Something Special

Kaden {my little Kindergartner} goes to school all day. He chooses to take his lunch most of the time. Almost every morning, we pack up his lunch in his Diego lunchbox & off he goes. Kaden has been wanting "Lunchables", but I have a hard time paying for those. Today, we made our own lunchables...with crackers, cut up cheese slices, lunch meat cut into circles.

Preston on the other hand...is in Preschool & comes home for lunch. We bought him a cute little Thomas the Train lunchbox for picnics at the park, but with it being winter...his little lunchbox hasn't got much use for a while. I thought that he might enjoy a special lunch surprise of his own lunchbox lunch.

He loved it. It didn't take extra time. I didn't have to go to the store & get anything extra..I just used what I had, but I think that it made him feel special & that is what is important!

Muffin Tin Monday...No Theme

Today's Muffin Tin Monday didn't have a theme, but we decided to change that up. We decided to do a dinosaur theme so that it would go with these fun cookies. The recipe is at the link. Here they are making their cookies. They loved it & did a great job.





We had:



Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets & Lava {ketchup}
Quicksand {apple sauce}, Fossils {shortbread cookies}, Dino DooDoo {raisins}

**and they ate their ENTIRE meal. It must have been a hit!

Check out other Muffin Tin Meals here!

Once there was a snowman...

Life has been pretty crazy around here. I wanted to make something special for the boys for breakfast this morning...especially because it is Kaden's first day of Christmas vacation {& it is supposed to snow}.

My boys love "pancake balls" {also known as Aebleskivers}. So, I decided to make a snowman. You will need a pan that looks like this:



You can find them at Amazon & most specialty cooking stores. There is a special recipe, but I only use that on holidays. I usually just use my favorite pancake batter. Heat the pan & then pour a little oil {I use canola} in the bottom of each cup. Add your batter {about 1 Tbsp}. Once the sides get a little bubbly...take a fork or a skewer & turn the ball completely over to cook the other side. We usually serve ours with powdered sugar & flavored syrup.



For the snowman...I just stacked three "pancake balls" onto a small sucker stick. Then I used regular chocolate chips for the eyes & buttons, mini chocolate chips for the mouth, & an orange starburst shaped into a carrot. I sprinkles "snow" {powdered sugar} over the snowman. I also attempted to "stick" him to the plate with blueberry syrup...it didn't work {in the picture...he is in the process of falling}! The boys LOVED it. They were so excited to eat their snowman. {I don't think that they cared that some of the mini chocolate chips melted away.}

Party Time

Today is "have a party with your Teddy Bear" day. I was grateful for something to do fun with the boys. Kaden is home from school with strep throat & pink eye. Preston also has pink eye. YUCK! So, for lunch...I put out the table cloth & a tea set. For lunch they had crescent dogs, oranges, teddy bear crackers, & strawberry milk. I set the table for four, but gave the bears "pretend" food. I just couldn't bring myself to waste real food. The boys had no clue what I was doing. I invited the boys to go & get a Teddy Bear & come to lunch. Kaden picked "Elmo Teddy"...his favorite bear since he was 2. Preston picked "Preston"...all of his stuffed animals are named Preston. I put some puzzles under the bears to prop them up & make them at table level. The boys loved eating with their bears.





After nap...we are planning on building a fort {with our bears} & reading stories & doing puzzles. Why not have a party with your bear...even if it something simple!

Ooooooooo...Muffin Tin Monday

Today's Muffin Tin Monday theme is Halloween/Fall. I have to admit...I got carried away! I found so many fun ideas that I couldn't choose...so I used all of them! We had a FUN lunch!



Top Row: witch hat (crescent roll w/ cinnamon & sugar), witches finger (string cheese & airhead finger nail), Frankenstein brownie (recipe linked a few posts down)

Bottom Row: witches broom (pretzel sticks & fruit roll up), Ogar's Q-tips (marshmallow/sucker sticks/PB), Mummy (hot dog wrapped in a crescent roll), ghosts (strawberries dipped in white chocolate), & spiders (olives)

AND...



Hot chocolate with eye balls (mini mallows & mini chocolate chips)

The boys LOVED this one. Kaden laughed & laughed about the Ogar's Q-tips. It was so gross that I knew the boys would appreciate it. I gave them honey butter to dip their witch's hat in. Yum! We may have to repeat a few things this week to keep it festive!

