Teacher Appreciation Printable Note

We all know that A is for Apple but it is also for Awesome and I’ve got a cute printable gift tag for you to let your children’s teachers know how awesome they are!   As part of this fun series I also have a giveaway here for you on the blog today.

For the caramel apple tag head on over to Skip to My Lou

When I surveyed some teacher friends many of them mentioned that one of the best gifts they ever received was a handwritten note of appreciation.  It meant more to them than any mug, chocolate or gift card.  

So in addition to the fun gift tag idea I am sharing over at Skip to My Lou today I’ve got an A is for Awesome note card you can print off and use to have you and/or your child write their teacher a note of appreciation.

Click here to download notecard

 Enjoy!

Leigh Anne

You can also visit me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram

and Google+

Read Full Post »

Bunny Brunch

I love spring. I think it might just be my favorite season. The sun comes out, the skies are blue and there is a lot of green happening in the garden.  It energizes me and totally puts me in the mood to entertain. One of my favorite holidays in the spring is Easter. I love everything about Easter: the reason we celebrate, the spring flowers, the pretty dyed Easter eggs, bunnies, chicks, all the pretty pastel colors, a new Easter outfit (yes, I still buy myself a new outfit!!), and of course the candy the Easter Bunny brings. This year I decided to host a Bunny Brunch before Easter for some of my cute little friends. Now that we are empty nesters and our children aren’t home for a lot of the holidays, I love sharing them with my friends and neighbors.  I am so excited about this fun and pretty Bunny Brunch I put together. I loved working with the bunny theme.

Having a theme for a party makes things so much easier. I began by starting a Pinterest Board (the beginnings of any good party!). To add a little more color and interest, I used some scrapbook paper to make mats underneath the plates. How fun to find a cute little bunny under your plate after you’ve cleaned your plate! I used some pink ribbon I had to tie together the cutlery for a little finishing touch. And I bunnified the cups with some little paper ears that I hot glued on and a fluffy pom pom tail. Of course a pink straw was necessary. I was on a real roll with the bunny theme so I created little bunnies with pom pom tails out of the paper napkins.  

There are a lot of fun bunny-themed foods you can use for your bunny brunch and you will find lots of ideas on Pinterest for that too. I love the idea of using a Palmier to create bunny ears in your salad. For my centerpiece, I used some of the bunnies in my Easter bunny collection and my white milk glass which I filled with some fun Easter candy. Loving those white chocolate Cadbury eggs!! Create height on your table by using cake stands to stack things on. Use things you already have on hand and make the food you are serving part of the decor. And of course no party table would be complete at my house without some fresh flowers.

Read Full Post »

Vanilla Malt

We spent the weekend in beautiful San Diego last weekend visiting our son Logan.  He is so lucky to live in such a beautiful place.  I could totally move there!  We had a great time and ate our share of amazing fish tacos.  We spent one morning riding beach cruisers around Coronado Island.  Of course we had to stop at the Del Coronado hotel and take a look around.  So beautiful.  Since we had burned so many calories biking around we decided to fuel up on some ice cream at a cute little ice cream shop at the hotel.  I am a big malt fan (you may have noticed that from yesterday’s post)  so when I saw they had Vanilla Malt Ice Cream I had to try it.  It was delicious.  So of course I had to come home and make my own.

I also returned from my trip to find this beauty waiting for me to try out.  A Ninja Ultima™ Blender.

What a better way to break her in than with a Vanilla Malt!  All you need for a vanilla malt is  some vanilla ice cream, malt powder (near the hot chocolate mixes in the grocery store), and vanilla extract.  The malt powder is the secret ingredient.

 I decided to throw in some of those yummy malted milk ball eggs I had leftover from yesterday’s Bunny Brittle for some extra malt goodness.  I loved the texture and crunch it gave the malt!  The malt powder gives it plenty of malt flavor though so if you don’t have any malted milk ball eggs you’ll be fine!  I promise.

Then with just the push of a button I had a yummy vanilla malt in seconds!  This baby is powerful.  It has a PRO Variable Speed with a range of speeds from 3,700 to 24,000 RPM.

There was only one thing missing!  Whipped cream!

I then garnished it with a little bit more of the crushed malted milk ball eggs because in my book you can never have too much malt!

The only thing left to do was grab a spoon and dig in!  Which I did!!!

AuthorLeigh Anne Wilkes

Ingredients

• 4 C vanilla ice cream
• 1 C milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 Tbsp malt powder or more to taste
• 1 C malted milk balls or malted milk ball eggs optional
• additional crushed malted milk balls for garnish
• whipped cream

Instructions

• Put all ingredients into blender and blend.
• Garnish with whipped cream and crushed malted milk balls

Read Full Post »