a fun idea to recognize college graduates

This post is sponsored by Minted, but my words and my love for their beautiful, high-quality announcements is my own. 

So much is done for high school graduates these days. Grandparents fly into town. Relatives mail you money. You get senior pictures taken. Your parents host an entire party for you. You send out announcements. Your graduation present is a month spent traveling through Europe.

Okay, my high school graduation had basically none of those things, but you get it right?

I think it's great to celebrate graduations - high school included. But isn't it funny how much less is done for people earning bachelor or graduate degrees? It's a huge accomplishment, and they should totally be celebrated too.

That's why I wanted to make graduation announcements for Sam this spring. I've seen the graduate announcement trend more and more and wanted to hop on the bandwagon for a few reasons. First, it's a fun way to share our happiness with family and friends who are far away. Second, nobody remembers what Sam's second masters degree is (myself included) so this would be a handy cheat sheet way of reminding people (me). It's also just a great way to celebrate all Sam's hard work.

So we worked with Minted to design some graduation cards. I uploaded the picture I wanted to use, and then spent a happy hour scrolling through beautiful designs with our picture automatically added to them so I knew how it would look. (Anyone else think it's fun to try out a million options before you buy something online?)

We decided on this simple, modern layout. I love that the focus is our family, but there's also enough words to make these cards informative. 

Other favorite touches? The return address automatically printed on the back of the envelopes so we don't have to write out our address a million times. They also have free recipient addressing (yup, you can send them a list of who you're mailing cards to and they automatically print it on the envelope for free). I didn't quite have my act together in time to do this, and I'm already kicking myself for the extra time I'm spending hand-addressing.

Our other favorite touch is the customized stamps. I figured if I have to pay for postage anyway, I might as well make the stamp fun and cute. Also our only other stamps were leftover Christmas stamps with wreaths on them, so it was time for new ones. 

If you're in the market for graduation announcements, Minted has a HUGE selection. Modern cards, letterpress cards, collage cards, minimalist cards, foil cards (rose gold foil too!), and the list goes on and on. And if you join Minted More you can get 30% off your order (almost a third off - what!).

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What graduation traditions do you have at your house?

Any fun ideas for us?

10+ best interactive books for kids

There's one pretty magical thing about interactive books.

You all remember what interactive books are, right? In an interactive book, the reader does physical actions to move the plot along. They're clapping their hands, whispering magic words, rubbing dots, and slapping the fly on every page. They're tilting and shaking and shouting at pages as instructed.

They are so fun, and here's the thing: every child loves them. Young kids love them, older kids love them, English language learners love them. But, maybe most importantly, kids who don't love to read like interactive books. Even the most reticent of children will usually get involved when it comes to slamming the book shut, turning it upside down, or blowing on the pages. They're incredibly engaging, especially for reluctant readers.

There are chapter books for older kids that are interactive (Choose Your Own Adventure books immediately come to mind), but I'm going to focus only on picture books geared for an audience from about ages two to ten. Here is a list of our absolute favorites.

Press Here by Herve Tullet
If you only get one interactive book, this is the one to buy. It's already a classic that involves clean and crisp colors, bright dots, and lots of tilting, shaking, and blowing on pages. I haven't gotten my hands on his other two interactive books yet, Mix it Up! and Let's Play! but I've heard they're equally delightful.

Don't Push the Button! by Bill Cotter
Young readers love this one because the whole point is to disobey, and the results are pretty funny. Watch them push the button on every page while the monsters multiply, and then do simple actions like tickle a tummy to get it back to normal.

Plant the Tiny Seed by Christie Matheson
This one is a little less rambunctious, and so delightful. Readers squish one tiny zinnia seed into the ground, and through lots of clapping, wiggling fingers, and shooing away a hungry snail, they have a full flower garden by the end. Great for teaching how seeds grow at the same time. Her other book is Tap the Magic Tree, which illustrates how a tree's leaves change throughout a year.

