Graduation is a nostalgic time of transition and celebration. Graduates are moving on to the next stage of their life and family and friends gather at their party to wish them good luck. Hosting a graduation party requires a lot of time, effort and ideas. There are many ways you can host a creative and fun grad party while staying within your budget and adding a personal touch.
For High School graduation parties, you can host a backyard gathering, choose a unique location favored by the graduate like a hotel or restaurant, have a joint party for multiple graduates or have a potluck with family and friends. For your unique favor in honor of your graduate, display personalized chocolate graduation party favors next to your party platter. You can feature the graduate's senior picture on a colorful photo wrapper like our item SG56 Our Class.
For College graduation parties, consider hosting an intimate dinner party with a small group of family and friends, have a backyard or fancy dinner party with the graduate's favorite theme or create a trivia game centered around the graduate's school. Add one of our popular graduation party favors like our personalized wrapper SG37 Diploma Certificate.
Check out more high school and college party ideas at punchbowl.com.
National Teacher's Day and Teacher Appreciation How-To's
According to National Education Association website, "the origin of National Teacher Day are murky. Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, who in 1953 persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day. NEA, along with its Kansas and Indiana state affiliates and the Dodge City (Kan.) Local, lobbied Congress to create a national day to celebrate teachers. Congress declared March 7, 1980 as National Teacher Day for that year only. NEA and its affiliates continued to observe National Teacher Day in March until 1985, when the NEA Representative Assembly voted to change the event to Tuesday of the first full week of May."
At the NEA's website you will find many useful tools you can use to celebrate and honor the teacher(s) that have made an impact on you and your community. Apples For The Teacher is a fun website for kids and offers fun games and activities to use in celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week. Next year, National Teacher Appreciation Week and National Teacher Appreciation Day will fall on May 6 - May 10, 2013 and Tuesday, May 7, 2013 respectively, so plan ahead. But with the end of the school year approaching, you don't need to wait and you don't need to spend a lot of money. View our delightful selection of Personalized Chocolate designed just for Teacher Appreciation Day anytime.
June is National Safety Month from the National Safety Council and with it comes the potential boredom associated with the same messages: Safety First, Zero Accidents, Use your Eyes and Save a Finger. The list goes on. It's tempting to just let Safety Month slip by, but employees should be trained in and know safety procedures.
National Safety Month is an opportunity to make employees aware of changes in job safety or increase their safety risk awareness in the workplace. The National Safety Council suggests changing focus each of the four weeks during the campaign, ranging from Wellness and Preventing Slips to Driving Safety.
If you have a "days without accidents" program, make employees aware of how long the company has gone without an accident with the Safety Days promotional chocolate bar from CARSON wrappedhersheys.com.
The National Safety Council has set a goal to prevent an additional 10,000 deaths and 1 million injuries by 2014, and through your support of efforts, such as National Safety Month. For more ideas on National Safety Month, watch the NSC's YouTube Video.
Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and paternal bonds as well as fatherhood and the influence of fathers in our society. While many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June, it is also celebrated widely on other days.
The first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington thanks to Sonora Louise Smart Dodd. Sonora, raised by her father after her mother died during childbirth, was inspired to create a day to honor fathers after hearing a Mother's Day sermon. For 62 years Sonora Dodd remained the driving force behind official recognition for this special day and in 1972 President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation that the third Sunday in June officially be recognized as Father's Day, a national holiday. Read more about Father's Day history at familyfun.go.com. CARSON wrappedhersheys.com offers Caddy Daddy wrapped Hershey's bars and they are a great way to sweeten Dad's day.
Check out babycenter.com for some other great ways to make new dads feel extra special this year or cook up some fun with these recipe ideas.
