Holidays

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

Holiday Shopping 2020

November 14, 2020 ·

Black Friday seems to have started earlier than ever this year, so it’s the perfect opportunity to knock out your holiday shopping earlier as well. I am personally looking forward to getting all my shopping and wrapping done early, so that I can relax and truly enjoy the holiday season.

Below are links to a few things that are on my family’s holiday lists, and I’ve also included a few favorites we’ve received in the past. I’ve always found inspiration and ideas from other bloggers’ gift guides, so I figured I would share my own! Happy Holidays!

Gifts for Her

Gifts for Him

Gifts for Girls

Gifts for Boys

Happier Holidays

November 18, 2018 ·

We haven’t even made it to Thanksgiving yet, and I can already feel my stress level rising over all the things that need to get accomplished by 12/25. The holidays are supposed to be such a fun and special time, so I’m determined to not let that Grinch of a to-do list ruin Christmas for me this year. Here’s my suggested game plan:

1. Make a game plan. (Yes, step one of the game plan is to make a game plan. #sorrynotsorry). If you’re not a list maker and calendar keeper and you still feel like you are on top of your life, then more power to you, but I’d be drowning. Figure out what you need to do and when you’re going to do it. That month between Thanksgiving and Christmas seems like “plenty of time” until it’s Christmas Eve and you’re at Target for stocking stuffers instead of at home watching Christmas movies with your family.

2. Set a budget. The end of the year can bring a lot of financial stress to families because of the added expenses and activities (and those end of the year tax bills). Try to tackle this head-on by knowing exactly what it’s going to cost and sticking to that budget. Note: I almost always fail at this one, so do as I say and not as I do.

3. Start now. There is usually some downtime the week of Thanksgiving, so why not knock out your shopping list? My kids have already circled their choices in the toy catalog, so I just went ahead and purchased them. If you’re out and see something your brother might like, just buy it! Gift giving is one of my very favorite things in life, but overthinking every gift can take the joy out of it. Get those gifts and get them wrapped NOW.

4. Have some fun. If your kids are complaining that they don’t want to go ice skating but you’ve envisioned that it’s Christmas time and we just HAVE to go ice skating… that’s not going to end well. Speaking from experience, of course. There are endless activities to do around the holidays, and you likely won’t get to all of them this year. That’s okay! Schedule in a few family nights and collectively decide what everyone wants to do, and go do it. Get out of your (never going to be clean enough) house, and go have some fun!

5. Coffee + Wine. Really this a magical combination that’s well known to most moms and key to their existence. To that sweet genius of a human that decided to put a Starbucks in Target, thank you from the bottom of my heart! But for real, get some good coffee while you’re out running your errands or pour yourself a glass of wine and turn on some Christmas music while you wrap your presents. Seems like such a small thing, but I’m telling you, it can make the whole process a lot more enjoyable.

Happy Holidays! And cheers!

Halloween Prep!

October 11, 2018 ·

Halloween prep is underway at our house! Having little ones around is especially fun around the holidays, and Halloween is no exception. Although I have curated my collection of Halloween decorations over the years, I’ve done my best to round up some great options for you to check out this year. Happy Haunting!