Bring on Summer!

So today was the last day of early learning for my boy. Really bittersweet... He has had a great year. I LOVED his teachers. He absolutely flourished in their classroom.

Yesterday was the end of the year party. We had a fun time with lots of water toys and pools, plus some bubbles and balls.

Yes, if you look closely there is dirt in his ear and on his neck. Like I said, they had a great time!

For the last day I wanted to give something to each of his classmates from him. I found a super cute free summer printable on Shindigs Parties to Go.

LOVE it!  I found this flip flop paper which is perfect for summer. So cute!  I had ordered some small kandy kones from The Superchick and filled them with colorful goldfish.

Ta da!  Super cute gift for the boy's classmates.

We are excited for summer around our house. There will be many days that look like this:

And, we can't wait!  What are YOU doing this summer?

Great Gator Party

This weekend was the Great Gator party I had been working on for quite a while. I had a fantastic time putting this one together because it was for my DAD!  He turned 60!

I love my dad (goes without saying really)! He is a hard-worker, type A personality, Gator/University of Florida fan-atic and a great provider. He's very smart and well-rounded, owns two businesses (along with my mom), works a full-time job, has a real estate license (just for kicks and giggles) and travels the state for all of these business ventures. It makes me tired just thinking about it all!

Anyway, when thinking about his party, we KNEW it had to be orange and blue/University of Florida Gator related. I worked with my talented friend Lauren McKinsey on this gator for the invitation, and he was PERFECT for my dad's party! I love him!

We had "Great Gator" Chocolate Cake, "Orange - Blue" Cupcake Bites, "Big Gator" cookies, "Big Orange" Cupcakes and "Blue"-Berry mini cheesecakes. No shortage of sugar!  Of course, we also had barbecue, but who wants barbecue when you can have sugar?

I found this gator crayon holder that I used for my rocked-out kandy kones from The Superchick. I added my own bowtie to him, to make him perfectly complete for the occasion. I loved how it turned out!

I loved how the cupcake tower turned out. I used a tray I found at Hobby Lobby and wrapped it in ribbon, made the two top levels out of cake rounds glued together and added ribbon and paper and used two blue planters in between the levels. of course I added another gator to the top level in among the "grass" cupcake holders! I used cupcake toppers from The Purple Pug which she should be selling soon in her store. They really are GREAT!  I love them, super sparkly and magnificent!

I also used these tulle pom-poms from TiTi's Tutu's. I think they are cute party decor and would work for most any party. Thank you Debra!

I looked everywhere for the perfect table cover and finally found fabric and sewed this tablecloth (thanks mom for the help!). I love how it turned out and can see it being used for future Gator events and tailgate parties!

It was a perfect evening and everyone had a great time, including the big Gator!

Additional Vendors:
Large Poms- Pom Flair
Flowers- http://www.theplantshoppe.com/
Chocolate Cake- Secret Garden Bakery
Gator Cookies- Dandy Delights

Thank you all!