Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from my family to yours! 

black friday goodies

This year I did my black friday shopping on Thursday afternoon from the comfort of my bed. Online shopping is the absolute best. I didn't get pushed or pepper sprayed and I got to wear pajamas.  I was able to get the best deals on clothes for the littlest member of our family. I swear I blink and the baby grows out of another size. So this mini Old Navy shopping spree was much needed for the little one.
To make sure I got the best bang for my buck, I went thru Ebates to get some money back on my purchase(and at the time I got 8% back). Not only did I get cash back but I also got $20 in Old Navy super cash! Win and Win!
Enough of the chit chat right! Here are the goods...
                       

                     

Can you tell I am currently crushing on a certain color?

Can't for the little lady to wear some of her new goodies !

ten things

10 things I am thankful for in no particular order.
[ one ] The ten extra minutes of sleep I get in the morning after snoozing my alarm. Yep I am quite the rebel. [ two ] The Halloween candy I have hidden in my closest.  [ three ] Netflix for making it possible for me to binge watch Scandal! I am new to the Scandal series but am already addicted. [ four ] The hot lunches I occasionally order for my daughters lunch! I don't think they will ever truly understand how much easier they make my mornings. [ five ] The cashier at Ralph's that always offers to check me out in the express lane because he sees I have the girls with me.   [ six ] Our coffeemaker and wine opener neither have ever let me down. [ seven ] The money I randomly find when doing laundry. It's like winning the lottery. [ eight ] When the hubby says he'll cook dinner. It's the little things people! [ nine ] The clearance section at Target. If it weren't for that little section I probably would never buy myself clothes.  [ ten ] The rare moment when my daughter lets me eat her Chick Fil A waffle fries after I completely devour mine within seconds. It's shameful I know but I have yet to practice my self control.
All joking aside I am truly thankful for my little family! I have been truly blessed with the best husband/best friend and two little girls that constantly push me to be the best version of myself. 
Happy Thanksgiving!

image via 

thanksgiving class party

Today I had the pleasure of hosting the thanksgiving class party at my daughter's school. Which is one of my main duties as room parent. To say the party was a success would be a huge understatement. The  kids had a great time and it truly showed as each child had a smile from ear to ear. 

As room parent I was given a party fund of $90 which is $5 per child (which we pay in a general fee before school starts). I was able to get a great deal at our local KFC. Each child got a kid's meal which included two pieces of grilled chicken, side of macaroni and cheese, a biscuit, cookie and a Capri Sun.  

I couldn't resist making the kiddos these adorable turkey cupcakes that I pinned years ago!

I also made them these little turkey lunch sacks and thanksgiving coloring books.

The kids made their own place mats that helped decorate the tables and I just added my little turkey pumpkin centerpiece.

So thankful to be room parent to 18 of the best kiddos around!

room parent binder {free printable}

If you haven't already noticed, free printables are my jam! So it would only be appropriate if I shared my room parent binder printables with you all :)

Marvelous Monsters Room Parent Binder by prettyluckymama

Parent Contact List by prettyluckymama

Class Information by prettyluckymama

Student Information List by prettyluckymama

Yearly Calendar by prettyluckymama

Classroom Events (month by month) by prettyluckymama

Party Planning by prettyluckymama

Hope you enjoy these! 

school week { room parent }

I knew I wanted to be a room parent for Cailee's class way before she even started school(like since before she was even born). So you better believe I was counting down the days until it was time to sign up. I did everything that was required to be a room parent and turned in my paperwork a whole month before school started. What can I say I am quite persistent when I really want something. 
As much as I wanted this opportunity I knew there could be a possibility that I wouldn't be chosen and that was fine with me too. Regardless if I got the "job" or not I promised that I would help out as much as I could. 
So when I got the email saying I was selected to be room parent I was overjoyed. Yep I called my husband, mom and sister to inform them of the big news they knew I was anxiously awaiting. You would have thought I won the lottery or something. In all honesty these kind of things are such a big deal to me. 
The night I found out I was room parent I went straight to work on my special "room parent binder". After all I would be attending a meeting that same week and I wanted to be prepared. I couldn't help myself, when I get excited about something I go into a 110%. 
After all I have two little ones that are watching every move I make. I want them to grow up knowing that if they want something or commit to something they need to give it their all. 
I busted out all my tips and tricks from my secret board on Pinterest and came up with the cutest room parent binder ever (so says my daughter). 
Take a peek...
The Cover

The binder is divided into several different categories including:

- Parent Contact List

- Classroom Information

- Student Birthday Charts

-Yearly Calendar

- Classroom Events (Month by Month)

- Party Planning

So far my duties as room parent have included things like cutting out letters for their bulletin boards, reminding parents of current fundraisers and making name tag necklaces. 

But I cannot wait for all the fun events coming up during the year!

Some of my favorite go to websites for room parent ideas are:

 Busy Kids Happy Mom

Lasso The Moon

Dixie Delights

Thanks for tuning in to School Week !!

