Staying Home Sawyer

Real Life Living on a Real Life Budget

DIY, Holidays!

Halloween Ghost Hunt

Is Halloween cancelled near you? Our neighborhood still seems to be on board with a little trick or treating (with precaution of course), but just in case I decided to come up with some fun alternatives. Candy isn’t enough to bribe toddlers these days, we need some fun games as well.

I’ve been seeing the Easter eggs on clearance at Hobby Lobby for months now (I may go a few times a week), and I kept trying to think of a fun thing we could do with them during this Halloween season. Enter in a Halloween Ghost Hunt! This is literally the easiest DIY for the season.

Buy your Easter eggs (if you can’t find white, use your oranges, purples, and greens that you already have at home), use a Sharpie to draw on some ghost faces, fill with candy or fun prizes, and hide them around the yard for your kids to hunt!

I have a feeling we will be doing this many times before Halloween. If you have a toddler, I’m sure you realize how fun hunting for eggs is. And now they get to do it more than once a year!

Lifestyle

After School Treats

Happy almost Fall! If that sounds weird to you, you’re not alone. Luckily, we live in San Diego and still have a good two months of summer left. Not to mention, two more years before school starts too! But for those of you who are already in the ‘back to school’ rush, have I got the treat for you!

There’s ONE thing that is a must for us during the summer, and that is S’mores. But what if we took it up a notch? What if we combined one of our other favorite treats? What if we kept summer going right into the school year?

Enter: Rice Krispie Treats S’mores. And because we are moms, we have no time to be making these treats from scratch. So here’s what you do:

  1. Buy a box of Rice Krispie Treats
  2. Unwrap said treats.
  3. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top.
  4. Dust with graham cracker crumbs and a few larger pieces.
  5. Dab three or four mini marshmallows on top.
  6. DONE!

There’s literally not much easier when it comes to making desserts. I added some sticks into a few so Sawyer could keep her hands clean (mom win!). They tasted delicious and took me five minutes. I think I deserve an award. And I think you deserve one too, so right after you make these, treat yourself.

Birthday's, DIY

Sailing into 40!

Do you remember anything specific from your childhood bedroom? Mine was filled with all things girly: dolls, stuffed animals, Barbies, and a canopy bed that was as frilly as could be. I also had pink painted walls with a porcelain doll wallpaper border.

I may have moved on from that bedroom by middle school, but my husband is still missing his childhood bedroom. Him and his brother shared a sailboat wallpapered bedroom, and they still argue over who is the Captain.

He is 40.

So in honor of his weirdness, for his 40th birthday I decided to surprise him with a sailboat themed birthday party. Since we’re still in the midst of Covid, we couldn’t have a big bash. We may have only invited a few close friends over, but I went all out of course.

(The infamous wallpaper is framed on the left)

The main wall piece was a sail made from dyed crepe paper. I found a tutorial online, and dyed one roll of white into blue. Then I just got the white roll wet, and dried them both the same way (so they both had the same texture).

A lot of our decor came from the dollar spot at Target (for the win!). I got lucky that they were featuring nautical stuff right now, and since no one is shopping, everything was fully stocked. I also made life rings from pool noodles and white crepe paper, and wrapped silverware with a ‘life ring.’

I also designed a “Keep Calm and Sail On” print (5×7), you can download it here. You can also download the “Sailing into 40” print here (8×10).

For food, we served ‘seashell’ pasta, the ‘catch of the day’ (Goldfish crackers), ‘seaweed’ dip (artichoke dip), watermelon sailboats, ‘life preservers’ (peach gummy rings), ‘driftwood’ (pretzel sticks), and ‘sailor knots’ (garlic knots).

We ordered a simple cake from our local grocery store, added a sailboat and the big 4-0 candles (which I spray painted gold).

I designed the food tags, printed them on cardstock, cut them out and glued another piece of cardstock to the side so they’d stand. You can download them here.

We also had a ‘seaside bar’ which was probably my favorite area. It just turned out so inviting. We didn’t end up using just about any of it, but it still looked pretty (that’s what really counts, right?).

So what do you think? Did I do a good job for my man child? (He loved every bit of it).

DIY

Printable Police Officer Badges

The past two weeks have been a very tough time for most Americans. We understand that there are bad human beings in this world, but we are seeing a lot of them showcased on the nightly news and social media. It’s disheartening to watch our country being so divided, its discouraging to watch places burn. So let me start by saying that I’ve always hoped to be a place of positivity, a place to continue to spread messages of hope and love. During a very divisive time in history, I don’t want to further the spread of hate and negativity, so I will be here to lighten spirits and hopefully spread some love.

My husband is in law enforcement, I’ve made no secret of that. We are extremely proud of him every day for protecting our city and for standing up for people that may not have a voice. It’s not an easy job, and for men and women to put their lives on the line for strangers is an incredibly brave thing to do.

Four years ago, when we were going through a similar time in our country, I designed these printables to hand out to officers if we came in contact with them. It was something small we could do to show them we are supporting them. I never posted them because I just wasn’t sure how to express how we felt.

Make no mistake. We do not condone violence in any way in our home. Not of human beings of any color, not of police officers that are there to protect and serve. In our house, we teach kindness and love, period. We simply want to spread a message of hope to other police officers that may be feeling like it isn’t worth it right about now. We support you and we stand behind you.

If you’d like to print some of these for your community, download the pdf below:

Printable Police Badge Thank You Cards