Peppermint Playdough

I made some peppermint playdough to take over to my nanny-ing job tomorrow for Reese and the kids to play with. I made it in Christmas colors, red, green and white. Here is the recipe I used, I liked not having to cook it over the oven.

1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon peppermint extract (real or imitation)
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour ( I used a pinch more, just make sure the dough is not sticky)
2 teaspoons cream of tarter

Microwave the water 2 1/2 minutes, then add oil and mint. Then add flour, salt and cream of tarter. I mixed until dough was playdough-y then divided into 3 small balls and colored two, one green and one red and then added glitter for what the hey , its fun and I love glitter. Its smells wonderful and I know the kids will love playing with it.

Reese and her Butterfly

Reese's butterflies are getting older and may need to "fly away" soon, in face we only have one "baby" left, the others have already flown away. So Jeremy wanted her to get to hold one why we still had a chance and it wasnt very springy and young. Reese loved it. Props to her daddy for such a good idea.

Whoopie Pies

I made whoopie pies or homemade oreos tonight and Oh my Geezers they are AWESOME!!! I highly suggest you make them. They are good!! The recipe can be found here.

My Christmas Wish List

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama and GameStop are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

To be happy and healthy and realize the true reason for the season

2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition?

Reading Christmas books and opening one present and wearing our special holiday jammies

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

A huge family vacation for all of us to go together all expenses paid by santa ;)

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

Just being together, nothing beats family time and bonding together as a family

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

Apples to Apples, Monopoly

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

Decorations, Seeing Christmas lights

7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip?

Hawaii!!

8. Check out GameStop and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? Kinect, A PS3 and a DS

Brodie

Here is Brodie telling you his favorite movie. He is talking to big lately.

Kiddo Art

We have been painting the past few days and the kids love to get there hands all messy in the paint. Reese is very concerned when she gets dirty and Brodie just loves to "PAINT" as he yells. With Reeses turkey family she is like her mom, everything is a little better with a little (or a lot) of glitter. It just makes me smile :) Love her!

Caterpillars

Reese got a butterfly garden for her birthday so we had to quickly order her some caterpillars. They came in last week and Reese has been so enamored with them. All we hear about is those caterpillars. Here is a picture of her caterpillars about 6 days old (since we got them). They are all girls because Reese says so. Here is a drawing of one she did all on her own! She is way cute about them! I didn't know my girl would be so happy with bugs!

Homemade Granola

This afternoon I made some homemade granola and it was soo yummy! It will be great by itself to snack on ot to make sweet healthy parfaits. I got the recipe from some lady on you tube.

Maple Granola
2 cups oats (not instant the old fashioned kind)
1/2 cup nuts (what you like I did walnuts)
1/3 generous cup of PURE maple syrup
1/4 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
her recipe she put in a 1/2 cup dried fruit when it cooled but i didnt want fruit in mine but i did add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.

Pre-heat oven to 350. Put oats and nuts in a large bowl, in another mix syrup, oil, brown sugar and vanilla together until sugar is dissolved and pour over oat/nut mixture. Mix and spread on cookie sheet bake 18-20 min stirring a few times. Let cool, then store in covered container.

YUM!

Halloween day 31

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REESE!! Today is one of the best days ever! Today is my sweet baby girls birthday. She turned 4 today and is so big! She maybe a little bit of a drama queen but she still loves to cuddle and kiss on her mommy :) Happy Birthday my baby girl! I love you! Yes and please don't make fun of my ugly pumpkin cake and yes I know the swiss roll ;ooks like a terd on the top. She loved it anyways :)

Halloween Day 30

This is what October and Halloween is all about, TRICK OR TREATING! We ate dinner at Countrys BBQ which has there waitresses dress up and kids eat free then headed out to Autumn Ridge subdivision and wheeled the kids around. We had a good time but crashed HARD at the end and had to book it home where we of course put on our cutest Halloween jammies that glow in the dark and heading to bed for the best day ever tomorrow.....Reeses 4th birthday!!!

See those tired faces! They where done!!!

Halloween Day 29

Trunk or Treat!!! Today we went to our ward trunk or treat. It was also a chili cook off. So warm ymmu foods to fill our bellies and fun games to play at everyone's car. It was a fun night and the kids loved there glow stick and went to bed with them.

Halloween Day 28

Pumpkin carving time!!! Its time here in Georgia to carve your pumpkin! You can't carve to early because the humidity will cause you pumpkin to mold and become even more scary, of course if thats the look you are going for.Picture of a little pumpkin reese had to carve only a few days ago...
Reese gutted our pumpkin and I carved out the Nightmare before Christmas mans face.

