About KariV

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Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I just linked my blog to Bloglovin, which is a way to follow blogs all in one place. It helps to see at a glance what has been published on your favorite blogs and then you can click through to check them out. I am still learning how to use this myself, but I think it will be a very handy tool! So, if you want to follow my blog using this convenient tool, click the link above and follow the instructions. Thanks!

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Dose of Sunshine Monday — To New Chapters

Hello, Monday. Today I want to talk about New Chapters.

School starts this week for us in parts of Arizona. Lots of changes are beginning for me and my family. It’s really the beginning of a new chapter for us. And I have to say, I’m not a big fan of change.

I am seriously looking at this new chapter with a bit of concern, worry, trepidation. And that’s when I have to pull back and remind myself that everything will be ok. To live in the moment. To enjoy life’s little gifts each day. There are going to be parts of this chapter that are glorious, delightful and very happy!

Then I came across this timely quote:

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Perfect. Be happy now!

So I will. How ’bout you? Here’s to New Chapters!

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Back to School {free} fonts!

I’ve received lots of requests for the fonts I’ve used for my snack parties and back to school treats. So I thought I’d put together a post of some of my favorite Back To School fonts that you can get for free!

back-to-school-fonts

Just click the links below to find out where to get the fonts:

1) SchoolScriptDashed

2) Penmanship Print

3) Ostrich

4) Susie’s Hand

5) Another Typewriter

6) Cinnamon Cake

7) Varsity Regular

8) BlackJack

9) Learning Curve Pro

10) Good Dog

Love ’em! Happy Back to School season!

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Back to School Snack Idea (party) — How to make a Watermelon Sundae

I love Back To School sales {and} parties! I don’t have kids at home (anymore), but I can’t help shopping all the Back to School sales. I love to collect office supplies: pens, markers, folders, sheet protectors, and notebooks.

This year I was so antsy to have a Back to School party. Luckily, my 2 nephews were here visiting this past week and so guess what we did!! Yes…a Back To School Snack Party! I wanted to have a bunch of “healthy” after school snacks for the boys to try.

I set it up with some school lunch bags, snacks, pens, paperclips and highlighters. I cut those cute little apples out with the Cricut Sampler cartridge. We had to have green apples because that’s G’s favorite color!! (ok, actually it’s LIGHT CORE GREEN, but this lime green is close enough, right? He gets that color from one of his favorite video games: Skylanders. I got educated about that game this week!)

back-to-school-bags

We had plenty of fruit and crackers. And I had the boys put together their own cheese and ham on fancy toothpicks. (They LOVED this part). Kids really do love to be involved and I think they enjoy their snacks even more if they can take a little ownership.

the-snack-table

After putting together their ham and cheese picks, I had another treat up my sleeve. Something that looks so tasty, but is also good for you!

Here’s what I came up with:

watermelon-sundaes

And OH, these were quite the hit! They are fabulously easy to make with the kids and SO MUCH FUN! I had these sundae glasses already, but I’ve seen them at the dollar store recently. ๐Ÿ˜‰ My nephews helped to build their own watermelon sundae:

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step-3-a-bit-of-whipped-cream

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My nephews ate this up! But we didn’t stop there…

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We made fruit skewers…G preferred strawberries and blueberries for this one.

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And then the boys wrote in their notebooks about their favorite after school snacks. G decided to DRAW pictures of his favorite snacks. First he drew a watermelon sundae. Then he drew ham and cheese picks. And then he drew this:

garretts-drawing

That’s his fruit skewer: see the strawberries and blueberries?! How much do I love that my nephews loved all the after-school snacks we had? {quite a bit!}

And to top it off, they finished up their “bookworms” made of pipe cleaners and attached to a pencil.

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What a great snack party!

Talk to your kids about their favorite snacks. What can they help assemble for their own snacks? It makes Back to School so fun! Happy school year!

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Linking up to the “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” link party here! (Let’s face it…I’m a little excited that I have a blog post that will work for this party. If you follow me, you know my blog posts are usually pink and girly!)

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Taste Test Tuesday — Sprinkles Cupcakes

Since we’ve been out of town, I couldn’t hold my usual taste test complete with panelists. So instead, my family & I held one of our FAVORITE tests of all time. Sprinkles Cupcakes!

This is such a great activity for you to do with your family or friends.ย (In fact, I love this taste test so much, and I’ve always wanted to take a trip to Sprinkles with my girlfriends to conduct one of these…and I’m sure I will someday!)

sprinkles-taste-test

Since there were 6 of us in total, we each picked out our favorite cupcake and then took them back to the beach house. Do you like the top three cupcake decorations? We just happened to be in San Diego the same time Comic Con was there, and Sprinkles had some special decor to celebrate. ๐Ÿ™‚

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The flavors in this taste test were:

1) Salted Caramel
2) Strawberry
3) Double Cinnamon Sugar
4) Red Velvet
5) Chocolate Marshmallow
6) Vanilla with chocolate frosting and sprinkles

We cut each cupcake up into 6 pieces…which worked out great because by the time we “tasted” each of them, we had each eaten one whole cupcake.

four-cupcakes-and-cutting

the-cupcake-tastes

I know, those paper towels are fancy, right? Sometimes you have to use what you have available, ha!

I think my nephew, G, might have enjoyed this taste test the most:

Garrett-eating-like-dog

I just love that kid!

THE REPORT:

Sprinkles Owner, Candace, has really figured out how to master the basic cupcake flavors. Which is exactly what I would expect from this cupcakery. These cupcakes were all DELICIOUS, and we actually loved them all. But there were a few that stood out from the rest.

First place:

winner-vanilla-cupcake

Surprise! Perhaps one of the most basic flavors ever, Vanilla Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting, was the FIRST PLACE WINNER. It was SO good, moist, with just the right amount of chocolate frosting. And the sprinkles on top were definitely a winner with my nephews. ๐Ÿ™‚

SECOND PLACE: Red Velvet
THIRD PLACE: Strawberry

So it seemed this time we preferred all the classic flavors, which really surprised me! So if you have to choose just one flavor to get at Sprinkles Cupcakes, don’t overlook the basic classics!

P.S. Before I go, I must mention that this is NOT the first time we’ve done a Sprinkles Cupcake taste test. (Did I mention it’s our favorite out-of-town taste test ever?)

And in fairness to you, dear reader, I’d like to report the first place winner of our first taste test of these cupcakes: Fresh Orange.ย Sooooooo good! We may have included that one in this recent taste test, but they didn’t offer that flavor on the day we were there. So try the orange cupcake (a surprise winner last time) if they have it!

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