Free Printable Unicorn Valentine Cards

Do you have a little one that loves unicorns? Well, then I have a special treat for you: FREE printable unicorn valentine cards! Amberly is obsessed with unicorns and already has her eye on these cards for her friends! Hey, it doesn't get any better than free and unicorns!

Printing these cards couldn't be any easier. All you do is right click the image below (8" x 10") and print on cardstock! Then you just cut them out! Told ya it was easy!

I think we are going to attach the cards to a little baggie of cookies or meringues and then hand them out to Amberly's friends. 

Party Supplies for the Perfect Kids Valentine’s Get Together

Valentine's Day is only a few weeks away. I love to celebrate every holiday with my kids. Are you throwing a party for your little ones and their friends?  These fun party supplies are perfect to help them celebrate their friendship this Valentine’s Day.

First up, invitations! These invitations are adorable and so festive!


Confetti Hearts Invitation

No party is complete without holiday-themed plates and these are perfect for any Valentine's celebration!



Dessert Plate - Love Crazy

I am madly in love with these balloons and want to keep them up all year round. I even love them as fancy wedding balloons!!



Gold Heart Party Balloons

These plantable confetti are genius. How fun would these be for an outdoor photo shoot and then you just plant them in the ground. No messiness to pick up!


Plantable Heart Shaped Confetti

I love black, white and gold for Valentine's Day and these stickers are so fancy!! Dress up your kids Valentine's party this year with these stickers!



Personalized Metallic Foil Heart Stickers

Honeycombs are so classic and heart-shaped honeycombs are the perfect mix of classic and fun party decor!!



Honeycomb Heart Decorations

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10 Easy DIY Father's Day Gift Ideas

Father's Day is about a month away and it's time to get crafting!!! The dads in our family love handmade gifts from the kids, along with a nice lunch on Father's Day. They would never expect any of us to spend a lot of money on their gifts (even though we sometimes do) and they love to see that the children put time and effort into their gifts. Need ideas for easy DIY gifts for Father's Day? Well you've come to the right place! I have compiled a list of my 10 favorite easy Father's Day crafts for my kids to choose from and I am sharing it with you!

Some dads receive a tie every year for Father's Day. Some dads even have a pretty cool collection of ties they would never really buy for themselves but this year, instead of tie, how about a DIY tie rack? I thought this was such a cool idea from Craftaholics Anonymous!

Next is a craft that even a baby could do. My kids have always loved finger painting and getting messy and here they get to make a gift out of it! Check it out here!

I love creating gift baskets for gift giving but always get stumped on a Father's Day one. Well, thanks to The Gunny Sack, I know have a great idea for a Father's Day gift in a jar!! JC would really love a World's Greatest Pop jar full of yummy pop and a retro push pop!

I love interview printables. We fill one out every year for JC. I love to see how different the kids answer the questions every year. This year, we are using these printables from Be a Fun Mum!

More gift basket amazingness......this time from Moms and Munchkins.  My dad works construction so this would be a super cool "toolbox" full of goodies for him!

Sometimes we just need a simple gift for those special dads in our lives. This "World's Greatest Pop" popcorn gifts are so great for all our movie-loving dads! I would pair this with a new fun DVD. Check it out here!

What dad doesn't love sweets? I know some special dads that would devour these incredible cupcakes. Check out some more amazing cupcakes here!

Dads are the anchors of our families and this "Dad, You're My Anchor" printable is perfect to just pop into a frame or use to create an adorable Father's Day card! Check out the printable here!

How fun is this Father's Day cake full of goodies for Dad? I love everything about this cake from the soda to the measuring tape to the candy. This cake is completely customizable to your dad and his favorite goodies! Check out this cake idea here!

Coupon books are always fun and get used more often than you'd think. Sometimes they get used in one day! LOL! I can just imagine JC pulling out the homemade cookies coupon, breakfast in bed and help out with yardwork simultaneously! Print out your coupon book here!

Hope these ideas help you make some incredible gifts for that special dad in your life. Dads are the best and deserve to have a great day!!

Tres Leches Cupcakes

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

It's March and Easter is only a couple weeks away. Easter or las Pascuas (like we call it in Spanish) is one of my favorite holidays to get together with family and friends. To us, it's a laid back afternoon, where everyone brings a dish or dessert, and we just sit back and chat while the kids play. This year, I am bringing a typical Hispanic dessert with a twist: Tres Leches Cupcakes!

Holidays are the perfect time to mix the old with the new. I got the idea for Tres Leches (three milks) cupcakes while I was shopping for Easter-themed goodies at Walmart. I love M&M's® and jellybeans and knew I wanted to use them on a dessert. I love to keep a theme so I picked up a bag of M&M's® in Easter colors and 2 bags of Starburst® Jellybeans, of course Easter-themed as well!

