**I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. Come on, admit it! Everyone likes getting personal cards and letters in their mailbox. And, when you give gifts, isn't it an extra bonus to get a beautiful, thoughtful greeting card to go with the gift? And handing someone a gift card to a store or restaurant just seems a little more personal when it is packaged in a nice greeting card with a message, rather than just handing them the gift card all by itself. But, WOW! Have you checked the price on some of those greeting cards lately? They are approaching the price of the gift in some cases! I would rather put the $4.00-$7.00 I could spend on a greeting card towards a nicer gift! I know that some of you make your own cards. My niece makes beautiful cards and she has all of the supplies to make such beautiful ones for every occasion. I have made a few, but I am just not that talented person who can spend that much time and effort and money on supplies to get a gorgeous product, (like she does), for all of the events where the cards would be given. I truly applaud all of you handmade card makers out there. Those handmade cards are a gift in and of themselves as they are pieces of art and worth every penny you might spend on them. But, I am a grandma with grandchildren who live in 3 states. I love sending them greeting cards for various holidays and birthdays. It means so much to them to get mail of their own. That is why I am so excited to team up today with DollarTree and tell you about how they are saving my life (and my pocket book)! Starting today, you will be able to purchase high quality Hallmark Cards at Dollar Tree for just $1.00 and in some cases, 2 for $1.00! I know what you are thinking. Hallmark Cards for 50 cents? They must be some cheap knock-off version of the real thing. But you are thinking wrong! These are the real, high quality deal. The quality paper and the wonderful sentiments are all there. With hundreds of new greeting cards to choose from, you can celebrate every moment with your friends and family without breaking the bank! I have to show you this adorable one that goes right along with our 3 Winks Design theme! There are perfect cards for every occasion! Look at these! Don't you love the big eyes on that cow? And I love the sweet saying on the front of the blue baby card. "tiny laundry, tiny shoes, tiny smiles,...great big news!" I could just die over that! And those are just a few of the 2 for $1.00 cards from the Heartline collection. The Expressions from Hallmark line has bigger cards, or sometimes the licensed cards (like Disney) that are also a terrific value at just $1.00 each! Take a look! Now, the big news is that today, August 30th, more of the Hallmark lines are also available! You can find Mahogany, Vida, Tree of LIfe and joyfully yours collections all available at Dollar Tree! Here is a super sweet example from the joyfully yours collection: Have you ever stood for a really long time at the greeting card section of a store trying to pick out a card and finding it difficult to choose because so many of them touch you or make you laugh? Now you can afford to buy more than one and save it for the perfect occasion! I have to admit that I have gone a little nuts over being able to afford some great cards. We have made a little video to kind of spoof my excitement. Check it out here, we hope that you enjoy it! With over 6,500 Dollar Tree stores, nationwide, I hope that there is one close enough for you to visit and stock up on some awesome greeting cards! You can also go to www.DollarTree.com to check out the details. One great idea is to stock up on birthday cards and put them in an organizer so that you are ready to send your greetings out every month! Now that Hallmark cards are so inexpensive at DollarTree, this is so doable. Here is a cute organizer from Etsy, or come up with your own! Have fun getting ready to hand out all of your best wishes, with a lot of help from DollarTree and Hallmark!
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**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. But, all opinions expressed are my own.
Now that my children are all graduated from high school, and this year, no one is even in college I feel a certain freedom as I watch everyone who still is in the midst of the back to school rush. I am not even substitute teaching anymore, so I have no "getting ready for school to start" worries at all! I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said that I don't miss it a bit. So, I am going to share some economical ways to finish getting your kids ready to go back to school by revamping a post that I did a couple of years ago. Consider this my homework and my way to get the back to school bug out of my system. I hope that it helps those of you still scrambling to get the last minute things that you need.