       

school week { bake crew }

One of the many things I was looking forward to when Cailee started school were all the volunteer opportunities. When we started our family I knew that I wanted to be as involved in their school life as I could. I am fortunate enough to be a stay at home and planned to take full advantage of that. So when it was a required that we volunteer a certain amount of hours at the school. I was eager to sign up! 

One of the things I signed up to do was "Bake Crew". I like baking but when it came down to it I would always ask my sister to bake for Cailee's parties. So signing up for bake crew was something I did to challenge myself. And boy was it just the challenge I needed. 

You see Cailee's school is nut free. Which means that as a member of bake crew I am to bake the items myself and ensure that they are completely "NUT FREE". Because no one in my family is allergic to nuts I seriously was stumped with this. So I took to the Internet to research the heck out of it. 

I am by no means an expert but feel as if I know enough to ensure that I keep the kiddos at my daughter's school safe. 

To be honest my only experience in baking was to whip out the Betty Crocker cake mix. So needless to say I really did get the challenge I was so desperately seeking. 

I have to thank Pinterest for being my go to place for baking recipes(what in the world would I do without Pinterest)!

Here is a list of my favorite go to baking websites...

Brown Eyed Baker  has the best ultimate chocolate cupcake 

Averie Cooks has a great lemon cupcake with lemon cream cheese frosting recipe

Cake Journal has a great tutorial on how to flood cookies with royal icing

The Nut-Free Mom Blog is a great resource for learning about what "nut free" really means

I made these cupcakes for my first assignment in Bake Crew for Back to School Night and they were a big hit!

1 event down 9 more to go !!!

school week { first day of school coloring books }

Two things.

I knew two things leading up to the first day of school.

One...I wanted to make some sort of goodies for the kids to celebrate their first day of school.

Two...Whatever it was needed to be something I could whip up quickly.

I was not completely familiar with the school's policies on treats at this point so I knew any type of food item was out of the question.

So the next best thing was to make a fun little coloring book!

I searched all over Pinterest for ideas and possibly even some free printables. After about an hour of searching and finding nothing I really liked I decided to make my own using Photoshop (its me and you to the very end Photoshop). 

It took me a good 20 minutes to design the coloring book pulling from different free web coloring page images. 

The final product was adorable and completely customized for the kiddos. 

The teacher's classroom theme is cute little monsters, so I definitely wanted to incorporate that in the coloring book. Each page added details like the teacher's name, the school name, what classroom they are in, and all the fun things they will learn and do. 

And if you were wondering they indeed were well received :) 

(insert happy momma dance here)

school week { first day of school }

I need to start off by saying that Cailee absolutely adores school and that first day jitters are way worse for parents. 

The weeks leading up to the first day of school were hard for me. I had moments of pure excitement and then heart wrenching fear. We knew Cailee starting school would be the best thing for her. She loves to learn and especially being around kids her own age. Then my momma brain would think of every worst case scenario and I would start to rethink the whole school thing. 

But August came sooner than I could imagine and next thing I knew I was laying out her uniform for her first day of school. Just like that in a blink of an eye, we were walking out the door heading to school.

Cailee was nothing short of excited while I was sitting in the passenger seat fighting back the tears. You seriously would have thought I was sending her off to college. But I had a game plan you see! I was not going to let myself cry until she was safely inside her school and we were back in the car heading home. HAHA! Ya as you can guess that did not happen. 

The kids were lined up waiting to walk into school and the second they did walk away the ugly cry started. I swear I tried to hold it together but the tears just flowed. As I watched my little one walk away with nothing but excitement and pure joy in her heart all I could do was cry.  Needless to say I was pretty damn embarrassed but another mother walked up to me with arms wide opened reassuring me that I was not the only one feeling that way. Her hug and words were exactly what I need that moment and I will always remember that kind gesture. 

Rest assured I had plenty to do with Charlotte as we waited to pick up sister. Thanks to laundry and reruns of the real housewives pick up time came around in a flash.

And what would you know, while I was at home worried about my kiddo...she was having the time of her life at school.

I couldn't be more excited for her in this new journey of hers.

And now as I write this three weeks into school I can confidently say we made the perfect decision for our child.  

school week

With school in full swing now, I dubbed this week as "school week" on this little blog of mine. This week I will share our first day of school story as well as what my new life as a school mom is like! So join me for school week :)
Now I'll leave you with one of my favorite "for the start of school" purchase! I bought the cutest door hanger for the house from Etsy! 

| image via Etsy |

Mine says "Schools Days" instead of "Back to School" !

P.S. Don't tell the hubby but I may be a little obsessed with door hangers now!

little mermaid inspired {free printables}

Before my little blog got a much needed face lift, one of my most popular posts included The Little Mermaid inspired movie night printables. After the blog revamp the post was long gone but little did I know those printables would still be sought after. That my friends is the power of Pinterest. Luckily I still had the files saved onto my laptop. Hooray !! So for the sake of keeping this post short and sweet! I present to you the Little Mermaid inspired printables. 

