hotcakes

I Heart FB!

2012-01-27T08:56:00.000-05:00

I love Facebook, let me count the ways ...

• I love reading updates from people on a daily basis who I would not be in touch with otherwise - former co-workers, cousins, other school parents. Our Facebook connection provides a layer of familiarity and comfort. Maybe it's a poor stand in for actual communication, but I don't care, because ...

• I hate the phone. I don't know why, but phone conversations make me completely anxious. I'm working on it.

• I like seeing photos of you and your kids. Not a zillion of them, but an every few weeks update to see what you've been up to. Bring it on!

• Yes, I'm one of those people who gets news stories from Facebook first. I don't regularly watch the morning news, and only read the news on my phone if I'm really bored. If something newsworthy happens, one of my friends will post it on Facebook. I'm also not a sports person, but can get a vague idea of how the Bills and Sabres are doing thanks to my friends' status updates.

• I don't follow every link that people post, but some have led to entertainment or information that I would not have found otherwise. I try to be very selective in link posting, and only post if something really strikes me or I feel it may have value to someone else.

• Facebook (via my good friend from junior high) has introduced me to online Scrabble, my second guiltiest pleasure (next to Bejeweled Blitz. Seriously, why is that game so addictive? But I won't post game updates on my status feed ... you're welcome.)

Pet peeves? Oh, yeah. This article definitely hit the hot spots. The vague post is the most annoying - the one that hints there is a deeper, but more personal, story behind the sentence. Either share or don't share!

Facebook is still the first site I go to in the morning and the last one I check in with before bed. And yes, I'm old.

Happy Birthday, Dora!

2012-01-25T09:28:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Dora's 10th birthday this month!

She won a gift certificate for our local bounce place last spring, we saved it and invited a few of her friends to come along as her birthday party. It was a very small group of girls - just the right size - they had a blast!

These little hair sets were stocking stuffers from Target, on sale after Christmas. We added a mini bottle of nail polish to each one for favors.

These little cupcake boxes were also after Christmas sale items from Christmas Tree Shop.

Dora wanted chocolate chip and sugar cookies as her birthday treat. There were enough of each to send little bags home with each guest.

Star cutout cookies! My grandma helped me decorate these on the day of her party. I don't like giving up control of cookie decorating, but I do love my grandma.

We celebrated with family on her birthday with a blueberry cake.

What a fun 10 years we've had!

Baking Monday - PB and Chocolate Shortbread Bars

2012-01-23T17:29:00.003-05:00

Today's treat is a good one! Bottom layer of peanut shortbread, middle layer of fluffy peanut butter, topped with dark chocolate ganache. It's a bit time consuming, because the bottom layer has to chill, then bake, then cool before the rest can be put together, but these are quite yummy. I chopped the peanuts and blended the bottom layer in the food processor - easy.

(... and next time I will remember to de-crumb before taking photos.)

They're sort of like a fancy Tagalong in bar form. Delish!

Love Those Kids

2012-01-19T19:10:00.004-05:00

Dora left this note for Theo at breakfast:

Translation: "Meet Dora in Ekat stronghold behind red chair after school." Further translation: Ekat = Ekaterina branch of the Cahill Family. (It's a 39 Clues thing.)

There's also been more panicking around here.

I regularly find additions to my grocery list.

Most common requests: soda and ice cream.

Lastly, I went upstairs yesterday and was greeted by a dozen of these signs, taped all around my bedroom.

I don't even know where that came from.

I signed each one with "No! Love, Mom" and hung them around his room in return.

Baking Monday - Compost Cookies

2012-01-16T20:29:00.003-05:00

I came across this recipe from a reference on another baking site, and apparently it's pretty popular, because there are many reports of trying this recipe floating around out there in the interwebspace. The catch with this recipe is that you can incorporate bits of all different things into the dough. For these, I used white and semisweet chocolate chips, toffee bits, pretzels, and potato chips.

So, the recipe says to scoop the dough onto parchment, then refrigerate for an hour before baking to keep them from spreading too much. Well, I have a habit of not listening to recipe recommendations, so I chose to refrigerate the big bowl of dough, then scoop and bake it cold. They spread SO MUCH that it was practically a bar cookie! (Hence the rectangular rather than circular shape.)

They don't look pretty, but do taste yummy, though I still prefer poofy cookies. It might be a little too much butter for my taste, too. I love the idea of including bits of things from the pantry in this recipe ... I was getting lots of other ideas as they were mixing. Will definitely try again!

Just for Fun - Play Credit Cards

2012-01-11T09:37:00.000-05:00

My sis gave her daughter her own wallet and play money for Christmas. She asked me to make up some cards for the wallet. (I gave Dora a play wallet when she was a toddler, but just filled it with promotional credit cards, these are way cuter.)

I used existing artwork from my archives and Dora helped me think of some the themes for the cards.

They were a big hit!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-10T09:32:00.003-05:00

Baking Monday - Christmas Cookies

2011-12-26T09:52:00.000-05:00

I spent last week baking for our family cookie exchange.

First up: Peppermint "Pinwheels", in quotes because this was a bit of a baking fail. I was rushing and mixing at the same time - a bad combination for me - and while the pink dough turned out well, the white dough was all crumbly. So, instead of making a perfect cookie swirl, the white cracked and crumbled, and ended up looking quite sausage-like. I tried to cover it up the best I could with icing, but they're still not terrific looking. Good news is, they still taste great!

These are one of my favorites - Candy Corn Shortbread. Just flour, sugar, and butter - SO yummy.

Chocolate Cutouts - I think I like you most of all.

Clark helped me make cookies for his preschool sing-a-long. It was a nice change of pace to not care so much about how the icing looked on these - also to frost a batch of cookies in 15 minutes instead of two hours! He chose the lovely colors and did the tinting himself, so they are a little intense, but still cute and delicious.

Baking Monday - Tree Cake Bites

2011-12-22T07:53:00.000-05:00

Bonus Baking Monday today! I was too excited about these to wait until next week. Today's post inspired by these hi hat cupcakes (someday my pics will look that nice!) and Bakerella's tree pops.

These were the original design, and then I started playing around with other sprinkles for fun (and to save time ... )

Green sugar - I really like these.

Nonpareils - not my favorite.

Green jimmies - cute!!

A little forest of trees!

Inside: chocolate fudge cake and frosting. Mmmm.

Cute new mini cake stand - it makes me happy.

Merry Christmas!

Ornaments 2011

2011-12-21T09:25:00.001-05:00

Amazingly, I have never made salt dough ornaments with my kids before this year. We've been spending Fridays with my grandma, and I was looking for a craft that we could all work on together a few weeks ago. This was a GREAT project - everyone loved it from sculpting to painting, and we ended up making lots and lots of ornaments.

Here they are, cooked and naked!

These are Clark's creations. He's usually not an arts & crafts kid, but he got really into this project, and did a fantastic job. Rudolph and the red heart are my favorites.

Dora's work. I love the details she added to the snowman - I never would have thought of adding a scarf. She made the zebra striped candy cane for a friend who likes zebras. I tried to paint a tie dye heart that turned out not so great - it ended up in the trash - but she took the idea for her own and made it fabulous!

Theo really took his time and did a great job, too - I love the multicolored star. His was the inspiration for my failed heart which then turned into Dora's terrific one! It was neat how we got ideas from each other, but everyone made them their own.

Grandma's sweet ornaments! I kept the tree for myself - so cute - and she took the others home to use for gifts.

And these are mine. I was quite pleased with the happy face bells, since I never know what to do with bells. The red cocoa mug is my favorite.

They look so cute all together. Fun project!!

Is It Wrong ...

2011-12-20T09:23:00.000-05:00

... that I find Theo's edits to the children's mass page so funny?

Baking Monday - Gingerbread Whoopie Pies

2011-12-19T10:03:00.001-05:00

I bought this book as an early Christmas gift to myself and am going to have a lot of fun mixing and matching the cakes and fillings. First up: Gingerbread cakes filled with cinnamon buttercream.

The gingerbread cakes themselves are yum-mmy.

The filling is a little sweet for me, but so delicious.

Big and mini sizes!

These were a big hit!

Souvenirs

2011-12-16T09:55:00.001-05:00

My mom has a tradition of buying Christmas ornaments as souvenirs whenever our family visits a new place. I try to do the same, but typically encounter the problem that 1) ornaments are not always easy to find and 2) they're usually really big and / or really ugly.

However ... guess what you can always find a LOT of? Keychains. Which makes no sense to me, because you really only need one, maybe two keychains, but people who collect Christmas ornaments have hundreds! Happily, a little work with a pair of pliers turns cute keychains in to adorable Christmas ornaments.

These are some of my favorite travel souvenirs - the Lego Santa and Disneyland figures are my new ones this year. Perfect!

I love miniature ornaments - they get displayed on our little tabletop tree.

Christmas Kindness

2011-12-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

I put together this quick little project at the beginning of December, we've been having fun with it.

The jar has little slips of paper with daily assignments. The older kids and I pick one in the morning and talk about how we accomplished our task at the end of the day. Just a little nice something to do this month.

Download kindness list here.

He's On To Me

2011-12-14T08:56:00.001-05:00

Clark: Can I get dressed then watch a show?

Me: We'll see.

Clark: Mom, it has to be yes. Because "we'll see" is useless!

Baking Monday - Peppermint Refrigerator Cookies

2011-12-12T08:57:00.003-05:00

This is another recipe from my oldest and favorite cookie cookbook, but one I've never made before. The recipe recommends wrapping the chocolate dough around the peppermint dough, which I kind of rushed through, so they didn't look as cute as I thought they could.

Also, did you notice the extra layer of chocolate chips? Last week was just the kind of week where extra chocolate seemed like a good idea, KWIM? Verdict: yummy cookies, but I wanted to try again to make them cuter. Happily, a cookie exchange later in the week became a good opportunity to try again.

I layered the dough this time, and took my time so they were much neater, but I think I may prefer the dough wrapped all the way around, because the peppermint dough spread a bit more than the chocolate. Oh, and I skipped the extra layer of chocolate chips this time, because ...

... the bottoms of the cookies were dipped in chocolate instead. Score.

Baking Monday - Chocolate Cookie Pops

2011-12-05T09:30:00.001-05:00

Today's post inspired by Starbucks ... I spotted their snowman chocolate dipped cookie pops over the weekend and thought, I could make those ...

First up, the snowmen. I had a bit of a "duh" moment with these. When pulling out cookie cutters today, I also got out my number 8 because I have an order for birthday cookies this week. Then I went through the winter jar and realized that I didn't have a snowman. I thought, rats! I'll have to go to the store and get one ... and then looked over at the cutters on the counter ... and, um, guess what? A number 8 looks a lot like a snowman. DUH.

Also some snowy white trees. Would also be awfully cute in green.

... and a few sparkly snowflakes. What's inside?

