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DIY Hot Cocoa Cone Favors

DIY · Good Eats · Wedding

DIY Hot Cocoa Cone Favors

I wanted to post this before the wedding, but I also didn’t want to ruin the surprise for any guests who may read this blog. We had a hard time…

Read More DIY Hot Cocoa Cone Favors

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🥳 When your mom retires after working for 48 ye

🥳 When your mom retires after working for 48 years at the same place, you fly across the world to throw her a surprise party!

While she knew I was in town with the kids, she had no idea she was walking into her own party for dinner one evening.

Her reaction was priceless (as was my audible sigh of relief 18 seconds in when I realized we actually pulled the whole thing off).

Lying to your mother isn’t something I recommend (or for the faint of heart), but this was the one time I made an exception. Our elaborate misdirects totally paid off.

Happy retirement, Mom! I can’t wait to celebrate with you in Europe next month and see what fun things you do with the rest of your time off.

-—

*BIG thanks to my brother and SIL. Chris and Amanda were the real MVPs of pulling this whole thing off.

**If you’re in Albuquerque I HIGHLY recommend checking out @tomatocafe_abq—they were remarkable and so helpful. They’re a family favorite of ours. We love eating there and it was a fantastic spot to hold our party!

#jesstagirlinnewmexico #surpriseparty #celebrationtime #LoveWhatMatters #GoodNews #family

🌟SLOW YOUR SCROLL and look closely!! ⁠ ⁠ Do

🌟SLOW YOUR SCROLL and look closely!! ⁠
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Do you see what I see? That's my daughter looking at pieces of amber from millions of years ago. And inside that amber is—wait for it—insects...like mosquitos 🦟.⁠
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...I'm waiting for it to click. Has it clicked yet? (if you haven't yet, swipe to see more pics)⁠
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FRIENDS! When we were in Lithuania we went to an amber museum in a town called Palanga 🌕⁠
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🦖 Basically, if we were ever to make a real-life Jurassic Park, THIS is where they'd get the mosquito from! ⁠
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Okay, pop culture (and me freaking out) aside, our excursion to this amber museum was really, really cool. ⁠
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💛 Amber is known as "Baltic Gold," and I can totally see why now. Here's a quick history lesson:⁠
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Amber is essentially resin from fossilized pine sap, and 60 million years ago there was a pine forest in the (present-day) Baltic Sea. Sap dripped onto the forest floor and eventually fossilized. Due to the motion of the ocean (and millions of years of evolution), amber is still being found washed up on the Baltic shores. ⁠
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We saw pieces of amber from around 50 MILLION years ago, which clearly blew my mind. ⁠
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I had no idea about amber before visiting the museum, so I'm really glad we checked it out. If you're ever in the area I highly recommend stopping there. ⁠
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⫸⫸ Do you own any amber? I didn't up until our trip there. Now I love the uniqueness and different hues amber comes in!⁠
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📍Palanga is about 3.5 hrs from Vilnius, Lithuania's capital, and only 30 minutes from the port town of Klaipėda. See more about Palanga on my blog -- 🔗 in bio! ⁠
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🌕 SAVE NOW, TRAVEL LATER⁠
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follow @jesstagirl for more fun around Europe.⁠⁠⁠
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#jesstagirlinLithuania #visitPalanga #Klaipėda #realisbeautiful #lithuania #klaipeda #balticcruise #baltics #balticcountries #klaipedaassutavim #familycruise #familycruising #cruisefamily #cruisewithkids #americanineurope #travelwithkids

🙌 Three cheers for this Lithuanian welcome wago

🙌 Three cheers for this Lithuanian welcome wagon! (Sound on!!) ⁠
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Last summer we went on a Baltic cruise, and as we stepped off the ship in Klaipėda, Lithuania, this local traditional music group welcomed us into their country. 🥰⁠
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Listening to them—even for a short time—filled me with joy and made such a great first impression! ⁠
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Y'all, I'm not gonna lie. Lithuania was never been on my radar before, but after being there it's totally on my list of places to visit again. ⁠
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Klaipėda is a small port town that you can easily see in a day—it's charming and casual, and it was remarkably clean and well-manicured everywhere. ⁠
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You can tell that they take great pride in their culture, city, and country. ⁠
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We actually also went on an excursion to another city with our cruise line that day (more on that later), but we had time to walk around the city when we got back. ⁠
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We found a market in old town, bought some amber, had a delicious lunch, and strolled around town until we had to get back to the port. ⁠
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....And when I got back on the ship later that evening I realized that 90% of the pictures I took from around Klaipėda never actually made it on my phone 🥺. My phone ran out of space and didn't save the majority of what I took. I'm super bummed but thankful for the ones that remained. ⁠
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I would LOVE to explore Lithuania more; Klaipėda was such a great first taste of a wonderful country!⁠
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If you want to see more from our day in Lithuania and a sneak peek of the SUPER COOL place we also visited, head to my blog (🔗 in bio) to read the post about it! ⁠
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⫸⫸ Is Lithuania on your radar now? Keep an eye out for more posts from this area; I still have more to share! ⁠
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🛳 SAVE NOW, TRAVEL LATER⁠
———⤹⤹———⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
follow @jesstagirl for more fun around Europe.⁠⁠⁠
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#jesstagirlinLithuania #Klaipėda #realisbeautiful #lithuania #klaipeda #balticcruise #baltics #balticcountries #klaipedaassutavim #familycruise #familycruising #cruisefamily #cruisewithkids #americanineurope #travelwithkids

