Adding seasonal decorations to my home is maybe my favorite part of being a parent. Don’t get me wrong it’s definitely not the only thing, but creating an atmosphere to make the most of each season is something I love! One of the easiest ways I have found to spruce up my kiddos rooms is a refresh to their bookshelves.

Today, for my Friday Faves, I am sharing our most recent list of books we have for each room! I have every single book linked in my Amazon Halloween List HERE alongside additional decor, you can find the link for the clear bookshelves HERE, the link for the dollhouse bookshelf HERE and if you prefer the LTK app you can find a roundup of books and cute skeletons HERE!

For more details on the bookshelves I would love for you to check out my Instagram Reel HERE!

I would love to know, are seasonal and holiday themed books part of your decor in your home? Do you love a themed bookshelf as much a I do? If so, I would love to hear some of your favorite Halloween books below!

A couple more notes 🙂

Our amazing wooden signs are from Against the Grain. An amazing small business that hand cuts and hand crafts each piece with love. Their Fall and Halloween collections are sold out, but their Mistletoe + Holly collections releases today! If you are looking for bookshelf or room decor, gift tags (yes acrylic and wood personalized tags) and more check out their site HERE!

As always, when I talk about any brand I won’t share it if I don’t own it, or love it. From Against the Grain I earn nothing by sharing this small business. It is one that I simply love and hope that you love it too!

However, when you shop from any of my Amazon or LTK links I am earning a small commission. The cost of the product is not more for you, but the commission exchange happens between the retailer and myself, through the affiliate link you likely clicked on! Most of these links are only tied to me for 10-15 minutes from your initial click. As an entrepreneur I am in the business of affiliate marketing and appreciate you shopping my favorites through my links!  

Thank you for reading, shopping, sharing and engaging in my posts! I hope you love them as much as I love sharing them!

It’s that time! You have all you need for your little one, but there is one person left to greet for the new year – your teacher!

A fun fact about me is that I have a minor in education! I am a teacher at heart and have always held a special place for teachers close. Now, as a parent my appreciation for the amazing educators in our lives is even bigger.

One thing I love to do is to get a list of their favorite things. This helps me give thanks most intentionally throughout the year. I have refined this the past few years and this year am so happy with everything it covers! I simply tucked the questionnaire in the back for their first day basket so it was ready to go.

I love a good gift, and I love to give a first day gift to our teachers! This year we gave a personalized (with my Crucit) tumbler with lid (I have gifted this cups for 3 years now and love them), the most amazing hand sanitizer (spoiler, it’s also a moisturizer and FDA approved), a personalized cookie and a gift card for dinner. The tag for our gift basket gives a nod to dinner. Take a look below for our teacher gifts and for the free downloads of my printables!

TIP: Punch a hole in your DINNER ON US tag if adding it to a gift. Simply loop the hang tag or ribbon through it to attach to your gift basket, box or bag.

NOTE: Please check with your school. There are some PTO/PTA groups that keep a favorite things list for each teacher on file and the homeroom teacher has that information.

TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE
Simply click on the image to save it and print it from your printer. Don’t forget to add your teachers name and to sign the sheet from your kiddo so the teacher knows who to return it to!

If you are looking for a fun gift to add to your teacher questionnaire I crafted this little dinner on us gift card tag to tie on our baskets. I also made a stand alone card for a place to secure your gift card if that might be helpful to you!

We went with Chick-fil-A gift cards and when I polled what your first day of school traditions are a teacher added Chick-fil-A or Pizza for dinner because of how busy of a day it is. I’m fairly certain I made a good gift card choice!

DINNER ON US TAG
Simply click on the image to save it and print it from your printer. Don’t forget to add your teachers name and to sign the gift from you!

I always love to see what you all come up with! Leave me a comment here with your first day teacher gift ideas or take me on social media @ChristinaLeighFrederick and @TheHelpfulHost so that I can celebrate with you!

