We found these cute ice cream cone cups at the Dollar Store and used them two ways. The first was for end of the year teacher gifts for our younger staff members. I made these cute printables and attached them to the straw.

Next, I filled them with these little waffle cone bites snack and of course tied on a gift card to Trombetta’s in Marlborough so they can get a free ice cream over the summer!

The second way we used them was for birthday party favors. Same things inside, the waffle cone bites and a gift card, but we personalized the outside of the cones with the names of our friends using my Cricut. I got a ton of compliments on these by strangers who were having parties at the same place.

You can make these as expensive or as inexpensive as you’d like. You could make a basket with a box of cones, sauce, sprinkles and other fun candy toppings; you could make a basket with waffle cones, brownies, whipped cream and amarena cherries; even just get ingredients to make Coke floats! Sky is the limit with the creativity of this gift.

Ice cream cones: Dollar Tree

Waffle Cone Bites: TJ Maxx

Gift Cards: Trombetta’s

Tags: Homemade

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If you’re looking for an affordable birthday party option, Trombetta’s in Marlborough is your spot. Perfect for kids ages 5-8, they can host birthday parties of any size. You can bring your own food or have pizzas delivered from one of the local shops (Plum Tomato or Post Road Pizza). Bring your own drinks and snacks, party decorations and balloons to make the party room as fancy or as simple as you’d like.

We brought our own cupcakes (golf themed cupcakes with golf ball rings I found on Amazon) to pass out as favors at the end because we had the kids make their own sundaes at the party. At the beginning of the party, kids chose from 5 kinds of ice cream. While they golfed, Trombetta’s pre scooped the ice cream. When it was time to come back into the party room, each guest sat down to their ice cream and was able to add the toppings of their choice: candy, sprinkles, hot fudge and whipped cream.

We also made these fancy sprinkle cupcakes for those who wanted cupcakes instead of ice cream sundaes. You can bring your own cake or you can have Trombetta’s make you an ice cream cake.

When the kids were ready to go home, we passed out these gift cards as favors, $5 gift cards for them to come back and either spend on golf or get another cone for free.

Trombetta’s Farm

655 Farm Road, Marlborough, MA

https://www.trombettasfarm.com/

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Every year for the kids, I get them one “fancy” cake (read: professional), and then one cake that I make. My son has been very in to making paper airplanes, so naturally, I made him paper airplane cake toppers. I Googled some colorful maps, printed them out and carefully folded them into small planes. I glued them onto toothpicks, and viola! Simple, yet fun.

A simple two layer vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and Oreo crumbles in the middle.

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Sometimes I get stuck on birthday gift ideas. I get into this rut of the same craft kits from Target, that, let’s be honest, are a little bit junky. After Easter I buy these buckets for about $1 each. They come with stickers, so you can personalize each one with the child’s name, or, you could personalize with a Cricut or paint pens. We picked up our own craft supplies: markers of different sizes, crayons, stickers, washi tape, construction paper. You could get as creative as you want: model magic, slime, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, pom poms, glitter, pony beads, washi tape, the possibilities are endless. What are your go to birthday gift ideas?

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I like to keep my kids reading in the summer. We do our local library’s summer reading program, but we also pair it with Barnes and Noble’s Summer reading program. It’s pretty cool if you don’t already know about it – designed for kids in grades 1-6. Children can read ANY eight (8) books this summer and write down what part of the book was their favorite and why. Bring the completed form into any store from July 1 until August 31 and get a FREE BOOK! (select free book from list on sheet). Some of our favorites are on the list of free books you can earn, The Princess in Black, The Bad Guys, and Big Nate. Click here to print out the Barnes and Noble Escape into Summer Reading Sheet.

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Are you the kind of person that does one per day like you’re supposed to? Or are you like my kids, who open the whole thing at once?

The Happy Chocolatier

Back by popular demand, The Happy Chocolatier is offering 24 days of Cubze! Each day has a brightly colored, individually wrapped truffle Cubze inside with an inspirational thought about happiness inside. Use my code: Happy2021 for a 10% discount!

Maca Boston

A 12 Day Advent Calendar is $48 and a 24 Day Advent Calendar is $88. There is a different flavor for each day!! Bonus, you have to keep these advent calendars in the freezer, so less chance of someone trying to steal what is inside You can pick these up at Bow Market after 11/22 or you can have it shipped directly to your door.