Yeah, that would be a chocolate cookie.

I didn't have enough chocolate to dip all the cookies, so some got the drizzle treatment instead.

Super yummy. I think I'm going to have to dip more things in chocolate!

Sweet Tweets

2011-12-01T09:58:00.005-05:00

(Please forgive the lame pun, it was hard to resist.)

I've never really been a big fan of birds until recently. Partly from admiring Geninne's beautiful artwork, and partly from feeling like I've been seeing birds everywhere lately! I had my first bird cookie order this week and am thrilled with how they turned out. There are also some birdhouses and leaves thrown in, too.

I think this is one of my favorite sets yet!

Baking Monday - Turtle Bark

2011-11-28T09:33:00.001-05:00

This recipe for Turtle Bark involved something I've never made before - caramel from scratch!

It was much easier than I thought it would be, and I was quite proud! I served the leftover sauce to the kids with apple slices, it was goooood.

For the recipe: the chocolate was a little thick for my taste, and overwhelmed the caramel. I would use less next time - maybe 12 oz instead of 16 - and use much more of the caramel sauce than the recommended amount - probably almost all of it, because that was the really delicious part! However, no leftovers came home, so I guess it was still pretty good.

Clark's Puppy Birthday

2011-11-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's birthday time again! Clark celebrated his fifth birthday this month, with an appropriate number of parties ... five!

He's got puppies on the brain lately, so the theme this year was puppies, puppies, puppies! (I haven't posted much design work lately, but I have been busy. Updates can be found at Spotgirl Gallery.)

First up - puppy cookies for school snack. I made a multigrain cutout recipe, which are a favorite for me and Clark.

The birthday child gets to pass the snack at preschool. So cute!

I made these beanbag toss games as favors for our family and friends. I went to buy fabric to make Clark's birthday shirt and the patterns were soooo cute, I had do something more with it. The beanbags went into plastic dog dishes. When I bought the dishes at the store, the cashier asked if I had nine dogs. Um, no .... not even one!

There were presents ...

... and bowling, at the birthday boy's request.

... and more puppy cookies (chocolate cutouts, another favorite!)

... and one happy birthday boy!

Turkey!

2011-11-23T09:30:00.002-05:00

I had an order for turkey cookies this week, I think they turned out quite cute. Here they are with some other fall friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Baking Monday - Mocha Crackle Cookies

2011-11-14T20:20:00.003-05:00

I've never made crackle cookies before - I generally believe that rolling cookies in an extra something is more work than it's worth (like Snickerdoodles, which my sis and I renamed "Sucker-doodles" after rolling a gazillion of them in sugar for a Christmas double-batch years ago) - but a chocolate / coffee cookie combo just sounded right to me today.

This is another recipe from the Taste of Home cookie book, and it's a good one. Mine didn't turn out nearly as pretty as their picture, but cookies are yummy - very soft and cakey. Neither Jeff or I are coffee drinkers, but I do keep instant coffee on hand just for baking.The batter comes out super-thin - I was worried that I had done something wrong - but after the recommended two hours in the fridge, it was much easier to work with. I baked these on parchment instead of a greased baking sheet. Jeff suggested adding mini chocolate chips next time. This recipe makes about four dozen cookies, good for a crowd!

Lego Party - The Sequel

2011-11-10T20:40:00.003-05:00

My favorite souvenirs from our recent trip to California were silicone molds that allowed me to make these:

Chocolate. Legos. I wanted to include a tag to identify them as edible, because they also look like they could be plastic, or crayon, or soap. I tried to think of something clever without resorting to "eat me."

These were for Theo's very, very belated birthday party today. September was crazy and we were on vacation in October. The day before Halloween, Theo said, "Am I ever going to have a birthday party?" Whoops.

And yes, it was a Lego party again. We most often have parties at home, but the weather is now getting too iffy for an outside party, and this location was too perfect to pass up. It's a new business for our area that hosts Lego parties and programs. They did an awesome job - the room looked so fun - and it was exciting to try something different. They have a giant parts table the length of the wall and a track to race cars and run vehicles down a tiny zip line.

Everyone was very happy to play, play, play! The kids each got to build a mini figure to take home and made motorized dragsters to race during the party.

Dora's creation - I love that the driver is working on a tiny keyboard.

Theo requested his usual chocolate chip cookie dessert. One dozen 8-year-old boys are LOUD - I could barely get them to quiet down long enough to sing.

Theo did not stop moving for 90 minutes, he could hardly stand still for this picture ... you can see that he's clearly anxious to go!

Baking Monday - Peanut Butter Cup Truffle Brownies

2011-11-07T17:10:00.004-05:00

AKA, using up Halloween candy, part 2! Happily, there were enough peanut butter cups in our stash to make these today:

Really, there's nothing more I can say to sell this recipe: if you like chocolate, brownies and/or peanut butter, you won't be disappointed. You could maybe cut back a teensy bit on the butter, but everything else is awesome. I used a mix of Ghiradelli and Hershey's chips. Super gooey and chocolatey. Enjoy!

Halloweening

2011-11-01T14:15:00.005-04:00

It was a no-brainer that Dora and Theo chose Potter costumes this year, as they spent all summer imagining themselves in the wizarding world. Clark originally wanted to be a bat, then changed his mind to a cat when they realized they could all go together. This was their first costume theme since they were a spider / flower / bumblebee back in preschool (but that was more of a happy accident that they all coordinated.) So, this year, we had ...

... a lovely Hermione ...

... a handsome Harry ...

... and a contemplative Crookshanks.

I was originally going to make Clark a costume from an orange sweatsuit and then found this costume at a thrift shop last week for three dollars. I wish it had just ears on the hood - I like when the kids' faces are the costume face - but the price, color, and size was too good to pass up. And Clark's worn it every day since it came home.

Dora had her hair crimped for a party over the weekend, but we didn't have time to do it for trick-or-treating. Which was fine, because this is what she looked like before we went out:

It was cold, but at least there was no snow! Those scarves came in handy! (And I am loving Theo in glasses. Just a matter of time ...)

And maa-aan, did they score. This was the first year that Clark actively participated in trick-or-treating. Last year, he just hung out in the stroller and Dora collected candy for him. Dora went out with friends for the first time this year and stayed out twice as long as we did, so she came home with an extra full bag. Going out with friends was not our favorite - I missed her too much, and she wanted to come home much sooner than she did ... we'll stick together next year. One bonus, though - with Theo as the oldest child, his personality just shone. He was the one leading the group from door to door, not just trailing behind Dora. I had a fantastic time with him, cracking jokes and making conversation with us all evening.

Theo's traditional jack o'lantern and Clark's puppy pumpkin. Dora's had unfortunately rotted out by the time we carved (any advice on keeping pumpkins fresh or picking the best ones?) so her grand plans for a Harry Potter portrait were reduced to a single lightning bolt, which still looked pretty cool. Happy Halloween!

Baking Monday - Nutter Butter Bark

2011-10-31T10:26:00.000-04:00

For this week's baking project, I was checking out a recipe for pecan caramel bark which sounded awesome, but was more complicated than I had time for. I followed the suggestion of "Other Recipes You Might Like ..." to this very easy, a little cheaty, yummy, very bad for you treat.

I had a little trouble with the recipe, because pb chips melted alone were very sticky and didn't spread very easily. Consequently, they didn't look great, so I used the ol' drizzle with chocolate trick to pretty them up. It might work better to mix the cookies right in with the melted pb chips and then drizzle with chocolate. Peanut buttery yummy.

Sneak Preview

2011-10-28T22:24:00.001-04:00

Guess what I stayed up waaay too late making last night?

Looking forward to Monday! Hope it doesn't snow.

Baking Monday - Corn Muffins

2011-10-17T09:23:00.000-04:00

I've tried many corn muffin recipes, but had yet to find one we really liked. I've also been looking for things to make with corn meal, because a couple of weeks ago, I needed a tiny bit for a recipe and the grocery store around the corner only had gigantic bags. So, last time we had chili, I searched again for a new recipe to try. I found this one via Tracey's Culinary Adventures (fantastic recipes and even better photography!)

Well. Dora declared them the best ones she's ever had and has asked to make them again about once a day since we ran out. I opted to omit the corn kernels, because, blech, and nutmeg. I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I did the ol' milk plus lemon juice substitution (thanks, red & white cookbook!) and they turned out just fine. This one is definitely a keeper!

Refreshed

2011-10-14T09:36:00.000-04:00

We had cucumbers for dinner, and Clark immediately set two aside. "I want to put these on my eyes when I go to sleep!" I do not know where he got the idea, but was SO insistent on wearing cucumbers on his eyes at bedtime. When I asked him why, he said, "So I will be refreshed!"

"And," he said, "If I get hungry in the middle of the night, I'll just ARRMPF! and eat them all up."

Baking Monday - Super Sugar Cookie Roundup!

2011-10-10T20:59:00.004-04:00

It's been sugar cookie central around here the last three weeks! Here are some highlights ...

Wedding shower cookies - dresses, cakes, gifts, and hearts.

Signature tiger cookies with a new twist - pastels! I love how these colors turned out.

Tray for the birthday girl - an assortment of birthday items, "girly" cookies, and the cutie tigers.

I also included some personalized extras for the birthday girl.

I had an order coming up the next week for tie-dye t-shirts and socks for a tie-dye birthday party. I made some practice cookies to see how they would work.

And these are the final result! I love how they turned out! Very time consuming, but big impact.

More wedding cookies! These were for a rehearsal dinner. I'm a big fan of the monochrome colors. These were delivered on Thursday morning and ...

... thirty minutes later, I got another order for wedding cookies. Happily, I was able to use the same shapes, just changed the flowers to the bride's color - coral - and updated the hearts from pink to purple, I think they look very nice with the coral flowers. Boo for bad photography - these went on a tray at 7:30 this morning, so dim kitchen light was the best I could do.

I love making these, but they are not my favorite cookie to eat. So, in between all the sugar cookie craziness, I had to make a batch of pb chocolate chip cookies just for me.

Baking Monday - Mint Oreo Cupcakes

2011-09-26T21:27:00.004-04:00

I've had this recipe in the hopper for awhile. It's been delayed a few weeks for various reasons, so I was excited to finally make them today!

I used Bakerella's Oreo cupcake recipe, but decided they'd be way more fun with MINT.

... and an Oreo baked into each cupcake! Mmmmm.

The cookies all floated to the top and stayed there!

The only alteration to this recipe (besides using mint Oreos) is adding a tsp of peppermint extract along with the vanilla in the frosting recipe. The original recipe says makes 12 with some batter left over, but I got 24 cupcakes with batter left over (very happy that I opted not to double it!) One package of cookies is the perfect amount for two dozen cupcakes with six cookies remaining to be crushed up and added to the frosting. I also added a drop of food color to make it green.