If you’re new around here it might not take you long to realize that I love a good celebration. When it’s a celebration for a well deserving person, or group of people, it makes the fanfare that much more exciting!

I’ve linked all of the supplies you beed ON AMAZON HERE, but these adorable cookies came from SIFT AND SWIRL in Houston, Texas. I would challenge you to find a local, small business that you could support when gifting to teachers and service people in your area. It’s a win all around!

To create this craft:
1. Grab all of your supplies and lay out your letters on your board for spacing.
2. Punch out the top of your paper cache letters so that you create a cavity to fill with all of your candy.
3. Gorilla glue your letters to your board and let dry.
4. Line your letters with parchment paper. This step is key of you plan to leave any of the candy, fruit. cheese, etc unwrapped.
5. Add your treats! I like to color block so I made sure to space out all of the colors.
6. Top with miniature cookies or embellishments.
7. Don’t forget to sign your board and include any nutrition information that would need to be added.

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What do you think? Will you be giving this a try for your teachers this week, or to celebrate the end of the year? Tag @TheHelpfulHost on Instagram if you do!

xo Christina

It’s safe to say we love books around here! My little sister dubbed me a “bookworm” growing up. In fifth grade I was on an independent reading program because I was reading at an eighth grade reading level. Needless to say I hope my children learn a love of books from their mama!

One way that I love to make reading fun is to change out the books they visually see often, and the most fun reason to do that is for the holidays!

With our next holiday being St. Patrick’s Day I grabbed a lot of their colorful core books and added in a few rainbows!

You can see that with Charlotte’s bookshelf I color blocked her books, and on Barrett’s shelves I mixed all of the colors around!

You can find all of the books LINKED HERE on my AMAZON STOREFRONT. You can also shop Charlotte’s house bookshelf and additional items HERE on my LTK ACCOUNT. You can also find Betty Confetti, Charlotte’s doll, and her autographed book at All She Wrote Notes, LINKED HERE.

Do you change your children’s bookshelves around for the holidays, or see one of your favorite books on these shelves? I would love for you to share in the comments below!

I can’t believe we are here. Truth be told after having our first little guy I was dead set that the Lord had it written in my story that I was set to be a boy mom. We had boy names, knew what we were going to do and then I heard my doctor, “it’s a girl.” I was shocked and overwhelmed, but had no clue how hard it would be to name a precious baby girl.

If you read this post you know that we like to add meaning to our kiddos names. Blair and I like strong names rooted in family. With Barrett we knew his middle name before his first, so why not start that way again.

Truth be told there are two women in my life that I wouldn’t be who I am today without. Two women who shaped me to my core.
My mom, Wendy Eileene, who taught me that I could be anything I wanted to be, to fight for your individuality and to push through no matter the circumstances. She taught me that it’s not always about the crown, but the journey – and that God’s plan is always worth the storm.
My moms mom and my Grammy, Eileene Marguerite, was the second leading lady in my life. I spent summers in her south Houston home. She taught be how to waltz around her library table, taught me that proper vocabulary (thank you to my nightly hooked on phonics lesson and Wheel of Fortune with bowl of ice cream) was something you had to work for. She taught me how to paint and cherish classics like Anne of Green Gables that we checked out from the library. The biggest lesson of all was that you were always better off volunteering for causes close to your heart, and getting involved in your community and church.

Two women, one name. Eileene it was. The perfect middle name for a precious baby girl.

Next up was a first name. We wanted a name that was timeless, and would fit with her middle name. Blair and Barrett are both B names so Blair had the suggestion to go with a C name so she would have a tie to me. In addition to the C we landed on a 9-letter name (like the 9-letters in Christina) and finished with the perfect sibling pairing; the double-t that you find in Barrett.

Welcome to the world Charlotte Eileene Frederick. You have captured our hearts already and we can’t wait to see how you make your mark on this big, big world. We hope you grow up with a servants heart, a peace to stand firm in who you are and a love for your family – because we sure love you.