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A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

“A lifestyle blog with a focus on my food adventures”

August 12, 2024 How to Make a Fairy Garden at Wilson Farm

This summer we signed up to make fairy gardens at Wilson Farms. For $35, you can spend an hour or so down in the greenhouse with your kids at this fun workshop. The kids painted their flowerpot “houses” and then added metal wire for their butterfly to attach on to the top.

They were able to add potting soil to their container and plant their “fairy flowers” ie. lemon honeysuckle. They decorated their gardens with brightly colored rocks, fairies or gnomes, hedgehogs or mushrooms and moss.

How fun did these turn out? Keep an eye on the Wilson Farm events page for more fun workshops throughout the year.

Wilson Farm

10 Pleasant Street, Lexington, MA

https://www.wilsonfarm.com/https://www.wilsonfarm.com/v2.0/events/events.html

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August 9, 2024 Summer Nights: Gifting with Polarbox

With summer in full swing, and summer birthdays or bbq’s every other weekend, I love the idea of bringing a retro cooler filled with fun beverages as a gift. I picked up this fun Polarbox cooler and filled it with all kinds of fun drinks for the summer.

You could do alcoholic or non alcoholic versions of this – we did hard lemonades, rose and some “beach juice”. You could also add some fun snacks for a full on the go experience.

What would you throw in a cooler for the day?

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August 8, 2024 Berry Good Picking at Autumn Hills Orchard

Summer time is my favorite. I love picking berries with my kids. Well, maybe the idea of picking berries with my kids. They usually get tired after picking three berries and I end up picking the rest of the tray while they run off into the field and I sweat off 800lbs in the 900 degree sun. Either way, one of our favorite places to pick berries is Autumn Hill Orchard. It is out in Groton, MA. They are not usually crowded, their berries are some of the best that we have tasted, and the people there are so friendly. They remember us from year to year, they are kind and super friendly. They have blueberries and raspberries, and new this year they have blackberries. They just started pick your own peaches and they have apricots and local honey for sale at their retail tent. In the fall they will have Concord grapes for sale. You will be able to pick your own apples in the fall and their views can’t be beat.

Autumn Hills Orchard

495 Chicopee Row, Groton, MA https://autumnhillsorchard.com/

And after picking, we always stop at Johnson’s Dairy Bar for a well deserved ice cream. My go to flavor is the peach raspberry.

Johnson’s Dairy Bar

164 Boston Road, Groton, MA https://www.johnsonsrestaurantanddairybar.com/

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August 7, 2024 Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner: Afternoon at the Barnstable Fair

Every year we head down to the Cape to spend the day at the Barnstable Fair. It’s a fun place to bring the whole family. They have rides and games, fried food, live music, animals and shows.

You can buy day passes or multi day passes. Kids under 5 get in free with paid adult tickets. Always a good idea to try and go on wristband days where you can do unlimited rides if you have kids. Best deal for ride tickets are $40 for 40 tickets, with most rides being 4 tickets. Games are $5-$10 to play.

They do have a section where the smaller kids can do rides – tea cups, spinning dragons, a carousel etc. My kids were big enough this year to do the rides that make me want to throw up just looking at them! Hahaha!

If you want to beat the crowds, go earlier in the day when the gates first open. Have you ever been to the Barnstable Fair? What’s your favorite fair food?

https://capecodfairgrounds.com/barnstable-county-fair/

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August 6, 2024 Gotta Catch ‘Em All: A Very Pokemon Birthday

We have been really getting into Pokemon lately. I have no idea how to play or what anything means, and I think my kids really just like the shiny cards 😉 We decided to go with a pokemon themed birthday – so I created this door decoration with a red foil fringe backdrop and taped on these pokeballs that I made on the criut.

I decorated the wall to make a photo backdrop with red, white and black paper plates and made some of them into pokeballs. Pikachu looks like he has seen better days…

For the birthday party I made these cupcakes – silver and gold foil cupcake wrappers with home made cupcakes, red sanding sugar sprinkles and topped with these pokeballs from Amazon.

As party favors for the kids, we made these pokeball shirts – the boys got red shirts with black pokeballs and the girls got red shirts with sparkle pokeballs. The pokeball on the outside was a gift tag made with my Cricut and the name tags were stickers also made and cut with the Cricut.

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August 5, 2024 Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Baseball Favors

We played spring baseball this year and Jimmy Fund summer baseball. We decided to up our team spirit by handing out these cute baseball favors. Red plastic baseballs hats (Amazon), eye black (Amazon), Big League Chew – my son thinks grape is the best flavor – I tell him he’s entitled to his opinion :), and sunflower seeds. What would you add?

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August 2, 2024 Puppy Themed Birthday

My daughter is obsessed with my brother’s dog, which is perfect, because this means we never have to get our own dog. We get to have it over for a few hours, love her, play with her, and then we get to give her back. We never have to walk her, or take her to the vet – all the good things, none of the tedious things.

So obviously she wanted a dog themed birthday cake. I like to do one “professional” cake for the kids and one “mom” cake for the kids, to show them that I at least I gave it the old college try. So the cake above is one that my friend made for my daughter, a pretty close replica of “Mei Mei” the labradoodle.

Here is the mom cake. Cute in its own way if I do say so myself. Made with different sized smarties, it was cute and colorful, and decorated in under 10 minutes.

Here it is from another angle. Do you make cakes for your child’s birthdays?

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August 1, 2024 Kindergarten Survival Kit

Have a child that is heading to Kindergarten this fall? Check out these cute gifts that are sure to keep the kids prepared for anything!

Backpacks: Dollar Tree. Supplies, Target and Staples: Crayola crayons, glue sticks (because, you can never have enough glue sticks), composition note book, Crayola markers inside the green pencil case and Crayola colored pencils in the dinosaur hard pencil case.

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July 31, 2024 Easy Summer Birthday Desserts

By the time those summer birthdays come around in our family, I am burnt out. My daughter loves chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, so I whipped up this fun little cake with rainbow frosting.

And just because you’re celebrating a birthday, doesn’t mean you have to bake. How cute is this stack of frosted (!!) whoopie pies from Concord Teacakes? Throw on a fun cake topper and you have an instant party!

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July 29, 2024 Looking for the Perfect Party Favors?

I am always on the lookout for ideas for party favors. At the end of the summer season at Target last year I picked these bubble makers up for just a couple of dollars each. I like the idea of one big party favor lately, instead of lots of little things, so this was perfect. I added on a personalized tag (made with my Cricut) to complete the look. How cute are these for our art themed birthday party?

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