Happy Birthday Eric Carle! Celebrate with PercyVites!

Happy Summer vacation!
School let out this week and I'm already in love with beach days, trips to get ice cream, and later bedtimes. Losing the rigorous schedule of school, homework, and after school activities like speech, dance, and grading work is always a welcome respite (but to be honest, I end up missing it quickly! What can I say - I love structure!). As an English Language Arts teacher though, I never give up reading.  My kids do it for fun (gasp! right?!) because it's just so important to me.

One of our favorite authors is Eric Carle and his birthday is this weekend, June 25th! In an effort to make reading a fun past time, we decided to host an Eric Carle birthday party and invite over some of our best friends to celebrate with us!

I've written about Percyvites before so I went right back to them for this as well!

PercyVites makes it easy to organize online invitations to send to your friends and their Eric Carle collection was just what we needed!

They are super easy to create, filling in pieces step by step with the party information and recipients. PercyVites even helps you keep track of responses!

We've got a bunch of friends who will be joining us and we even made some delicious Eric Carle inspired desserts for the occasion- seriously, what's a birthday party without cake?!

We also grabbed some easy decorations from Cakes.com - the Eric Carle / Hungry Caterpillar decopac was perfect to top our cupcakes!

And as if that's not enough, we're planning a trip to the Eric Carle Museum this summer! I love a good adventure and anything that ties literacy into fun is perfect for us!

I'm so excited to celebrate this weekend-- how will you be celebrating Eric Carles birthday?

xo, Heather

Cheers to the Summer: Teacher Gift

The school year is winding down and I always find myself wondering what to get the teachers.
As a teacher there are some things that I know I'd love to get: gift cards to Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, gift cards to Amazon, or a gift card to a book store... but I also hate giving gift cards because they're so impersonal.

I prefer doing something a bit more memorable.

How cute, right? And who doesn't love the tongue in cheek comment about the year being over!

I used plastic mason jar tumblers (similar found at these affiliate links: single, 3 pack, or a 4 pack) and some ribbon we had in our craft corner. Then grabbed some individual Crystal Light packets (buy them from Amazon through this affiliate link here) and split them between the containers.

I've even added the printable below so all you have to do is download it, and when you go to print, set it to 4x6 size on some heavy cardstock! Have your kid sign their name and it's ready to go!

Who will you be gifting them to this year?

xo, Heather

Peanut Butter Cup No Bake Cheesecake

David's birthday always comes right after Tyler's and after Tyler's birthday doughnuts, his birthday cake, and then his birthday party cake... we were caked out.

David is a huge fan of peanut butter cups so I grabbed whatever ingredients I had and ran to the store to grab the rest to surprise him with the most delicious and decadent cheesecake pie for his birthday!

It's super easy and took us only about 15 minutes to make. Another hour in the fridge and it was ready!


Ingredients:
Store bought Oreo pie crust
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces whipped topping (I used Low Fat Cool Whip, but making your own is delicious too!)
3 cups peanut butter cups chopped, divided
1/2 cup Hot fudge

Directions:
1. Cream cream cheese and sugar together. Add in peanut butter and vanilla and beat until well mixed.
2. Fold in Cool Whip until all mixed.
3. Unwrap and chop all 3 cups of peanut butter cups. Fold in 2 cups to the mixture.
4. Spread into pie crust.
5. Top with remaining chopped peanut butter cups.
6. Drizzle hot fudge over the top and place in fridge until set.

It was so delicious and David loved it!
So what are you going to make it for?

xo, Heather