Triple Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies

This is a great recipe for the kids to help with!

 

 

 Ingredients: 

1 box chocolate cake mix, 1/2 cup oil (or combination of applesauce and oil), 2 eggs, 1/4 c. of white chocolate chips and 1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips. *Plus you will need sprinkles and chocolate if you choose to decorate them.

Mix ingredients together, form into 1" balls, bake for 8 min at 350*

*When cooled, drizzle with pink (or white) chocolate melts and top with red sprinkles.

These are ready to brighten someone's Valentine's Day :)

Homemade Play-Doh

tons of play-doh recipes

Snacktime Fun

My kids love when their food is decorated.

Ingredients: Graham crackers, peanut butter, raisins, craisins, mini candies and imagination.

Contact Paper Glitter Snowflakes

 A fun glitter project with no glue necessary.
Items needed: clear contact paper, scissors, glitter (not glitter glue) and tape to hang it up.

Step one: Fold and cut contact paper into snowflake shape.

 Step 2: Remove backing from contact paper.

 Step 3: Sprinkle with glitter until the entire snowflake is covered. (I suggest doing this in a bin or on a newspaper.)

Decorate your windows with some sparkle.

Foam Tub Stickers

Make hours of tub fun in a couple of minutes.

Cut out geometric shapes in various colors, plus tear drops, sun, moon, bumpy shapes for clouds/trees and a half circle for the bottom of a boat.

 Materials needed: scissors, craft foam (in various colors), bathtub, water and your imagination.

*Make sure they are big enough to not to fit in the drain.
You can also customize for your child's name, their age, make trucks, cars, people etc.

A free way to store your foam tub stickers. Use a mesh bag leftover from oranges and tie a tight knot at the bottom and loose knot at the top. You can use suction cups to attach to the tub or mirror. This allows plenty of air through the foam, so the stickers dry quickly.

Cookie Cutter Stamping

 Items needed: cookie cutters, paints, sponges(optional)
Dip and stamp, repeat many times, have fun.  *You can use your creation as wrapping paper.

Use wet sponges to press cookie cutters into, to clean during stamping fun.

Fairy Party Ideas

We did a fairy themed birthday party for my daughter's 5th birthday.
 We started the party out with a scavenger hunt- clues were on flowers through out the house. Each clue lead to another. The kids really enjoyed running around in a big group together. At the end they all found their prizes- a tiara and pair of wings for each.

Next they did two crafts-

Butterflies - which were tag board cut-outs from Hobby Lobby

they added eyes, stickers and colored with markers.

Then they did the more involved craft below:

Fairy Wands

Items Needed: Dowels, ribbons, craft foam, jewels/buttons/sequins, hot glue, cookie cutters.
You can find all of these items at Wal-Mart, Michaels, Hobby Lobby etc.

 Wrap ribbon around dowel. Secure with hot glue (at least the top and bottom).

Use cookie cutters to select your shapes, press in foam and cut two layers at once (so they match perfectly).

Glue dowel and skinny ribbons to cut foam.

Glue around the entire edge to secure top piece to bottom and dowel.

Decorate with hot glue and buttons, jewels etc.
We had all the dowels covered with ribbons and the foam cut-outs done beforehand. The girls chose which dowel, which cut-outs (we had hearts, stars and butterflies in multiple colors, so each was unique), which little ribbons and how to decorate. I glued them for each child. They held up through the silly games they played the rest of the party.

Fairy Cake

 Make wings by piping melted chocolate onto wax paper-sprinkle with colored sugar. (They don't take long to set).

 The decorations--cut out of colored paper to match your theme.

Valentine Fun with Paint and Pipe Cleaners

 Items needed: Paper, Paint and Pipe Cleaners

 Form Pipe Cleaners into heart shapes and dip into paint.

Press onto paper (can press multiple times before re-dipping).

This craft is easy, cheap and can be tailored to any occasion.
Have fun making your own unique Valentines :)

Yumm... Blondies

I currently have a batch of Blondies baking in the oven. Some people don't know what Blondies are, or know them by another name, but these are the paler brown sugar version of a brownie.
The recipe I use is:
preheat oven to 350*
then melt together on medium heat (in a 2 qt pan):
2 cups brown sugar (not packed and not all the way filled)
1/2 cup butter (unsalted)
then remove from heat
add 2 eggs
add 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 tsp. baking powder and 2 tsp. vanilla
stir until smooth
pour into greased 9x13 pan
top with chocolate chips, nuts or whatever you're in the mood for- I like cherries, dark choc. chips and pecans, the kids like choc. chips/M&Ms.
bake 25-30 min (my oven takes 28 min) they will puff up and then fall...that's how you know they're ready. This is a great recipe to bake and take with you to feed a lot of people. If I make them for my family only, I cut half into squares and freeze the rest. (They thaw perfectly.)

