POPSUGAR August Must Have Box and $10 OFF CODE

The August POPSUGAR Must Have Box is extra special this month as they celebrate their 5th anniversary!!! There are so many great goodies included this month...

The Cheers tray is perfect for entertaining and pairing with the Meri Meri glitter candles!

A $25 gift card to Shoptiques.com was an extra special bonus this month! Wait till you see all the fabulous items on their site. 

POPSUGAR Must Have will be hosting lots of giveaways in August for current subscribers and new members for sign up this month!  Visit POPSUGAR to learn more about the Must Have Box and receive $10 OFF your first box with code: PARTY (expires on 8/31)

All current subscribers have a chance to win each week some of the following prizes from Pehr Designs , First Aid Beauty, Kendra Scott, Tarte Cosmetics, and a grand prize from Cambridge Satchel Co 

Nerf Battle Zone Birthday Party

Calling all Nerf fans, it’s time for an epic birthday battle! Grab your Nerf gear and head to the Nerf zone battlefield for a major blast of fun! You will love the vibrant colors and bold patterns of this exclusive Nerf theme from Shindigz. This collection offers a huge selection of party supplies- from Nerf battle zone obstacle barriers, deflection covers, stacked barriers, personalized cups, plates, and photo backgrounds! Today I am sharing how we transformed our backyard into my son’s dream Nerf battle zone for his 11th birthday.

Let’s start with the dessert table. I layered the Nerf table background in front of the 7’ Nerf battle zone photo background to create the perfect backdrop for our 6’ dessert table. I then placed 3’ barrel obstacles as pillars on each side of the dessert table to add some extra height on either side. On the dessert table, I used white wood boxes stacked on top of each other (to replicate the feel of the barriers out on our Nerf zone battlefield) to display the cupcakes topped with personalized cupcake picks and Nerf themed sugar cookies.

We had lots of drinks on hand to help the kids refuel and cool down. Gatorade bottles decked out with personalized water bottle labels are always a huge hit!

Let’s jump right into the games and activities!  As kids arrived, they went through a “Nerf Inspection” to make sure their Nerf gear passed the requirements (no battery operated or large guns). Kids were divided into two teams and given black or green bandanas and safety glasses.

Target practice was first. Each team was timed to see how quickly they could knock down all the targets lined up on boxes.

The next game was called the “Nerf Ball Challenge”. Each team lined up across from each other with a beach ball placed directly in the middle between both teams. When we said go, each team had to shoot at the beach ball target. The first team to cross the beach ball over to the other team’s line wins!

Finally, the ultimate Nerf Zone Battle. This is what everyone was looking forward to the most. Set up for the Nerf battle was super easy. We placed the Nerf zone battle deflection covers, barrels, boxes of Nerf darts, and cardboard boxes throughout the yard and off they went. The battle was on! This might be one of the easiest parties we’ve ever thrown!

Party guests took home their team bandanas, safety glasses, and personalized favor boxes filled with personalized chocolate bars, mini water guns, and extra Nerf darts.

This Nerf party sure was a BLAST!!!

Hope this helps inspire some ideas for your ultimate Nerf party!

Pop Sugar Must Have Box: Summer Edition

Happy Birthday America! How can we be into July already? We have been busy filling our evenings with baseball games and ice cream stops. We even managed to squeeze in a fabulous holiday weekend in Cape Cod with family. It was our first ferry adventure to Nantucket, so dreamy!

My Pop Sugar Must Have Box was waiting for me when we got home. It was filled with amazing beachy surprises! I absolutely love this Aloha Collection beach bag- perfect for wet suits or use to keep dry items sand/water free.  

I'm beach ready with some snacks, new summer reading, and my Mermaid Sea Salt spray. 

Check out Pop Sugar Must Have Boxes here and get $5 OFF your first subscription box with promo code: SHOP5 

Summer Solstice Celebrations Sponsored by Wayfair

I have been compensated for this post as a member of the Wayfair Homemaker Program, 

all ideas and opinions are completely my own #sponsored 

Summer Solstice is one of my very favorite days of the entire year. Every June 21st, the sun sets at 8:35pm. We get to enjoy an astounding 16 hours and 38 minutes of sunlight. This is truly a day to get outside and celebrate. It means summer is in full swing and my kids are playing outside all day long until the lighting bugs are the only playmates left outside. 

There are so many different ways to celebrate the extra daylight... a quiet night on the porch with drinks, invite friends over for dinner, or throw a good old fashioned neighborhood block party. We've done all three, but the neighborhood gatherings are always something special. It doesn't take much to throw together a backyard block party- food, music, drinks, and lots of kids running around. Sometimes even a theme is born and games appear, and prizes! We turned an ordinary evening into a neighborhood carnival... you can find all the details here. 