In AZ, school starts much earlier than in many other parts of the country. It seems strange because it is so much hotter here, you would think we could allow kids to enjoy their swimming pools just a little bit longer. On the upside, we do get out at the end of May, which is always nice.
Even though school has already started for many of you Arizonans, I know usually there are always a few little things that kids need that we forgot to pick up before school started. DollarTree was always my go to store for those last minute needs. Here are a few of the top items I love for back to school:
Now that DollarTree has their Jot brand of supplies, they are getting cuter and cuter! Like these composition books! Yes, they still have the regular black and white ones, but these are so darn cute! I would have loved these as a student!
A 4 pack of pocket folders for $1.00! These come in handy for students and teachers throughout the year. Keep notes in them, turn in reports, use them as homework folders or unfinished work folders in desks. The list goes on and on! If you want to make a donation to your child's classroom, these folders would really be appreciated. Teachers need them for so many things! When you order them online, they come 30 units in a pack. That is 120 folders for only $30.00!
For younger grades, look at these adorable animal folders! They come 2 in a pack! I love the owl and I know some kids who would love the unicorn!
Don't forget to have a study place for your children at home! Pencil holders can help keep things in order and help eliminate the search for pencils everyday at homework time!
For your little one's desk at home, you could try this idea:
I found that ideahere and you can find dinosaurs at DollarTree here.
I always liked students to have a hand pencil sharpener at their desk for colored pencils and so that they aren't always up sharpening at the noisy sharpener. These little owl sharpeners are my choice of course, but there are many other choices at DollarTree as well. They come in a 2 pack.
Flash Cards are a great thing to have at home to help your children hone their basic facts and skills. There are multiple kinds available at DollarTree. Make it a game to use them with your kids and learning becomes more fun and you will help them be more successful at school.
I could go on and on telling you about the myriad of useful things you can find at Dollar Tree.
The list goes on and on! So, don't overlook DollarTree for a one stop shop for back to school! If ordering in bulk online doesn't fit your needs, you can always just stop by their stores! But, don't forget that classroom donations are always appreciated. So much comes out of a teachers own pocket, that a little help in the school supply department is always great!
There, that is my back to school work done! But, seriously, enjoy these days with your kids because they go by very quickly! Do all that you can to help them be successful and you will be so glad that you did when they are older, and so will they.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support.
This post was originally written for Memorial Day last year. It has been a busy, crazy time for my girls and I the past few weeks, so I didn't get to repost this for you in time for Memorial Day this year. We all spent that weekend much differently than we did last year, but we did take the time to remember the meaning of this holiday. Since it will only be a few weeks until July 4th, this post is still appropriate and I hope that you can use some of the ideas and inspiration that I shared.
Memorial Day and Independence Day are special to me. There are many veterans in my family and one of my Uncles gave the ultimate sacrifice as he trained to help keep our land free. It nearly broke my Dad's heart for him to lose his brother and he kept the newspaper clipping in his wallet for the rest of his life. My Dad served in WWII and rarely spoke of his experiences there. While traveling with my husband lately, he talked to me about his time in Viet Nam, recalling some frightening moments there and I am so grateful that his life was preserved. I am so grateful for the freedoms that we have that have been bought with a tremendous price throughout history and for those who continue to sacrifice so much to serve and defend in this world of turmoil. It does seem odd that we celebrate such a sober holiday as Memorial Day with backyard barbecues and swim parties. But, it is because of those who fought and died for our freedom that we are able to do the things we do the way we do them. We can travel from state to state without hindrance. We can buy the food that we want to eat. We can celebrate the way we want to celebrate and observe our religious customs in any way we choose to do so. This is not the case in many places in the world. What a glorious blessing it is to live in this free country. To prepare for a Patriotic Celebration, with swimming, grilling and family, I headed to Dollar Tree to pick up most of what I needed. I was so excited about the things I found there to help get everyone ready for the patriotic holidays. Here are the things that I brought home with me!