The Fly by Petr Horacek
This one is less interactive than some, but readers LOVE slapping the fly swatter on many of the pages. It's narrated by the fly who is wondering why the whole world is out to get him, and the sense of humor makes it appeal especially to older kids. We had a copy in my fifth grade classroom, and it got read (and slapped) about a thousand times per week.

If You're a Robot and You Know It by Musical Robot and David A. Carter
This book is just verse after verse of a "If You're Happy and you Know It" spin-off, but it's really fun. As you sing along (the book comes with a free download code for the song, and it's also on YouTube), you're shooting laser beams out of your eyes and making funny beeping noises. It's also a really cool pop-up book, so you can pull the tab on every page to see those laser beams in person while you sing the verse.

More Bears! by Kenn Nesbit
This one is popular for read-alouds since the bulk of the interaction comes from simply yelling, "More Bears!" The illustrations and funky names for each new bear is what makes this one stand out. The last page switches to, "More Chickens!"

Warning: Do Not Open this Book by Adam Lehrhaut
This is another fan favorite because children are supposed to break the rules. Most of the interaction is just repeatedly turning the pages as the author tells them not to, but it's so fun and filled with curious monkeys.

Touch the Brightest Star by Christie Matheson
I know I mentioned this author above, but I wanted to include this one separately because it's the only bedtime interactive book I've ever come across. Again, this book is less rambunctious than most other ones, and involves patting, blinking, and whispering to change the night sky. It's beautiful and actually winds children down before bed.

This Book is Magic by Ashley Evanson
This book is brand new on the market and absolutely wonderful. Children will be swishing magic wands, rubbing potions, and shouting nonsense spells to make a circus come alive. I love the colors and illustrations too.

The Black and White Factory by Erin Telchin
This one has more words than average, but it's a really fun one. Readers tour a black and white factory, where black and white things like dice and tuxedos are made. But then, some color seeps in, and readers make a bigger mess while scrubbing messes with their fingers and blowing into nozzles to clean the factory from color.

Open Very Carefully by Nick Bromley
This is another classic interactive book. A crocodile interrupts what would have been a nice calm story and starts eating letters. Through rocking the crocodile to sleep and other fun interactions, kids love this funny sharp-toothed tale.

Which interactive books are your favorites?

Others for my list?

This post contains affiliate links.

WE DID IT // at the end of grad school

The end of grad school is finally here! The family is in town, Claire is excited out of her mind about all the grandparent time, and Sam and I will inevitably spend a frustrating twenty minutes watching YouTube tutorials when trying to get his darn robe and hood on correctly this afternoon.

Sam is such a behind-the-scenes guy, but when commencement, convocation, his birthday, and family in town all fall into the same few days, it just kind of becomes his party week. And that deserves a shout-out.

This guy earned two masters degrees (TWO MASTERS DEGREES) in less than two years. The last two years could easily be measured by how many hours (and hours and hours and hourrrrrrs) he put in on campus, studying, doing group projects and going to class. He was gone from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. a good portion of this year, plus many Saturday classes throughout the last two years as well.

But also, the last two years could be measured by how many times he came straight home and switched to dad mode before he even had a chance to take his shoes off. It could be measured by one million games of hide and seek with Claire, one million hours spent holding twins, one million diapers changed and dishes scrubbed and backs rubbed. Sam is such a gentle, loving, and involved dad, and he took our surprise twins and having three kids in two years with such grace and quiet hard work.

But that's not the only way I remember the past two years. For me, it's also his part-time job that he somehow found time to do on top of everything else.

It's the hours we spent fixing our terribly old and broken green van together.

It's the tissues and glasses of cold water he brought me when I was on bedrest with the twins and crying from the frustration and pain of it all.

It's when he spent his precious down time taking pictures or helping me with content creation for work deadlines I had coming up.

It's all the times he set everything else aside to gather us for family scriptures and prayer.

It's the hours and hours of church service he quietly did over the past two years.

You guys, Sam is an absolute rockstar. Of course if you try to tell him that, he'll shrug it off with some kind of joke, as if being infinitely capable and hard-working is just one of the many remarkable things he does every day. I am so proud of him, and I love him to death.

We did it! And today, we are celebrating.

Photos by Kylie Pond.