you're looking for a custom party package please email me and we can get started!
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