Beach Sunset + A Hike Packing Idea List

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #WhatInconvenience #CollectiveBias

We were able to spend the weekend with our family in California!  We knew that we would want to spend time at the beach together so we thought it would be fun to make it into a little party!  We have been trying to be more active in our everyday life and thought it would be fun to get our family included in on that too!  We wanted our family to be able to enjoy a fun hike, and time at the beach so we brought supplies to make a little grab and go display with goodies for everyone to put in their backpack for the hike!

We brought most of the goodies with us from home, found decorations from around the house and got the fresh food and Advil at Walmart.  We found by having a few basics like some fun buckets and trays you can bring the party with you wherever you go!  I wished I had brought some burlap with us to wrap around the buckets, but I guess when you are traveling, sometimes the simplicity is better!

When we go out on our adventures we make sure to pack with us Advil to throw in our bags.  We have found we really love the EZ open caps!  I actually already have a bit arthritis in my wrists and Jake has weak knees, and found these lids make it much easier to get into! (so make sure to have them hidden from little kiddos!)  I find them super helpful on a hike or when out and about so if you need a little relief, you can quickly grab what you need so you don't have to slow down!  We know sometimes its not always feasible to take medicine or something for pain, but we like having a product around we can count on for relief when its needed.  I really like that Advil has been around for years and a product I have grown up with, and now have it in our home.

Today is World Arthritis Day.   We are excited to be able celebrate with Advil because Arthritis affects 53 million Americans.
* *Advil is for minor arthritis pain among OTC pain relievers.**Based on a survey of monthly doctor recommendations, they were able to find that nothing's proven stronger on Arthritis and other joint pain than Advil.* The medicine in Advil is the one doctors recommend most for joint pain.**

If you need some fun ideas to pack on your next hike or adventure here are a few ideas below! On this list are ideas for diffrent types of weather and occasions so pack as needed!  Since we were going to the beach for the afternoon we brought towels, so change up as needed!

Since today is a day to celebrate, get out side, go enjoy the outdoors and take along with you some Advil to keep on hand incase you need it!  Let us know in the comments below what are some of your favorite activities to do outside are! Here are a few pictures from our walk and stay at the beach!  We were in heaven with being able to be there at sunset time!  The colors kept changing from orange, to pink, to diffrent shades and it was beautiful to see!

Thank you for stopping by today! Hope you have a great rest of the week :)

Here is a little vlog from our adventures prepping, hiking and the sunset!

Halloween BOO Party!

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, MARS. All opinions are mine alone. #BOOItForward #CollectiveBias

With Halloween being our favorite holiday, we decided it would be fun to have a little Halloween get together before the holidays started getting to busy!  We wanted to have party favors for our guests, but thought it would be fun to do something that our guests could give to their neighbors and share the Halloween spirt.  We have heard about BOO Kits before, and thought that would to give a try!

I set up a BOO station for guests to add fun goodies to a basket.  I wanted to make sure there was not only tasty treats but also items that were not edible.  We found some super fun Halloween cards and stickers from American Greetings® that went perfect in the baskets!  They were great because they also added some height to the baskets and created a great backdrop to add the rest of the items.   It ended up being a hit with our family and they really enjoyed putting together the baskets!

We have found when we throw parties it's helpful to have everything ready and set up for a party a day in advance, so then the day of the party you can pick up catered food, or do any last minute details.  I have also found by setting up for a party earlier, if I am missing anything, I can still have time to run to the store.

If you want to make your own BOO Basket to share with someone, here is everything you need to make one.  You can add more or less to your BOO Kit, but this is everything we had in ours.  We got all the supplies for this BOO'ing Kit from Walmart!  They are a great one-stop shop to grab all the essentials to assemble a BOO'ing bundle at home!

-Basket or bucket

-Tissue Paper.  This cute candy corn and pumpkin one is from American Greetings®

-Tasty Treats!  We got a MARS and WRIGLEY candy bag mix with M&M'S®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, Skittles®, Starburst®, Life Savers®

-Stickers and Halloween Cards

-Pencils

-Pumpkin Light

-Spider Rings

-Pumpkin Bubbles

-Fangs

-Sticky Eyeballs

-BOO Printable card.  You can print out your own at BOOItForward.com.

