DIY// Easter Egg Garland

With Easter right around the corner I wanted to spruce up the kid's table set so I made this adorable Easter Egg garland using Paint Swatches and thought I HAD to share! This is very low in cost, simple to make and just absolutely adorable...you know me, I'm all about simple! This would be super cute for like a preschool Easter party, on your mantle or even in a nursery!

Materials:

Paint Swatches in colors of your choice

Wired string 

pencil or marker

whole punch (not pictures)

scissors

The paint swatches I just went and picked up a Home Depot .

(sorry Home Depot, you're probably low on paint  swatches)

The wired string I had leftover from another project but I got it at Micheal's and I don't think I spent more than like $4 on it. You could also use Baker's twine...I've seen it in the dollar section at Target. 

The first thing you are going to do is flip your first color swatch over and draw an egg shape on the back. (where the writing is) It took me a few tries but since the paper is pretty thick it doesn't show up on the front. I used one color swatch for each egg. 

Since, there is a little writing on both sides(right and left) of the color side of the paper you have to draw the egg in the middle to not get any writing in. Keep that in mind when you are picking up the color swatches.

Cut it out and it will look like this. 

 then trace it on the back of the other color swatches. 

Cut them all out and you will have a bunch of eggs

Next, you are going to punch a hole at the top of each paper egg and take the wired string and string it through the hole. Join both strings and twist the two pieces of string together, securing the egg so it can't move. 

Leave a little room and repeat with the other eggs. 

Hang and Enjoy!

Is {two} too young?

This is going to be a quick but deep post on my  two-year old starting preschool. what?! preschool?! As I had mentioned before we had been in search of the "right" place for him and somewhere where we would feel comfortable having him attend school a couple days a week, since I stay home with the kiddos. Well we found it a few weeks ago.

Little Gus did great when we toured. We were looking at the school for August, so we saw the three year old classroom. He went right in, started looking around, made himself at home and even made some new friends. He wasn't shy at all. He didn't cling onto my leg. He felt right at home. This put me at ease.

They teach the children about values, they incorporate the bible into the curriculum, and they small student-teacher ratios. The director was so impressed with him, as a first timer. By the end of the tour she asked us if we would even consider putting him in for the remainder of the school year because he was more than ready. We told her that we didn't think we were quite ready and really wanted him to start at the beginning of the school year.

After thinking more and more about it, we decided it would be good for him to get used to the idea of going to school in the two-year old class, which is less structured, for the two months that are left of the school year and then come August, he will already be familiar with the school and be ready to move up to the three-year old class.

This week has been all about getting him ready for school. I''ve been talking to him a lot about school but I'm not sure if completely understands what on earth I'm talking about. We still need to get his uniforms and his lunchbox (the half-day students stay until right after  lunch, so he will be having lunch with his classmates) I can't even picture the cuteness that's going to go on next week here, between the uniforms, his book bag and his lunchbox.

So...my baby is starting preschool next week.. just two days a week for a few hours. I am excited but nervous for him. Part of me wants to keep him home still because he is only 2. He is still a baby. I still wonder is two, too young? Is this really going to be as good for him as we think it will? As a mother, I always go back and forth on the decisions Gus and I make for our little ones. It's hard to be completely sure but I guess that's where you have to have faith and trust that God is putting this opportunity in your path for a reason. And if it wasn't God's will his admission into the school would not have been this easy.


At what age did your little one start preschool?

Five on Friday

Happy Friday!!! Another week has come and gone!! Here we are again with Five on Friday!! 

{one} Last weekend was Olivia's First Birthday Brunch! It was such a success and although I was a bit stressed throughout the process, I had such a fun time planning all the pink details! If you haven't checked out the post yet you can check it out here. I will warn you though there is an overload of pink and gold so be prepared :)!!

{two} My family was in town last weekend and we had such a fun time with them but goodbyes for us are always hard :( I'm usually the one that has a little bit of a meltdown when my mom leaves but this time little Gus did. He started crying when we dropped her off at the airport :( It broke my heart! He always gets so attached to my mom whenever she visits! 

{three} Yesterday, the hubs came home from work early, we had an early dinner and took the kiddos to the park for a little bit to get some energy out! It's always a special treat when he gets home early and we get to spend time with him :)

{four} For the Influenster Jolly Vox Box I was a badge finalist (woohooo) so I received a Rimmel London Scandaleyes Retro Glam Mascara yesterday, in the mail!! Excited to test it out! I love trying out new mascaras! Although my favorite is still Dior Diorshow! Thank You Influenster!

{five} I gave my about me page a little facelift! You should check it out! 

Happy Weekend!!!

That Friday Blog Hop

I am so excited to be co-hosting a blog hop with some lovely ladies this week! I met Rebecca through the Big and Little Blog Network and have had such a great time getting to know her for the past month or so! She has been such a great mentor to the blog and I. Thank you so much for having me this week, ladies!

Happy hopping everyone! Thanks for joining us again for That Friday Blog Hop which goes live every Thursday evening at 8pm EST. So join us each week & link up your blogs, social media outlets, or anything you'd love to share. 

   

That Friday Blog Hop: Join Us Every Thursday Evening

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Olivia's Fabulous First Birthday Brunch

I was a little MIA last week due to Olivia's birthday taking over my life haha! Well on top of planning a birthday party I had family coming in town and regular day to day life with two little ones so blogging had to temporarily be put on hold! 

Olivia's birthday party was such a success I am so pleased with how everything turned out. Between having my parents in town and Olivia's birthday we are so exhausted...still trying to recuperate from all of the festivities! 

