Schooooooool's out for SUMMER!!

It's that time of the year again - time to clean out the lunch boxes and backpacks, and pack them away, time to turn the alarm clock off for the next 3 months, and time to reflect on how much the kids have grown and changed over the last 9 months!

A lot of those amazing changes can be credited to their wonderful teachers (don't forget to give yourself a little pat on the back - you're not too shabby either!).

I like to send in a little token of my appreciation for all that the teachers do, and luckily Pinterest is there to inspire my procrastinating butt :)

Seriously, are you on Pinterest yet? If not, do yourself a favor and sign up already!!!
There's a little board that I created called Gift Ideas - I know, such an imaginative and creative title...

Anywho... I knew that over the past year I had pinned a few teacher gift ideas, so I took a look through my pins for some ideas.

At first this crayon monogram jumped out at me - loving the bright colors, great for hanging in the classroom and it's just so darn cute!

photo credit: Chic & Cheap Nursery

But then a teacher friend of mine was tagged in this pic on facebook...

So back to the Gift Ideas board I went...

That's when I came across this, this, and this - I figured that I could marry these ideas together, throw in a gift card (sans the liquor...), a nice little thank you note and call it DONE!

1st & last stop - Target!

Honestly, does it get any better than Target? I think not.

The cute clear paint cans were bought  forever ago, I just knew they would come in handy for something ;)

Each boy picked out a fun summer beverage tumbler in the color of their choice - Pink for Mrs. Geiger and Blue for Mrs. McGraw.

Then I stumbled upon these fun single serve drink mixes - Blackberry Blueberry & Strawberry Dragonfruit were the winning flavors.

Eight single serve packets came in each box, so each teacher got four of each flavor inside her tumbler along with a surprise - a Target gift card (this seemed a little more PC to me than a gift card to the liquor store),

and how cute it that "Thank You" gift card? again, praise Target!

A giant bag, "party size" to be exact, of M&M's filled each paint can (there may, or may not have been a little bit leftover for this mom to snack on...)

The poem was found here, but I actually prefer the wording here, but at 11pm last night I just didn't think it was worth reprinting, although I am kicking myself now because it's not "perfect" - moving on...

Want to see the final product one more time???

No need to scroll back to the top, here it is!

p.s. - the adorable orange gift bag is also brought to you today by the letter T - Target rocks my socks!

p.s.s. - Jack came home yesterday with this sweet gift from his teacher, Mrs. Geiger. She is an extremely special teacher, and we had the great fortune to have her as Matthew's 1st grade teacher two years ago, and as Jack's 1st grade teacher this past year - fingers crossed that Sam will have her in a few years!

Here's what the note on the bag says:

Jackson,

In this bag you will find some things

That hold the key to what your future brings.

It is with great sadness that I watch you depart

Because you have a special place in my heart.

Love,

Mrs. Geiger

And the note inside reads:

A water balloon to remind you to make a splash wherever you go.

A piece of chalk to remind you to leave a good mark in the world.

A pencil to remind you there are still many things to learn.

A penny to remind you to use good sense.

An eraser to remind you it's all right to make mistakes.

Bubbles to remind you to always have fun!

Kisses to remind you that you are loved.

 I think I just got misty eyed all over again...

This week I am linking to:

{Sweet Sam}

Yesterday was Tuesday, which meant that Sam and I travelled up to my Nan's house for a little lunch, Mad Men (we're only on season 3, so no spoilers please!), Super Why for Sam, a cup of tea, and a knitting lesson.

Normally, it only takes about 30 minutes for us to make the trek up, but the universe had other plans...

photo courtesy of the Pocono Record

This monster decided to take a bit of a snooze in the middle of the highway this morning, causing quite the commotion (no worries - no one was hurt). Rumor has it, the flammable material that it was carrying was vanilla extract - mmmm...

Sam and I sat, and sat, and sat, and then we sat some more... It took over an hour and a half to move just a few miles, and my sweet little boy just sat there quiet as could be! Since he was born, Sam has always been a great travel companion - unlike his brother Jack. From the day Jack was born, he has been a pain in the neck to travel with, out of the 3 boys, he is the only one that consistently asks "are we there yet???"

But back to Sam, this little baby took the standstill traffic in stride, and the highlight of the trek was a little Boston terrier in the car in front of us - this boy LOVES a doggie!

tweetjolie on Instagram

{coffee}

this is what keeps me sane...

{and the pretty cup just makes me smile}

and can I just tell you that it totally made my day to find out that Instagram is now available for Android - now I will never be jealous of an iphone again!

"Well, paint my front door red..."



source: Pinterest

 "... and change my name to Elizabeth Arden!"

