Seasonal Candy Jar - Happy Everything!

 Thank you Happy Everything!™ by Laura Johnson for sponsoring this post! 

You guys know we love our Happy Everything!™ pieces and last year I put my calendar to good use ALL year long. 

Well, that tradition is continuing and while it brings me a lot of joy to see everything all organized, the kids are much more excited about my newest piece. I got this glass jar with wooden lid just before Christmas and have had so much fun using it to hold candy and other seasonal goodies for each holiday and season so far.  

Growing up, my mom always had holiday candy out in a little dish and it's something that I always try to do for my kids to make each holiday a little extra special.  I'll never forget one day years ago I was volunteering at a Valentine's Day party at pre-school and we had conversation hearts to use at one of the centers. One kid looked at me and asked if it was candy. I couldn't believe he didn't know and while it was good that he asked before eating something that might or might not be something to eat I just laughed to myself that my kids would never have to ask that question. We are well versed on each holiday's candy in our house. 

This glass jar actually comes in two sizes and mine is the mini size. Don't let the name fool you though because it is actually quite large and holds a ton! I love the Happy Everything! inscription on the top and the gold knob is a great detail. It's been fun to switch out the attachments each season and make it festive all year round! 

Here are just a few of the ways that I have used it so far! 

Shop Happy Everything!™

Shop Happy Everything!™

Shop Happy Everything!™

Shop Happy Everything!™ Valentine's Day

I'm still brainstorming for St. Patrick's Day...may gold coins? Easter you better believe it will be filled with jelly beans! 

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Kids Holiday Cookie Exchange Party

The holidays can be such a busy time, but they are also super FUN! I think sometimes we all forget that in the chaos of it all.  Especially when it comes to the kids. The magic of it all never dies...just evolves a bit as they get older. One of my favorite events to host, that is fun no matter what the ages of the kids are, is a cookie exchange. Because who doesn't love a good cookie (or twenty?)? 

This is one of those events that seems like it could be a lot of work - but it's not. One year I made the mistake of spending days making cookies. After that I streamlined the process and realized it was much easier to let the kids make one cookie recipe and the rest of the cookies we purchase from the store. We then leave it to our guests to bring either. Some of our friends are major bakers, and others are more like me (and are not). 

This year we did our annual exchange a little early because we had a rare free weekend open that worked for most of our guests. The kids are already so excited about all things Christmas, so we decided doing it a little early couldn't hurt. 

I went with a fun holiday plaid theme, and found some of the cutest plaid party items at Oriental Trading. In fact, I was able to order almost everything I needed from Oriental Trading - including some adorable "Official Cookie Tester" tees for the kids. 

Oriental Trading always has the best holiday items. From home decor to classroom party needs they've been one of our go-to's for years. They've been running a ton of great sales lately too! Use our special code SQAUD19 to snag great deals all holiday season long. 

The party was a great success. There are some cookies the kids are still raving about, and some I might have hidden in the pantry in mommy's special place for further taste testing. 

Here's a peek at all the details before the sugar rush set in and the kids were banished to the backyard to play it all off. 

TIPS & TRICKS FOR HOSTING A KIDS HOLIDAY COOKIE EXCHANGE

• To keep it stress free, keep it simple! Have the kids bring their favorite cookie to exchange. If that's an Oreo, let it be an Oreo. No need to make extravagant cookies if that's not normally your thing. 

• Serve just a few drinks - no need to go over board! We served milk (because what goes better with cookies?) in these cute buffalo plaid coffee cups (because what goes better with kids than a cup with a top?). For the adults I might have served something a little stronger. ;) 
• Bring 1-2 cookies per guest. No need to go overboard because with the idea of an exchange kids will be having a lot of cookies. 
• No need to have a ton of leftovers! Have favor bags on hand for kids to take home their favorite cookies for later. 

• Have a well coordinated party with out breaking the bank. We love using Oriental Trading to set the tone for our parties. Through the holiday season you can use code SQAUD19 to access a ton of great deals on top of their already good prices. 

What is your favorite cookie to bring to a cookie exchange? 

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Holiday Open House Recap

It's official for us - the holidays are here! On Friday we rang in the start of the holiday season with our friends at Findlay Rowe. Each year they host a holiday open house and this year they asked us to help co-host a small part of it. 

We had tons of fun meeting everyone in person, chatting all things Thanksgiving/Christmas, and of course - our favorite part - shopping! 

We were asked to give two presentations. Our first was about holiday decor and entertaining. We designed a quick tablescape with items from the shop (totally swooning over all the holiday plaids this year!), and came up with a quick and easy dessert recipe to share with guests this holiday season. 

(Stay tuned! Recipe to be shared tomorrow!)

For our second presentation we focused on holiday style.

The holidays are always so crazy and rarely do we find ourselves at home having down time to even do the simplest things - like change our outfits for one event to the next. 

