How to Raise a Monarch Butterfly

This summer I've been sharing stories on Instagram about this little adventure of ours and I thought I'd write a blog post on how to raise a Monarch butterfly. If you assume it would be a task you just don't have time for, I encourage you to read this post! I didn't think I wanted to do it at first, but now that I know how easy it is to do, I'd definitely do it again!

It all started when the girls came home from a visit to their grandparents' house. They got their caterpillars while out on a nature walk there. Their grandma helped them to get jars, mesh, and leaves to get them started.

"We Love You" Jar

This Fall-themed "We Love You" Jar fits right in with the coming season, but it could of course be altered slightly to work for any time of the year. 

A few years ago when our friend Charity had a birthday during October, we left her a little surprise on her doorstep. We gave her some Pumpkin Spice candies and wanted to do something a little more personal than just candies, so we came up with this personalized "We Love You" Jar:

If you'd like to recreate it, or make your own version, here's what we did:

Apple Shaped Oreo Cheesecake Truffles

With Fall around the corner, it felt like the right time to share these Apple Shaped Oreo Cheesecake Truffles! I have a recipe for you, but don't feel you have to make them look like apples- they're good with any coloured coating, fancy-looking or not!

It's been nearly 10 years since I threw my sister a School Themed bridal shower, and made these Oreo cheesecake truffles, dressed up to look like apples! They were so cute and it's time to revisit that recipe!

My mom & I worked together on these with a recipe from a friend of ours that is so simple & so delicious! Want to try them? I thought so! ;)

The First 2 Weeks of the 2020 Pandemic

Allow me to take you back into my journal for a few snippets from early March- specifically, the first 2 weeks of isolating at home, due to the pandemic of 2020!

Wednesday, March 11th

The World Health Organization declared the Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Gooey Marshmallow Brownie Recipe

We're still staying in a lot and entertaining ourselves at home so it feels like the perfect time to re-share this marshmallow brownie recipe! Brownies have been a repeated treat for us over here ever since this pandemic hit! We've been making microwave mug brownies pretty often, Talia found a homemade brownies-from-scratch recipe with frosting that she has perfected, and recently we pulled out a brownie mix and added some mix-ins. I noticed this marshmallow brownie topping idea on my blog from exactly 3 years ago to the day, and thought it needed to come to the front of the blog again! ;)

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All you need are some marshmallows and chocolate chips to take your regular brownies from good to amazing! I'm impressed by how the marshmallow layer on top of these brownies stays soft even after the brownies are cool. We love adding some extra deliciousness to a simple brownie mix!

Marshmallow Brownie Recipe

First Time Beard Care - Urban Beard Giveaway

A few weeks ago I found myself typing "first time beard care" into a search engine. Our family had been in self isolation for several weeks because of the pandemic and Ken had a pretty healthy "isolation beard" growing. He was happy with its growth but finding it itchy and scratchy! The time had come to learn more about how experienced beard owners take care of their hair!

Ken ordered a boar bristle brush and some beard balm online and when they arrived, we were both disappointed. The brush worked well but the balm didn't seem to do much for his beard except to make it smell terrible! It was so bad that he sent it back and I started doing research into beard brands. I came upon Urban Beard, a Canadian company based in Toronto that makes their own original, handcrafted products in-house.

We knew Ken wasn't the only dad growing his first time beard in isolation, so we got our hands on some Urban Beard products so Ken could try them and we could report back to you on his experience. This post has the details, his recommendations on products and product use, a video, and a giveaway where you could win some Urban Beard products for your own partner, as a belated Father's Day gift!