April Easter Love Notes

Last year I created loads of Easter Love Notes and ran out of time to share them.  So I'm hoping to be really early this year! :)  I've got so many ideas it's hard to remember them all and post them on time. I still have a few other love notes I'll be sharing later this month but hopefully this bunch can give you some inspiration in the mean time!

To start we've got the tag Cottontails!  perfect for anything bunny bottom related like cotton candy, specifically Cotton Tails cotton candy.

Or these delicious Raffaello treats that look just like cottontails!

These little treats are SO yummy! If you love coconut like me be sure to grab them!  I think it would be so cute with the box of them above or just a couple so you can save some for yourself!

The next two are perfect for anything bunny or peep themed!

Of course you can pair it with a package of Peeps.

I've seen Peep bubble bath, bubbles, stuffed toys, so many different peep options now a days!

I love this tag!  Perfect for any one of your peeps!  It can be paired with any of the above mentioned ideas as well!

I tried to think of the most obvious Easter things and I had to include eggs.  I found these spotted gold plastic eggs in the Dollar Bin at Target, I found a different option at Target HERE.

I would love to receive a decoration for my house any time really so a holiday is absolutely perfect timing in my book to receive holiday decor!  And look how cute the container is that it came in!

I found these adorable bunny plastic eggs at Dollar Tree but you can find them HERE as well.

How cute would it be to fill a couple and give them with a tag or buy a package for them and help them with their Easter prep!

When I was younger I loved these cute bubblegum easter eggs!  How cute would that be for nieces and nephews or your friends kids!  You can find the bubblegum eggs HERE!

Any age would love a mini package of Cadbury chocolate eggs.  Or a full bag!  

Any of these tag/gift ideas are perfect for drop by gifts to family, friends, sweet elderly friends, those going through a hard time, ministering sisters, there are so many people that could use a little cheerful reminder.

How cute is this bunny tag?  I wanted to give you a little glimpse of how some of my Easter decorations looked last year.  And remind you that these tags can be used as decoration too!

More cotton candy is never a problem.  This bunny cotton candy is from Target!

These fun Tic Tac Toe bunny boards were from Walmart.

I totally love these bunny sprinkles!! Can you even handle the cuteness!?!

Everyone loves chocolate right.  Chocolate bunnies are another yummy options and these  Ghirardelli chocolate bunnies are so good! I found the tiny chocolate and caramel bunnies at Smith's.

I also love these Bunny marshmallows.  They are in bunny shape!!! And multi colored!  Love  it!

Remember these tags are FREE and great for friends, family, neighbors, church members, thinking of you notes, teachers, or handouts for school or church.  I hope you can find someone that could use one (or a few) of these tags! Print them right below!

Cottontail- tag

Just wanted to hop by and see my favorite peep!-tag

I'm so glad you're one of my peeps.-tag

You are Egg-ceptional, hope you have an Eggs-tra special day!-tag

You are some bunny special.  Remember some bunny loves you!-tag

This post may contain affiliate links but all opinions are my own.

Flower of Faith Young Women Lesson

This lesson could not have hit closer to what I needed to study about.  Faith is such a powerful and needed thing.  I hope you enjoy this lesson outline and handout as much as I did preparing them!

I started with introducing the topic and asking for the girls participation.  My class is full of the sweetest girls but they don't like to talk very much!! haha I bought a box of Pink and White flower cookies from Trader Joe's and told them every time they talked they got a cookie.  I'm not above bribery and it actually did help the participation!  At the end I let everyone have one small cookie if they wanted but the people that participated got more.

We talked about how our faith must be centered on Jesus Christ.  When we have faith we trust Him and obey His commandments.  Faith is powerful and its expressed by our actions and how we live.

I compared faith to a tiny flower seed.  Sometimes we don't have a lot of faith, and that's ok-as long as we have something it can always grow!! I had a big flower on the board that I made with different color card stock paper that showed the girls the topics we we'd be learning about that day.  I used extra large paper so the girls could see it easily but this could be done with regular sized paper really easily!

I'll quickly go over what we talked about.  

Plant your faith

Start small if you have to.  You have to take action and plant and nurture that seed of faith yourself.  That see will turn into a beautiful faith flower if you take care of it.  You don't want the weeds of fear and doubt to take over.

Take Action

We read James 1:5-6 then talked about how faith without works is not really doing anything.  It's like just buying a pack of seeds and expecting them to grow without doing all the hard work.  