Dessert Poem

I need not be told it isn't right
To give them dessert every night,
They tell me dessert is for special occasions,
instead I should give them a box of raisins.
While this may be true,
it's not up to you.
For I like to bake
cookies, brownies and cake.
It is a way I show my love
It's been passed down from above.
Grandmas, aunts, my mother too
all give our kids a dessert or two.
My kids get so happy when you add a few sprinkles
Their little brown eyes start to twinkle.
They enjoy it so much it gets all over their fingers,
their faces, their dresses and some of it lingers
On chairs, on the table or even the cat,
She'll be licking her fur to get rid of the mat.
Oh the messes they say, children should be kept clean,
neat and tidy and orderly, I think is mean.
Let them enjoy it, let them say yum, yum
For childhood is to precious to worry about crumbs.

Dinnertime Poem

Dinnertime at our house is something to be seen.
Children eat their vegetables, especially the green.
They don't eat all their food everyday,
But when they do I hear them say,
"Can we eat this the next day?"
It makes my heart happy when they agree
To eat their cauliflower or their peas.
When they ask for more potatoes, or milk for their cup,
I answer swiftly with a yup.
These days are not often, but when they come along,
I want to grin and sing a song.
For there are many a meal that sit on their plate.
I put them in the fridge for when it gets late.
For I know that later when their little tummies rumble
I will hear their little mouths grumble:
I am hungry, can I have dessert?
And I know their feelings get hurt
When I say they must eat their dinner first.

I consider this to be my "Pilot Episode"

I don't know exactly what to use this blog for, so I figure I will make it a bit of everything: writing, poetry, pictures, tips, funny tidbits about kids, craft ideas and more. I want to be able to put all my thoughts down (but may be interrupted by one, two or all three kids, so there may be fragments posted from time to time for fear that this blog will be blank if I write only when they are sleeping.) I don't know how to get people to look at this blog unless I promote a picture on Pinterest or some such site (which I know is frowned upon), so for right now I will be talking to myself.
Yesterday I enjoyed the day by making a batch of brownies with my 2 1/2 yr old and doing an art project with both girls (2 1/2 and 5) that we found on Pinterest. I thought it was a great day until my husband tells me he doesn't want me to bake anymore (I am doing it too often, he says). So I say, fine, I will just do more craft projects. He then replies that he doesn't want me to make messes with the kids because it never gets cleaned up. I say those are the things that make me happy. So I will now use this blog as an excuse to try new crafts and recipes so that I can report how they go and he can just deal with me being happy.
My dad sent me an article earlier this week that said that people who spend just one hour a day or the equivalent of one afternoon a week doing something they enjoy report being happy, no matter the other circumstances of the week. I have been trying this out since reading the article and found that it is true. There have been diaper blow-outs, spilled milk, paint messes and tantrums this week, but since I have been taking a little time to do crafty projects I am happy. I am hoping to pass this idea on to others as well because I am amazed at how well it works.

Play Food Shopping List

Play Food Shopping List

  We have tons of play food in our house, enough for a whole mini-mart, so I made my daughter a re-printable shopping list so she can go to the store. We have a grocery cart, basket and shopping bags that she can fill up.

Why the Title?

Why did I choose the phrase, "Children are Like Cookies," to title my blog? 

I have a sweet tooth. I love cookies, cake, ice cream, chocolate and the list goes on. I am not a person that feels these items are, "sometime foods," like the new Cookie Monster does. I love to bake and I make myself give away most of it when I go on a baking spree because otherwise I wouldn't be a very good example for the other "sweets" in my life, my children. I can't get enough of them either. I don't want to correct them way they misspeak and say things like, "pomatoes," meaning tomatoes (I asked my daughter what letter it started with and she very confidently said, "P!".) I love it when they eat chocolate and get it all over their faces. Others want their children to be neat and clean, but I enjoy their chocolate smiles. So there you have it...children are like cookies...I can't get enough!