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A friend gave the Paper Doll Game by eeBoo to my 4 year old daughter as a belated birthday gift.  This has got to be the best game out there for pre-school age girls.  It is so simple.  You are essentially taking turns dressing up your paper doll.  Games can be so hard for young children to grasp and this one is perfect.  The focus is really on taking turns.  There are no difficult rules to explain and it doesn't hurt that it is darling!  I have no idea where my friend got it, but if you are looking for it, you can go here. 

I ordered Hillary Lang's Kitchen Gnome Embroidery's for dish towel's here.   I finished my first towel and I love it.  My husband thinks I am strange, but I think the little gnome's are about the cutest things ever and I love the way the red trim I got to sew to the bottom of the towel's turned out.  The only thing I hate about these flour sack towels is that they require ironing.  I never iron, so the towel has not spent a lot of time hanging in my kitchen.  I kept trying to tell my kids and husband not to use it, it was just for decoration, but you can guess how well that lasted.

I spent yesterday making cupcakes for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet and I tried piping the frosting on for the first time.  I will definitely be doing this from now on.  I bought disposable piping bags from Michael's (used the 40% off coupon) and got a giant tip.  It cost a few dollars and saved me all kinds of time.  Frosting 3 dozen cupcakes would normally take forever and there would be problems with the knife sticking to the cake and the crumbs getting all over in the frosting.  None of that, slick and easy.  If you haven't tried it, you must, they turn out looking fancy and take you half the time and there is no messy piping bag to clean, just a plastic bag to throw away.

Valentine's Day Party

For Valentine's Day we decided to host a family dinner.  The rule was the food had to be heart shaped or pink or red.  We had a great time.  Here are some pictures of some of the food we ate:

 I made chicken patties and we cut a heart out of them with a cookie cutter.  One of my sister-in-laws made the most awesome flourescent pink mashed potatoes.  They will definitely be a stand-out in everyone's memory. 

 Another sister-in-law made these darling heart shaped jello's.  She also made rolls in a heart shape, unfortunately I didn't get a picture before the kids dug in and ruined the heart shape. 

For desert we had heart shaped chocolate waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and valentine sprinkles.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I saw a review for this book on a blog I follow. I then happened to see it sitting out on a display in the children's section at the library, so I grabbed it. I absolutely loved this book. I definitely plan on reading it to my kids. It is a simple story, the author describes as being inspired by Chinese fairy tales she read as a child. The author of the blog I saw the book on said that she loved the book because it illustrated values she wanted to teach her children. I agree! This book focuses on finding happiness and contentment with your life. It also illustrates the joy found in family. It was a quick and easy read and would make a great family read aloud.




View all my reviews

Football Valentine's Box

Coming up with a Valentine's box that is "cool" enough for a boy is not the easiest thing ever.  This one worked out to be perfect.  It was simple enough that my 3rd grader could really be involved in the design and because it was sports related, he was thrilled with it. 

Supplies:
shoe box
white electrical tape (could use masking tape also)
green construction paper
popsicle sticks
sharpie marker

First cut a hole in the top of the box for the Valentines to be dropped in.  Then cover the entire box with green construction paper.  Don't worry about making it perfect, when you are done covering the box in green paper you will take the electrical tape and cover the edges of all the paper.  This gives the box a more clean look and adds to feel of a real football field.  Use the popsicle sticks to creat goal posts.  You can glue them together if you want.  For speed and ease, we just wrapped electrical tape around the corners of our popsicle sticks and then used the electrical tape to tape them to the ends of the box.  Finally, I gave my son a sharpie and he went to town creating the field.  He loved drawing all the lines and trying to make it look exactly like his favorite team's stadium.  He even drew stick figure players and his own scoreboard. 

My visiting teacher dropped this off this weekend.  I have no idea where she got them, but I thought they were the cutest Valentine treat ever!  The best part was they are just regular glazed donuts, none of that nasty cream filling they put in some donuts shaped like this.

Happy Valentine's Day!



A New Cookie and a Favorite Dinner

I have to bring some cookies and recipe to share tonight for a church function.  It was the perfect excuse to try these fabulous babies from Sisters Cafe. 

The Sisters Cafe: Choco-kissed Cookies

submitted by Brittany - Sisters Cafe

adapted from: Family Circle magazine

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs

2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

48 Hershey kisses, unwrapped

Beat butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla in bowl until smooth and creamy, 3

minutes. Beat in eggs. In a separate bowl, mix flour, cocoa, and salt. On low speed,

beat into butter mixture. Refrigerate 15 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into balls, 1 tablespoon each (size of a quarter).

Dip each ball into sprinkles, so one half is covered. Place sprinkle side up on ungreased

baking sheet, 1 inch apart. Bake until set, 9-10 minutes. Press an unwrapped Hershey

kiss into each cookie. Return too oven; bake 1 minute to set. Let cool slightly on sheet

on rack. Remove cookies to rack; let cool completely.

*If making M&M bites: roll dough into balls the size of nickels. Roll each ball in granulated

sugar then place on ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Bake 8-9 minutes then press

a single M&M into the center of each cookie. Return to oven for 1 minute.
 
 
My Notes:  Have more sprinkles than you think you will need.  I ran out and had to use pink sanding sugar for the final tray, it worked, but was not as cute.  These would be the perfect cookies to make with kids because they could unwrap all the candy and roll the cookies in the sprinkles.  Also, one small package of the Hershey's Hugs was more than enough.  I had 10 or 12 left over.  I think this would be really yummy with a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on top too.
 
I realized last night that I made a dinner my entire family actually loves.  This is a very rare thing at our house, so I thought I would post it here, because maybe there are some others out there who have picky eaters and get tired of hearing the complaints.  It is pretty much a given that someone won't like what I make, so I generally just try to ignore the comments, but when everyone is happy with dinner I figure it is cause to celebrate.  This is another recipe from Sisters Cafe.  If you can't tell, it is a favorite around here.
 
Chicken and Dumplings


submitted by Erin (The Sisters Cafe)

3 c. cooked chicken, cut into large pieces

½ c. butter

1/3 c. flour

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

3 c. chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup (98% fat free variety works great)





Dumplings:

2 c. flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp poultry seasoning

1 tsp celery seed

¼ c. oil

1 c. milk


Blend butter, flour, salt and pepper in saucepan. Add chicken broth and cook until thick. Stir in cream of chicken soup and add cooked chicken. Put in a 9x13 pan. To prepare dumplings, mix all ingredients together and stir until moistened. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto chicken and gravy. Bake at 425° for 20-25 minutes.


We had this last night for dinner and it was the perfect thing for a cold snowy night.  I should have taken a picture, but I forgot and my husband to the little bit of leftovers for lunch, much to my son's dismay.  Of course tonight I am fixing a homemade tomato soup that I think all the kids will refuse to eat.  Oh well.

My New Love

My friend came to the door to pick up her girls from a playdate the other day and handed me this.  She said, "I have a little treat for you, I hope you like dark chocolate".  Let's be honest, I'm not too picky when it comes to chocolate, I generally enjoy it in all it's forms.  Until this moment, I would have said that I prefer milk chocolate, however, this little treat has changed me.  It is wonderful!  I have to admit, I have only recently discovered the joys of European chocolate and it definitely beats out my beloved Hershey's bars.  If you need to give a friend a special valentine, this is the stuff!

70's Fireplace Remodel

Here is the final product for my '70's fireplace remodel.  I am thrilled with it!  I despised the white lava rock!  The woodworking turned out exactly how I wanted and I am so proud of myself for doing the tile work all myself.  I have never tiled before and am excited that I did this with no help.  The glass tiles are exactly the look I wanted.