Valentine's Day is Sweet!!!!

February 10, 2011

What a fun day we got to spend with Racz Photography at the "Candy Shoppe". This Valentine's mini session was a day full of love and laughter.

As You can imagine it was not easy coordinating 3 3 year olds and a 3 1/2 month to all look and smile at the camera.

What a Lucky guy to have 3 Valentines' to hang out with at the Candy Shoppe.

No Photo Shoot is complete without the perfect outfit and accessories.

How "Lovely" are these shirts from Finley and Oliver. We LOVE the detailed stitching and feminine ruffles.

These Pretty Little Wellies Twirly Skirts were just as fun as they were cute!

And to complete the outfits were Sweet Things YoYo hair pieces.

We dressed up these sweet treats with The TomKat Studio Valentine's Mod Printables. That made the perfect gift for our Valentine's.

Thank You all for A 'Sweet' Day filled of 'Sweet' Memories!

A day without laughter is a day wasted~Charlie Chaplin.

Smiles~

Amy & Bri

Gingerbread Playdate

December 1, 2010

Run, Run as fast as you can.....You can't catch me I am the Gingerbread Man. That was the theme of our December Play date. We decided that the perfect play date would be one that incorporated the traditional Gingerbread Man and House. As always we needed and wanted to add our Savvyness. Christine of Racz Photography generously offered her studio and talents to us for the day and let us literally run wild creating our holiday Play Date! Thank you Christine for your patience with us and helping us capture the day perfectly.

With our theme in mind Frog Prince Paperie helped design a Printable collection that was PERFECT! From there we were able to find all we needed, of course, in the Dollar Bins at Michaels, Joanne's and Target and from things we had around the house.

The Jars were a purchase we made at Ikea long before this Blog came to be (you can always use a good jar or two...or 10). Any jar can be dressed up with festive ribbon and a printable or embellishment and voila you have one Savvy addition to your styling and decor. The candy trees were a find at our local Big Lots.

We love to use Chalkboards as an addition to any play date, party or daily decor. In this case we used the one that hangs in Bri's kitchen as our recipe card to the traditional gingerbread man.

To complete our wall collage we had a custom designed Candy Cane canvas from Canvas by Kerry made and found a gingerbread cake pan at Joanne's. This look can be duplicated in your home by covering any framed art with wrapping paper and embellished with vinyl, scrapbook paper, or any other fun finds.

Each kiddo received a Custom Chef hat (found in the target dollar bin) that we added ribbon and a sweet gingerbread boy or girl. Their place setting included a Michaels $1 birdhouse, our Savvy "gingerbread house", an Icing bag with their initial and a place mat created from the Frog Prince Paperie Printable Collection placed on a 12x12 sheet of Wrapping Paper and then laminated. Each had a Frog Prince Paperie box filled with all the trimmings for their Gingerbread house.

We styled the table with Pom Poms strung on fishing line, and fancied the chairs with ribbon, a printable and pom poms.

Instead of creating our own Gingerbread house, cuz lets face it when it comes to Savvy baking we leave that to Kolby Kakes, we found this Adorable countdown one. We thought it would be perfect for our teachable moment of filling the empty gingerbread house with coordinating treats and or lessons of giving and gifts.

As always we like to provide a healthy snack. This month we kept it simple because we knew just how much candy was going to be involved in this Play Date, so peanut butter and jelly sandwiches it was wrapped of course with festive Frog Prince Paperie wrappers.

The kiddos enjoyed trimming their Gingerbread bird house. And looked adorable decked out in their Chef hats and Sweet Things Aprons that Nicole whipped right up for us!

And the finished products were Deliciously Cute!!!

Next we moved onto our recipe....This time we did things a little different. Our recipe was done with the help of Kolby Kakes. She made these adorable ginger boys and girls that the kids then dressed with their favorite candy accessories.

Yummy......is all we have to say!!!!

Every play date needs a Sweets Station....

And Bri's $3 garage sale cart is the perfect accessory to this play date.

Kolby Kakes created scrumptious Gingerbread Pops, cake balls and delicious gingham sugar cookies to add to the day.

We ended the play party with the story that whole day was based off of, The Gingerbread Man by Jim Aylesworth.

And those poor gingerbread boys and girls could not run away from our 5 curious and hungry kiddos! Don't you just want to eat them up in those adorable Sweet Things Aprons, tutu's and Hats. Pure JOY!!!!


We hope you enjoyed our Sweet Day.


Smiles~
Amy & Bri

A Whoot of Thanks

November 1, 2010

November is a time of Giving Thanks. We have so much to be thankful for this year and wanted this Play Date to be nothing more than a "Whoot of Thanks". We try and instill in our kids that each day is a day to give thanks. And "Welcome" hearts that are Thankful!

For the "Whoot of Thanks" Play Date theme, our inspirations came from a collaboration of fall, Thanksgiving, and Owls. We wanted to feature natural elements such as woods, moss and leaves to compliment this inspiration. In planning we knew we needed to create a unique outdoor play date that was whimsical yet natural. We started by contacting Anders Ruff Custom Designs to create the printable collection around our “Whoot of Thanks” theme. We then provided them our patterns and colors which included oranges, browns, reds, and greens.

All design elements for each play date are usually purchased or created in a “Savvy” way. When it comes to the dollar bins at Target or our local Dollar Store we try and see more than just the value of an item.The tree stumps that were made into toad stools were covered in plastic tablecloths which came from the Target dollar bins along with scrapbook paper that was laminated with a leaf for the kids to use as placemats.The table the kids sat at was also made with 3 hay barrels and a piece of plywood covered with a piece of burlap. With the left over burlap we made pennants to hang our “Whoot of Thanks” banner from.

We wanted to keep with the natural feeling and create owls made from pine cones that also served as décor for the table. This idea came to life with the help of a tutorial from Bristol Moms. We then added our own Savvy touches.

For each play date we like to incorporate a snack that is kid created with easy to make steps. In this case we turned to Amy Locurto of Living Locurto who came up with an “Owl Smore” recipe that made this possible.

The moss boxes were created from left over scrap 2X4’s and pieces of sheet moss purchased from the Dollar Tree. These were perfect for showcasing our “Whoot Corn” popcorn cones made from scrapbook paper, and as a platform for the “Cheese Pies” to be displayed on. Our centerpiece, our version of a "thankful tree", was also created with the natural elements of our own backyard. We simply placed a tree branch into a tree stump and dressed it with our Anders Ruff printables and colorful leaves.

We alway include a healthy snack that compliments the theme or season. For this play date we selected a full meal for the kids to enjoy. First, an adorable turkey made from fruit, cheese and vegetables. And second “Cheese Pies” made from biscuits and cheese baked on a stick. These choices made the meal kid friendly, nutritious and delicious.

We encourage and support reading. So every Play Date has a story that pertains to the Holiday or Theme. For our "Whoot of Thanks" we chose Twas the Night before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey. A fun read that made the kiddos laugh... A Lot!

We usually end the play date with something sweet for the kids to remember the day. Kolby Kakes edible creations baked the yummiest cupcakes, cake balls and owl cookie pops that coordinated with the colors and theme perfectly. She is a Baking genius.

The day was captured by the one and only Christine Racz of Racz Photography. She did an amazing job capturing all elements of the day. Including the Priceless faces of the kids.

We hope you enjoyed our Play Party......We give a "Whoot of Thanks" for YOU!!!

Smiles~

Amy & Bri