For Easter lunch, I usually make a flan and a tres leches cake. This year, it will be an entree (probably arroz con pollo!) and tres leches cupcakes. Making tres leches cake or cupcakes is not difficult but it does take time. Hint: I do use a short cut for the cake batter! Also, there are many varieties of tres leches, this is the Cuban way, it includes a little rum and a meringue topping!!!

Tres Leches Cupcakes

Makes 12

Total Time: 2 hours, including a 1 hour rest time

Ingredients:

Cupcake batter:

1 box of yellow cake mix

3 large eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla extract

Milk Mix:

7 oz  evaporated milk

6 oz  condensed milk

1/4 cup whole milk or coconut milk

2 tbsp light rum

Meringue:

3 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with a double layer of baking cups. 

Prepare cake mix according to package instructions. 

Fill each baking cup about 2/3 full of cake batter and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove cupcakes from oven and set aside to cool. 

Meanwhile, prepare the milk mix. In a medium sized bowl, add evaporated milk, condensed milk, whole milk or coconut milk and rum. Whisk together. 

After cupcakes have cooled about 15-20 minutes, pinch each cupcake a few times with a fork. 

Place cupcakes in a plastic container. Now, with a spoon pour a spoonful of milk mixture over each cupcake. The cupcakes will soak up the milk pretty quickly. Repeat two more times. Tres leches cupcakes are very moist cupcakes. Once you have repeated this two times, cover the cupcakes and place in refrigerator for at least one hour. 

Now it's time to prepare the meringue topping. This is my favorite part!!! Place 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a heavy saucepan with 1/4 cup water. Cover and cook over high heat for 2 minutes. Uncover pan and cook the sugar to the soft ball stage, 239oF on a candy thermometer, 6 to 8 minutes.  Meanwhile beat the egg whites to soft peaks with the cream of tartar. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of the sugar and continue beating to stiff peaks.

Pour the boiling sugar syrup in a thin stream into the stiff egg whites and continue beating until the mixture is cool to the touch. The hot syrup "cooks" the egg whites.

Pipe the topping onto the cupcakes. I just use a plastic resealable bag, add the meringue topping and cut off a corner tip. Meringue is light and fluffy and so delicious! You will end up with pretty cupcakes like this! But, we aren't done yet!!

We need to make them fit our Easter theme. Time to use our candy! Usually, tres leches cake is topped with maraschino cherries but since we having these at Easter, it's only appropriate to top the cupcakes with a jellybean! P.S. I also used a kitchen torch to burn the meringue a little. You don't have to do this but I love the taste!

It's not Easter without chocolate so I added some of my favorite, M&M's®, all around the cupcake. Now my tres leches cupcakes look like adorable Easter cupcakes!

I mean, does it get any prettier than this?

Like I mentioned before, I purchased all my ingredients for this delicious cupcakes at Walmart. All the Easter goodies are right in the front at my local Walmart. Oh and you know I love to save my pennies and who doesn't? Click HERE for $1.00 off any two (2) M&M's® bags, DOVE® eggs (8oz or larger), SNICKERS® or TWIX® Easter minis (11oz or larger) and click HERE to save $1.00 on any two (2) Starburst Jellybeans (13oz or larger).

Tell me: What are you Easter or Pascua traditions? Do you spend the holiday with family and friends?

Be sure to pin this image below so you can make these Tres Leches cupcakes and be the favorite at your Easter get-together!

Miami on Ice

Recently, we did something we had never done: we went ice-skating!! I know that's hard to believe but remember we are from South Florida, we don't ice-skate, at least not outside. We do have 3 indoor ice-skating rinks but I really don't know anyone who actually goes to those. This year, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Downtown, they set up Miami on Ice, a semi-outdoor ice-skating rink and I knew it was time for my crazy kids to try it out.

We went with our pal Mia who is a great ice-skater. We started off with the stabilizers. Those only lasted a few minutes for some of the kids. Gian kept on it almost the whole time. Amberly let it go once she got her balance and Adrian used one, on and off. 

He was a lot braver ice-skating than he has ever been while trying to skate at the roller skating rink. 

Gian was the one that surprised me. He is usually fearless but didn't take to ice-skating very much.

There was alot of this for poor Adrian. After a while, his clothes was soaked from falling so much. I am super proud of him for getting right back up and trying again, totally unlike him.

Ivanna helped him out as much as she could. Actually, they all helped each other. It was so sweet to watch them interact with each other.

Once they gained a little confidence, it was time for a conga line (we are from Miami after all!!)

The skating rink is small and they have one hour sessions. The kids had a wonderful time and Adrian is already asking when we are going to go again. Little does he know, it will be sooner than later since we will be up in Gatlinburg, TN where he will be ice-skating at Ober!!