🌍✈️ Hey, fellow family explorers, we need y

🌍✈️ Hey, fellow family explorers, we need your expertise!⁠
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As we get ready to take off on our next family adventure, I'm curious: what are your go-to apps for keeping kids entertained while traveling? ⁠
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Whether it's educational or purely for fun, share your/their favorite apps in the comments below! ⁠
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We don't typically travel with screens (I know, I know, we're crazy 🤪), but we're making an exception this time! We're traveling with a 10, 8, and 6-year-old, so don't forget to leave your kids' ages, too! ⁠
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✨ Bonus points if the apps don't need WiFi! ⁠
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🗺️ Let's create a travel-app treasure trove for little adventurers everywhere! ⁠
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✈️ ---------⤹⤹---------⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
follow @jesstagirl for more travel fun
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#jesstagirltravels #traveltuesday #KidsOnTheGo #TravelApps #travelwithkids #FamilyTravelAdventures #ExploringWithKids #TravelingWithKids #FamilyVacay #AdventuresWithkids #WanderlustKids #travelingfamilies

Does your family have a hobby you *all* love doing

Does your family have a hobby you *all* love doing together?

-—

Some days, staying home is my favorite.

I also love traveling. I like it, I LOVE IT and want some more of it.

But staying home and doing something as simple as going for a bike ride with my family? THAT brings me pure joy, too.

Also, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m so thankful we lived in our area (border of Germany and the Netherlands) during the pandoozy because it gave us a family hobby: bike riding 🚲

If the pandemic didn’t happen and we didn’t HAVE to stay home and within a certain radius we would’ve been traveling every weekend instead of exploring our own backyard.

I’m sure we would’ve bought bikes eventually since it’s the culture out here, but I don’t know if we would’ve loved our family bike rides as much.

🚲 Now, there’s a good chance that if we’re not traveling and if it’s a nice day out, we’ll be outside hitting the pavement.

⫸⫸ Tell me what your family loves doing together in the comments!

#jesstagirlingermany #jesstagirlinholland #airforcefamily #militaryfamily #lifeinthemilitary #tiredasamother #reallifemom #thisismotherhood #motherhoodintheraw #milspouse #milspouseblogger #mamaofthree #mamalife #thatmomlife #milso #milsolife #militarykids #momsohard #momswhotravel #travelingmom #travelmoms #parentswhowander

✂️ Why beautiful tulips get the CHOP CHOP 🌷

✂️ Why beautiful tulips get the CHOP CHOP 🌷keep reading for the answer

If you’ve been to a tulip field you may have seen rows of tulips with their heads cut off—literally, the pretty flower part is called the “head.”

So, these big chopping machines come in and literally cut off the tulips’ beautiful heads row by row.

It’s a sad sight to see if you’re there in person, but it’s an important part of the tulip process.

If the tulips continue to grow, all the energy from the plant will go to keeping the pretty flowers alive until they whither and die 🥀

That seems like a no-brainer to me because I like the pretty flowers, but for tulip growers, that’s bad business.

🌞 Instead, growers want the energy to go to the flower bulb buried beneath the ground.

Because that’s where the magic happens ✨

With the flower head gone, the energy goes straight to the bulb itself—which will continue to grow and even multiply, creating more bulbs (baby bulbs!) so that there are more to plant and sell the following season.

Around July, once the stem and leaves have withered away, it’s harvest time.

The bulbs are stored in a dry place during the summer and then planted again in October/November for a bountiful bloom in the spring. ♻️ (I know that’s the “recycle” emoji...but it’s the closest I could get to the “cycle of life,” so just roll with it.)

🤷🏻‍♀️ So now know why those beautiful tulips have to get their heads chopped off.

☟
Did you already know this?
If you learned something new today, share this with a friend!

P.S. shout out to anyone who listened to the whole audio. Couldn’t resist a teaching moment with the OG TGIF teacher ❤️
———⤹⤹———⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
follow @jesstagirl for more fun around Europe.⁠⁠⁠
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#jesstagirlinHolland #visitnetherlands #visitholland #thisisholland #travelblogger #familytravelblog #travelmoment #tulips #tulipseason #tulipfields #tulpenpluktuin #tulipsofinstagram #americanineurope

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