Family

Up Your Easter Game with Hy-Vee

March 28, 2021 ·

You can’t have Easter without the sweets! Here are three fun and EASY ways to incorporate your favorite sweet treats from Hy-Vee into your Easter festivities this year.

Easter Sweets Charcuterie Board

Brooklyn’s eyes lit up when she saw this amazing Easter candy filled charcuterie board I made for her and a few neighbor friends to share. All you need do to make this festive board is remove the items from their packaging and scatter them into groups on your board. It only takes a few minutes to do, but really gives that “wow” factor! Here’s a list of everything I included on my board, all purchased from Hy-vee, of course.

Jelly Beans

Frosted Animal Cookies

Mini Reece’s Cups

Peeps

Bunny Grahams

Mini Eggs

Peanut Butter M&Ms

Hershey Kisses

White Chocolate Pretzels

Vanilla Wafers

Taffy

Peeps Floral Arrangement

Hy-Vee is one of my favorite places to buy flowers, and they have the prettiest pre-made boutiques for Easter this year. I also found some daffodils for just $1.67 a bunch! They are a great gift to bring to a family gathering or to simply level up your spring décor. To add a little Easter flair, I picked up a few packs of Peeps and created this super simple and colorful display.

All you need to do this yourself is: (1) two vases of differing diameter but same height and (2) several packages of the bunny-shaped Peeps (the number of bunnies depends on the size of your vase). You simply place the smaller vase inside the larger one, and drop the bunnies in from the top until each row is filled. That’s it! Again, this project just took me just a few minutes to complete.

Peeps S’mores Dessert

My kids and I love S’mores, so when I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I knew I had to replicate it for Easter this year. It’s super simple and is another one that only takes a few minutes. I used one package of semi-sweet chocolate chips, a few dollops of peanut butter, and then topped it with Peeps. I broiled it in the over for just a couple minutes to brown the top and then lowered the temp to 350 and baked it until the chocolate chips melted. (I let the oven cool off a little in between). I served this warm with graham crackers. Delish!

Be sure to shop your local Hy-Vee for Easter this year. In addition to Easter candy and flowers, they have pre-made meals, pies, basket fillers, egg dying kits and more! #sponsoredpost

Academy Sports + Outdoors: Everything You Need to Get Back to Sports!

August 6, 2019 ·

My kiddos are headed back to school next week, and although I am busy checking off their school supplies lists, I am also gearing up for all the fall sports and activities that come with the back-to-school season.

Listen up friends, Academy Sports + Outdoors is the place to shop for your back to school AND back to sports needs. This fall my daughter is doing dance, gymnastics and soccer, and my son is playing football and baseball. I’ve been busy signing them up for all these activities, and now it’s time to get some new gear!

First on our list: new shoes—tennis shoes for school and cleats for soccer, football and baseball. I don’t know how it happens, but it seems like all of a sudden nothing fits!

Here are a few of their favorites from the shoe aisles of Academy. I think Brooklyn tried on just about every pair!

Under Armour Kids’ Surge RN Prism AC Running Shoes

Nike Kids’ Flex Experience RN 8 Running Shoes

Nike Kids’ Bravata II Firm Ground Soccer Cleats

Under Armour Kids’ Assert 8 GS Running Shoes

Nike Kids’ Alpha Menace Shark Football Cleats

Nike Kids’ Vapor Ultrafly 2 Keystone Baseball Cleats

Academy also has a great selection of backpacks and lunch boxes. My son will now only wear “sporty clothes,” so this meant he also needed a Nike backpack and lunch box for school this year. I can’t lie, I really wanted a backpack for myself. They have so many stylish options (check out this cheetah print Nike backpack).

Nike Brasilia Mesh 9.0 Training Backpack

Nike Sportswear Hayward Futura 2.0 Backpack

Nike Brasilia Fuel Insulated Lunch Pack

Nike Sportswear Elemental 2.0 Backpack

JanSport Half Pint Fierce Frenchies Backpack

adidas Santiago Lunch Bag

We also shopped for baseball bats, since my son is ready to move up a size. I had a friend of mine tell me about the great selection of bats at Academy, and she was right! We haven’t purchased one yet, but I’ll be back with my husband to make a final decision before fall ball starts. Those bats are an investment! We also needed a new mouth guard for football, and my son used his own money to buy a new pair of football gloves.

My daughter snagged a new soccer ball, water bottle and found a gymnastics leotard she apparently could not live without. This girl and her shopping!! (I just don’t know where she gets it….) To be honest, I had no idea that Academy carried both dance and gymnastics gear. Serious one-stop shopping!

The kids had a blast checking out everything in the store. I could barely pull them out of there! I normally prefer NOT to bring them on shopping trips, but this one was fun for all of us!

#sponsored

Family Pictures: A Survival Guide

October 28, 2018 ·

I kind of live for family pictures each year. I spend way too much time and energy making absolutely sure they turn out perfect. And they usually do. I wanted to share a few tips I’ve picked up over the years:

1. Start in July.

Yep, you read that right. I usually book my photographer (the talented MEphotography) in July to make sure we get a good date. It can get pretty cold here by the end of the October, and nobody wants to be forcing a smile when you are actually freezing to death. For this reason, I like to schedule our family photos around the end of September.

2. Pick a theme.

Okay, this is not a child’s birthday party, so don’t go overboard with your theme. You do need to decide, though, where you are going to take these photos and what you are wearing. Everyone should coordinate without being too “matchy-matchy.” I have learned to first decide what my super-picky daughter will want to wear, and go from there. Last year she was very much into dressing up, so we went super formal. This year she’s into athletic wear, so we all wore Nike.

3. Spray tan two days before your photos.

If you have not had a good experience with spray tanning, I may be losing you here. However, I always like the way I look in photos with a little extra color. When I spray, I always get the very lightest color and build in an extra day before pictures for the color to lighten up even more. It’s barely noticeable, but looks great in the photos.

4. Make sure everyone is well rested + well fed.

If I’m being honest, there is a lot of complaining that goes on in my house on the day of pictures (from both my husband and kids). To minimize this as much as possible, make sure everyone gets to bed on time and is not hungry (read hangry). If you have little ones that nap, be mindful to schedule your photos for a time of day that’s going to work best with their schedule.

5. Skittles.

Like any self-respecting parent, I am not above a little bribery. I usually keep a few skittles on hand to reward my kids for participating in the photos. This was especially key when my kiddos were younger and would not stay still for two seconds–let alone smile! Once I got those skittles out, they immediately turned on the charm.

I hope these tips are helpful. Good luck! And cheeeeese!