Directions:

Start by adding tissue paper to the inside of the basket.  Then add the cards, stickers and pencils to the back of the basket.  Use candy to fill up the bottom of the basket to desired height.  Then layer in your in pumpkin light since it is the biggest item and then start adding the smaller items scattered around.  Next add some treats in the areas that need a special touch.  If you want to make your BOO Kit super awesome though, add the new Ghostbusters® Blu-ray and DVD that is available on October 11th! The movie can also be preordered here and here.  After you're done with your BOO Kit, secretly deliver it to a co-worker, friend, or neighbor.

A party is not complete without a cute food spread!  Jake and I wanted to get crafty in the kitchen so we decided we would make some treats!  My favorite thing that we made were the SNICKERS® Bats, so I thought we would share how we made those with you all!  If you want to see them coming together in action, make sure to see our party vlog below!

WHAT YOU NEED:

-Black Melting Chocolate

-Candy Eyeballs

-Black Writing Gel

-A Bag of SNICKERS®

-Candy Bag or Plastic Sandwich Size Bag

-Scissors

-Plate or baking sheet

-Silplat or wax paper

DIRECTIONS:

-Start of by melting the chocolate.  Read the directions on the chocolate packaging for the best melting instructions. I have found it helpful to add a spoonful of Crisco to the chocolate so it makes the chocolate thinner.  Also make sure to not stir your chocolate with metal and only use plastic (not a plastic spoon that will melt but like a spatula).  The metal with mess with the constancy of the chocolate.  I like to use a chocolate melter that makes melting chocolate super simple!

-While your chocolate is melting, unwrap the SNICKERS®.  Lay the Silplat (or wax paper) on the cookie sheet and lay out the SNICKERS® so there is space in between them for wings and ears.

-Add eyes and a mouth/fangs to the SNICKERS® to create your bat face with Black Writing Gel.  Use your Black Writing Gel and also add a small dot on the back of the Eyes to make them stick to the bar.  Then add a mouth.  You may want to practice on some wax paper first.

-When the chocolate has finished melting, add it to a candy bag.  If you only have a small sandwich bag make sure the chocolate is cooled off a little bit before you put it in the bag so it doesn't melt any holes.

-Cut a small corner on the bag so there is an opening for the chocolate to come out.  Draw on your bat wings and ears.  Make sure to add chocolate directly onto the SNICKERS® edges so the bat wings and ears will stick after they cool off.

-Put your finished bats in the fridge to cool off.

-After the bats have been cooled, peel the off the Silplat.  Be careful to pull them off slowly so your bats do not break.  If you happen to have a wing snap, use any left over chocolate to reconnect the bat.

-Put your SNICKERS® Bats on a cute plate and add them to your Halloween spread!

Here are some pictures of our finished treat table!  We sure had so much fun having everyone over and making BOO Baskets!  I think our guests really enjoyed thinking about who they could surprise and drop off the basket they made!  We got all our supplies for the party at Walmart. 

Here is a Vlog from our adventures from setting up the Halloween Decor, making treats in the kitchen and putting together BOO Baskets!  Thanks for stopping today! Have a great week :)

Cactus Fiesta Party Food and Decor

Jake recently graduated with his MBA and it was time for a celebration!   I wanted to plan a surprise party for him since Jake loves surprises!  He really loves catcti so I knew it needed to be a cactus party!  The party was on Cinco De Mayo so I thought it should have a little fiesta vibe too!

When I was planning the party I knew I needed some super fun decor, so I headed to Zurchers to find some supplies!  I was so excited when I was at the store and found lots of great goodies! I got all the pom poms, garland, balloons, paper straws, napkins, cups, plates, chalk boards, sombreros, and photo booth supplies there!  You can shop for your own cactus party collection with everything here in one spot!

