Glamping Campout Birhtday Party 3

 

I kept the food for the party pretty simple since there were so many girls. We had wild fruit, campout veggies, pretzel match sticks, s'mores mix, and teepee pizza. My mom made the campfire cupcakes like she does every year, and they turned out beautifully. I found the plates and napkins at Oriental Trading company. 

Misc. Monday Part 2: Gingerbread Houses

 

We have made gingerbread houses every year since Lilly was born. We have made little ones, big ones, men with no homes, Hello Kitty ones... And this year, we made two! It's always a messy blast, but we love it. Henry got into the act this year, and kept trying to hand the girls the sprinkles. 

Sew Crafty Saturday: Happy Bday, Daddy!

 

poor boy was pretty sick the whole day, but managed a few bites before passing out early with fever cheeks.

Dan's birthday was Wednesday, and the girls and I decided to make him an ice cream sandwich cake we saw on Pinterest. They used stacks of three, but it looked to small to me, so we stacked up four ice cream bricks. Then I covered it with cool whip. I squeezed some hot fudge into a ziploc bag, cut off the tip, and did the writing. The girls added guitars and "rockstars," of course. We all loved it and gobbled it up! Yum.

Wee-Ones Wednesday: Homemade Ice Cream

 

 

Whew! Summer is insane. Lilly has Vacation Bible School this week, so Iris is visiting her preschool for summer school because she was too young for VBS. Iris also has a preschool mommy and me class once a week, and Hendricks has Kindergym once a week. Plus, two weeks of every day swim lessons for all three and visits to the eye doctor for all of us, play dates, Sea World, lunches, BBQs, home projects that never get done during the school year, and just living life... Dan and I are exhausted and the kids are in Heaven. When we are home, I try to stick to a routine of chores, "homework," reading, and quiet time. 
Yesterday, the girls and I made homemade ice cream while Henry was taking a nap and Dan was mowing his mother's lawn. It was fun, easy, and very tasty! In a quart sized Ziploc bag, we placed 1 cup milk, 1 cup half and half, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. I put masking tape over the Ziploc just to be sure, and in a gallon sized bag placed ice and rock salt. We took turns shaking it, and even went out in the backyard to toss the bag around. Then we enjoyed the fruits of our labor, and it was wonderful!

Misc. Monday: Rice Krispy Sand Castle

The other day, the girls and I volunteered to bring something sweet to a little pool party, so we decided to make a rice krispy treat sand castle. (I read about spraying Pam into molds to make any shape out of rice krispy treats on Pinterest). We went to the Dollar Tree, picked up some sand castle molds, and went to work. We had a little extra room on our cookie sheet, so we made some waves out of marshmallows that I cut in half. I let the girls paint them with watered down blue food coloring and we sprinkled our ocean with blue sugar. It was a fun, easy food craft and was gobbled up by our friends in no time at all!

Misc. Monday: Easy Berry Cobbler

Thanks to Pinterest, I’ve been baking quite a lot lately. Nothing too fancy, but yummy none the less. I’m super fond of cake box cookies. I have the simple recipe memorized and haven’t made the same cookies twice. You can use any cake box you wish, 2 eggs, a little less than ½ a cup of vegetable oil (original recipe calls for ½ a cup, but that was too much for me), and any mix-ins you want. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes and enjoy. Some of our favorites are yellow cake mix cookies with oatmeal and chocolate chips and chocolate cake mix cookies with Reese’s Pieces. Yum!

Last night, I made a super easy berry cobbler that I found on Lulu the Baker. Of course, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly: Spray some cooking spray on the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish; add any berries you wish (I didn’t measure mine) and a squeeze of a lemon. Mix up 1 cup sugar with one cup flour and one egg. Then melt a stick of butter and pour on top. Her recipe calls for 6 tablespoons, but a stick is 8 tbs... I figured what’s 2 more? Bake at 375 for 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, add ice cream, and gobble up!

Fab Find Friday: Christmas Style

Fabulous tiny powdered donut idea...

Perfect magic key poem for Santa for homes without a fireplace & for families who celebrate Jesus' birth on Christmas Eve (will be left on front door step)...

 Fabulous little friends...

Misc. Monday: Project Snickerdoodle

 Julie from Joy's Hope has teamed up with her friend Jeannett to create The Happy Day Project. It consists of doing something nice for someone else for 7 days. How cool is that? They are also providing some sweet printable art, so you give a little and get a little.
Today, we baked some easy snickerdoodle cookies for some neighbors.
They are super easy to make:

1 box of Super Moist vanilla cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) melted
1 tbs Cinnamon
2 tbs Sugar
Mix first 3 ingredients with wooden spoon.
Mix cinnamon in sugar in little bowl.
Roll dough into 1 in. balls.
Roll balls through cinnamon sugar mixture.
Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Taaaa-Daaa!
Now go be a good neighbor and check out Julie's blog to see what else you can do for someone this week!
Smiles,
Michelle

Fab Find Friday: Waffle Love

I don't usually blog about food, but I'm in love.
with a sandwich in a waffle.
 not a sweet, breakfast waffle, but a crispy , light waffle.
the pull pork, 4 cheese, green eggs and ham, pastrami are amazing.
i cannot leave without devouring the lemon cream and berries.
I ate there twice last week.
I've taken 8 people there and they are now in love.
Bruxie has changed my life.
I thought you should know.

Sew Crafty Saturday: Yummy!

Cooking can be so boring and mundane. I feel like I'm always making the same things. Lately, I've been having some fun making meals for the girls. The silly fruit, peanut butter faces were the first. The girls were pretty excited and surprised, so I wanted to try some more. Next, I made the bear in the woods (in the middle picture).  It got gobbled up real quick. Lilly loves broccoli...Iris not so much. I made a pretty cute robot, but he was destroyed before I got the camera out. I've also seen some really creative concoctions online. This may be my new obsession. Have you ever made creations with your food? Let me know, so we can give it a try.