Posts Tagged: "group"

Celebrate Valentine’s Day Family Style

Queen Darlene - February 2, 2017 - Kids, Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is usually reserved for couples, but I have another idea. Start a tradition of celebrating Valentine’s Day family style.

Living Room Floor Family Picnic

Have a picnic for all the Valentines in your family on your living room floor. Kids love this!

Keep it simple and move the furniture, lay out a blanket, and use Valentine’s Day paper plates with red plastic utensils. Depending upon the age of the children, I would use cups with lids and straws to prevent any spills.

If you want to be more elaborate, add a red and white picnic table cloth, eating trays, red pillows to sit on, sprinkle rose petals around the room, beautiful flowers, decorative lights, etc.

Make it a family affair and have the kids help with the set-up and decorating. Continue Reading

Pie Face Showdown Game | Whipped Cream Fun For All Ages

Princess Diana - January 10, 2017 - $20 or Less, Birthday, Christmas, Experiences, Kids

If it involves whipped cream, you know it’s going to be a fun time! I have a game that will entertain people age 2 to 102.

Are you ready to create some hysterical memories with your family and friends?

The Pie Face Showdown Game gives everyone the chance to throw whipped cream in someone’s face!

How you play Pie Face Showdown:

Two people compete by pushing the red button on their side as fast as they can to move the throwing arm loaded with whipped cream towards their opponent. When the loaded arm reaches either end, it pops up throwing the whipped cream SPLAT into the loser’s face.

My son and I played Pie Face Showdown with my sister’s family, and did we laugh and laugh! The players and everyone watching are giddy and excited to see who gets creamed. As you can see, we also ended up with hilarious photos of whipped cream splattered faces.

Share Memories Year Round With Custom Photo Calendar

Princess Diana - November 29, 2016 - Birthday, Christmas, Family, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Retirement

We all know that time flies, especially the older you get. So it’s important to preserve happy memories with photographs. Even better, share them with loved ones so they can enjoy them year round!

As a birthday gift for our mother, my siblings and I collaborated to give her a custom photo calendar.

We all provided pictures so the calendar would contain photos of ALL of her children and grandchildren. We also included group family photos from when we were together during the holidays.

Many websites make it easy peasy to design a personalized photo calendar with your own photos and text. Just pick a template, drag and drop photos, and you’re done! I created mine using Shutterfly.com.

Since you can choose the starting month of your photo calendar, you can give this gift at any time of the year. They make excellent gifts for birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and family exchanges.

Celebrate Obscure Holidays

Princess Diana - July 1, 2016 - $20 or Less, Business

Do you ever need a reason to celebrate? I’ve got hundreds of them for you.

Almost 365 reasons really because there exists an obscure holiday on almost every day of the year. How is this a thoughtful gift idea?

Because people will love you for turning an ordinary day into an unexpected celebration!

If you work in an office, you’ll be giving your co-workers an opportunity to take a break from staring at their computers to have a little bit of excitement and variety.

Take this scenario. It’s a typical Monday at the office. You surprise everyone with s’mores because it’s National S’mores Day! Your co-workers enjoy eating their delicious snack, and it makes them feel like a kid again thanks to you!

Bosses, supervisors and managers can use obscure holidays related to food (think Sundae Day and Pie Day!) to show some love to their employees.

On Popcorn Day, you could give your friends, family members or co-workers flavored popcorn. Oreo Popcorn is my favorite and it’s easy to make!

You could also place an unpopped bag of popcorn on your co-workers’ desks with a small note about it being National Popcorn Day. They’ll appreciate the snack and the fact that you thought of them, making it a thoughtful gift!

Here is a list of some obscure holidays that would be fun to celebrate. View a more comprehensive list.

LOTTO Fun for the Whole Family

Queen Darlene - December 24, 2015 - $20 or Less, Birthday, Christmas, Family, Party Favors, Retirement

Looking for a gift that is inexpensive but creates a “big bang for the buck?” Lottery tickets and scratch offs are fun and easy on the pocket book if you have lots of gifts to buy for Christmas.

