Disney's in the Desert

The Best At Home Iced Lattes

Coffee bar/station links

There’s nothing better than starting the morning with an iced latte that feels coffee-shop special but takes just a few minutes to make at home. Over time, I’ve perfected my method, and it’s become my go-to daily treat. It’s creamy, refreshing, and customizable — and once you try it, you might skip the drive-thru line for good.

Why You’ll Love This Iced Latte

  • Simple & quick – ready in about 5 minutes.
  • Rich & creamy – a balance of espresso, milk, and your favorite creamer.
  • Customizable – add seasonal flavors like Chobani’s pumpkin creamer.
  • Budget-friendly – tastes just like the coffee shop without the price (one of my favorite parts of making coffee at home).

Ingredients

  • 1 shot of freshly brewed espresso (I brew mine into this espresso cup)
  • ¼ cup milk of choice
  • Ice cubes
  • 2–3 tablespoons flavored creamer (I froth mine with this frother) OR heavy whipping cream
  • Optional: drizzle of syrup or sprinkle of cinnamon/cocoa


Instructions

  1. Fill a glass with ice.
  2. Pour in ¼ cup milk.
  3. Add espresso — pour it in a circular motion into your espresso cup/holder and then over the ice for that pretty swirl.
  4. Froth the creamer or heavy whipping cream with your frother until silky and airy.
  5. Top your latte with the frothed creamer or cream.
  6. Optional finishing touch: drizzle syrup, sprinkle cinnamon, or dust with cocoa powder.
  7. Stir (or don’t — I like mine layered) and enjoy!

✨ Seasonal Twist: Maple Pumpkin Iced Latte

When fall rolls around, I can’t resist making a seasonal version of my latte. It’s cozy, just sweet enough, and perfect for those pumpkin spice cravings.

How to Make It:

  • Before brewing your espresso, add 1 teaspoon of Trader Joe’s Maple Butter to your espresso cup. Brew directly over it so it melts.
  • Build your latte as usual: ice + ¼ cup milk + maple espresso.
  • For the cold foam: froth together Chobani’s Pumpkin Creamer with another teaspoon of maple butter using your frother.
  • Pour the maple pumpkin foam over your latte and enjoy the creamy, spiced fall flavors.

Optional: Sprinkle pumpkin pie spice on top for extra coziness.

Tips & Variations

  • Try oat milk or almond milk for dairy-free.
  • Switch up your creamer with seasonal flavors like Chobani Pumpkin.
  • For extra indulgence, top with caramel drizzle.
  • If you like it stronger, use a double shot of espresso.

Spooky Fun Drinkware

I love this time of year, the “BER” months are always our family’s favorite!! I usually decorate the house and make all of the fun food when this time rolls around, but since receiving Colly’s diagnosis 2 years ago, things have been a bit different. I still want to make all of the memories for my kids, but I have to preserve energy when I can. So doing things full force like I used to has had to take a backseat, or maybe just not done to the 9’s like I used to.

That said, when Anthro dropped these fun Halloween glasses, I knew they’d be an easy way to bring in #spookyszn in an effortless way. I’ve loved their every day icon glasses for years (and own maaaany of them!), which these are the same ones – just jazzed up for Halloween! I love pulling these out a few mornings a week for my iced coffee at home.

I bought 5 different styles: pumpkins, skulls, bats, candy corn, and ghosts! I think the ghost might be my fave, what about you? Right now, they are a bit low on stock so snag one now while there are still a few!!

If you’d rather wait until Christmas, their holiday drinkware just dropped!! SOOO many cute styles, I can see my kids loving these for ‘not so hot’ chocolates and fun desserts during a holiday movie night!

Teacher Gift Ideas

Teacher Appreciation Week was about two weeks ago, so I apologize that this comes late to that – but the good news is these ideas could still be used as a ‘thank you’ gift for your kids’ teachers on the last day/week of school!

Having school aged kids for several years now – I know one thing – they just want gift cards! But, I still like including something a little *extra* in addition to the gift cards. So, I put together two baskets – 2 of the kids have female teachers and one of them has a male, so I couldn’t gift him the same stuff I was doing for the women! I hope this can help someone with some inspiration for the guy teachers!!

I wasn’t sure what to get him so I tried to keep it a little generic – candies, our faaaave hand sanitizer and my husband suggested the shoe inserts since he’s on his feet so much! Those actually were the biggest hit, so I definitely recommend slipping those into the basket if you can!

For the ladies, I picked up fave Laneige lip masks – this 4 pack is so awesome because you only need 1 pack and can split it between 4 people! They fit perfectly in these little canisters I found which served as the ‘basket’ but also can be repurposed after as a cute home decor piece. I added the gift cards and a fun hair clip, and a divided a pack of these tiny animal highlighters and called it a day!

To make it simple to attach who these gifts were from, I strung one of my holiday gift tags I pulled out of our wrapping supplies and wrote each kids’ name on it. Simple, pretty affordable, and adorable!

Find the links to both baskets here!

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