We shared some of our favorite key pieces to have on hand and some simple ways to take your outfit from daytime school party to evening holiday soirée.  

Findlay Rowe has so many great quality fashion pieces on hand it made our job super easy! (And our bank accounts super light...)

We also both wore holiday looks from the store to share with everyone for inspiration. Carrie Beth's won on every level.  Style plus comfort always wins. In this case both came in the form of Spanx leggings and Barefoot Dreams. 

We had a blast at the event, and are already thinking of more events to host in the future. We'd love your suggestions on how you would like to interact in person or what you would like to see. Share with us and we'll start working on that for 2020! 

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Kitchen Confessions: Patriotic Parfaits

It's no secret that we love holidays around here.  In fact, the 4th of July might just be one of our all-time favorites.  

It falls in the middle of summer, we get to dress our kids up in adorable red, white and blue attire, we're usually around some sort of water, and we get to hang out with our friends and family celebrating this amazing country we live in while watching fireworks.  What isn't to love about it!  

We try to come up with some sort of yummy dessert to serve each holiday and this year for the 4th of July we made Patriotic Parfaits!  They are so easy to put together and oh so yummy!  

Be sure to head on over to Savvy Sassy Moms to check out the recipe and details for this super cute treat.  

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Atlanta Attractions: Ice Skating at Avalon

Whew!  We are on the other side of Christmas and we hope everyone enjoyed the special time with their loved ones.  Jen and I both had a wonderful holiday and our kids are still home with us for a little over a week.  Our school break for the holidays is kind of weird this year and the kids didn't get out until right before Christmas.  We were counting down the days and couldn't wait for school to be done so we could squeeze in some fun stuff!  On their first day of break we went ice skating at Avalon.  This is something we had talked about doing the past few years, but just never made time to go.  When I mentioned it to the kids last week they were all for it and when I mentioned it to a friend she was all for meeting us there with her kids, too!  

Avalon, for those who aren't familiar, is an outdoor shopping area complete with tons of high-end stores, specialty shops, restaurants and a movie theater.  They offer an outdoor ice skating rink seasonally from mid-November to mid-January.  The hours for ice skating vary and the day we went they didn't open until 3 PM so we decided to meet for lunch first.  We had quite the crew of kids with us, but it made for a super fun day.  After lunch we walked around a bit and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of all the holiday shoppers.  I did not enjoy that hustle and bustle when I was searching for a parking spot earlier though (it took me close to 30 minutes to find a spot because it was so packed just a few days before Christmas).  As we were heading towards the ice rink we ran into a Facebook crew that was there promoting their virtual reality glasses company.  This guy was such a fun sport, talking to the kids and passing out thumbs up "like" magnets to the kids.  He told them they'd be the coolest in their classes with these.

We hopped in line for ice skating about 25 minutes before they opened and we were glad we did because the line quickly grew behind us.  There was an option to buy tickets online ahead of time, but they only sell a limited amount and they were sold out for our day when we checked.

The great thing about the rink not being open yet was that we were able to take in the pretty views and see it before a ton of people filled it up.

Promptly at 3 PM we paid and got our skates.  As we were helping all the kids put on their skates there was a lot of complaining and chaos and my friend and I looked at each other and second guessed our decision to bring 7 kids ice skating.  However, once we got everyone onto the ice they were all smiles and loved it!

There was a lot of clinging to the wall for some of them and I didn't realize what a workout it would be to try to help keep Boo-Boo from falling, but he loved it and we all had fun!

We skated for about an hour and as we were getting ready to leave they all really got the hang of it.  Of course then they didn't want to leave, but it was getting crowded and we wanted to get home before traffic got bad so I promised them we'd go back!  

The rink is open until January 22nd so there is still plenty of time for anyone that wants to squeeze in some winter ice skating fun!  

If anyone is planning to go, here are a few tips that I learned from our experience: 

• If you can get your tickets online ahead of time, that is definitely easier because you can just walk right up and get your skates instead of having to stand in line. 
• I was told the rink holds around 180 people so they cap it at that when selling tickets.  If you don't get on at the time you want, the wait is usually not more than 20 minutes. 
• There are benches for people who might be going with you, but that aren't skating. 
• There are shelves spaced around the rink for your shoes while you skate, but no lockers so plan accordingly for your bags/purses.  We found a nice lady who was sitting and watching her kids to put our purses with while we skated, but it made me little nervous just leaving them there. 
• I was hoping they would have the stabilizer things for the kids to hold onto as they are learning to skate, but they didn't, so they just had to hold onto the side instead. 
• The skates I wore were SUPER uncomfortable.  I don't know if it was the way mine were shaped or what, but I would definitely recommend bringing thicker socks to wear with the skates.  
• Be sure to check their website for holiday hours.  They offer extended times through January 7th and then return to regular hours.  

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