Examples of faith

We talked about their personal experiences with faith and when they needed it most.  Then we talked about examples of faith that they have seen in their lives or in the scriptures.  We also watched this Courage video of courageous women.

Nurture your faith

We talked about Fearful Fiona vs. Faithful Felicity and I passed out this worksheet to all of them.  I wanted them to compare and see it for themselves.  I left room at the bottom so they could add and take notes.  We talked about how just like we nurture small seeds so they can turn into beautiful flowers, how can we "nurture" our faith?  Ex:  go to church, follow the Savior,  keep the commandments, pray, etc.)  We talked about how both girls are great and we all have moments of both, but Felicity knows how to handle life and the challenges that come her way.  Felicity is happy and stronger in the long run.  Since we already watched a video I told them to watch Men's Heart Shall Fail Them at home.  It's an amazing video that is one of my absolute favorites!

Harvest/Blessings that come from faith

President Monson said, "Our promised blessings are beyond measure.  Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge o the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Faher and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us...as we walk uprightly.  ... There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us.  

We ended by talking about the blessings that come from having faith, like deeper understanding, better things coming, patience, miracles, empathy, hope, positivity)

Just because we have faith doesn't mean our life will be easy or void of challenges.  

It will just help us GROW!  

I of course stuck with the flower theme and made flower pens for each girl.  They are SO easy.  I placed a small dot of glue at the top of the pen with a cut fake flower and started wrapping the pen.  Once I got to the bottom I cut the tape and placed another glue dot to hold.You can find flower tape, pens, and fake flowers at the dollar store or you can click each one of those and I've linked an online option.  I tied them all with some ribbon and attached this little poem that you can find below.  I also gave them each a flower of faith sticker that they could put in their journal.  

If you'd like to find the free printables you can find them all below!

Flower of Faith tag

Flower of Faith sticker

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

Take 5 Cake and Brownies

This Take 5 Cake is what my dreams are made of.  Chocolate cake, dreamy peanut butter buttercream, caramel, chocolate ganache, a bit of pretzels and chopped Take 5 bars for good measure make this cake over the top delicious!

We followed the recipe at Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons, but we did make a few adjustments like using my favorite Peanut Butter Frosting recipe that I'll share below.  

A few things that I hope to remember when I make this cake next time, because there will definitely be a next time!  I did not put the coffee granules in, honestly I'd probably find another chocolate cake recipe I like more-this was good but not great.  I would freeze my cake layers in plastic wrap for even just an hour to help them set and be able to cut a clean slice.  We also put caramel, ganache, pretzels, and chopped Take 5 bars in the middle layer to pack in even more goodness!  I piped the buttercream for a pretty look and I think it worked, I used a Wilton 1M tip and a large round tip-next time I'll also use a open star tip.  I just need to remember to hand mix my frosting for a minute after beating it in the Kitchen Aid and maybe add a dash of milk to make it super smooth.

We made this to celebrate Dallin's birthday with family, but you would have thought it was Olivia's birthday by how excited she got!  She loves blowing out candles and the Happy Birthday song.

People are still raving about this cake and wishing  

we'd make another one and we just made it 1 week ago!  

We had so many leftover ingredients I wanted to use them up and I couldn't get Take 5 brownies off my mind.  I used a box brownie mix and before I baked them I added a handful or so to mini chocolate chips to the top and baked them as directed on the box.  I let them cool down completely and then started layering my ingredients.  

I stored my peanut butter buttercream in the fridge so I let it come to room temperature then I put it in my kitchen aid and fluffed it back up with a paddle attachment.  I layered that on first, then the caramel, pretzel pieces, chopped Take 5 bars, and then the chocolate ganache.  They were truly amazing and it jazzed up a box brownie mix like no other!!  My favorite boxed brownie mix is the Truffle Brownie Mix from Trader Joe's seriously amazing!!  If you use that one you don't even have to put chocolate chips on the top. Find my all time favorite go to peanut butter frosting below!

Peanut Butter Dream Buttercream

1 C. unsalted butter, softened for 30 minutes

1 C. Skippy creamy peanut butter

1 T. vanilla
Pinch of salt

5 C. powdered sugar, sifted

1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
Milk (if needed)

Cream butter in stand mixer.  Once butter is creamy, add peanut butter and mix until creamed together.  Add in vanilla, salt and powdered sugar slowly to combine on low.  Mix heavy cream in on high then use a wooden spoon to beat out air pockets.  Add a tablespoon or more of milk if needed to thin down.