Definitely a special occasion cupcake! Calorie-wise ... well, they're off the chart. Just skip lunch that day.

Note from a Delinquent Tooth Fairy

2011-09-21T12:19:00.003-04:00

Dear Theo,

Hello there! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get to your tooth. I was on vacation with some of my fairy friends. We go to fairy camp every year in the summer. We go swimming, play tennis, waterski, and make fairy s’mores (which are just like regular s’mores, but with sprinkles.)

We also went hiking and, guess what? I tripped over a branch, fell, and broke my little fairy wings. So, I’ve been travelling on foot and it takes me a LONG time to get around! I had an extra challenge when I got to your room, because there were so many obstacles in my way! I had to stop and battle Ninjagos, climb over Tinkertoys and watch out for rolling Bakugan. Then, I spent three days lost inside a pair of pirate underpants! But I finally found my way to your toothy hiding spot and left a little extra goodie for you. (You might want to use it to hire a cleaning service!)

Anyhow, thanks for the tooth, and I look forward to seeing you next time. I think my wings should be healed by Halloween. (By the way, guess what I’m dressing up as this year? The Easter Bunny!)

Your friend,
The Tooth Fairy

Baking Monday - Butterbeer Cupcakes

2011-09-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

A friend sent me this recipe and I had it tucked away for a special occasion. I made them today to celebrate Theo's birthday.

I didn't have a squeeze bottle for the filling and used a pastry bag instead, which turned out to be difficult and messy, so the cupcakes didn't get as much filling as they could have used. Consequently, there was a lot of ganache left over, which ended up being served as a dip with sliced apples - mmmmm.

The recipe made 20 cupcakes with more than enough frosting. Turned out they weren't Theo's favorite - sad face - but I also made him a batch of Star Wars cookies today for a screening of Empire with Dad and his friends.

These cupcakes are super buttery and sweet - definitely worth trying if you have a Potter fan (or a butterscotch fan) at home.

Tiger Birthday Cookies

2011-09-15T09:18:00.000-04:00

I think the tiger faces are becoming my signature cookie!

A friend ordered these for her daughter's school birthday snack. I loved the way the tiger stripe letters turned out.

And she also smartly ordered an apple for the teacher!

*NEW!* My cookie pics now have a home of their own. Like Spotgirl Sweets on Facebook for updates!

Fun With Lego

2011-09-14T09:05:00.000-04:00

Can you tell what this is?

How about now?

Getting warmer?

Yes, Dora and Theo used fishing line to create a Quiddich game in action with Lego bricks.

Nice, right?

And every game needs an audience.

This is another creation Theo calls: "Move It, Buck-o!"

Love this guy's expression.

And this would be every minifigure head in their collections stacked up together.

Summer Report Card

2011-09-06T20:27:00.006-04:00

Wasn't it June just like, two seconds ago? The big kids are back to school this week, and I still haven't wrapped my head around how quickly it's gone by. So, what did we do with our time?

Lazy Days

BOY, did we take it easy this year. No schedule, no structured activities, just enjoying being home and not having much to do. When the kids get up, they go right into play, play, play, which meant that I lounged around in bed until very late in the morning and breakfast was rarely eaten before 10:30. We did have at least one out and around activity for a few hours a day, but many of our hours were spent right here at home. A+

Activities

Dora and Theo did one week at church camp and one week at our children's museum. Clark had one week of camp at his preschool. Dora had summer musical and a few gymnastics classes, but that was pretty much it. We had lots of adventures around town - rode all six carousels, went to the splash park, hit each pool at least once, and had lots of park picnic lunches. B

Reading

We didn't go to the library as often as we did last summer because the kids were busy tackling books we had at home already - Harry Potter. Dora zipped through all seven in about three weeks, it took Theo almost all summer, but he did it. The big kids logged every book they read this summer, even re-reads. Dora was at 58 and Theo was at 11 (but they were big ones!) Clark can read much more than he lets on. If he is pushed too hard he gets frustrated, but we spent lots of time this summer reading random words on labels and signs. B+

Sibling Harmony

Actually, pretty good. I had a plan in place for making decisions during the day to avoid squabbles and happily, never had to use it once. There was the normal amount of annoyances and we had a bit of a ramp up over the last two weeks, but overall pretty good. B

Ice Cream Consumption

As always ... A+

Lunch Box Notes

2011-09-05T09:21:00.002-04:00

I'm only half looking forward to school starting next week. Yay to getting back to our weekly routine and because we're all ready for a little time apart, but boo to getting up early, the daily hustle, and packing lunches.

During Dora's first year of school, I put a note or joke in her lunch box every. Single. Day. Theo's first year of school brought notes about once a week. The last two years, I've been a bit of a slacker. Notes go in about once a month, if I think of it. I wanted to have a little stash printed and ready to go for this year.

I gathered up some of their old notes (yes, I save them if they return home intact), prettied them up, and assembled on two printable sheets.

There are some for everyday (Happy Lunch!) and for special occasions (You lost a tooth!) Not enough to get through the whole year, but a good start.

There are also some for special treat days ... the kids and I established when they started kindergarten that Friday would be the day to buy ice cream with lunch. (Though during Theo's first year, he got chocolate milk instead because he was at the time a ridiculously slow ice cream eater.) They've tried to up that quota over the years by arguing that "Other kids get to buy ice cream EVERY DAY." and you can just guess how well that goes over in our house. (Has any kid ever gotten that argument to work? But yet, they still keep trying.)

Download Lunch Box Notes 1 here.

Download Lunch Box Notes 2 here.

(And, shhh - don't tell anyone - but I've also used the occasional licensed character.)

Here are some other printable lunch box notes floating around out there. Happy Lunch!

Cute full color and fill-out notes from Buttoned Up.
Fruit labels and notes from AlphaMom.
Happy notes from Frog Prince Paperie.
Crazy sweet food art from Paper & Pomegranates.
Corny jokes (the best kind!) from Cap Creations.

*Update* Here is a fantastic lunch box note round-up ... stop by Making Memories With Your Kids for more!

Golf Cookies!

2011-08-30T11:22:00.001-04:00

I've been reading a lot of cookie blogs lately (like this one, this one, and this one) and was inspired to get a little more adventerous with these cookies.

My cousin Scot and his new bride Kelly had a golf-themed party to celebrate their marriage last weekend, and I thought these cookies would be fun.

The golf balls were inspired by this post.

And I found a few of these scenes on Flickr (search: golf cookies).

Big tray of sprinkle hearts ... mmmmm, sparkly!

Baking Monday - Chocolate Cappuccino Cookies

2011-08-29T23:04:00.005-04:00

Baking Monday is back! I had forgotten that the pool season was starting tonight, so I didn't plan today's recipe in advance, but did find a good recipe in the Taste of Home cookie book to try.

They look identical to the Chocolate Brownie Cookies that I've made before, but a very different recipe and one additional ingredient - coffee, mmmm. I can't stand actual coffee, but love it in baked goods and ice cream. These mixed and baked quickly - done and out of the oven before any kids were down for breakfast this morning! Hershey's Dark Cocoa makes these look black instead of brown and makes them taste extra yummy.

Kids in the Kitchen

2011-08-22T13:16:00.003-04:00

We haven't done a lot of home projects this summer - the kids have been so happy to just play their own thing when we're here - but it was easy to get everyone on board for a candy project.

We saw a segment on tv about a candy company that makes chocolate covered gummy bears and the kids were intrigued. We don't have gummy bears at home, but do have a big supply of gummy worms, thanks to a special aunt who sends the kids home with bags every time we see her.

So, we melted some chocolate and started dipping. Clark doesn't like worms, so they made him some jellybean clusters instead.

Not very pretty to look at, but ...

... everyone liked them. The jellybeans were preferred to the worms, probably because they are softer and easier to eat.

We also decided to make these lollipops!

Ours didn't turn out nearly as neat, but still very cool looking. They didn't melt evenly - perhaps because the Jolly Ranchers have been hanging around our house for awhile - but it was interesting to note that the grape melted first, followed by the green apple and the pesky pink watermelon were last.

Yum!!

Poppins

2011-08-19T14:38:00.001-04:00

Dora as Mary Poppins for the last day of camp - dress like your favorite movie character. Pretty good for a homemade costume put together with less than 24 hours notice.

Happy Theo Day!

2011-08-18T10:40:00.003-04:00

The middle child has been quite moody lately. He and I were having dinner after a long day of errands, and despite an ice cream stop in the middle of the day, was still grumbling and complaining.

"There should be a day," he said, "where I get to make all the decisions."

Done. I told him. Tomorrow is Theo Day. You decide what to do. His face lit up. "Really?" Right after dinner, he sat down to make up a schedule, and posted it in the kitchen and outside the bedrooms.

I liked how he alternated some play time with the candy eating and Xbox-ing.

Morning tv time ...

... and play time ...

... followed by some candy eating ...

It was raining on and off all day, so the trip to the carousel was replaced with an hour at Chuck E. Cheese.

By 6 pm, the sun was finally out, so I suggested a walk instead of the scheduled evening XBox time, and he agreed. It's kind of nice when they realize on their own that a day of nothing can sometimes be too much. The playground was still too wet to play, so we walked to the creek and threw rocks. (Something we should really do more often - hours of entertainment!)

Luck was on our side, because mere minutes after we arrived home, the skies opened up and started pouring again.

This was a lot of fun, and I have to say that I really enjoyed saying yes to everything all day. Big payoff for not too much work. Happy Theo Day!

Summer Musical

2011-08-14T19:52:00.006-04:00

Workshop tuition - $195
Tshirt - $15
Tickets - $90
Program ad - $40
DVD - $30
Flowers - $16
Ice cream cake - $20
Candy grams - $5

Seeing this expression up on stage - Priceless!

Dora just finished her first musical theatre workshop. She didn't love the experience - there were some tears early on, and I think the amount of work involved really surprised her. However ... that girl LOVED being on stage. She was just radiating happiness.

She was in two performances of "The Best of Disney", playing one of the seven dwarfs. She had six songs and dances to learn and did a wonderful job.

Up until last night, she said that she would not want to do another show, but seeing her expression up on stage this weekend said otherwise. Hopefully, the big payoff of performance day will be enough to make her want to try it again. I'm just going to wait awhile before asking!

Fun With the Camera

2011-08-12T10:50:00.000-04:00

The kids borrowed my camera and I found evidence of floating children.

Latest Sewing

2011-08-11T10:27:00.000-04:00

I haven't been doing a lot of sewing, but had a big order for baby sets recently.

I'm working on finishing up a stack of napkins this week to fill the Etsy shop (it's about time!) for back-to-school.

Cloth Napkin Shop Restock!

2011-08-10T21:01:00.002-04:00

Finally! The Etsy shop has been updated, just in time for back-to-school.

Prints for boys - pirates, rockets, and monsters.