Bardellini’s

A 12 Day Advent Calendar and a 24 Day Advent Calendar are available. You can pick up locally in Natick, MA on 11/29 or 11/30. A 12 Day Advent Calendar is $35 and a 24 Day Advent Calendar is $70.

Lady M

Lady M is offering a limited edition “Merry and Bright” 24 Day Advent Calendar filled with bon bons and tasty confections. Order by 11/25 to get it in time for December 1st. The wreath shaped box even comes with LED lights that twinkle! $80

The Concord Market

The Concord Market is doing a Beer Advent Calendar this year for $130 (plus bottle deposit). You must order by 11/21 EOD and pick up on 11/26 or 11/27.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVQ5SzerWrK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

In Good Taste

In Good Taste is doing a 24 Day Wine Advent Calendar. For $150 you get their Wild Child Collection, Cascade Collection, California Wine Mixer and their Passport Collection.

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My husband is hard to shop for. Like, really hard to shop for. Before we started dating I thought of myself as a good gift giver – a thoughtful gift giver. But every time he opens a gift (that I think is just perfect), he makes ‘the face’, you know which one I’m talking about. This year, he will get a card from the kids and maybe I will let him sleep in (maybe). So here are some things I would like if I were celebrating Father’s Day.

Starting at the top left, I love these belts. Made by Ladder 34, these adjustable belts are made from authentic fire hoses and a portion of the sale will be donated to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Belts will run you around $35 and come in a variety of colors. If belts aren’t your dad’s thing…they have some cool mats and wallets.

Next, on the top right, we have wallets made from vintage baseball gloves. Mack Provisions lets you pick a glove from their collection that they make into your unique wallet. At $150, these are a little more on the expensive side, but I think that any baseball enthusiast in your life will really be touched.

I love the fish hook keychain from Todder (bottom right) ($25). These are made right in Newburyport, MA. If your dad already has a keychain, try checking out their bags, belts, bracelets, coasters or even a leather mason jar sleeve.

And finally, if you’re looking for the ultimate preppy gift for your dad, try customizing a pair of Sperry boat shoes. You can pick from over a dozen colors – maybe go classic with a pop of color on the laces, or maybe go bright and fun with a monogram. They are not much more expensive than the regular boat shoe, so why not go the extra mile.

What are some of the best gifts you have given for Father’s Day?

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This year I hosted our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt. The ladies of the ‘hood got together for some wine and ‘egg stuffing’ the night before – we had over 200 eggs. Sounds like a lot of eggs, but we had 30 kids – ranging from age 8 months to 12 years old. It was a little stressful doing the prep work, but seeing how happy the kids were made it all worth it. I’ll share some of our fun ideas for the food table in another post (after Easter) but wanted to share some fun Easter basket ideas that I worked on with Leah.

I love a good hooded towel. It has to be durable, because, well…kids. Picked up this cute one at The Nutshell in Milton. It could be cute for a boy or a girl. Glitter bunny ears were from Target, the bunny balloon was a great find (in a pack of 6) from TJ Maxx. The pom pom bunny pen and the “surprise bunnies” (peel away the layers of tissue for fun jokes and prizes) were from Paper Source. We aren’t big candy people in our house – so if we do give candy, I’m a firm believer in giving them a few “good quality” pieces instead of a whole bunch of “regular” candy. The egg, chicken (how cute is that?!?!) and the bunny (bottom right) are from EHChocolatier. Have you visited their new storefront in Cambridge yet? You should! The chocolate bunnies in the box are from L.A. Burdick. (I think I’ll keep those for myself!)

We reuse the same baskets every year – I love this one (same as above, but with a different liner) from Pottery Barn Kids. They may seem expensive, I picked mine up the day after Easter when everything went on sale. My daughter is obsessed with unicorns (and llamacorns) so this hooded towel from Pottery Barn Kids was a perfect addition to the basket. The shoes are Cat and Jack from Target – how cute are they? She put them on and started to tap dance across the floor! The large egg is from Williams Sonoma and is filled with a mix of chocolate, marshmallows and jellybeans (but really, I just bought it because I adore the egg). Leah picked up the headband and how awesome are those headphones? They’re WAVE made by BuddyPhones. My kids are just getting into the age where they will be wanting to use screens and these are perfect (because I can’t tell you how much Daniel Tiger’s voice gets on my last nerve ).The headphones limit the volume so the sound can’t damage your kid’s ears, they’re waterproof, they’re wireless and they have a 24 hour battery life.