Little Mermaid Fold Over by prettyluckymama

The Little Mermaid Movie Night by prettyluckymama

The Little Mermaid Movie Night by prettyluckymama

The Little Mermaid Movie Night Menu by prettyluckymama

* I printed these out on regular computer paper but they can be printed on any type of paper!
** The bottom three printables are 4x6!

Enjoy!!

  xoxo Jocelyn

paperless post finding nemo invitations

This past weekend I had a few people ask me what invitations I used for my daughter's Finding Nemo Party. Sure enough I decided to write a post about it in case anyone else was wondering the same thing! Trust me it was hard finding invitations I liked for this tricky yet popular theme. So I am glad I can help other mommas!

I found the perfect online invitation at Paperless Post.  As luck would have it they actually had a nice selections of Finding Nemo invites that were just my style :)

This was my first time using Paperless Post so I was a little confused on how it worked exactly but I got the hang of things pretty quick! 

You can email everyone in your party the invitation and they RSVP right thru the email! Easy! I could keep track of all the RSVP in one location! 

What I did find a little difficult was the pricing of it all! When you sign up for Paperless Post you get a certain amount of free coins to use towards your invitations. Once you run out of free coins you must buy more coins. 

Luckily I didn't have a large guest count so I had just enough coins. 

You can also purchase a single invitation that will be mailed to you! I bought one to keep as a  keepsake for my little one!

This is the invite we used for the party!

And these are some other options that I think are equally as adorable! 

1st Invite | 2nd Invite | 3rd Invite | 4th Invite 

*All images are from Paperless Post*

xoxo Jocelyn

monday favorites {first day of school reads}

Our bedtime routine always consists of reading books to the girls. There is something so relaxing about finishing the day cuddled in bed reading the little ones favorite books. 

With Cailee starting school for the time first time ever I decided the best way to introduce this is of course with fun books. I rounded up my top four favorite "first day of school" books!!

top left | top right

bottom left | bottom right 

What are some of your favorite first day of school books?
*affiliate links used*

a birthday banner just for you {free printable}

If your read the post before this one, you know that I had a difficult time finding Nemo birthday products. So of course I took the make it myself route. Being that I was going to put this on my Etsy shop and then quickly realized that Etsy just isn't for me at this time. I have decided to share this banner as a free printable!  Enjoy!

NemoBanner-Nemo8 by prettyluckymama

NemoBanner HA 1 by prettyluckymama

NemoBanner PP 2 by prettyluckymama

NemoBanner YB 3 by prettyluckymama

NemoBanner IR 4 by prettyluckymama

NemoBanner TH 5 by prettyluckymama

NemoBanner DA 6 by prettyluckymama

NemoBanner Y 7 by prettyluckymama

See the Finding Nemo party and snag some more Nemo inspired printables by click here! xoxo Jocelyn

finding nemo party {free printables}

This weekend we had ourselves a Finding Nemo themed pool party for my almost 4 yr old. 

My daughter just recently saw the movie and it has been her absolute favorite these last few weeks. 

So obviously when party planning started all I kept hearing was pool party and nemo. 

I really thought this would be the easiest thing to pull off until I hit up my party decoration go to places (Target and Party City) to find absolutely nothing with Nemo on it. I did find Nemo products online but add in shipping and it was more than I wanted to spend on decorations I didn't really care for. 

After hours of scrolling thru Pinterest for ideas I decided to go the route many other woman before me had done. Make the decorations myself and hit up Etsy for anything else. 

Thanks to my photoshop and Etsy I was able to put together a fun little party that my kid absolutely loved and was kind to my wallet! Win and Win! 

I made this tissue fringe backdrop using the tutorial found here. The backdrop was so easy and cheap to make! Helpful tip: I bought 2 foam boards at the 99 cent store and taped them together to get the size I wanted!!  

Sister if you are reading this Thank you so much for making the cake and cupcakes!!

The favor bags were sweet and simple. I was determined to use whatever I already had on hand. The bags themselves were your plain old paper lunch bags. I just slapped on some Thank You stickers and voila instantly pretty! I made the coloring books on photoshop and the kids loved them!

Because I had such a hard time finding nemo goodies, I decided to lend a helping hand! If you find yourself throwing a nemo party use these free printables!!

Helpful tips: I printed the tags on regular computer and just cut them out (you can use card stock as well).

For the thank you tags I printed them on sticker paper and cut them out and stuck them on baggies!

Super easy and will add the Nemo details your kiddo will love!

Finding Nemo Tags

Finding Nemo Thank You Tags

Party Details

• "Happy Birthday Cailee" nemo banner - I made on photoshop and will be sharing it as a free printable here!
• Tissue Paper for backdrop was purchased at Party City
• Nemo cupcake toppers from Etsy
• Number 4 candle from Party City 
• Nemo and number 4 cookies from Auntie Apple

xoxo

Jocelyn