Halloween Day 27

We made a SUPER YUMMY mummy munch. I could of done without the candy corns they where a little chewy but the kids loved it! It was very tasty! Be sure to try it out!!

Halloween Day 26 - Breakfast of dessert of champions

We got the kids some Franken berry cereal just for the fun of it and they where so excited to eat the spooky cereal. I normally dont buy "treat" cereal but it seemed like a fun treat for the kids. You can find them at your local supermarket for about $2 a box.

Halloween Day 25

Sorry a little late! We painted halloween mask from Joanns they where only a buck and the kids liked painting the "spooky" faces.

Halloween Day 24

Today we made Cinnamon Toasted Pumpkin tarts. They were yummy if you like pumpkin pie. I'm not a big pumpkin pie fan I like muffins and sorts but not pie. They were simple and yummy none the less. I recommend trying them. RECIPE...Enjoy!

Halloween Preview 2010

Drum roll please!!! The Cutest care bears are!!!!

Harmony Bear (Reese) and Grumpy Bear (Brodie)

Halloween Day 23

Halloween Jello. It was a pain to make. It took a long time. It came out cute. Our colors would have been better had we stayed with orange and yellow but I dont like lemon or orange Jell-o so I chose peach and pineapple and Reese had to have a purple streak so I put that on the bottom. The unflavored Jello you is to make it with smells AWFUL! It almost made me gag. I wouldn't make it again but the kids liked it. Here is the LINK if you dare to try it :) Sorry for the way blurry pics my camera was acting funny and I didnt bring the good one with me that day.

Halloween Day 22

Pumpkin patch time!! We went to a local "pumpkin patch" (really a local nursery that has pumpkins for sale and little hay ride) with our local playgroup. The kids had a blast picking out there pumpkin. Brodie would of taken everyone if we would have let him. Reese picked out a little baby pumpkin and she is the mommy. It was a cute little outing with the kids. :)

Halloween Day 21

Tonight I am making shepards pic for dinner. I wanted to make the ghost pile of potatoes on tip but I didn't want them to get all dried out in the oven so I just took some Halloween cookie cutters and cute out some halloweeney shapes out of the cheese. Who doesn't need a chunk of yummy cheese on top? YUM! Sorry my pumpkin looks a little sad he lost his stem when he was cut.

Day 20

Today I made chocolate covered Oreos. They were supposed to be orange but the white chocolate was acting up so I ended up with white chocolate ones covered in Halloween sprinkles. Still a hit!! YUMMY! Sorry I didn't have the camera on me again. I know post are boring without pics.

Halloween Day 19

Have a Halloween Pen pal of sorts. Today we mailed cards to our bestest little friends that we miss oh so much...:) Its always fun to get mail, especially when you are little.

Fries

My kids LOVE fries. What kids doesnt right? I am trying to get Reese to eat better these days. I dont worry about Brodie so much because he is still at the age that eats anything. So last night I made special Halloween fries...aka Sweet Potato fries. Brodie didnt like them and kept making funny noises and such but he ate a few and Reese ate her fill and was done, no comments made on how they where yucky or anything....I might have to try this "trick" again ;)

Halloween Day 18

We did marshmellow art today. We made a pumpkin out of the colored marshmellows we had left over from another craft. You can also make a ghost out of white ones on black paper. Reese enjoyed her "snack" and craft in one :) I drew a really rough pumpkin and she lined it with orange marshmellows for the pumpkin and green for the stem, she took it a step further and made a pink face. :)

Reese 4th Bday Party

We had Reese birthday party at my moms house on Saturday. My mom and I have decided that house parties are a lot of work and from now on we are going to a location so we dont have to clean up and be the entertainment for the little ones. Reese had a awesome time telling me that it is the best party ever!! We had the little girls come dressed up like princesses and we decorated crowns, painted nails, did glitter hair and had a wacking of a princess pinata. Even though they wacked me a few times! Ouch! It was really fun seeing my little princess playing with her friends and having a good time. She is getting big way to fast!! Stay little my little princess!! I love you!

Halloween Day 17

Today I made or should I more correctly say I tried to make candy corn pinwheel cookies. I am not a patient person. Something I need to work on. Desperatly. So my dough was a little sticky because I didnt let it sit in the fridge and get cool long enough so we ended up with tie dyed cookies. Still yummy and still cookies so not that much of a fail! LOL! This where I got my recipe and they are supposed to look like this....

and well, we ended up with this...
like I said tie dyed cookies ;) One had a little swirl.
I need to practice my patience with cookie dough. When I want a baked good I want it now! LOL!