Prints for girls - rainbow cats, trees, blue flowers, and bright butterflies.

Prints for mom - brown birds, painted flowers, mod fruit. (I loved the fruit so much that I kept a set for myself, which means there is only one set in the shop! Get them while they last!)

What We Love This Week (Girly Edition, Part 2)

2011-08-10T09:59:00.001-04:00

Dora got this cute set from our cousins for her birthday and she loves it.

The dress forms have openings in the back that the fabric can be pushed through.

Of course, I have to take pictures of every design before she can start a new one. Fun!

More Movies

2011-08-09T09:40:00.003-04:00

Recent selections from Movie Night ...

Jeff bought this for me for Mothers' Day and then forgot about it until a few weeks ago (bonus gift for me!) The kids all loved it, though Clark went to bed before the end - it's another long one. I love the scene when Chessy realizes that Hallie is really Annie - tears every time! It's such a sweet movie, but sad at the same time, because of the loss of Miranda Richardson and the craziness of Lindsay Lohan. We liked the DVD bonus feature that explained how they filmed the twin scenes.

Totally stupid, but the kids all love it. At least it's short.

This was my choice - Jeff and I took my little cousins to go see this in the theatre when we were dating. The movie is just okay, but the music is great. A recent addition to movie night is the Rolling Credits Dance Party, when Dora and Clark typically bust their moves to the final song, and this one had them hopping!

More Baking - Grad & Wedding Cookies

2011-08-03T09:12:00.000-04:00

It's graduation season! These are cookies I did for a party order last month - my favorite batch of UE cookies yet.

The following week, I had an order for another six dozen cookies, with monograms. I usually freehand cookies, but wanted these to look more consistent, so I piped the letters on wax paper over a printout.

Then caaaarefulllly peeled each very fragile letter off the wax paper. (It goes without saying: make extras.)

The kids were SO interested in these! I said, "Don't touch them! Don't look at them! Don't even think about them, pretend they don't exist!", which of course they just found hysterical and then taunted me with "Mah-om, I'm think-ing about those letters!"

These are some of the finished products!

I'm loving the new icing colors. I've had NO bleeding, but am still having problems with spotting.

... spotting here, too. (Frowny face)

And these lovely cookies were for our good friends' wedding the same week. Americolor Super White made these look extra fabulous.

212 cookies in one week! Happily, all three kids had a summer camp in the morning that week, I needed all the time I could get!

Ice Cream Safari - Week 3

2011-08-02T09:57:00.000-04:00

Today we went to a shop that Jeff and I had visited years ago, shortly after we first moved here, in a different location. It was a memorable occasion because ... the ice cream was awful. We were both a few licks in to our cones when we looked at each other and said, "Mine's not very good - is yours?" and both ended up pitching them. I guarantee, that has NEVER happened before or since.

So, I was happy to give it a second try today. We must have gotten a bad batch on that day years ago, because happily, the ice cream today was quite yummy!

Dora chose cotton candy, Clark and Theo branched out with chocolate chip. I loved the funky decor.

Clark got a kick out of the toilet seat on the bathroom door.

The restrooms were all decorated in jewels with a poem on the back of the door that cleverly rhymed "sprinkle" with "tinkle" and made us all laugh.

And more exciting news ... we won two baskets at our church picnic yesterday. Clark really wanted the sports bag, so he was very excited. Turns out, the tote bag was handmade! Gorgeous! (And I am LOVING the Vestal color theme.) Dora and Theo were both trying for the Halloween basket, so they were happy, too. They always complain that we don't have any scary Halloween decorations - my taste is definitely more cutesy - so they are thrilled that we now have a witch, skeleton and a pair of creepy spiders to put out in October.

Baking Monday - Red, White and Blue

2011-08-01T15:37:00.003-04:00

First up - white chocolate strawberries for a 3rd-of-July pool party. The idea came from Family Fun, here's a link to the how-to from Our Best Bites. I didn't have enough blue sugar sprinkles for all the berries, so I mixed it up with some blue jimmies, too. For future reference - the crowd liked the sugar sprinkles better!

I had an order for graduation cookies the same weekend and happily, the school colors were red, white, and blue, so I made extra cookies and icing for the holiday weekend.

4th-of-July cookies for pool party #2 - it is nice to have so many friends with pools! (We always bring treats when we get invitations, by the way!) Lots of experimentation with this batch. Dora's favorite was the tye-dye looking star, I liked the polka dots and flags.

There was enough of everything left over to have a decorating session at home. I gave each kid two cookies to decorate, and by the time I headed back to the table with the frosting, one of Clark's cookies was already half gone.

Theo and Dora really took their time with these.

Dora tried to recreate the tye dye one, but was getting frustrated over the way they were turning out. I reminded her that it's just a cookie ... it will still be delicious!

Happy moment captured in between freak out fits because Dora wanted the picture alone with the cookies - she was up in her room about 10 seconds after we snapped this - sigh. I think that's why I treasure our family photos ... they help me remember the harmonious times and overlook the moments that are slightly less so.

Ice Cream Safari - Week 2

2011-07-18T17:22:00.002-04:00

It's amazing to me that there are ice cream shops in the area that we have not been to yet! Today's stop had only four flavors of (really good) soft ice cream, but a big assortment of sprinkles, toppings, and dips.

Dora chose lemon lime twist with cotton candy sprinkles. It was gorgeous! I loved the colors! Unfortunately, she wasn't as excited about the ice cream - the fruit flavoring was very subtle - and they didn't have sugar cones, which are her favorite.

Theo got his usual favorite, twist with rainbow sprinkles. But we should have gone baby size, because it was too much for him to finish!

Clark was snoozing when we arrived, but woke up in time for a choc-van twist with (favorite color alert!) BLUE sprinkles, very exciting.

And the kids really got a kick out of this sign!

Ice Cream Safari 2011

2011-07-15T16:13:00.006-04:00

We are very excited to have another Ice Cream Safari this year! We started out this week at a shop that I've driven by thousands of times in the six years we've been here, but never stopped in. It always looks closed - it's a huge shop and a huge parking lot, but we rarely see cars parked in front. They specialize in homemade custard and it was delicious! A bit more expensive than the shops we usually frequent, but it was a good treat.

Dora LOVED it. She was having such a hard time deciding on a flavor, because so many looked good to her. She begged to come back another time so she can try more. Two thumbs up!

Are you planning your own Ice Cream Safari this year? Here you go!

Get your passports here.
Covers updated for 2011 here.

Pen & Ink

2011-07-12T16:16:00.004-04:00

We've been having a very Harry summer in our house - Potter, that is. Theo's been playing the Lego game for awhile and I checked out The Chamber of Secrets audio book from the library to jump start interest in the series. Both kids loved it - Dora couldn't wait to share the discs, so she started reading the books ... and zipped through all seven in FOUR weeks. She's always been a remarkably fast reader, and I continually worry about her comprehension, but she does seem to absorb everything, as she often refers to minute details and characters that I barely remember. Theo is about a third of the way through book four. Both kids are going to a Harry Potter camp in August and are way excited.

On a picnic this weekend, Dora and Theo collected geese feathers (quills!) and wanted to try their hand at writing with ink. Happily, I still had some stashed away from art school days along with a couple of pens and showed the kids how to use them.

They came up with some awesome creations!

This is Theo's self-portrait. He's missing three teeth right now, can you tell? (Which reminds me that his recent one is still sitting upstairs. Bad Tooth Fairy!!)

Dora drew some characters from the books. I love the texture and look of these drawings, I never would have thought of doing pen and ink with the kids, but am happy we did. Dora grasped right away how easy it is to do fine detail and we talked about how many book illustrators use this medium and thought of some examples.

I am in love with her drawing of Snape!

Baking Monday - Cinnamon Sugar Butter Cookies

2011-07-05T17:40:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's Tuesday, but yesterday was a holiday. A couple of weeks ago, I hosted my first ever Tupperware party, and it was loads of fun. The consultant gave me a choice of a few things she could demonstrate making during the party, and I chose salsa (it was yummy). So, I opted to go for a whole southwest theme for the party, including margaritas (also yummy), tropical fruit salad and mini taco appetizers.

I was searching for a cookie that would go well with the mix and decided on these cookies from Mrs. Fields. Very snickerdoodle-like, they were buttery and delicious. They spread quite a bit during baking so make sure to space them far apart on the baking sheet.

And I just happened to have this perfect little plate for the occasion ... Theo's second birthday party had a cowboy theme, and our neighbors brought dessert on this plate for us to keep, and this is the first time it's been used since then. I have no idea why I hung onto it for so long - probably for just such an occasion!

Sorry for the lapse in posts the last couple of weeks, we're finally in summer vacation mode, which means late bedtime, late sleep-ins, and very little time to myself. I spent last week's spare moments baking and cleaning for our yard sale (YAY), so I'll have lots of treats to post over the next few days.

What I Love This Week - Snack Edition

2011-06-22T11:34:00.000-04:00

These little containers are meant to be used for freezing jams, but are the perfect size for snacks on the go. They are easy to open and stay securely closed. They also stack and snap together, which is convenient for storing but also when mom is trying to carry snacks and water bottles for three out the door. Like!

Random Baking

2011-06-21T11:23:00.000-04:00

Pics of baking projects over the last month or so ...

First Communion cookies - I loved this color combo.

Cookies for school Ice Cream Social - still having bleeding issues, hoping to solve them with ...

... new icing colors! Had to give the new Americolor gels a spin. I challenged them with my two toughest color combos: blue/gold and green/gold. Good news: no bleeding! Still having spotting problems, though. Will keep trying. I also Disco Dusted a few cookies to try it out ... this will take some time to perfect! My family was very happy to eat the test batch.

LOVE these silver sprinkles. We don't have a good baking supply store here, but do have a wonderful farm store that has jimmies and sanding sugar in every color of the rainbow for super cheap.

Vanilla cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting and ...

... chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing. These were for our friend's bridal shower last week. I accidentally filled the first tray of liners too full and they all baked over the edge. Again, family was very happy to eat the mistakes.

Baking Monday - Caramel Pretzel Bars

2011-06-20T11:16:00.001-04:00

I made this recipe for pool practice on Friday night - pretzel crust with a caramel Kisses and topping. I think they would be just as good with regular kisses or chocolate chips in the middle, but the caramel kisses made them extra gooey. They are reallllly good. A bit crumbly, but then everyone who had one also found themselves picking the crumbs off the plate, too.

In the Kitchen Today

2011-06-18T11:12:00.002-04:00

Decorating supplies.

Go Vestal!

The case for emergency cookie dough: the bit that was stashed away would have made too many cookies last time, but was just enough for five jumbo-sized treats for today's playdate. Will make Theo and his friends very happy.