Check out other muffin tins at:

A Monster for your Monster

I saw these cute brownies over at CONTROLLING MY CHAOS. I made mine with mint frosting & a chocolate ganache. I posted the directions on my other blog...SIMPLY COMPLICATED.

I ♥ playdough cookies!!!

I already posted about THESE COOKIES a while back, but for some reason it was a draft recently. I ♥ these cookies. They are so YUMMY, easy to make. My favorite part is that the kiddos can really be involved. There is nothing better except maybe chocolate. This time I made a double batch because they were gone too fast last time.



Here is the recipe:

The recipe:

3/4 cup butter (softened)
3 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I added 2 tsp)
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. In large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, & sugar until fluffy. Add egg & vanilla & mix until smooth.

2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, & salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir until soft dough forms.

3. Divide dough into fourths (this time I did thirds). Tint each with a different color of food coloring. Wrap each color of dough separately & chill for 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take a small amount of each color & then roll into a snake. Coil the snake starting at one end. Place on cookie sheet & bake for about 8 minutes.

We use these to talk about colors & you can even mix colors to show what they make. I also love how hands on it is. Give it a try!

Butterfly Hot Dog

Preston's preschool has a theme each week. The next two weeks are BUGS!!! I wanted to have activities that coordinate with their theme & today on ONE PRETTY THING they had a hot dog butterfly. The directions are on GOURMET MOM ON THE GO. She has so many great ideas over there so check it out!



It is pretty basic. Take 2 biscuits (Grands or whatever)& cut them in half. Put 2 halves together with the straight ends out. Do the same for the other side. Place your hot dog in the center.

Mix an egg & 1 Tbsp water in a bowl. Separate into bowls & add food coloring. Set the kiddos loose "painting" the biscuits with the egg mixture & a clean paint brush.

Bake ate 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Preston had a great time "painting" his butterfly wings.

He had requested that we had a picnic, but it was short lived. The hornets seemed to really LIKE Preston's painting because they wouldn't leave it alone. We ended up sneaking back inside.

Max & Ruby's

Today Kaden took his lunch to school & Preston was pretty jealous. I started thinking of a fun thing to do for his lunch today. I came up with a restaurant. I remember doing that when I was a kid. I took a laundry basket & turned it upside down. I covered it with a blanket & used one of our Ikea stools for him to sit on. While I made up the menu...Preston got dressed up. (I am not an artist!) Preston named our restaurant "Max & Ruby's". He is so cute!



I gave him options that I really would make for him. He ♥ ordering from the menu.

I played waitress & used a handy mini notebook to take his order. Then, I played chef. We had a great time.



I didn't put dessert on the menu because I had a surprise dessert for him....a banana parfait...YUM!!!

Teddy Bear Picnic

My boys ♥ teddy bears. They both choose teddy bears over any other stuffed animal. I thought that it would be fun to have a Teddy Bear Picnic with them. Plus it would be a GREAT excuse to use one of my NEW TEA SETS. We went to the library & I picked up some bear related stories. For lunch we had:

bear shaped pb&j sandwiches
chips
raisins
bear shaped cookies (I used THIS recipe & pre-cut a bear head out of the sheet of cookie dough...then I put the chocolate chips on for the inside ears, eyes, & nose. I also cut a little smile out. Once they were cooked, I just had to re-cut the bear head shape out.)
apple raspberry juice



The boys had no clue what their "lunch surprise" was. I invited them to grab a very special teddy bear & come outside to the picnic blanket. They were excited to have a picnic & use one of our new tea sets. While they ate their lunch with their "friends", I read them the stories that we got from the library.



Kaden held his teddy bear on his lap the whole time...it was so cute.



Preston named his bear cookie "Mr. Preston Polar Bear".



Tomorrow we are going to do a bear craft...stay tuned!!!

Oooo Oooo Ahhhh Ahhh

We had so much fun with Kaden's monkey party. If you want to see more or get a few ideas for your own monkey party go HERE.

Monkey Bites

I saw this on one of the Muffin Tin Monday websites...but I can't find the original post anywhere...so if it is yours...let me know!!!

I just sliced a banana & put some toothpicks in each one. It works better if your slices are a bit thicker. I had some caramel sauce in the fridge, so I heated that up a bit. For dipping...I used sprinkles (blue-Kaden's favorite color), mini chocolate chips, & I crumbled up some graham crackers.



I think that they liked it...don't you?

