DIY Dip-Dye Plastic Wine Glasses

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc., and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.  #VinoBlockParty #CollectiveBias The following content is intended for readers who are 21 or older. 

Summer is in full swing here in South Florida! One of my favorite parts of summer is the extra time I have to get together with my friends and neighbors. We recently moved into a new apartment complex and have slowly gotten to know a few neighbors here and there. We get together by the pool on the weekends and everyone brings a little something, whether it be drinks or food. It's a lot of fun, gets everyone out of the house and we socialize. Our next "block party" will be this weekend and I have decided to kick it up a notch with fun, dip-dyed wine glasses!! 

Check out our pool area. Can you blame us for wanting to be out there all day??

Back to getting ready for Saturday's block party. I went to my local party store and stocked up on some fun, summery decorations for the table I am taking out to the pool. I have picked up two bottles of white wine so I made sure to buy plastic wine glasses. Plastic wine glasses are perfect for the pool since there won't be a risk of glass shards if one breaks and they are super easy to personalize!!

First step is to assemble your glasses and gather your materials. 

For this project, I am using three colors of acrylic paint that I already had and three plates to hold my paint. I added a couple drops of water to each plate. You will also need a towel that can be painted or a tray covered in parchment paper to place the glasses on to dry. 

Now to dip-dye. Honestly, this is the easiest craft on the planet. Grab your glass by the top and dip it in the paint.

Slowly lift the glass and turn it around so the paint coats the bottom evenly. 

Let the excess paint drip off and then gently tap the stem on the edge of the plate a few times to remove any more excess paint.

Repeat with every other color you use. 

I used three different paint colors that represented summer fun!!

Once the excess paint has dripped off, place your cup top side down to dry for about an hour.

Meanwhile, set up your table with your summery decorations and don't forget your chilled wine!

I purchased two bottles of Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi wine, one Sauvignon Blanc and one Pinot Grigio. Woodbridge is made for sharing. Woodbridge has been around for 30 years and is a brand you can trust! Chilled white wine on a lazy pool day sounds amazing to me!

You can make these dip-dye plastic wine glasses for any occasion or holiday and they can be further personalized with markers or wine charms. 

Be sure to check out the Simple Entertaining Social Hub and follow Woodbridge on social: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest!

Banana Split Ice Cream Cake

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc., and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SoHoppinGood #TopYourSummer #CollectiveBias

School is almost out, 10 days to be exact here in Miami, and that means it's time to plan our end of school celebration. This year, my friend will be hosting a pool party and I will be bringing dessert. I knew I had to come up with a super fun dessert option for the kids and there is no dessert more fun than ice cream! Ice cream cake to be exact!!!

I decided to do a quick test run beforehand to make sure I created ice cream cakes the kids would love. First step was to make a stop at my local Walmart Neighborhood Market and stock-up on the new Blue Bunny® ice cream flavors. I picked Blue Bunny® Homemade Vanilla, Blue Bunny® Pistachio Almond, Blue Bunny® Butter Pecan and Blue Bunny® Banana Split!

I also picked up a couple more essentials for my cakes: whipped cream, Smucker's Sundae Syrup caramel flavored syrup, butter pound cakes and maraschino cherries! I am super overwhelmed with end of the year activities at school so I took a couple shortcuts with my cakes. I like easy recipes and there is no easier recipe than my Banana Split Ice Cream Cake!

Banana Split Ice Cream Cake

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 Blue Bunny® Homemade Vanilla ice cream

1 Blue Bunny® Banana Split ice cream

1 butter loaf pound cake

Whipped cream

3 maraschino cherries with stem

Smucker's Sundae Syrup caramel flavored syrup for serving

1 foil loaf pan

1 gallon size resealable bag

First, slice your pound cake, lengthwise, into 4 slices. 

Place one slice of cake at the bottom of your foil pan. 

Next, place three scoops of Blue Bunny® Homemade Vanilla ice cream over the loaf slice. Spread evenly with the back of a spoon.

Top the vanilla ice cream layer with a slice of pound cake.

Top second slice of pound cake with 3 scoops of Blue Bunny® Banana Split ice cream. Again, spread ice cream evenly with the back of a spoon.

Repeat the layering steps again with the vanilla ice cream and then top the cake with the last cake slice. 

Place a plastic top on your loaf pan and place the cake in a resealable bag. Put in freezer for 2 hours to set. Putting ice cream cakes in a resealable bag helps them maintain their freshness. In a resealable bag, the cake will keep up to one week.

When ready to serve, remove the cake from the freezer and run a warm knife around the edges to loosen the cake. Then, turn onto a plate. 

Top your cake with whipped cream. I only add whipped cream to the top but you could frost the cake with whipped cream as well!

All amazing banana splits need to be topped with cherries so make sure your cake has some yummy cherries on top! Slice and serve with caramel syrup!

My family loved this cake. It was banana split heaven in a slice. This is a great make-ahead cake and I plan on making about 5 of them for pour end of the year pool party!!!

Right click image to print recipe card

Blue Bunny® ice creams are available at your local Walmart and Walmart Neighborhood Markets in the ice cream section!!