, One of the things that caught my eye right away was, of course, the sparkly beaded ribbon. (You can see it in the photo above.) They had it in red, white & blue! I knew I had to do something with it! If you buy a supply of it on line, there are 32 rolls of ribbon in a case. I picked up 3 rolls at the Dollar Tree in my neighborhood. I decided that I would make a printable with a saying that I love to put on display in our tablescape. Here is what I did, click on the pictures:
You can download and copy the print for your own use by clicking the button.
Our family likes to celebrate with a barbecue and for dessert, some ice cream is in order! Look at the ideas I got from walking into Dollar Tree!
I love the battery powered star light strands that I put on the tiered server! You can't beat the price. If you want to order a case, there are 24 in a case!
If you have a large family, you can order all of your supplies online and have them delivered for free to your local store. Just go to the Dollar Tree website to check it out.
These ideas would be great for July 4th as well! Here is a slide show with some images just to give you an idea of what I did. I will expand on this at the family party.
The end result of an ice cream sundae was so delicious! It looked good and tasted good! I think that the end result speaks for itself!
I think the ice cream bar is going to be a hit, with a little help from Dollar Tree!
Like our free printable? There are more available to you when you subscribe to us on the newsletter.
Hope you are having a cool summer so far!
I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. All opinions of the products are my own. Thank you for your support.
If you pay attention at all to what is going on in education today, you have probably heard a lot about STEM. In an effort to make students more competitive in today's world, a lot of emphasis is being placed on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Those are the jobs that will provide the best income today and in the future and those are the areas where jobs will be available.
STEM is a interdisciplinary and applied approach to learning these subjects. In other words, these subjects are taught all mixed together, with hands-on learning. I feel that this is the most sensible and effective approach to teaching and learning. I have found as I look at STEM activities, they actually include things that we have always seen children play, but now we can see that these activities have practical purposes. My daughter, Alicia is a Science Teacher and she also has two very young children of her own. She is already trying to make sure that they are starting out with STEM activities to get their minds working at a young age. Recently, she and her family were visiting us in Phoenix and we took a trip to Dollar Tree where we shopped for STEM activities for my grandchildren's Easter Baskets. Dollar Tree has great products that help kids develop STEM skills. They’re perfect for an Easter basket because although they’re educational, they’re fun! And, BONUS, everything only costs $1.00! We put together two Easter Baskets full of Dollar Tree goodies! One geared toward younger kids (from toddler age). And one for older kids (upper elementary age).
I actually filmed a video of my daughter explaining how our choices fit into the STEM categories. But, before I show you that, let me show you a few of my favorite choices here:
I love these question and answer science books available at Dollar Tree! They come in various subjects and are full of information. Not only are there science books, but also history books. There are a total of 6 different books. My oldest grandson loves non-fiction science books and these are perfect for him. The whole set would be perfect for a classroom and you can't beat the price. If you order them online, they come in a case of 36 books, so that is enough to share among a few classrooms.
Even your Easter Candy can be STEM related with these Jurassic World Dino Eggs filled with candy! My grandson who just turned 3 has been able to name almost all of the different types of dinosaurs for awhile. I am so impressed with him. Now he will be able to name them and eat them!
There are a couple of varieties of these Growing Crystals kits that are so fascinating for the whole family to watch! Science in action! Once again, if you order them online, you get 24 in a case, so an entire classroom could do this project.
Of course, not everything has to be STEM! We loved the Easter Egg shaped baskets and the Chocolate Scented Plush Bunnies available at Dollar Tree as well!
There are so many more choices, so watch the video and Alicia will explain them all to you! At the beginning she will show the basket for younger ages and then the older elementary one comes after that, so stay tuned.
So, there you go! Expand your children's minds, get them excited about fun "toys" and it is all at an affordable price! That is one full Easter Basket! The great thing is that you can either order them online or go to the store and see all of the fun Easter things on Dollar Tree's shelves now! |
Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
April 2024
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