Mmmmm...

***WARNING...WARNING***you may need sunglasses to look at these cookies!!***

My cookie jar has been empty for a while now & I have been itching to bake some cookies to fill it. I have been having a hard time choosing which cookie to make (...chocolate chip, snicker doodle, peanut butter blossoms, oatmeal chocolate chip....). Yesterday I came across some intriguing cookies. They are called play dough cookies. The recipe is pretty basic. Here is the post about it. They show pictures of most of the steps (hers are a lot cuter too!)...so I would check it out!



I wanted to turn this into a learning experience...so we talked about what happened when we mixed colors. The boys had fun figuring out what colors would make what. Our purple turned out a little interesting, but overall I think that it was a good experience.

It is also a very hands-on process. The kids can make the dough, mix the colors, roll the cookies into snakes, & coil the dough. My boys had a blast & though the colors we did are a little over the top...we had fun (& the cookies are really yummy)! They would even be fun to put on a stick.

The recipe:

3/4 cup butter (softened)
3 oz cream cheese (room temp)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I added 2 tsp)
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. In large bowl, cream together butter, cream cheese, & sugar until fluffy. Add egg & vanilla & mix until smooth.

2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, & salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir until soft dough forms.

3. Divide dough into fourths. Tint each with a different color of food coloring. Wrap each color of dough separately & chill for 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Take a small amount of each color & then roll into a snake. Coil the snake starting at one end. Place on cookie sheet & bake for about 8 minutes.

Jell-O Juice

This is an AWESOME joke!! I made the Jell-O this morning & poured it into the cups. I hid the cups in the back of the fridge so that little eyes wouldn't see. When lunch time came around, I served them the Jell-O juice. It took a while for them to take a drink, but when they did it was so funny!! They just kept trying to get the juice out & couldn't figure out what was happening. When I said "April Fools" & told them that it was Jell-O..we had a really good laugh together. I recommend this one!

Magic Milk

This morning I did the Magic Milk Prank from Family Fun. They LOVED it. Kaden even joked that our milk was turning blue when he got the milk out of the fridge, but it was really going to happen soon.

April Fools' Prank Ideas

Nothing like waiting until the last minute, but I came across a few cute ideas for April Fools' Day. Family Fun has some really cute meal ideas. Why not confuse the kids & serve them "dessert" first or give them the main course that is actually dessert. I have not decided what I am going to do yet! You should also check out Allrecipes. They have some other great food prank ideas. I hope that you have fun!!

Some of my favorites:

Magic Milk Bowl...I think the kids would LOVE this!!
Gelled Juice
Meatloaf Cupcakes
Spaghetti Torte
Hamburger Cookies

Yummy Nests

The easy way to this would be to use cocoa krispies, but I didn't have any so I added 2 Tbsp cocoa powder to regular krispie mixture. I greased 24 cupcake tins & pressed the mixture into the tins. I used my thumb (with a little butter) to push down the center. Then place three Cadbury mini eggs in each tin. Let cool & then enjoy!!!

Waffle Faces

Kaden had a hard morning this morning. He cried when KC left for work & was sad all morning. I thought that he could use a little surprise to cheer him up. The surprise took me all of 2 minutes to make. When they saw their plates...they were so excited to eat themselves. Pbo even said "I can't eat my head because I don't have my fork." They also really enjoyed their berries with whip cream.

Something Valentines...FINALLY!!!

I have been a slacker. It is Valentine's Day & I am just barely posting Valentine's stuff. I saw this super cute idea for napkin rings on another website. You take a toilet paper tube & cut it into the size you want. I was able to make 3 rings out of 1 tube. After I cut the tube up...I painted each ring red. While the paint dried, I cut hearts out of cardstock. Once the paint was dry, I glued a heart to each ring. I can't believe how easy it was to make these. I am really happy with how they turned out!

Here is the finished product. Now all I need is a cute red tablecloth & it will be perfect! My placemat is just a sheet of 12x12 scrapbook paper.,

Octo Dogs

I got this out of a cookbook for kids a long time ago, but the boys just love it. You just make Mac & Cheese (we use Kraft) & cook a hot dog. I prefer to boil them because then the ends don't get all funny looking. You cut the hot dogs lenghtwise just below the halfway point. Then you roll it a bit & do it again...so you end with 4 arms for your octopus. You could make cute eyes out of mustard, but my guys don't like mustard, so this is what you get!