Our friend Emmy makes the most amazing cupcakes! Jakes favorite are the maple bacon, so I knew I had to see if she could make some for the party!  She made all the cupcakes, cactus sugar cookies and mini donuts for the celebration.  She did such an awesome job on them! I got the flower shaped sugar cookies and brownies at The Chocolate.

No party is complete with out some cute drinks! I always love getting glass bottles for parties because they also look darling!  Since the party was a fiesta cactus party I thought it would be fun to have some colorful drinks!

For the party, I wanted a fun activity for guests so we had a build your own terrarium table!  I got all the succulents, cactus dirt, and rocks at my favorite garden store, Sun River Gardens!  They were super awesome and ordered all the plants so I could have enough for the party and helped me find all the products I needed for the table.

I have an entire post coming up dedicated to how to "build your own terrarium!" so stayed tuned for that soon!  It will have more detailed pictures from the stations.  I ordered all the terrariums online at Amazon and got them all for about $1.50-$1.99 each.  I got two styles here and here.

Its not a fiesta without some chips and salsa!  I really loved how the balloon banners turned out!  I was worried that they wouldn't work how I envisioned them in my head and they were perfect!  They might of been the favorite part of the decor!

No party is complete these days without a photo spot!  I didn't know if guests would really use the photo wall but I wanted to make sure I had one!  I was so glad I added it because it was a hit!  I think almost every guest grabbed their photo here :)

Thanks for stopping by today!  If you have a party coming up, make sure to check out Zurchers!  They have an awesome online selection and ship all over!  You can check out everything I picked out for the party here.

If you want to see more of the party, the set up, close ups, invites, etc., here is a vlog from it all! Thanks for stopping by!

The Perfect Touch to Any Party!

It feels so odd to have a blog post with pictures with out Jake in them, but he couldn't be part of these because I was getting invites ready for a CACTUS SURPRISE PARTY for him!   I was so obsessed with how the invites turned out from Minted, I had to share them!  I have been wanting to Instagram them and Snapchat them but I had to keep my lips sealed so I didn't spoil the surprise!  The party was last night, so now I can shout on the roof tops about all my favorite party details :)

 Jake is graduating today with his MBA and I could not be more proud of him!  He has been working so hard and knew a celebration needed to be had with all our family and friends!  I had so much fun getting ready for the party!  Sometimes the party prep can be as much fun as the party itself!

Jake has been obsessed with cacti for the past few years so when I thought about a Graduation party theme, I knew cacti had to be involved!  I had gotten the general idea of the party vibe I was wanting to create like make your own terrarium, photo spot, cactus themed treats, etc. but I knew to seal the deal I had to find the perfect invites!  I have always loved getting invites in the mail, and sending out the perfect invites is even more fun!

I was googling cactus party invites and Minted Cactus Wedding Invite set came up.   Right when I saw them I knew these were the cards!  It worked out perfect being a wedding set because it had matching insert cards you could get as an option, and I wanted them!  With the party being a surprise I didn't want to worry guests if they could not be to the party on time, worry about parking or gifts, so I was glad I could do an extra card to go in the envelope with all the details about the party.

My favorite thing that Minted offers is free address addressing for guests on your envelopes!  It was super easy too!  I just uploaded our Christmas address file and went from there.  I loved that with the cards they had a matching address set. I could of chosen a diffrent option but I loved that I could get cute printed cacti and matching fonts that went with the invites.

I also went ahead and got a matching cactus envelope liner and custom cacti stamps! I am obsessed with everything matching, and I am so glad there are companies out there that work with my OCD for wanting everything perfect!  I really could not be happier with how the cards turned out!  Can't wait to share more party details with you all in the next few weeks!

P.S. Minted is currently having a Graduation Event until 5/9/16 for 15% off all Grad announcements and invites!  Use promo code GRAD2016 at check out for 15% off!

OUTFIT/CARD DETAILS:

Cactus Invites: Minted  |  Cactus Stamps: Minted |  Blouse: Kate Spade  | Live Cacti: Sun River Gardens