I've put together a list of my favorite outdoor entertaining must haves from Wayfair... from popcorn makers, to cotton candy machines, and retro coolers. Each add something extra special to outdoor celebrations. 

Happy Summer Solstice celebrations everyone! 

Photo Credit: Allison Duda of A Joy Photography 

All-Star Sports Themed Birthday Party

If you have a sports fanatic in your house, they will love an All-Star Sports themed party. My youngest son plays sports all year round and had trouble narrowing his 9th birthday theme to just one sport, so we included all his favorite sports- football, basketball, hockey, and baseball. 

To make the food feel like it was from a concession stand, we served popcorn in individual basketball paper cups and added touches of grass throughout the party to look like sports turf. These water bottle labels reminded me of a referee vest, so we personalized them to say "Water Break". 

It's easy to make your own All-Star sports dessert table using these three key party products. First, the football scoreboard creates a great backdrop for your dessert table. My son loves his scoreboard so much that we plan to hang it in his room after the party! Second, the black and white striped table overlay looks great placed over a white table cloth. And third, the black and white tassel garland ties the whole look together.  

Red (penalty) and yellow (under review) napkins make great "penalty flag" decorations! 

The birthday boy had one special request, a donut cake!  We added extra fun touches by making a cake bunting and placing sports themed cake balls on top of the donuts. 

The kids' table was set with a hockey tablecloth, NHL table decorating kit, basketball plates, and mini foam fingers. After filling up on concession stand snacks, the kids headed outside for some sports themed activities.  They loved playing capture the flag, relay races, flag football, Wiffle ball (try kids verses adults!), and sports charades. 

After finishing games, the kids visited the favor station. The favor station was filled with lots of great prizes such as "official game balls",  removable eye black, and sports noise makers. 

Our sports themed favor bags were a total home run! Here's how to make them. Start with black striped party bags, add a fun personalized sports themed sticker that says "Hope You Had a Ball", and include fun favors inside such as stress balls, mini foam fingers, and sports themed chocolate bar!

Party Resources:

Donuts: Dainty Pastry
Sports Cake Balls: A & B Mix It Up
Sports Printables: Three Little Monkeys Studio
Sports Party Products: Shindigz

Summer Patio Living

It's that time of year again. We are cleaning the outdoor furniture and getting our patio set up for summer entertaining. We've been working hard to landscape around the edges of our patio and now need to focus on the patio decor itself.

Adding flowers and potted plants is the perfect way to freshen up any outdoor space. This Areca Palm Tree from Commercial Silk was the perfect low maintenance and low fuss addition. It added a tropical, relaxed vibe around our chaise lounges.

The palm tree came in a nice black pot, but I placed it in a larger geometric blue planter pot to really make the entire plant pop with color and fullness. I would love to get a few more palm trees to really fill in this area. The palm also has a nice weight to it and has not budged at all despite the gusty winds we get through here. Sadly, I cannot hang outdoor lights or Edison bulbs out here because of our crazy winds. All in all, I am extremely happy with my new little green friend. It brings a little piece of Maui living to our country patio.

A special thanks to Commercial Silk for sending me this product to review. As always, all opinions are 100% my own. 

Memorial Day Ideas Sponsored by Wayfair

I have been compensated for this post as a member of the Wayfair Homemaker Program, 

all ideas and opinions are completely my own #sponsored 

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kick off to summer. I can almost smell the burgers cooking on the grill and fresh corn on the cob. Our family Memorial Day traditions center around three main things- family cookouts, gardening, and Opening Day of (Little League) baseball!

We start the long weekend off by doing some gardening prep and yard work. Our garden gets tilled, the starter seeds get planted, and all our large planter pots are filled with flowers. This just freshens up the entire outside of the house! I dream about having a potting table like this someday!

Next, we are off to baseball!  Memorial Day is always Opening Day in our town for Little League. We pack our coolers with drinks and snacks and head to the baseball fields!  This family size cooler packs up our food perfectly, and folds down flat when not in use.

Finally after all the work is done in the garden and baseball fields, we head home to spend the evening relaxing and cooking out with family. Food always tastes better right off the grill. We grill burgers, hot dogs, and vegetables with lots of sides such as pasta salad, coleslaw, and raspberry pretzel salad (a family favorite).

Below I've shared my Wayfair Memorial Day Ideas Board full of my favorite items that help kick start our Memorial Day weekend festivities. Hope you enjoy and have a great Memorial Day Weekend!