March Love Notes

I'm so excited to share a few adorable little Love Notes with you all.  Like every "Love Note" I make there are plenty of small gift options to pair with the tags and each tag is a free printable you can find at the end of the post.  I love to share them with you all for free to make it easy to spread some LOVE!  There are so many people in the world and they all need love so print out one of the tags below and deliver it to someone thats on your mind.  If you need some help thinking of someone you could give them to your ministering/visiting teaching sisters, ward member, friend, sibling, parent, child, mail man, the list could go on forever seriously!  I wanted to share these before St. Patrick's D-day because they are perfect for giving on the 17th but even after (or before) would be perfect!!

This 'Lucky to know you!' tag would be adorable paired with a mini leprechaun hat found at the Target Dollar Spot, or online option HERE.

Or a small pot of chocolate gold coins would be so festive.  Small black pots found HERE and chocolate gold coins found HERE.

A small bag or even a box of Lucky Charms would be adorable too!  Find a super cute individualized option HERE!

Next tag is "Cutest clover in the Patch!"  how adorable.  Love that this can be paired with any clover or shamrock thing.  A little house plant, this cute clover dish from Dollar Tree full of gold coins would be so cute.  Find the online option HERE for the plastic clover dish.

A clover cookie cutter would be a great reusable, can be used for so many things, and a great small size!  Find an online shamrock cookie cutter HERE!

A super cute option my mom thought of would be a little table top decoration.  We got these clover jars at the Dollar Spot at Target last year, the Happy St. Patrick's Day flag at Target this year, and I got the white flowers at Dollar Tree!  Total of $3 for the cutest home decoration!  

Next tag is the "I'm over the rainbow that we're friends!".  This would be so cute paired with anything rainbow themed.  THESE rainbow suckers are so cute and delicious!

Which got me thinking of last years march tags.  You can find them HERE!  Find this tag and another adorable rainbow tag at that link.  Great options for even more gift ideas.

I love that these tags can work with SO many different little gift ideas.  It doesn't have to be specific or elaborate.  

Last but definitely not least my favorite tag of the year, "Your friendship is worth more than a pot of gold!".  Perfect with another small pot of gold with gold coins or a small bag of chocolate gold coins!  

There are so many tag options that I hope you can find one that you just love.  

Find the March Tags below:

"Lucky to know you!" tag

"Cutest clover in the patch!" tag

"I'm over the rainbow that we're friends!" tag

"Your friendship is worth more than a pot of gold!" tag

See my other Love Notes below:

January Ideas

"Friends are like snowflakes" tag

"Happy New Year" tag

"I won't flake out on you." tag

February Ideas

"I love that we are friends."  tag

"You make my heart soar!" tag

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

Key to my Heart Date Night In Box

Another month, another Date Night In Box.  I love that we have this on hand to have a special night in together, no matter what the time.  This box made me feel so sophisticated and European!  I loved it!  The theme for this box was Key to my Heart.  

Let's get into this box!  Included in this box:  two pre-made crepes, Aromabeads, The Five Love Languages Quiz, Key to my Heart Adventure game cards, Parisian Password Game, and Love Letters for two.

It's always so fun to read about our box and get a feel for what's inside.  There are so many options we decided to stick with just a couple of the ideas for one date night and save the rest for another date night in!  I love that this is a box that keeps on giving!

We started with the Key to my Heart Adventure game.  It was surprisingly tricky but really fun!  I loved getting into the game.  We had to uncover hints and puzzles in order to guess the answer.

Then we read up about Parisian Password Game, so easy to learn and SO fun!  I could play this kind of word game for hours. 

You had to give one word hints to the other person to help them guess the word on the card.  All iconic Parisian things, it was so fun to think of different ways to describe things we were really familiar with and not so familiar with. 

We finished this date night with crepes!  Warmed them up for 15 seconds in the microwave and we were transported to a  French cafe in an instant.  One had a chocolate/hazelnut and the other had strawberry.  We love crepes and we love making them ourselves but if you're in a pinch these remade ones were fun to try.

We plan to have another date night with The Five Love Languages Quiz and writing love letters to each other.  I love that this box doesn't just have to be one date night-it can be many!!  If you'd like to learn more about Date Night In Boxes you can go HERE!

I did receive this box for free from Date Night In Boxes for reviewing purposes.  I'm so grateful I can share things I love with you!