I've been thinking about changing the color of my front door for some time now, and that quote by Truvy from Steel Magnolias keeps popping into my head. This, of course, led to a google search for the exact quote, which then led to me pouring over page upon page of Steel Magnolias' quotes. My favorite being "...if you don't have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me!" by the perfectly southern Clairee Belcher. I have a ton more, but this is supposed to be about colors for my front door, not my undying love for all things Steel Magnolias - how about blush and bashful? too much? ok, I will stop now...



source: Wikipedia

 back to the door...

We have a pretty traditional looking house, a colonial with red brick, black shutters, black front door and white trim. Don't get me wrong, I love this look, but we will have been here for 10 years this July and I am ready for a change! Holy cow - did I just say 10 years??? Not to be cliche, but it really is amazing how time flies - this was supposed to be our 5 year house.
We built this house and moved in right after we celebrated our 1st anniversary, sans kids. Boy were we naive, we moved from this tiny little apartment that couldn't even fit a full-sized stove to this 3 bedroom house that seemed so big - I couldn't even imagine filling all of those kitchen cabinets - HA! such a silly girl...
Fast forward 10 years and the cabinets are bursting with STUFF!!! let's not even talk about the closets...



2003, 2010, 2009, 2005 - apparently we really like to take pictures of our house when it snows...

 Where was I going with this??? oh, right, the front door - what can I say, I love a tangent ;)

Not sure if this post by Young House Love lit the spark, but I must admit that I was not initially in love with their color choice. I've never been a big fan of yellow, especially in place of my beloved black. Now I know that yellow is very on trend right now, and I have to admit I am developing a fondness for it. Take a look for yourselves, there's something about this yellow door that keeps drawing me to it. Maybe it's the dark hardware they've paired with this sunny color, it seems to ground it.


source: Young House Love



Not only am I growing bored with the black door, but there is a bit of method to my madness. The front of our house gets full sun ALL.DAY.LONG. Think summer, 90 degree temps, and little boys getting burnt when they accidentally touch the door, instead of the handle. We have had quite a few tears shed throughout the years due to that black door.
We are also in need of a new door handle and lock, no worries, I won't get into that story... Right now it is shiny brass, which does pair well with the traditional vibe of our home, but this could be my opportunity to change things up a bit!

Red is another option, but I worry about the red door next to the red brick. Maybe the white trim surrounding the door would break it up enough?

Getting the husband on board with the color change may be more challenging than actually picking a color, but I've never let that stop me before!

stay tuned... I may make a decision sometime this year...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

feeling a little Irish guilt (is that a thing??) today as I scroll through facebook seeing everyone's leprechaun visits, green pancakes, tales of corned beef cooking, etc.
with the maiden name Meagher and the married name Mullen, to say we're a little Irish in this house would be like saying that there's only a few legos in our house...

many moons, and 3 kids ago, we used to go into NYC to celebrate St. Patrick's day with my dad & step-mother - with a name like {Patrick Meagher} my dad takes "his" holiday very seriously...

Cindy, {Patrick} aka dad, Megan, me & Chris waiting for the train into the city

how pathetic is this - I just realized that this pic is in a folder that says St. Patrick's Day 2002, but I think it might be 2001, getting old stinks...
anyway... we have some great memories from those Paddy's days of yore, and one day we will do it again!

for the past few years my dad & Cindy have become famous for their gigantic Irish blast, and for a non-Celt Cindy really makes a mean corned beef!
and because I am such a last minute rose, I just gave some thought to what I should bring to the party (surprised aren't you?).
I've been seeing lots of Chocolate Stout cupcakes with Irish cream frosting floating around Pinterest. I must admit, I am not a Guinness fan (sorry dad!), so the stout part does not appeal to me, and I'm a bit selfish when it comes to my baking - I don't usually waste my time baking anything that I don't personally want to eat.
since time is not on my side, and I'm a big fan of making everything easier, I decided to let Betty help - the one and only Betty Crocker. I'm a BIG fan of a box cake mix - I love to doctor them up a bit, but this time I just grabbed a box of Chocolate Fudge cake mix and baked them up.
here's where the Irish comes into play...
I checked out 3 different Irish Cream frosting recipes that I found on Pinterest - 2 called for cream cheese, and 1 was a buttercream. they all had the same basic ingredients, just differing amounts of each, so I decided to wing it - and you can too!

{Bailey's Irish Cream Cheese Frosting}

• I creamed together 1 stick of softened butter and an 8oz block of softened cream cheese
• next is the fun part - add some Bailey's Irish Cream - I put in somewhere between 4-6 TBS (totally up to you how strong you want them to be)
• now for the totally unmeasured part - I gradually added powdered sugar until my frosting was to the desired consistency (I like it stiff enough that I can use a decorator tip, but not so stiff that it's too sweet)

so without further ado here are my lazy man's {St. Patrick's Day} cupcakes!