Blessing Mix

Madison was thrilled that she got to ride Midge again this week.  

Jocelyn was excited to find a heart shaped chicken nugget in her kid's meal from Wendy's.  

The girls and I made Thanksgivng Blessings Mix to take to CC on Tuesday.  

Pumpkin/Fall CC Snacks

Since it is the first day of October, we decided to make some pumpkin/fall snacks for CC today.  

We made Pumpkin Pretzels using pretzels, orange chocolate melts and green M&M's.  They are so yummy and cute.  

We also found this recipe online, but...

decided to replace the pumpkins with candy corn. 

Alphabet Cereal Treats

The girls and I found Alphabet Cereal Bars online and decided to make them for CC snack this week. 

We put ours in cupcake tins, rather than cutting them into squares.  They turned out cute and taste yummy too.  I think the kids will enjoy finding letters and making words as they eat their Alphabet Cereal Treats.

Stanley's Christmas Adventure

This week, Jocelyn is reading Stanley's Christmas Adventure.  She made her own Flat Stanley and he's been having Christmas Adventures around our house.  

Flat Stanley read our Advent books,

played with the Nativity, 

and watched some Christmas movies.

Flat Stanley was hungry and got into our Christmas cookies,

peppermint brownies, 

and pretzel treats!

Squirmy Jelly Worms

The girls had fun making Squirmy Jelly Worms!

Jocelyn ate the worms, but Madison just couldn't do it. ;)

Ingredients:
  - 2 packs (3 oz) Raspberry jello
  - 1 pkg unflavored gelatin (for extra firmness)
  - 3/4 cup whipping cream
  - 3 cups boiling water
  - 15 drops green food coloring
  - 100 flexible straws (or enough to fill your container)
  - Tall container (1 quart or 1 liter carton of milk)

Directions:
  1.  Combine gelatin in bowl and add boiling water.
  2.  Let it cool to luke warm and then add the whipping cream and 15 drops green food coloring.
  3.  Gather your straws (don't forget to flex them out) and put them in the container.
  4.  Add the gelatin mixture to the straw-filled container and let it set until firm.
  5.  Roll a rolling pin over the straws and squeeze them out.

Patriotic Cake in a Jar!

Today the girls and I made Red, White and Blue Cake in a Jar!

First, we made a white boxed cake mix and divided it into two ziploc bags.  We added red and blue food coloring to the cake batter to make our two colors of cake.  

We greased the inside of the jars and piped in our colored cake batter.  Then we baked our cakes in a jar at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Once our cakes cooled, we piped in the white frosting and added some red, white and blue sprinkles.

We topped each cake with an American Flag.

We put a patriotic cupcake wrapper around the lid.  

We ended up attaching a plastic spoon to each jar using red, white and blue ribbons and giving them to Clay's co-workers as a pre-deployment gift!

Resurrection Rolls!

We decided to make Resurrection Rolls this year for Easter!

You need crescent rolls, marshmallows, butter and cinnamon/sugar.

First, you take Jesus' body (marshmallow) and cover Him with oil (butter).

Then, you put spices (cinnamon/sugar) on Jesus' body (marshmallow).

After that, you place Jesus' body (marshmallow) in the tomb (crescent roll).

Close the tombs (crescent rolls) around Jesus' body (marshmallow).

Put the tombs (crescent rolls) in the oven for 3 days (12-15 minutes).

The tomb is EMPTY!

HE LIVES!!!

Easter Bunny S'mores!

We made Easter Bunny S'mores in a jar to give to Clay's co-workers and friends for Easter this year!

Put 1 cup of Easter M&M's in the bottom of a 1qt. wide mouth canning jar. Then place 8 marshmallow bunny peeps standing up facing out around the inside of the jar. Reduce 1 sleeve of graham crackers to crumbs. Then combine the graham crackers crumbs with 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place the mixture in a bag and place at the top of the jar. Decorate the jar and include the direction tag.

Empty the jar contents into a bowl. Snip the bunnies into bits. Return the bunny bits to the mixture and mix well. Melt 1/2 cup butter, add 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour this over dry ingredients, mixing well. Pat into a greased 8 or 9 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool and cut into bars. Or serve warm over vanilla ice cream.

The girls liked making them, but enjoyed eating them even more. ;)

Yummy Apples!

Jocelyn is working on the letter A this week, so we decided to make...

an apple pie and...

some homemade applesauce!

4 apples (peeled and sliced)

3/4 c. water

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 t. cinnamon

Put all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Cover and cook on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool, then mash.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I found this cute idea online for Sombrero Cookies.

Madison had so much fun helping me make them for a special Cinco de Mayo snack for Jocelyn's preschool.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Strawberry Picking

Today the girls and I went strawberry picking at Wood's Orchard.

The girls LOVED taking the hayride back and forth to the strawberry field.

We were the only people in the strawberry field.

Time to start picking the strawberries.

The field was filled with big red juicy strawberries!

Jocelyn picked handfuls of them.

Then she took her strawberries down to Madison who was in charge of the box.

Madison and our box full of strawberries ready to take home!

When we got home we made:

Strawberry Freezer Jam

4 pints strawberries (8 cups)

2 1/2 to 3 cups of sugar

1 package of strawberry gelatin

1 envelope of Knox gelatin

Rinse strawberries, remove stems. Put berries in a large saucepan and crush with a potato masher. Pour sugar over the berries. Heat the mixture to the boiling point over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. Stir in gelatin. Remove from heat and let stand for 30 minutes. Spoon mixture into containers. Let stand until mixture reaches room temperature, then cover with lids. Store in refrigerator or freezer; jam thickens as it cools. Keep in freezer up to 3 months or refrigerator up to 3 weeks. Thaw by leaving it in the refrigerator.

Strawberry Trifle

Angel Food Cake

2 lbs. of strawberries

Filling:

1 8 oz. Cool Whip

1 large package of instant vanilla pudding

1 cup of milk

1 cup of sour cream

Mix the cool whip, pudding, milk and sour cream together to make the filling. Then in a glass bowl, layer it by pinching off pieces of the angel food cake into bite size pieces putting that down, then a layer of strawberries, then a layer of the filling, repeating until you are out of ingredients.