Family Movie Night

2011-06-11T12:07:00.005-04:00

We don't have a lot of rituals and traditions over here, but the few that we do have are precious. Giant cookie on the first day of school. Wrapped books left on everyone's bed on Little Christmas morning. Grilling hot dogs and hamburgers for Dora's January birthday.

One that we really enjoy - Family Movie Night. Jeff and I have always had a bad case of the Sunday blues, and all sitting down to watch a movie is the perfect way to chill out at the end of the weekend and before the start of another busy week. We keep a little dish with everyone's name on little slips of paper and take turns selecting who will make the movie choice. Dora rarely chooses movies - she finds most of them to be too scary - and will usually opt for Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, or Schoolhouse Rock. Clark is a big Pixar fan and Theo's favorites are Megamind and Monsters vs. Aliens. Jeff and I usually pick something that we haven't already seen a zillion times.

So, I'm going to start adding reviews of our Sunday night movie pics - here are some recent titles that have been big hits!

Dora had a party this week for the last day of her Independent Study program (the last day ever, because the program has been cut, but that's a rant for another day) and they watched this movie. She LOVED it. She was entranced. She could not stop talking about it. Happily, it was one of the DVDs included in Clark's big prize basket that he won last year, so we owned it but hadn't watched it yet. I can't say that I really enjoyed it, though it seems like the kind of magical, sappy story that is usually right up my alley (maybe I couldn't get past Dustin Hoffman's weird lisp?) but love that Dora loved it. Good news: NO scary parts at all. There's one scene where the store has a "temper tantrum", but Dora found that more funny than scary.

We watched this a couple months ago and all loved it - Clark was shouting "ham!" at random moments for days afterward. Dora was a little tense during the flood scenes, but overall a sweet movie.

This was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I love, love, love, love this book and expected to be fairly disappointed by the movie. Happily, the alterations to the original story made sense and I appreciated how many scenes from the book had been recreated. Dora (and I) didn't like the end when they had to battle the machine - that weird tentacle thing that grew out of it was creepy - but Clark and Theo loved it.

Yay, yay, YAY, I love this movie. We checked it out of the library last week. I realized as we were watching it that I had only ever seen the edited for tv version and there are two songs in the original cut that I had never seen before. We had to do a bit of fast forwarding - it's 2.5 hours long! But was so happy that the kids really enjoyed it. They told me the next morning how much they liked it and Clark's teacher said that he was even talking about it at school ... BIG thumbs-up from everyone! I love Angela Lansbury. I used to wish that she could be my third grandma.

Scene from the Dinner Table

2011-06-07T13:44:00.002-04:00

Theo: Dad has Diet Coke with dinner, why can't we have soda, too?
Dad: I'm 39. When you're 39 and a dad, you can have soda with dinner.
Theo: And buy it for my kids?
Dad: If you want. And if your wife says it's okay.
Mom: Or life partner!
Theo: What's a life partner?
Mom: Someone you might live with but not be married to.
Theo: Could I do it with Omar?
Mom: Sure.
Theo: YAY!

Baking Monday – Burgers and Fries

2011-05-30T11:04:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Bakerella for today's inspiration! I made these tiny treats for today's picnic.

Brownie burgers with cupcake buns. My circle cutter is on the bigger side, so we've got jumbo burgers today. How much food color does it take to make buttercream frosting look like ketchup? A LOT. A crazy lot. This was still pretty pink but I just could not add any more food color. I think everyone will get the idea.

The fries were fun. Sugar cookies poof up quite a bit while cooking, so the fries must be cut super duper skinny, or else cut them in half while still warm to get that fast food fry look. And sprinkle them with sugar!

These were time-consuming, but not difficult. I used Bakerella's template for the fry wrappers, but unfortunately my color printer is not hooked up right now, they'd be way cuter in red, white and blue.

Enjoy the day!

What I Got in the Mail Today

2011-05-26T16:17:00.003-04:00

Our friendly UPS delivery person brought some goodies for me today.

Two Origins Gloomaway bath bars. They are the best. I am very happy.

(I also got a new pedometer today, which is a little too boring to warrant a picture, but I am equally as excited about that. My last one disappeared on Friday, and I've really been missing that electronic motivation to keep moving.)

And some treats from Country Kitchen:

New icing colors!!! I am hoping that these will help with my bleeding problem. I'm a little too excited about these.

Oooh, so pretty!!! Looking forward to making things sparkly.

I've been wanting to try this for awhile - it smells like lemon / cherry / almond mixed together, am curious to see how it tastes in a baked good.

I can't wait to experiment!!

Theo's First Communion

2011-05-23T10:24:00.004-04:00

We celebrated Theo's First Communion this weekend!

Even though Dora and Theo are almost two years apart, because of how their birthdays fall, they are only a year apart in school. Which means back-to-back Communion prep years for our family.

(Camera shy Clark wouldn't agree to a photo appearance.) Saturday was also Dora's last day to sing with the Children's Choir until the fall. This was her third year of choir and she's wowed us again with her commitment, enthusiasm, and talent.

I thought this year would be a struggle with Theo, but he really surprised us. He worked hard, took the material seriously, and genuinely knew his stuff.

The rain stayed away and the sun made its first appearance in a week - it was a great day!

Theo's cookies - I solved the bleeding color problem by doing monotone icing this time, and they turned out pretty well.

Theo's request for the party: a giant chocolate chip cookie, his favorite.

Jeff and I decided to get him a swiss army knife as a gift. He loved it, and Grandpa got to give him a little how-to and safety lesson the next day. We had the knife engraved with his name, and he also got a beautiful children's Bible with his name stamped on the cover from his godparents. He thought that was SO cool: "It has my NAME on it. How did it get MY NAME on it?"

We're so blessed to have such a nice day to celebrate and friends and family who travelled in for the occasion. Theo said that he had trouble falling asleep the night before, because he was so excited. He had a giant, goofy grin on his face during the applause at the end of the ceremony ... so proud!

Baking Update

2011-05-12T10:36:00.000-04:00

Baking Monday is on hiatus again until August, as the pool season has ended. The good news is, event season is upon us, and I'll have lots of showers, communions, graduations, birthdays, and national holidays to bake for in the months ahead, so stay tuned!

Easter cookies! Still having icing problems, am going to try switching to water instead of milk and see if that helps. I loved the colors on these. That carrot cutter is one of my favorites.

These cookies were for our Relay for Life team's bake sale fundraiser. Love these colors, too!

Our chapter of Mothers & More had a member appreciation party at a salon last night - I made these brownies for dessert. The bad news is that they are off the chart calorie-wise (if you're into keeping track of that kind of thing) but good news is that they are soooo rich that half of one makes for a fine chocolate fix. The recipe is from this cookbook, which I love because it has a lot of easy recipes for things you might not normally make from scratch, like brownies and dinner rolls. Plus, the little stories in between chapters makes it a pretty good read, too. (And apparently, can be purchased from Amazon right now for $1.42! Score!) These are super duper fudgy and, as the recipe says ... don't even think about adding nuts. (Thank you, recipe, you've won my heart!)

Chocolate Brownies

1.5 sticks butter
8 squares of baking chocolate (1 oz each)
2.5 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1.75 cups flour

• In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally
• Remove pot from heat, and stir in remaining ingredients, in order, mixing well after each addition.
• Pour into greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes (they will be slightly underbaked)
• Let cool completely before cutting

Baking Monday - Star Wars Cookies

2011-05-02T18:00:00.008-04:00

With three Star Wars fans in the house, it was only a matter of time until I got these cutters. Happily, our good friends Stephanie and Chris sensed the force was strong in our family and gave me a set for Christmas this year.

I decided to make Almond Butter Cookies, because these are so yummy on their own and the cutter details are so nice, they don't need to be mucked up with icing.

Isn't this dough beautiful? I love these colors! Because of the butter and vanilla, the dough is kind of a creamy white, which made some lovely muted shades. I used Wilton Leaf Green for Yoda, Sky Blue for Boba Fett, and Black for Darth (which Dora said looked more purple than black, but I like it.)

These cutters are excellent quality, I really enjoyed working with them. The only sticky part was on the Stormtrooper's eyebrow (eyebrow?) - had to make sure there was no dough stuck in there. I think I may rock Theo's world and use one for his pbj tomorrow.

With the leftover dough, I made a few that were kind of tye-dye.

These turned out so cool! I love them!

And the swirly ones are fun, too.

- Insert geeky quote here - I'm not one of the three fans in the house. But I am in love with these cookies!

Office Re-Do!

2011-04-26T19:44:00.012-04:00

My office is surprisingly the only room in the house that hadn't had a paint job yet. It took me a long time to A) decide what I wanted and B) have the energy to undertake such a task, because it was a MESS. It had gradually become a catch-all space, and the goal was to make it beautiful and efficient.

Here are some before shots. Clearly, this project has been on my to-do list for quite a while, because these photos are from last May ... and horribly embarrassing. Happily, all these problems have been solved!

Problem spot #1: Cords and routers and hard drives, oh my! When we moved in, the office was set up quickly and things added over the years. This had never been organized and was a giant sore spot.

Problem spot #2: Using the office as a storage room plus too many packaging materials and books.

Problem #3: Plentiful, but ugly and disorganized shelving.

Here's where I began ...

Color! I knew for sure that it was going to be bright. Here is a (very bad picture) of the office at my old house. Now I can admit that it was maybe a teeny too bright, even for me.

But how awesome is that rug? I had always wanted to do a painted rug, and the beat up hardwood floors in this basement room provided the perfect opportunity. This was a fun room.

Then, a few weeks ago, Dora ordered this ice cream at Friendly's, and I had my color inspiration!

The tricky part was finding a color that was definitely orange, not peach, but also not too bright. Three walls ended up orange, and one wall is magenta. It's warm and cozy and makes an impact without being overpowering. Love it!!

Problem #1 solved: We wanted to get some kind of unit to store all the electronic components by the computer table. Brainstorm: I've got all these items in storage from when I used to exhibit at the National Stationery Show sitting in the basement, taking up space. We moved a Spotgirl display shelf into the corner. Now all the little units are tucked onto the shelf, USB cords neatly corralled in another Spotgirl display basket, and bonus! An open-box, Best Buy special, tiny television that fits on the shelf perfectly.

This is my new entrance way. I used to have cork boards up on that wall, which looked cluttered. More Spotgirl items here ... an acrylic display sign and decorative lamp used for the show booth. I also gave this little dresser a fresh coat of paint.

Hey! How'd that get in here! He typically runs from the camera, but while I was taking office pics, decided to pose for me.

Problems #2 & 3 solved: I wanted to keep as much as possible off the floor. I had to make things fit on the shelf, which involved getting rid of lots of stuff. The rolls of paper in the corner bin used to be in a giant ugly cardboard flat file - this is much more attractive. Plus, the paper is now out where I can see it, so I'll remember to use it!

