Friday, July 27, 2012

Family Night-Despicable Me

 Almost every Thursday night we try to sit down as a family and watch a movie and eat lots of junk food. 
If possible, I try to have a theme where the food is concerned.
Since we were watching Despicable Me, I decided to try to make all of the food resemble minions.


When the movie first came out, S.R. referred to the minions as Tater Tots, so that was an absolute must for the menu.

 I found these cute little corn dogs at Publix, and thought they looked like little minions too.
 The minion Twinkies were the hit of the night. Can you tell which one was my first attempt;o)
I have seen these little guys all over the internet, but never took the time to find out how they were made. I did check for the list of ingredients, though. Through trial and mostly error, here is what I found out...
 *mini marshmallows, cut into thirds, are the easiest for the goggles, not the suggested SweeTarts.
*I used black gel icing, which I highly suggest against. It's way too runny.
 *It would have probably been easier if the Twinkies had been in the freezer a bit before icing them. That way the cake part wouldn't crumble as much. 
*On a positive note, the Betty Crocker pre-made blue icing was great to work with, and it tasted great! 
 I took very little time in putting these together, so they don't look all that fantastic. Thankfully the crowd was easy to please:o)
We had a fantastic night, and I am looking forward to many more family nights:o)

Friday, July 13, 2012

Fun Ideas for the Kids

On Wednesday, we had another rainy day, so I thought I would do some creative things for the kids. I surprised them with this fun breakfast. I used a cookie cutter to cut the centers out of their toast & cooked a fried egg in the center...they were really unsure about the fried egg, and when E gagged after eating the yolk, I learned that next time I will at least scramble the egg before cooking:o) Regardless, it started the day off right(minus the gagging part).

 I made S.R. this little flash card set the other day as well. I had some laminating sheets, something I always try to have on hand, card stock, & flash cards printed from Homeschool Creations.

 I realized that she had forgotten what her letters looked like...bad mommy:o)
 I used the laminating sheets so that she could use a dry erase marker to work on it over and over again.
 I made them double sided to save space.
 Love that smile:o)
 And I love that I got her seal of approval:o)
We also made homemade pretzels....they were DELICIOUS.
 I had to do the prep-work an hour before, and then my little helpers shaped the pretzels. 

 Definite approval from my little helpers:o)

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Lazy Days of Summer

Good Tuesday to you all. We are having a great rainy summer afternoon. This is the first time I have felt semi-normal since last Thursday. I had to have two hernias repaired in my belly button, so I am slowly recovering. Today was the first time that the kids and I were home alone, so I needed to find things that wouldn't require any heavy lifting, and that would keep us busy.
Painting is always a good go-to for kids. And I haven't picked up a brush in quite some time.
This morning we worked our magic on some canvas.

 Here is a closer view of what I came up with...a little lamb..or sheep..whichever:o) He is perched upon the mantle for now. 
 After painting we made homemade ice cream in the living room with an ice cream ball. I was quite impressed with this little contraption. It actually works:o)
 You can find one of these Ice Cream Balls Here. We got lucky and found ours at a yard sale for $5...still in the box:o)

After naps, we went outside just before the rain came, and dug into our yummy afternoon snack.

 Smiles all around:o)

Just so you all know, I am jumping back on the crafting wagon again now that things have been forced to a snails pace...just the way I like it. We only have 6 weeks before school starts and I want to take advantage of the time I have with my kids and their creativity. So stay tuned for crafty kid fun:o)