So Much Fun and So Much Laundry

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by OxiClean™ through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about OxiClean™ Laundry, all opinions are my own

Yay for summer!!! My kids have been having a great time at day camp but I really wanted to spend some extra time with them so I took a week off of work to be with them. Of course, the last thing we did was stay home and relax. We were busy, busy, busy! We had friends over, went bowling, went to the movies and even took a trip to Disney World! Now while this all sounds super fun, I only had one problem with it all, by Sunday night, there was so much laundry to do! Some of the clothes weren’t too bad, but some of them had major stains. Why? Well I have very active, messy, creative kids who decided to do new things during my vacation like buy hair chalk and have colored hair:

Yes the hair color was fun but 3 days worth of chalk-stained clothes were not! Or how about soccer games in the summer? Not only was it super hot, it would rain and then there were mud and grass stains everywhere!

Let's not forget vacation clothing. EVERYTHING gets dirty and sweaty on vacation. We came back with lots of fun memories and two laundry bags packed to the top with dirty clothes!

Getting stains out of clothes isn't easy and honestly, I do not have time to hand wash clothes so I'm glad I found OxiClean™ Laundry detergent. Yes, you read that correctly, OxiClean™ now has a laundry detergent (I may or may not have jumped for joy when I found out!)  This detergent is powered by OxiClean™ stain-fighters.  This formula penetrates fabrics deep within to remove tough stains. I just threw all my clothes in the machine, add OxiClean™ Laundry detergent and walked away! My clothes came out clean, bright and with a yummy fresh scent! Food stains and dingy clothes are a thing of the past for our family!

Please follow manufacturer directions for your garments. For best results, pretreat stains with laundry detergent, wait 5-10 minutes and then wash.

I wish I could have taken two weeks off of work, maybe next summer!! Tell me, what fun stuff have you done this summer?

DIY Indoor S'mores Station

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc., and its advertised. All opinions are mine alone. #LetsMakeSmores #CollectiveBias #sponsored

 I think that the most amazing dessert for summer will always be a S'more. A S'more is such a simple dessert, only three ingredients required and they taste amazing! Now I know that S'mores are usually associated with camping, but I am not a camper. It's not for me and besides, did you know that you don't always need a campfire to make S'mores? I have come up with a way to make my s'mores indoors and enjoy a yummy weeknight dessert, an indoor S'mores station!

I like classic S'mores so I make sure to always have the essential ingredients on hand: Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars, Honey Maid Graham Cracker Squares (exclusively at Walmart) and Kraft's Jet-Puffed S'moreMallows!

You can totally DIY an Indoor S'mores Station. Here's what you need:

• Plastic container such as a plastic plant box
• Sternos or canned heat
• lighter or long-stemmed matches
• rocks
• skewers
• S'mores ingredients

Fill your container with rocks and place the sternos inside.

Set out your S'mores ingredients.

Light your sternos. Push a skewer through the middle of a marshmallow and hold skewer a few inches from the flame.

Roast your marshmallow to your desired crispiness. 

Assemble your S'more. First, put down a graham cracker, top with 3 pieces of Hershey's chocolate and then the roasted marshmallow. Then place another graham cracker on top and Enjoy!!

In less than 10 minutes, you can set up your station, roast your marshmallows and eat your S'more. It doesn't get any easier than that. Sometimes, this is even date night for me and JC. It's so easy and fun!

I purchased everything for my S'mores station at Walmart, even the super cute red gingham tablecloth!! Make sure to look for this display this summer! One-stop shopping!

With an indoor S'Mores station, any night can be a S'mores night! How do you make S'mores indoors? Ever had a S'mores date night? I'd love to hear your favorite way to eat S'mores!!

Printable Inside Out Bingo Game

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective bias, Inc., and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #InsideOutEmotions #CollectiveBias

Have you seen Inside Out? We saw it on Father's Day and my kids are obsessed. I'm glad there is finally a movie that talks about emotions in a way children understand. My kids are in the "tween" stage and it's not easy. They are all over the place when it comes to their emotions, especially Amberly. Well ever since we saw the movie, she is all about talking to us about how she feels, which I am completely OK with. I would rather talk about emotions all day than have a child who is confused and feels like she has no one to talk to. I started thinking about how else we could incorporate talking about our emotions as a family and then it dawned on me, a game. We love playing games together. We have family game night once a week and believe me, we go through a range of emotions from joy that we are playing a game to anger because someone cheated to sadness because not everyone can win every game. Since the movie just came out, I haven't found any board games at the stores, so I created my own: Inside Out Bingo!!

Who doesn't love Bingo? It's a fun game for all ages, especially for tweens! I tried to incorporate as many aspects of the movie as I could from the characters to the train of thought to ice skating, it's all there!! It's easy to print out too. Download the game cards, tokens and call-outs below. Cut out the tokens and call-outs and you are ready to play!!

The cards are sized 5 x 7inches. Print them out on cardstock or photo paper, whichever you have handy!!

              

           

                        

  

                    

         


My kids have loved playing this Bingo game. We have played often and just as I expected, there was a range of emotions displayed throughout the game. The kids even play with their favorite Inside Out plush toys. As we play, I ask them which emotion they are feeling and they grab the respective toy if they are feeling angry, sad, joy, etc. I then take the opportunity to ask Why? and they actually answer me. They feel better once they can put into words exactly how they feel and family game night has gone by a lot smoother!

Aren't those plush toys cute? They are available exclusively at Walmart in the toy aisles!

What interesting things have you come up with to get your kids to talk to you about their emotions? Games? Crafts? Please share!!