Stress-Free Holiday Shopping Tips

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Regions Bank. All opinions are my own.

Let's talk stress-free holiday shopping. Don't laugh, it's possible. With a little planning, some 
shopping smarts and a list of gift ideas, it is actually possible to do some last minute holiday 
shopping without losing your mind! Here are some stress-free holiday shopping tips that have 
worked for me and I know will work for you.

Let me take a moment to be honest. I am nowhere near done with my holiday shopping! Yes, I know it's crazy! No need to freak out!

Being honest with you shows that I just might be a pro at last-minute holiday shopping. Sure, I 

have my lists made and I have the money in the bank so what's the issue? I am a HUGE 

procrastinator. In my mind, I never have the time to shop, so yes I am that person at the mall the 

last few days before Christmas. Since this happens every year, I have some tricks up my sleeve 

to make my holiday shopping as painless and stress-free as possible.

1. Make lists. I usually have 2 lists: one of gifts due by the time school is out for break and the 

other is gifts that I need by the 24th. The gifts on the first list include: gifts for teachers, tutors, 

coaches, school friends and my kids. The gifts on this list are purchased by the end of Cyber 

Monday. I take advantage of sales and if I order online, the gifts arrive in time. The gifts on my 

second list are purchased little by little. 

2. Use new mobile technology to shop. With all the issues with credit card fraud, I only take 

cash and my cell phone when I shop at stores. No purse and no credit cards that can have their 

information stolen with a merchant data breach. This happened to me last year and it was no 

fun resolving the issue. Since I have a Samsung, I enrolled in Android Pay™. Android Pay™ 

stores my cards on my phone and I can make purchases with a touch of my phone. Have an 

iPhone? Make sure to check out Apple Pay®.

3. Enroll in Visa Checkout. Visa Checkout is a simple way to checkout during all your online 

shopping at participating merchants. After registering, Visa Checkout eliminates the need to 

type in your card number and address every time you checkout. No extra work = stress-free 

online shopping!

4. Dedicate a day to shopping. OK, so you have your list and your mobile device ready to go, now dedicate one day to go to the stores. I find a babysitter for Adrian (hit up those grandparents!) and head out to the stores. I follow my list, check out sales, have some coffee and take my time. No rush means no stress!

Last minute holiday shopping doesn't have to be stressful at all. A little planning goes a long way. Be sure to check out more banking solutions from Regions that will help you make everyday stress-free!

New Holiday Tradition: Decorating Cookie Balls

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

I love holiday traditions. We do them all: the elf, pictures with Santa, driving around to see lights, matching pj's, cookie decorating but this year I wanted a new holiday tradition. I wanted something that would be fun to make and yummy to eat (honestly, my kids don't even eat the gingerbread cookies after we decorate them!) I brainstormed for a while and decided that our new tradition would be decorating cookie balls! 

I've been making cookie balls for years. I make them for most parties and sometimes, just because. They are so simple and yummy. I know my kids actually eat them, sorry gingerbread people, and I knew they would love to sit around one afternoon and decorate them. I started with the official OREO cookie ball recipe!

OREO Cookie Balls

Ingredients:

1 pkg (8oz) brick cream cheese, softened

36 OREO cookies, finely crushed (about 3 cups)

4 pkg (4oz each) semi-sweet baking chocolate

Make it:

Mix cream cheese and cookie crumbs until blended. Shape into 48 (1 inch) balls. Freeze 10 minutes. Dip balls in melted chocolate, place in single layer on waxed paper-lined pan. Customize with your own ingredient additions or decorative skills. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Share and enjoy!

Pretty simple right? In our home, my family likes both the original OREO cookies and the Golden OREO cookies so I made sure to buy ingredients to make cookie balls of both flavors.

Original OREO cookies

This is what your cookie balls will look like prior to dipping in the melted chocolate!

Adrian and JC's favorite: Golden OREO cookies!

Golden OREO cookie balls! I made all the cookie balls ahead of time. I stored them in an airtight container in the refrigerator until it was time to decorate. 

The kids wanted to decorate the balls as reindeer and snowmen so I made sure to grab a couple of extra ingredients at the store: pretzels, edible googly eyes, hard-shell candies, black edible ink pen, peanut butter cups and peppermints. I laid all these ingredients and the cookie balls on the table and let them decorate. I think they came out adorable!

Spending time together as a family is exactly what the holiday season is all about. We had so much fun, I know that our new tradition will soon become an old favorite!

All items for the cookie balls were purchased at Walmart. You know I love me some one-stop shopping!!

For more OREO cookie ball recipes, click here!

Tell me: What new holiday traditions are you starting with your family?