These shelves from Ikea have served me well for many years, but are not so attractive when they're jammed with stuff. At first, I was looking into getting coordinating storage bins for everything, then I realized (DUH!) it would be a lot easier (and cheaper!) to just cover them up. I sewed curtains and attached cafe rods and silver hanging clips.

The magenta bins up top and the green bins along the side are new. Remember the overflowing bins of packing supplies? They've been condensed into two of those pink bins. Much better.

I loved the books on the mantle, but had to pare waaay down. Two giant boxes of graphic design magazines from 1995-2002 went to a new home thanks to Freecycle. Another Spotgirl prop on the wall ... there used to be four of these, but three of them were badly water damaged from storage, rats.

Now that the cordless phone moved to the corner shelf, I have room on my paper cart (another fabulous Ikea find) for some photos.

This vase was another Spotgirl display prop, the flowers are new! My friend Beth brought me those carved wooden elephant stamps after her Peace Corp year in Nepal.

One of my favorite things that stayed: I loved these silver pots when I first saw them in Pier One, but they were crazy expensive. I kept checking the price and watched it go down and down until I finally scored them for about $3 each.

So, that's it! Everything is now easy to access and the space is relaxing and organized. The new challenge is making sure it stays that way.

Baking Monday - Chocolate Surprise Cookies

2011-04-25T19:08:00.003-04:00

AKA: What to do with leftover candy, recipe #2!

This recipe is excellent. I omitted the pecans (because, nuts in cookies, ugh) and cut the butter to 1.5 sticks instead of two. I unwrapped all our goodies and had enough mini Reese cups, Hershey Kisses, and Trader Joe's Mini PB Cups (3/cookie) to fill a recipe. I used the mini scoop to portion out cookie dough (which, BTW, is even more delicious than the cookies), flattened them out with my palms, put the candy in the middle, and wrapped the dough around them. These took 10 minutes on the nose for baking.

You can kind of tell what candy is in each cookie by the shape. I showed Jeff the different shapes so he could zero in on the all-chocolate ones and avoid the pb.

The insides look so cool. The TJ PB got all melty and smooth, those were my favorite.

Now, happily, there are no more Easter chocolates around the house, except for a bag of mini KitKats, which I hate but the kids love. I'll be throwing them in lunches randomly for the next month and they will think I'm a rock star.

Ten Pounds

2011-04-20T09:14:00.007-04:00

I've been writing this post in my head for the last two weeks, and am thrilled to finally be able to publish it.

I'm ten pounds lighter than I was in March!

Here's the story - last fall, I had to buy all new pants because nothing fit anymore. I was two sizes higher than I wanted to be and spent all winter feeling miserable about it, but still not miserable enough to take any serious action. As I'm approaching ages that start with a higher number, it's getting more and more difficult to indulge in junk food without consequences. (Three years of breastfeeding got me into that baaaad habit.) I knew that it was time to change things around while it was still manageable, but still lacked the motivation to do so. Then around the end of February, a few things happened at once that gave me a push.

1. My cousin wrote a book:

... so as our family was preparing to celebrate her accomplishment, I had skinny on the brain.

2. Lent was beginning ... the perfect time to cut out sweets. I'd been in a bad habit of enjoying multiple treats a day, usually mindlessly.

3. My friend Shaun writes a blog about his weight loss journey that's incredibly honest, funny and inspiring and I've been thinking a lot about his struggle and how brave he's been to report on it.

4. During a particularily low day, I posted this to FB:

... which prompted my friend Jen to invite me to join a weight loss challenge. I've never done anything to make me publicly accountable for weight loss, because I was sure I would fail. But I committed, and then I needed the tools to follow through.

So! Here's what I did.

1. I put myself in a mindset that this was a lifestyle change, not a diet. I constantly remind myself how hard it was to get started so I won't be tempted to slide back to old habits.

2. I started using this:

I really thought that just cutting out the junk food would be enough, but wanted to track my eating for a few days to see for myself. Turns out I had to cut waaay back on lots of things! I've been really surprised at how fun this is to use. If I know what we're having for dinner, I'll go ahead and enter it in the morning, then I know what kind of lunch and snacks to eat for the rest of the day. I can access it from my phone, desktop or iPad, so it's incredibly easy to keep up to date. I love that it does the calorie calculating for me and that I can add more calories by logging exercise for the day. And I log in EVERY little food, which is a big deterrent when I'm considering eating something junky. Seeing everything on screen makes it much easier to make healthy choices - now that I've been using it for a month, I can go back and look at best options for each meal.

It hasn't been easy, but there have really only been a handful of times that I've felt cranky hungry (and it turned out that two of those times, I hadn't eaten enough calories for the day, so it was warranted!) Tea is my best friend ... if I really want SOMETHING but have snacked enough, a cup of tea usually does the trick. (Caf before 5 pm, decaf after.) Peppermint tea is an excellent substitute when I have work to do after dinner but don't want to snack.

3. I also have been using this:

I really, really, hate exercising, but I love walking. Jeff got this pedometer from work and I stole it from him and have been using it since August. It has a USB connection, so I can upload my steps each week and keep track of activity on a chart. I love this!! My personal goal had been to hit at least 7000 steps / day, which I was only doing about 4 times a week consistently. However, since I've started this weight loss challenge, I've been more committed to it and have hit my goal every day since the beginning of March. In the last three weeks, my daily count has been between 8000-15000 and I've been doing it in surprisingly small ways.

• I go walking once a week with my friends, but I've also been taking every opportunity I can to go by myself or with one of the kids.

• When the kids are at the playground (and it's not too crowded), I walk around the outside. Clark and I go to the skating rink once a week and I walk laps while he plays or rides his trike.

• Doing an extra lap quickly around the perimeter of a store before and after shopping. This only takes ten minutes and adds at least another 1000 steps!

• Taking every opportunity to go up and down the stairs at home ... and there are MANY during the day. Put these books upstairs! Put these groceries down in the pantry! Take the laundry up and bring some down! Go downstairs and call the kids for dinner instead of just shouting! (The list goes on and on ... )

So, I've successfully completed my group weight loss challenge and officially dropped a size. I have more to go, but I'm halfway there and plan to be at my personal goal by the time school is out. I don't think you'll see me in a bikini any time soon, but I'm really going to enjoy shopping for new shorts!

I also want to add that this was incredibly hard for me to start - I truly didn't think I could ever be this disciplined. Turns out, I'm actually capable of much more than I thought. And I already feel a zillion times better. Moral: If I can do it, anyone can ... it's worth it!!

Baking Monday - Chocolate Caramel Streusel Bars

2011-04-18T20:57:00.003-04:00

I tried another recipe from this site today. This one sounds good on paper, but was a bit of a crumbly mess. It tasted okay (very sweet!) but definitely needs tweaking.

The recipe called for "chopped nuts, any kind," which I found a bit annoying, because I typically dislike any nuts in baked goods, so therefore have no go to favorite. A specific ingredient would have been better. I went with chopped toasted almonds - blech. I didn't like the texture at all. And since this is the second almond recipe I've been burned on recently, I think from now on I'll stick with almond extract for baking (mmmmm) and save actual almonds for snacking instead.

So, here's something interesting ... I was doing a search on this recipe to try to find a calorie count (more on that Wednesday), I found other versions with slight differences ... but those differences might have made these better, like increasing the brown sugar and baking in a 9x12 instead of 8x8 pan. I'm not likely to try these again, but hey! experimenting is what Baking Monday is all about.

Spring Break, Woo!

2011-04-15T10:04:00.005-04:00

Okay, there was one thing really woo-worthy during Spring Break:

I met Peter Walsh!! I love this guy. I've made many mentions in the past year about how I often fantasize about Peter Walsh coming over to my house and then I got to meet him! He was at this yard sale fundraiser last weekend in Ashburn, VA, a convenient 15 minutes away from my sister's house, where we happened to be visiting. He is SO nice and it was a thrill to shake his hand and thank him for the great advice. (One of my many favorites: Never buy patterned wrapping paper!)

Whew! Okay. On to the rest of our weekend. We went to DC with the kids on Sunday. It was their first time riding the Metro, and for $19, it was the highlight of their weekend.

Dora looks a little somber here, but this was the only pic I got during the ride that wasn't blurry. She really loved it!

Both Dora and Theo wanted to be standing and hold onto a pole - much more exciting than a boring old seat. Though they eventually had to be separated, because they were having trouble holding onto the same pole without bickering. (Sigh)

First stop was the National Building Museum. The museum was free admission (with suggested donation), but unfortunately, the Lego exhibit - the reason we went there in the first place - was ticketed admission and SOLD OUT for the rest of the day. That was a super bummer, but the kids did get to have some building time. (Yes, the same thing we were doing back at my sister's house, but at least they got to do it in a beautiful space.)

Highlight #2? Playing on this cool sculpture outside the museum. Next, we walked a few blocks (gorgeous day!) down to the Portrait Gallery / American Art Museum. One of my favorites, Jeff and I haven't been there since before it was closed for renovations in 2000.

Definitely not the kids' favorite, but they had not been to an art museum in many years, and we did find a few things that they enjoyed. We heard a minstrel singing Civil War songs and saw a bit of American Voices in the courtyard. Dora enjoyed seeing the portrait of Juliette Gordon Low and recognized one of the George Washington portraits from a print hanging up at school and was awed to see the original painting!

We stuck to the modern art section and they got to watch a cool 3D projection. (I was scolded two seconds after taking this pic, but I wanted to get the kids, not the artwork!)

This installation was definitely a favorite!

A great visit, I really enjoy taking the kids to see new things that they don't get to see around home. The rest of our week has been fairly low-key, and happily the sun was out yesterday ... yes!!

Crystal Kit Fail

2011-04-05T10:28:00.000-04:00

In my experience, most kid's science kits and "make your own" whatever end up being very disappointing. But when Theo picked out this kit for Dora for Christmas, and I okayed it, because it looked like something she'd enjoy.

It required boiling water, so not entirely DIY.

Photo on the box - spectacular, right?

Actual size of grow your own crystal. Hmmmm. It's also annoying that the box is about four times larger than the size of the contents.

Baking Monday - Chocolate Mint Brownie Cookies

2011-04-04T22:04:00.004-04:00

Okay, listen up - this recipe is seriously good.

I made a few changes to the original recipe. Did you know that Hershey's Special Dark cocoa is their version of dutch-processed? I just learned this recently, and it's much less expensive and very delicious. In addition to using Special Dark cocoa, I also substituted half the vanilla with peppermint extract. And, instead of dipping the cookies in mint chocolate, stirred in Andes Mint Baking pieces - SO good.

I doubled the cookie recipe, which then made about 90 cookies. The frosting portion of the recipe, however, makes a TON - half of the original frosting recipe covered my double batch of cookies.

These turned out super choclatey, super minty, and super soft and chewy. By the way, check out the rest of this lady's blog - great recipes and fun stuff to do with kids.