We had originally planned to have just a small get together here at our home but from one day to the next it sort of spun out of control and before we knew it we had 30+ people coming so my sister-in-law so generously offered for us to host Olivia's Fabulous First Birthday Brunch at her house. She saved us with this because there is no way we would have fit in our apartment. I am so thankful for family! 

I had found this idea of decorating wine glasses with glitter on Pinterest so instead of wine glasses I used Champagne flutes! I went up to Ikea and bought some champagne flutes because you don't want to ruin some nice ones, which were very cost effective and glittered away! I think I paid like $4.79 for a box of six flutes. Perfect! 

While I was glittering away I thought it would be cute to put a strip of glitter on the bottom of some clear plastic cups for guests to drink out of as well. the modge podge and glitter I bought went a long way! I also used the small cups for the Strawberry glitter Parfaits and the fruit loops!

I rented hot pink tablecloths and I found this pretty white and gold striped wrapping paper at Target. If you're a target regular, I'm sure you've seen it! Anyways I used it as table runners over the hot pink table cloths and I used it to wrap some cardboard boxes to give some dimension and height to the main table. The straws I found at Michaels and Target!

The centerpieces I whipped up in two seconds...I bought the tissue decorating balls at Party city, opened them up and hot glued them to some glass vases my sister-in-law had and BAM...I got some quick and easy centerpieces!

I made some tassel garland out of tissue paper in gold light pink and hot pink and strung them around Olivia's high chair and on the pool fence right by the table outside!

Menu:

Ham and Egg Cups 

Crossants with Strawberry Jelly

Maple Bacon

Mini Arepas 

(Traditional Venezuelan Dish)

Strawberry Yogurt Parfaits

Red Fruit Loops

Cake Pops

Strawberries and Cream

Pink Frosted and Sprinkle Donuts

Mini-Powdered Donuts

Mimosas (for the adults)

Juice boxes (for the kids)

Ham and Egg Cups

The Link is above on where I found this recipe!I wish I could say it's one of my own because it's so simple and soooo yummy! These were a hit!

The cake pops were made by Sweets by Dee and they were excellent! If you are in the Miami Area and would like her info shoot me an email!

This was Olivia's fabulous cake! 

I tried to incorporate pink breakfast foods as much as I could...Obviously the main dishes I couldn't really make pink haha. 

I made this little "1" sign out of the same wrapping paper and some leftover scrap-booking paper I had from her baptism. 

Here we are! My little family of four!

Happy Birthday my sweet Olivia!!

These two are too much!

Gus and Olivia having some daddy daughter time!

The sweetest!

I hope you're having a wonderful week so far!

xoxo

Olivia is {ONE}

Today our sweet little girl turns ONE!!

I still can't believe I have a daughter! Her smile with her four little teeth just light up the room. We have seen her personality flourish since the day she was born. She isn't going to let anyone have their way with her when she gets older...that's for sure!

Yesterday, I caught her standing up using the little Gus'chalkboard and she was drawing on the chalkboard with a piece of chalk! What?! I'm not bragging or anything but I think this proves that girls may be a little more advanced than boys ;)!! It may also have to do with the fact that she's the second child and tries to copy everything her  big brother does!

Weight: 25 pounds

Favorite food: pretty much anything

How many teeth: 4

Favorite book: brown bear, brown bear what do you see?

Favorite things: 

crawling races up the staircase with my big brother,

read books, 

when my daddy comes home from work, 

my purple talking teddy, 

stacking blocks, throwing all the pillows off the couch

I can walk holding someone's hand but I'm still scared to venture out on my own!

And you can't have a first birthday without a milestone, right? Well, this morning while I was getting ready Miss Olivia discovered the toilet water and decided it would be fun to stick her hand in the toilet bowl and play!! yayyy for milestones!! I just about had a heart attack! I sanitized her hand and arm about 10 times! haha

I hope you have a fabulous weekend! 

We definatley will!! We will be celebrating the first year of life of our little princess!!

Five on Friday + {Lent, Preschool & Family}

Man, It's been quite a week! We've had a busy busy one over here but I am oh so glad it's Friday, once again! 

{one} On Monday we went and visited a preschool for little Gus. We loved it and he loved it! He went right into the classroom and sat down with the other children and by the time we were done he had already made a friend! This was a HUGE sign that he is ready for school! Since my in-laws both have busy work schedules , Gus' aunt who lives right down the street was so gracious enough to watch Olivia while we went and took the tour with the little guy and really just focus on him. We met with the director and she gave us such a detailed run down of the school and what their objectives are for the children. We were so pleased with the programs they offer.  They have a small teacher to student ratio and use a biblical based curriculum which I think were the major aspects that we loved!

{two} Wednesday was Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent...that means that we have just a short amount of time to prepare for Easter! I have such a cute Easter giveaway coming up on the blog, later this month but before that I wanted to share a blog post by Melissa over at Simply Sweet Melissa! On Wednesday, she had a wonderful post with an  explanation of Lent...what it is and how people celebrate it in relation to Easter! You can take a look at it here!

{three}We are Catholic and on Ash Wednesday we go to mass and receive ashes on our forehead, in the shape of a cross. We took a family selfie in the car after we recieved our ashes! (minus Olivia) You can tell we have a silly one in the back! He makes  us laugh so hard sometimes!

{four}Did you see my one-piece swimsuit post earlier this week? I put together a list of my five favorite one-piece swimsuits with links to the stores where I found them. You can take a look at it here!

{five} The little miss turns ONE next week! And due to the birthday festivities my family is flying in town!! EEKKK!!! I am  so excited to have them here! Since we live so far all of our visits with them are thoroughly planned out! It's also pretty hard to get everyone together. My parents live right outside of Atlanta, my sister lives and works in Mobile and my brother is in school in North Georgia and we are here in Miami! Craziness! The last time we were all together was Christmas. I miss them so much!