A few years ago, my son just started his new job and was digging out of his school loan debts. He wanted to give everyone in the family a Christmas gift, and there are 15 of us.

Braden came up with the idea of purchasing $1 lottery tickets. He placed them inside money envelopes to completely keep the recipient off guard for a better surprise.

At the time, the lottery was sitting at $350 million – one of the largest jackpots in history. It was all over the news making quite a buzz.

The timing couldn’t have been better to give a lottery ticket of this magnitude. Everyone in my family talked about winning and what they would do with the money!

Open When… Envelopes

Princess Diana - October 6, 2015 - Anniversary, Birthday, Christmas, Father's Day, Gifts for Him, Money, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Wedding

There’s a reason “___ of the Month” clubs are so popular. People love opening surprise gifts on a regular basis!

Most gifts you can open only once. But not Open When… Envelopes.

Gift recipients will receive multiple envelopes containing gifts they’ll be able to open over a period of months!

For this gift idea, you simply need envelopes, cash and/or gift cards, and a printer. On each envelope, print a different “Open When…” scenario on the front. Here are some examples.

OPEN WHEN
… you need retail therapy.
… you don’t feel like cooking.
… you want to see a movie.
… you need pampering.
… you need gas.
… you’re craving ___. (Ex. Thai food, ice cream, fried chicken, etc.)
… you need a haircut.
… you run out of booze.
… you’re hungry.
… you’re thirsty.

Bachelorette Party Gift | Lipstick Kisses Picture Frame

Princess Diana - February 17, 2015 - $20 or Less, Wedding

I love the tradition of the Bachelorette Party. Having the bride’s girl friends all together for a girl’s night out is FUN FUN FUN!

Bachelorette Parties are also a big deal because friends will drive in or fly in from long distances for the special occasion of kissing the bachelorette’s single life goodbye!

lipstick-kisses-bachelorette-party-thoughtful-gift

BEFORE (click to enlarge)

For my best friend’s Bachelorette Party, I wanted a way for her to remember our fun weekend in Dallas and everyone who attended.

For her gift, I gave her a picture frame that said, “Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs to find your Prince Charming.”

When she opened it, I told her that wasn’t the entire gift. I said the picture frame has a wide mat so everyone can add their lipstick kiss to it and sign their name below their kiss. I also told her that she can later use the picture frame to hold a group photo of all the girls from her Bachelorette Party weekend.

Make Gift Shopping Simple With Free Gift Giving Apps

Princess Diana - November 26, 2014 - Catch All

People love it when you give them EXACTLY what they want. You’re being thoughtful.

The gift item they wish for could be a specific brand, model, color or size and if you give them something different, they might be disappointed.

But how are you supposed to know EXACTLY what your friend or family member wants? You’re not a mind reader after all.

The answer? There’s an app for that.

“I Love You” Jar Filled With Handwritten Notes

Princess Diana - August 26, 2014 - $20 or Less, Anniversary, Birthday, Family, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day

httpvh://youtu.be/B2vGtuKlluA

During a family reunion this summer, my family wanted to let my Grandma Anna Marie (our amazing matriarch) know just how much we love her and to thank her for bringing the whole family together. I came up with the idea to surprise her with an “I Love You” Jar.

jar and notes written on leaf-shaped paper

Fill any container with handwritten notes to create a sweet and sentimental “I Love You” jar gift.

I bought a beautiful glass jar (this one happened to be made of mercury glass) and some die-cut paper in the shape of leaves. The leaves represent our family tree.

During the family reunion when my Grandma was out of earshot, I asked everyone – even the little kids – to write Grandma Anna Marie handwritten notes on the leaves that said something along the lines of:

I love you because…
I remember when…
Because of you…
Thank you for…

That was just to get them started because really they could write anything that conveyed “I Love You.”