Baking Monday - Chocolate & Pretzel Cookies

2011-03-28T21:04:00.003-04:00

I had chocolate and pretzels on the brain this weekend and searched for a yummy looking recipe. This bar is like Chubby Hubby in a cookie!

These are pretty delish. I think I'd prefer peanut butter in the actual bar instead of just drizzled on top (and Jeff would prefer the pb gone all together.) I only had to bake these for 20 minutes instead of the recommended 30. And I added 2 cups of choc chips, 1.5 would probably be fine, especially since there's more drizzled on top.

Theo eyeing up the final product.

The pretzels sprinkled on top stay crunchy and the pretzels in the bar get a little soft with baking. Nice.

Snow Day So Far

2011-03-23T14:32:00.003-04:00

39 Clues

marble maze, baths, paper airplanes

outside, hot chocolate, comic books

lots and lots and lots of superheroes

chill out time (where we are now)

Please, please, please let this be the last one of the year!

Baking Monday - Chocolate Brownie Cookies

2011-03-21T19:28:00.005-04:00

I cannot believe that I have not yet made this for Baking Monday, as these are my go-to favorite cookie. This recipe came from Martha Stewart Living years and years ago, and was originally a cutout cookie, but is sooo much better as a slice & bake. My sister nicknamed these "Intensies" because they are so chocolatey, and that's what we still call them. But Chocolate Brownie Cookies is also a good description, because they are dense, chewy and chocolatey like a brownie, but in cookie form.

Lenten update: I had one bite of a mint chocolate brownie at a party on Saturday at Jeff's insistence. My sis and BIL brought us a giant bag of kettle corn this weekend, so I had a bowl of that over the weekend and treated myself to a chocolate cookie today. Sticking one arm out of the wagon, but still doing pretty well overall.

(And I hope to post more kid stuff in the next week or two. We've been busy with the routine of daily life around here, and are due for a fun project soon.)

Chocolate Brownie Cookies
(Makes about 24)

2/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c sugar
4 tbsp butter, cut up
1 tsp vanilla
2 egg whites
3/4 c cocoa powder
3/4 c flour
pinch salt
sugar for dipping

• Mix sugar, butter and vanilla until smooth.
• Add egg whites and mix well.
• Combine flour, cocoa and salt in a separate bowl, add to mixture and mix until combined.
• Dump dough onto wax paper and form a tube about 2" diameter.
• Wrap in wax paper and freeze for three hours or overnight.
• Slice cookies 1/4" thick, dip tops in white sugar.
• Bake 12 minutes, or until cookies are just firm enough to remove from the tray to a cooling rack.

Baking Monday - Cupcakes

2011-03-16T10:42:00.006-04:00

I'm a couple days late with this one. Nothing exciting to report this week ... Jeff requested frosting, so I went with a good ol' fashioned yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting.

I wanted to put some kind of filling in these, in hindsight, I should have filled them with frosting, but decided to put a few chocolate chips in the middle instead. They were a big hit with the kids!

(Don't they look happy?)

Lenten update: I managed to stay away from sweets all week, except for one cupcake on Monday, and I realllllly enjoyed it. It was especially difficult, because I made my favorite cookies to share with a family who so generously takes Dora back and forth to gymnastics every week. It took a lot of will power to stay away!

Baking Monday - Cherry Cake

2011-03-08T13:40:00.004-05:00

AKA the easiest cake in the world!

I decided to make a cake this week, since the Baking Monday crowd was coming to our house instead of the dessert going to them. I love cherry flavoring, but am sadly a minority in our house. Luckily, Dora shares my love for fruit, and even though cherry is not her favorite, she enjoyed this cake with me. I knew Jeff would not like the cake, so I had to tempt him with some really good buttercream frosting.

Why is this so easy? Here are the ingredients: angel food cake mix and a can of cherry pie filling. That's it. Mix together and bake. In the past, I've made this in an angel food pan, but hadn't had the opportunity to use these cute heart pans yet, so I made it into a layer cake this time instead. I wish, wish I had the icing skillz to make this really smooth and neat, but not so much. (Check out this talented baker ... daa-yaam!) Lesson one is probably to use about twice as much frosting.

Here it is! All cherry and delicious! And Dora and I will enjoy finishing it off today. It must be today, since I've decided that Baking Monday experiments will be my only sweet allowance during Lent (sidebar topic: Can She Do It?), since I do at least need to try everything and see how it turns out. Happy Fat Tuesday!

It's Cookie Time!

2011-03-02T18:42:00.008-05:00

Cookie Time! Cookie Time! (I think that Dora and I need to watch Troop Beverly Hills soon.)

Girl Scout cookies are in this week, and Dora usually includes a little thank you tag with her cookie orders.

I worked up this little happy scout today:

She's wearing Crocs, as that seems to be the official footwear of Dora's troop. I put them onto tags that we'll include with our cookie orders. Would you like to use them, too? Here you go!

Download Girl Scout thank you tag here.

And for the visually impaired ...

Download Girl Scout with glasses thank you tag here.

And for all the smart cookies ...

Download cookie thank you tag here.

Pac Man Cookies

2011-02-23T17:48:00.005-05:00

I was so excited about making Pac Man cookies for an 80's themed skating party. I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to make the ghosts, until I found this post that suggested using a tulip cutter turned upside down (duh). I'm not sure I got the ghost eyes quite right.

The SAD (boo-hoo, wah) part of my story is that the icing color separated AGAIN, leaving unpleasant looking splotches of color on the cookies. The last two times this has happened to my cookies have been during cold weather months, so my new theory is that cold may be causing the discoloration. The first batch of cookies (yellow and orange) were left to dry next to a big, drafty window, while the next batch (red, pink, blue) stayed in the cozy kitchen. I still had a little bit of spotting, but not nearly as much as the first batch.

I'm also going to try switching colors ... I've always used Wilton with decent results, but it seems like Americolor is the way to go. Definitely worth trying out!

Here's our table all set for the party! I volunteered to be in charge of the music and had the BEST time compiling our playlist. We also had Pretty in Pink playing on the big video screen - totally awesome to the max.

Baking Monday - Valentine Cake Bites

2011-02-14T13:32:00.002-05:00

Today's Baking Monday is from one of my favorite Bakerella posts. I've made them before, but it's been a couple of years, I was looking forward to making them again.

I love these mini brown wrappers - they hide what a truly awful chocolate dipper I am! (Take a look at today's Bakerella post for some truly awesome chocolate dipping. I can't believe that's not a mold ... how does she do it?)

Yum! Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T13:12:00.003-05:00

I'm such a geek that I did Valentine shopping at Staples. The kids really don't need a thing right now, and I so wasn't in to buying something just to buy something. So, I restocked their school supplies and wrapped them all up with a cute package and left them by their chairs at breakfast.

And, they loved it! Clark's favorite part? The hand sanitizer. "Mom, I will use this hand sanitizer. It's BLUE, and that's my favorite color."

They also got some heart pancakes for breakfast. I didn't go crazy with their lunches, but wanted to leave a few surprises. I used these printables to wrap squeeze yogurt, wrote a little love note on the string cheese wrapper, cut sandwiches into heart shapes and included strawberries with a little heart toothpick. Oh, and some silly valentine jokes. No treats, because they are all having parties at school, and there's an extremely good chance we'll be hitting our favorite ice cream shop after dinner.

I tried to do a fun valentine hairstyle for Dora. I had seen this one and was pretty confident I could replicate it. She asked if I had a printout and I said, no, I read the website, I can do it! She looked me in the eye and said, "Mom, I'd really be more comfortable if you had a printout."

Turns out she was right, because I totally screwed it up, but it still looked okay. Will try to do it the right way next time!

Kitten Valentines

2011-02-10T15:48:00.003-05:00

One more Valentine project, this one's for the girls: my adorable niece wanted kitten valentines for her playgroup, and my sister was disappointed with what she could find online:

so she asked me to come up with something cute for her to print and color. Done!

Download Kitten Valentine here.

Baking Monday (on Wednesday) - Multigrain Cookies

2011-02-09T21:53:00.003-05:00

It was our turn to bring snack during last week's Football Day at preschool. Clark's preschool has a healthy snack policy, which I love. We sent fruit kabobs, but I also wanted to use my football cutters, so I made some multigrain cutout cookies. They still have lots of butter and sugar, but also have some whole grain, so that's something.

Clark and I LOVE these cookies, but the rest of the family is not so fond. They're more savory than sweet and have a crunchy texture because of the cornmeal. They might not be for everyone, but I think they are super yummy!

Multigrain Cutout Cookies

1 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup wheat germ
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Baked-On Frosting

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 tsp hot water

Cookie Preparation:
• Beat sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in remaining ingredients.

• Make Baked-On Frosting: Mix flour and butter until smooth. Stir in hot water. Place in decorating bag with a writing tip.

• Roll dough about 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

• Pipe frosting on unbaked cookies.

• Bake at 350 for 12 to 14 minutes or until edges are light brown. Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Snow Day = Valentine Day

2011-02-03T10:27:00.001-05:00

Two snow days at home this week! Sounds like a good opportunity to make some Valentines!

As usual, Dora likes to do her own thing. She wanted to make Valentine outfits for a boy and a girl with her fashion portfolio. The only problem? There are no boy models in her book. So, she challenged herself with trying to make one of the girl shapes more masculine. And while she did a good job with what she had to work with, her boy looks fairly ... let's say, groomed.

After working on her sketches, the outlines were transferred onto tracing paper and scanned. I showed her how to use the magic wand, eyedropper and fill tools in Photoshop to color her pictures.

We printed them out, three to a page. They turned out pretty well! She's very proud.

SuperValentines

2011-02-03T09:49:00.004-05:00

Theo had a very clear vision for his valentine cards: "a Superman symbol inside a heart." I did the artwork, but he was the creative director. We printed them on cardstock, two on a page with super sayings on the back. They'll fit into an A2 envelope when cut out.

Would you like to use them, too? Here you go! (For personal use only, please!)
Download SuperValentines here.

Football Valentines

2011-02-03T09:41:00.005-05:00

"Clark, what kind of valentines do you want this year?" Football, no question. This is the kid who told his teacher last week that they "should have Football Day at school," so, guess what they're celebrating today? He's very charming. And persuasive.

These are his football valentines. I printed them in black and white so he can add his own embellishment (watercolor, his preferred medium) with a valentine message on the back and space to sign his name. Blue is his favorite color, but he decided to throw some red ones in at the end for variety.

Would you like some for your football fan? Here you go! (Personal use only, please!)

Download Football Valentines here.

Dreams

2011-02-02T18:40:00.001-05:00

Clark: I have to go to the bathroom!
Me: Okay, let's go.
Dora: Why don't you make him go by himself?
Me: I wish I could.
Clark: That's your dream.
Me: Yes, that's my dream.
Clark: I dream that I'm a ninja.

