it's that time of the year....

Kate Spade sale time!

kindergarten and fifth grade

School has started!  We have one in preschool with a new teacher, one in 5th grade with the best 5th grade teacher anyone could ask for, and one that had his first day of kindergarten and did great (and also has the best kindergarten teacher ever!!!).

harker's island

Last weekend we spent 4 days in Harker's Island, NC.  What a sweet little place to spend our last weekend before the start of school/end of summer!

Harker's Island is a quaint little island right outside Beaufort, NC.  We rented a small bungalow that I found online at VRBO.com.  We got so lucky.  This place was a real gem!  Never ending views of the water, a boat dock for the boys to fish off of, a small, private, sandy beach to discover crabs on, and a grassy backyard with an old wooden row boat to play in.  Perfect!

A few photos form the weekend.  And I am trying out a new online photo album company to put together a collection of these photos.  I will let you know how it turns out!

right up my alley...

Chic Coastal Living

back to school!

It is that time of year again.... kids are sad and moms are happy! 

If you are still doing any back to school shopping, check out these cute little online treasures I found:

Land of Nod

Land of Nod

Land of Nod

Etsy

Etsy

Etsy

where can I put this in my house?!

found on pinterest.com

recycle a glass jar

Love this idea for ribbon or yarn storage!  Genius little idea!

For more uses for old jars go here.

A,B,C... back to school

Yesterday we celebrated the end of summer camp with a back-to-school pencil exchange party!  My middle little guy is starting kindergarten in just a few days and I decided this would be a nice way to kick off kindergarten with a few friends!

I have to say this party was a blast to plan.  There are so many creative ideas out there for back to school!

Dani at Daninotes was kind enough to (again) design a custom invite for me!!!  Thank you Dani!

I took black construction paper and chalk and made it look more like a "chalkboard" for placemats/name cards.  Super easy!

scissor erasers!!  orientaltrading.com

the kids decorated pencil cases with stickers and paint pens to hold their pencils from the exchange.

thought this was a creative idea... they are pink school erasers wrapped in wax paper to look like "candy!"

idea found on OneCharmingParty.com

We also decided that it would be nice to make a gift to take our teacher on the first day of school.  So, we put a bunch of highlighters in a treat bag, tied with ribbon, and added this super cute DIY tag found on OneCharmingParty.com

And what's a party without snacks?!  These cute little apple cupcake toppers are from   AppleBlossomBakery on Etsy.    Such a great Etsy shop for cupcake toppers!

We also enjoyed "Scrabble Junior" Cheese-It crackers (to make words of course!), grapes, and these cheese stick pencils!  Cheese sticks with ham as erasers, bugles and raisin pieces for the lead.  I saw these on Family Fun's site and really wanted to try them.  I have to admit, they are NOT as easy as they look!  I ended up only making a few.

Only ELEVEN more days until kindergarten!

eye candy

images via pinterest.com

girls gone wild at wrightsville!

Our annual girls weekend trip to Wrightsville Beach, NC!   What great fun and great friends!