CARSON wrappedhersheys.com stepped up to the plate to contribute to the Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields in Fairfield, Ohio. These fields were created to help every child have the chance to play a little baseball. They include two rubberized softball fields made of a durable rubber surface that will afford children, adults and veterans with limited mobility a safe place to play baseball. The plan for the complex also includes state-of-the-art handicapped-accessible restrooms, a level parking lot, ground-level covered dugouts, electronic scoreboards, a concession stand pavilion and stadium seating for spectators. To thank them for their contribution, Scott and Sharon received hard hats and a glass vial of earth from the Miracle League Fields. We are proud to be able to help out with such a noble and worthwhile cause!
Celebrate baseball season with these swinging baseball cupcakes that have a delicious surprise in the middle! CARSON wrappedhersheys.com loves to share sweet treat recipes that you can share with family and friends.
2. Beat peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add egg; beat well. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; add alternately with milk to peanut butter mixture, beating until well blended. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter. Press one peanut butter cup, top-side up, into center of each, leaving chocolate top uncovered by batter.
3. Bake 20 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center. Remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely.
4. To make "baseballs": Frost sides and bottom of each cupcake with frosting. Then coat with coconut. Place top-side down on serving plate.
5. Cut each candy twist in half lengthwise and then crosswise, making 4 pieces. On a paper towel, place 6 pieces at a time. Microwave on HIGH (100%) for 10-15 seconds or until candy twist softens. Using 2 candy twist pieces for each "baseball", firmly press "laces" to each as shown. Repeat with remaining candy twists and frsoted cupcakes. About 10 cupcakes.
After our holiday shopping spree for the children for New Life, we found ourselves with a bit of extra money to spend. Kohl’s gives its customers gift certificates to use at their next visit with every $50 purchase. A few of our wrappedhersheys.com employees took this Kohl’s Cash to purchase more coats, clothes and shoes. When contemplating where to donate these extra gifts, it was quickly decided that the perfect home for these items was with the Roberts Paideia Academy in Cincinnati. This Cincinnati public school strives to ensure that each student receives a quality education and is supported emotionally, socially and spiritually.
Once the school received our gift, we received a kind thank you letter from the Principal and CLC Resource Coordinator. They said, “The coats, clothes and shoes will help many of our students who have tried to wear their jackets just one more year, or do not have an actual winter coat. Your kindness and commitment goes a long way to supplement the extras that mean so much to our students.”
At Carson wrappedhersheys.com, we are glad to be able to give back to our community in a positive way and help our youth. We can’t wait to shop again next year!
For Valentine's Day, CARSON wrappedhersheys.com decided to make a delicious recipe that will melt your sweetie's heart. Watch the latest episode of "Chocolate Talk" to see how to make Chocolate Heart Cupcakes with Pink Icing!
Recipe for Chocolate Heart Cupcakes with Pink Icing:
Ingredients:
A Cupcake Pan
A Box of Cake Mix
1 1/3 Cups of Water
1/2 Cup of Vegetable Oil
3 Large Eggs
A Bag of Hershey's Milk Chocolate Chips
24 Cupcake Liners
A Heart-shaped Cookie Cutter
Your Favorite White Icing
Pink (or Red) Food Coloring
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Add the cake mix, water, oil and eggs in a large bowl & beat at a medium speed for 2 minutes.
3. Sprinkle in your preferred amount of chocolate chips and stir.
4. Place the cupcake liners in your cupcake pan and fill each about 2/3 of the way full.
5. Place the cupcakes in the oven and set the timer for 18 minutes.
6. When the cupcakes are done, take them out of the oven and let them cool for 15 minutes. (Hint: The longer you let the cupcakes cool, the easier it will be to apply the icing and create the heart shapes)
7. Scoop your icing into a bowl, add a few drops of food coloring and blend together. If necessary, add more food coloring for your favorite Valentine's Day color.
8. Put the icing in the fridge to cool.
9. Using a serrated knife, cut the top off of each cupcake.
10. Press the heart-shaped cookie cutter into the cupcake top and remove the middle.
11. Spread a thin layer of icing on the cupcake bottoms and place the cupcake tops back on.