Baking Monday - Homemade Twinkies

2011-01-31T10:37:00.003-05:00

First, a little background story about today's item: Dora and I went to a Girl Scout sleepover on Saturday, so Jeff planned a boys' movie night at home. He told me this story while we were all in the car the next day: He and Clark were watching Wall-E, and Clark wanted to know what Wall-E's cockroach friend was eating, and Jeff told him that it was a Twinkie, to which Clark replied, "What's a Twinkie?" I started laughing, and then the older two kids, who were listening to the story from the back seat, both shouted out at the same time, "What's a Twinkie?" It was funny to me that with all the junk my kids DO eat, they've gone this far in their little lives having never been exposed to a Twinkie. (Come to think of it, I don't even know if our grocery store has them, and if so, I wouldn't even know where to find them!)

So, I searched for a homemade Twinkie recipe for today! It calls for a canoe pan, which I guess I'd have to get if I was really serious about Twinkies, but a muffin pan worked well enough for today. However, in my searching last night, I found another recipe that gave instructions for making little tube pans using aluminum foil and a spice jar, and I thought, that's crazy! Who would spend that much time doing that? (Regular readers will figure out where this is going ...)

I filled up my 24 little muffin cups and had lots more batter left over ... so I made some little tube pans, too. Basic instructions are to wrap foil halfway around a spice jar to make a form. (Tangent: I once had a co-worker who showed me how to make a certain kind of drug paraphernalia using the same method with a magic marker. I wonder where she is today? Isn't it strange to remember specific events about people who pass through your life a brief time, yet make a lasting impression? But I digress.)

Foil tube pans filled ...

... and baked ...

... and unwrapped. It's kind of Twinkie-ish ...

(One note on recipes: always read the whole thing first. If you don't, you might only read the part about the egg whites, and chuck all the yolks before realizing that you need those, too. I know, it seems like a reasonably intelligent person could never possibly make such an error, but you would be surprised.)

The filling was more buttery than sweet, a buttercream or marshmallow filling would probably be more Twinkie-like. But the cake was pretty close. These were quite time consuming, but a fun treat. I really liked filling the cakes, these would be extra yummy with chocolate filling. Dora already put in her request for next year's birthday treat.

I Really Thought He Was Going to Say Tea

2011-01-25T14:10:00.002-05:00

Scene from Sam's Club this morning:

Clark: I like chocolate milk, Dad likes Diet Coke, and Theo likes Sprite.
Me: What's my favorite drink?
Clark: Wine!

Baking Monday - Peanut Butter Cream-Filled Cookies

2011-01-24T14:41:00.003-05:00

This is another recipe from the Mrs. Fields cookbook. I'm still trying to use a up a container of quick oats that I bought by accident, so, yay!

I rolled these to 1/4" thickness using my handy-dandy rolling pin guides. (What? You don't have any? Get them - today!) Actually, I wish I could buy a rolling pin with 1/4" guides built right in, since I use them ALL the time. (Hmm, maybe like this one? Oh, these look interesting, too!)

The cookies took about 12-15 minutes to firm up and are super crunchy, and pretty good all on their own. I used a generous tablespoon of filling with each one (mini scoop to the rescue, AGAIN.) These taste very similar to Girl Scout peanut butter sandwich cookies, and I love the little bit of cinnamon flavor. Two thumbs up from me!

What I Love this Week - Girly Edition

2011-01-19T10:06:00.006-05:00

I bought this sketchbook for Dora last year for her birthday, and she's really gotten in to it over the last few weeks. She's not really into fashion for herself, but has always liked to draw girls in gowns with accessories, so this seemed like a great tool. It reminds me of Fashion Plates, but much more creative and easier to use. I love that it gives her artistic freedom but still within guidelines, so her work always looks good, and gives her the confidence to create more.

And she comes up with titles for each design, too.

Yes, I have issues with the heels being way too high, but it's all in fun. I like drawing high heel shoes, too, even though I think they're ridiculous in real life.

And more art: scenes from a tri-orama she made about the book One Hundred Dresses.

Baking Monday - Toffee Almond Sandies

2011-01-17T16:43:00.003-05:00

A story of almond love and an almond fail: A friend of mine posted that she had been recently "chain-baking" this cake because it was so delicious. From the description alone, I never would have tried this recipe, but hearing her accolades made me curious. Reading the comments below the recipe made me wonder if I did something terribly wrong, because even though it looked gorgeous, it was not good. At all. The ground almonds made a cornbread-like texture, which is not totally bad, but the bitter peel taste was so overpowering that the texture was a real turn-off. Not sure how I went wrong with that one, it was quite disappointing.

Today, something different! Another recipe from the Taste of Home cookie book. Also with almonds but swapping nasty orange peels for tasty toffee bits.

I used slivered almonds chopped coarsely and split the recipe in half (which works nicely, if you don't feel like baking 9 dozen cookies). These are very crunchy and buttery and the dough was pretty yummy (you know, if you're in to that kind of thing.)

To Tread Gently?

2011-01-13T18:44:00.000-05:00

In Theo's second-grade class, students have a list of twelve words to study for spelling each week. They also have three additional "challenge" words, which are optional for studying, but their teacher still wants them to try the challenge words on the test. Theo is pretty happy with the arrangement.

So, here we are with the first spelling list of the new year ... and those pesky three challenge words. I suggested that maybe he try practicing the spelling words this week. Crazy Mom logic says, since he'll be trying them on the test anyway, it can't hurt to study them during the week, right? However, this means EXTRA work for him - three extra words to write with each evening's variation on the homework. And I saw the heels digging in.

I was tempted to back down, and then I started thinking about this article that a friend posted about last week. And I thought, what kind of parent am I that I'm going to let him slide on writing three extra words, all because I'm worried about hurting his FEEE-LINGS?

Here's the thing with Theo: he tolerates school. He doesn't enjoy it, but he always does his best while he's there. He works hard when he has to. He is a dream on homework - I never have to remind or nag him, he always comes home, gets out his folder and works happily without prompting. I love that he's embraced his responsibilities with such ease. But to suggest doing EXTRA work? He flips out.

His best argument? "Mom. I don't HAVE to learn how to spell those words this year. I can learn them NEXT year."

I'm wondering if I should push him to take on the extra challenge, or is the easygoing approach the way to go this time? (Or am I just being a wimpy parent?) There are many (many) times that I will insist on an action or behavior, but I don't feel too strongly about this, so is it worth the fight? What do you think?

Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies

2011-01-10T20:59:00.004-05:00

I picked up the Taste of Home cookie book at a book sale in the fall, and it's full of recipes that I want to try. These were first up, because this picture looked way too enticing.

They are very good and super-chocolatey. Theo, who's usually my vanilla kid, was having fun counting all the different ways chocolate was incorporated in to the cookie. I made them double-scoops ... they seemed like they wanted to be jumbo-sized.

Baking Monday - Chocolate Cutouts

2011-01-03T20:24:00.003-05:00

Request from last week: more frosting! I always aim to please. These are the chocolate cutouts that I made for Clark's birthday a couple of months ago. (And I get to make the bowling cookies again this weekend, in pink and purple, how cute are those going to be?) But I had not yet made them for my Monday audience.

I love these snowflake sprinkles and have been waiting for a good chance to use them. I had no idea how they were going to be decorated before baking, otherwise I would have used the snowflake cutter, too. Oh well - next time!

Baking Thursday - Peppermint Cookies

2010-12-30T21:42:00.003-05:00

I usually make these - along with three or four other varieties - for our family cookie trays. This year, I had a pleasantly low-stress Christmas prep week, and I decided to enjoy it! So my baking list got cut down from three kinds of cookie to one. (PB Chocolate Chip, if you're interested.) There was still a huge variety for the trays, and the only person who complained was my sister, because there were no mint cookies this year. Guess what? I missed them, too, so I made them tonight.

This was originally a recipe for candy cane cookies, and back many, many, years ago, my sister and I would painstakingly roll each cookie into candy cane shapes, only to have most of them break apart during baking and/or on the trays. One year we had a lightbulb moment and opted to make them as pinwheels instead ... and never looked back!

One of my favorites ... also cute in green and white ... enjoy!

Peppermint Cookies

3/4 c sugar
3/4 c butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

• Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
• Add egg, vanilla and peppermint, mix well.
• Add dry ingredients, mix until dough comes together.
• Remove half of the dough, add several drops of food coloring to remaining dough and mix well.
• Pat dough into rounds of equal size, stack and roll (1/4" thick) on floured surface into long rectangle shape.
• Roll long edge into dough, making a long roll about 2" diameter.
• Wrap in wax paper and freeze 2 hours or overnight.
• Cut into 1/4" slices and bake at 375 until just lightly browned.

Ornaments 2010

2010-12-23T11:12:00.005-05:00

For ornaments this year, I gave the kids a choice of these or stamped clay, and they all went with the clay. (I was really expecting Theo to want to chop things up in the blender, maybe next time.) We used air dry paper clay, and it was fun to work with.

I just bought my first set of clear stamps and an acrylic block, and I'm addicted, they are so fun to use. The kids stamped patterns into the clay, and after they were dry, painted them with gold, silver or glitter paint. Kind of a variation on last year's ornaments, but a different look.

These are Clark's. He stamped a penguin (had a tough time using a light touch, but I can still tell what it is) and a "C for Clark." I kind of like the minimalist monogrammed look - very Martha Stewart. He also did the shape cutting, which is why the star is missing a point, oops. He did this project 100% by himself, which is pretty good for Clark and crafts.

Theo's snowflakes.

Dora's stars. She chose the words to print on each one, I am loving "laugh a lot", I never would have thought of that. The snowflake stars turned out very thin and delicate looking.

And these are mine! Just for fun.

Happy Holidays, everyone ... see you next year.

Christmas Cards

2010-12-20T12:24:00.004-05:00

No Baking Monday this week, as I'll be doing giant baking for my family cookie swap on Thursday. We've been busy over here - the kids made Christmas cards for their teachers this week. I've found that it works well to have a couple ideas in mind, then they can choose to do those or their own thing. Family Fun to the rescue again! We used these cute cards for ideas.

Theo selected the tree and candle designs.

Clark also liked the candles, and the thumbprint reindeer.

Really, throwing googly eyes on anything makes it adorable.

And Dora, of course, did her own thing.

And this was my card for Jeff ... he's getting a hockey jersey for Christmas, but unfortunately it won't arrive until after the new year.

We'll be tackling ornaments today!

Call 'Em Like You See 'Em

2010-12-17T15:49:00.001-05:00

I think I heard about 20 "why?" questions during the 10-minute drive to the grocery store today.

Me: Here's a question for you. Why do you ask so many questions?
Clark: Because you're a nutty nut-head!

Fair enough.