I saw moonlite at Target and was a little nostalgic – these are the projectors of my childhood with an upgrade! I picked up the starter pack which had 5 Eric Carle story wheels. You download the app, clip the projector to the flashlight on your phone, and viola! bedtime stories come to life! You still read the story, but there are some fun sound effects (my kids got a kick out of seeing the pictures on the ceiling)! My kids love the Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site book so I picked that one up as well. The jelly beans in the mason jar (but you could get a cute bear shaped jar too) are from Lolli and Pops, the seersucker ears are from Pottery Barn Kids, the Peter Rabbit egg is from Williams Sonoma. The blue box of chocolates are made by Charbonnel Walker (one of my favorite chocolatiers) and I was pumped to see they were being sold at Williams Sonoma.

Spring is right around the corner, so Leah decided to add these cute garden tools from the Hearth and Hand with Magnolia Garden Set. The full set includes a watering can, a trowel, labeled wood garden stakes, a shovel, a spade, and garden fork – all in a cute bag. You can pick one up at Target got about $20. I’m a sucker for old school toys, and how cute is that wooden rabbit? What you can’t see is that on the end of the string there is also a wooden carrot!!

This basket has some of the fun things above but with the addition of ThoughtFulls Happy Day pop open cards. Everyone could use a little sunshine in their day and there are 30 cards in this box, each with a different inspiring quote on it. And how can I not include some “Little Notes” from E. Frances, these little lady bugs are perfect even after Easter!!

Gräem Nuts and Chocolate in Concord is one of my new favorite shops. Not only for the obvious nuts and chocolate, but the decor inside transports you into a different era. I picked up these cute pre-packaged foil wrapped eggs for our basket, but you have the option of picking your own out of the case. UMMM…can we just talk about those cute bunny “little notes” from E. Frances?!?! GAH! So cute! We bought the “lil’ bear” mugs for all the kids and we have the mama and papa bear too. Super cute Williams Sonoma, well played.

I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought about adding books into our Easter baskets before, but Leah brought up the idea and I was instantly in love with it. She picked out Larry Loves Boston, by John Skewes. In this series, Larry the pup visits all the popular Boston spots, such as the Freedom Trail, the Public Garden and Faneuil Hall. “The Rabbit Listened” by Cori Doerrfeld might just be my new favorite book. The text is minimal but the message is a good one. We already have “Too Many Carrots” by Katy Hudson, but that would also be a cute bunny themed book for a basket. Add in a cute bookmark and you will be all set!

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So my dad loves the Muffin House Cafe’s muffins. We used to have to drive out to Medway to get him some, but now we don’t have to anymore. They just opened up another location in Natick, right next to Dairy Queen. The shop is small, there is one little table, so plan on getting these to go or eating them at Dairy Queen’s picnic benches. The parking lot is also small, but the muffins are worth it. They are baked fresh daily and come in more flavors than you know what to do with. Muffin flavors include blueberry, corn, coffee cake, chocolate chip, banana nut, blueberry banana nut, double chocolate chip, pistachio, morning glory, white chocolate chip, cranberry orange, Pina colada and more. Muffins are $2.79 each, $6.74 for 6 and $30 for a dozen. They have Red Barn coffee available as well as some other baked goodies (cupcakes, danish etc.). Muffins are generous in size and super tasty – I happen to like the morning glory and the coffee cake ones the best

They are opening a fourth location soon in Hopkington at 43 Main Street.

Muffin House Cafe

325 North Main Street, Natick MA

www.muffinhousecafe.com

Monday – Saturday 5am – 6pm and Sunday 5am -2pm

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It has been SO cold lately – I’ve been dreaming of warmer weather. How many more days until spring? So while we wait for them to re-open for their 81st season, in April of 2018, I thought I’d give a shout out to one of my favorite ice cream spots, Erikson’s Ice Cream in Maynard. Erikson’s serves old fashioned ice cream, many of their flavors are from recipes created in the 1930’s.

In the warmer months, the parking lot is packed and the small patio out back is filled with the sounds of summer. The serving size is enormous – so order accordingly. They offer regular ice cream as well as soft serve as well as a variety of other ice cream treats. While I generally go with strawberry, some other favorites include: banana oreo, avalanche (vanilla, caramel swirl and caramel truffles), chocolate mint oreo, dark and stormy and pistachio pumpkin.

Where is your favorite ice cream spot?

Erikson’s Ice Cream

12 Great Road, Maynard, MA

http://www.eriksonsic.biz

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