Did you know the leading cause of death by disease in children under nineteen is, cancer? Insane right? This fact baffles me and gets me so upset, especially as a mom of three. My kids health is so important to me and I am so thankful to have been blessed with healthy children. Not everyone is as lucky though and it breaks my heart to think of moms and kids going through this awful disease. When we heard of Applebee's Neighnorhood Grill + Bar restaurants teaming up with Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation to take a stand against childhood cancer we knew we had to take a (very, very) small part in helping raise awareness. Please watch this video full of childhood caner facts and how they are helping. The facts are showing and break my mom heart.
Now until August, 12th more than 1,050 participating restaurants are aiming to raise $1million to help fund cutting-edge medical research and family support programs. Since the foundation started in 2005, Applebee's restaurants have partnered with ALSF to raise more than $8.2 million to help keep Alex Scott's mission alive of finding cures for all childhood cancers.
You too can support in raising funds for the Foundation in a variety of ways, including:
- Purchasing lemon-shaped pin up-cards in $1 and $5 increments like we did! If you donate $5 you will receive a thank you card entitling you to a free lemonade or free kid's meal on your next visit or $5 off $25 ar Applebee's restaurants.
- Purchasing a Lemonade Quencher or other frozen flavored Lemonade refreshments to have a portion of the proceeds donated.
- Participating in loval events such as lemonade stands, gold tournaments, donation nights and more.
Please visit Applebees.com to learn more, donate directly or find a local restaurant near you.
We were lucky enough to partner with Applebees on this post, all opinions expressed are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that make out blog possible.
I can't believe it's that time of year already. Jules will be starting Kindergarten next month and needs a big girl backpack. wahh, but as sad as I am to think about her going to real school, all day, by herself, I had fun working on this with her. If you can't tell she has a love for all things pink and rainbow! Last year she went with the mini Fjallraven and loved it so much she wants the same one but the bigger pink version. I tried to convince her to go with #5 but that wasn't happening. Cute backpack style brought to you by my mini herself... enjoy!
Summer break is in full effect over here. We have been doing swimming, movies, playing in our backyard all day, doing pajama days on the regular and making a ton of bracelets for friends, each other, even the girls dollies are getting bracelets. This by far has been their favorite summer activicty. The girls can sit and work on bracelets for well over an hour. Winning! I was on a mission to find something fun Jules could do to learn her letters and sounds. These Letter beads have helped a ton! She likes to sit there and spell out different words and has learned so much, all while having fun!
I love the pastel kit! If you're just starting and are going to buy just one thing, I highly recommend it! It comes with everything you need and the beads are so girly and pretty. I tried using the clasps it came with but I found that it was just a waste of time getting it all together since knotting the stretchy string the kit comes with works amazing! Plus a few of the clasp ones are the only ones that have come undone.
I can't believe I'm even writing this but, Julianne lost her first tooth! I wish I would have recorded the whole thing so you could have heard me and Jules freaking out. Her tooth was barely hanging on and she was complaning about it bothering her when she ate, so I gave her a flossing pick. She was sitting on the couch watching tv flossing her tooth when the floss got stuck. She freaked. I freaked. We were both screaming because we couldn't get it out. She got so nervous she pulled back as I was holding the pick and poof the tooth fell out. We looked at each other and started laughing as she picked it up off her dress. Then she screamed with excitement and I cried. Literally balled my eyes out as I tried hugging her. She squirmed out of my arms and screamed again and again, and I cried more because she pulled away. lol
As sad I was was, I had to do something special to celebrate! That joy you see in your babies eyes when something this magical and big happens is what I live for. It's one of my favorite things about being a mommy. Making memories with them and getting to experience all the magic again, only this time through their eyes, is just pure magic in itself. So I put on my tooth fair wings, set up the fairy door, glittered all my dollars and sprinkled her room with an obnoxious amount of glitter. Then I took an obscene amount of photos of my girls new, even cuter, smile.
What did the tooth fairy leave?
1. A sparkly glitter banner. Jules said she left that because it was her first tooth and she knows just how much we girls love to celebrate! Spot on girlfriend.
2. A little goodie bag filled with a new tooth paste and tooth brush. I will do this every now and again when a new brush is needed.
3. A certificate where the tooth fair rated her tooth and noted which tooth she lost.
4. A little envelope full of real fairy dust.
5. A miniature note from the tooth fair herself congratulating her on losing her first tooth. She also thanked her for setting up a fairy door because it made the visit super easy.
6. The oh so sparkly dollar bills. For sure the biggest hit!
How did I glitter the money?
I honestly had no idea how to do this. I ran to target at the last minute and grabbed whatever I could find. I didn't think that the glitter I got would work but it turned out SO GOOD and was super easy. My one pointer would be to spray the money very lightly and make sure at least one glitter is super fine. The fine glitter is what stick on the easiest. Once you lightly spray the adhesive just sprinkle the glitter over the money and wait for it to dry. Super easy and so fun!
Where did I get the printable's?
Etsy! I found thisbundle and knew Jules would love how girly it was. Karina, from WestieCrew, was super sweet and very easy to work with. The listing is non editable, meaning she adds in your Childs name and the date the tooth was lost. Since I ordered ahead of time I asked her to leave out the dates. This actually worked out perfectly since I can just print out a few copies at a time and stamp in the dates as needed. I also ordered this stamp to use for the dates. Ours didn't get here on time so I had to write it in this time.
Where did she put her tooth before bed?
Jules was so worried where her tooth would go. She did not want it under her pillow incase it got lost and wanted to make sure the tooth fairy would find it. I hit Etsy again, this time with Jules and let her pick her very own custom pillow. How perfect is this!? It just so happened to match the printable's perfectly! If you're doing to go this route too make sure to order ahead. Since they are custom they take a while to make. Unfortunately, we weren't able to use it for her first tooth because It didn't arrive on time.We ended up using this super cute glow in the dark tooth I bought last year.
how did the tooth fairy come in?
The tooth fairy door, duh! Isn't this thing the cutest ever? We have had this door since Jules started sleeping in her own room. We used it as a reward system, every night she slept in her bed a fairy would come in and leave her a little treat. Then Kourt came along and ripped it off the wall once she was mobile. Jules and I were so excited to pull it out and put it up on a shelf away from any babies! lol Here is the one we have!
Hope that was helpful for all those that asked. If you use any of these ideas I would love to see! Be sure to tag me on instagram, @alittlejandk. Oh, and for you pro tooth fairies, what do you do with their teeth? save them? I didn't have the heart to throw hers away so I stick it in my jewelry box. Id love to hear your ideas on that!
