February 19, 2025 New Unicorns and Mermaids: A Magical 6th Birthday
What do you do when you can’t decide what you want your birthday theme to be, unicorns or mermaids? You have them both of course. They go together right? Well, when you’re friend is a super talented cake designed, she sure makes them look like they belong together! My little was beyond over the moon for this birthday cake.
So when it came down to the mom made cake, I didn’t even want to try to ‘compete’. We did strawberry frosted donuts with candles, which was equally as special, and she thought it was even better than cake!
Here is a little sneak peek into the goody bags. We picked up some fun goodies from Target and the Dollar Store. A fun bubble wand, some flower shaped sunnies, bubbles, glow bracelets, a beach ball, and unicorn scratch paper, all loaded into a fun sand bucket shaped like a sand castle.
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February 17, 2025 Misi New York: A Birthday Lunch…
Make sure to find yourself a friend who says, let me take you out for lunch for your birthday…in Brooklyn (when you live in Massachusetts).
We finally made a date and took the Amtrak Northeast Regional one drizzly morning down to Penn Station. Two days before, I get a text saying, “My plan is to catch up on the train, sleep a little, read a little, have lunch, come home.” I wrote back, “do I even get to sit next to each other, or should I walk past you and pretend like we don’t know each other?” Good friends send messages like that, and understand each other. We can say hello, catch up for 10 minutes, and then, let’s just relax and unwind and not feel like we have to talk the whole time. And that is exactly what we did. It was perfect. Although I did get mocked for the actual size of the book that I brought with me…
So approximately four hours later, and two subway transfers, and a fifteen minute walk, we were there, Misi. It did not disappoint. Worth every calorie (which I am pretty sure we burned off walking to the subway anyway). We sat at the counter and had a front row seat to the open kitchen, fascinated by just how much citrus they use.
Hard to not order one of everything on the menu, but here is what we chose:
trumpet mushrooms sott’olio, whipped ricotta crostini
sheep’s milk ricotta filled occhi, bottarga, lemon
strangozze, pork sugo, nutmeg, parmigiano
pistachio and amaretti cookie gelato
After we rolled ourselves out, we headed to sister restaurant Misi Pasta for some take home pasta. My backpack cooler was just big enough to bring home some mafaldini, two dozen ricotta raviolis, and 2lbs of rigatoni. And of course I had to bring home some pork sugo and some whipped ricotta. I was only disappointed that I wasn’t able to bring home a tray of tiramisu and some gelato, but probably for the best! Thank goodness that our train home was running late, or we would have just missed it, or would have had to sprint for it (like I said, we would have missed it!)
A perfect afternoon out with a friend, highly recommend lunch in another state if you get the chance!
Misi is located at 329 Kent Ave Brooklyn, NY https://www.misinewyork.com/
MisiPasta is located at 46 Grand Street Brooklyn, NY https://www.misipasta.com/ They ship nationwide
Tags: lunch, new york, pasta, restaurant
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- Posted under Restaurants
February 14, 2025 Valentine Fun: Food, Crafts and Lots of Love
We love Valentine’s Day. Our favorite holiday after Halloween. Growing up, I loved making Valentines for friends at school and looking at all the ones my friends made for me. When I had kids of my own, I renewed my love for Valentines – but last year, our school stopped allowing them to be exchanged at school. We still manage to have a lot of fun at home, and find ways to celebrate with friends. I found these cute Valentine doughnuts at Rocco’s for the kids as a fun surprise treat.
We do fun manicures at home with hearts on our nails!
We made these fun crafts for teachers last year. Pick up some paper mache heart ornaments from your local craft store and paint on a thin layer of mod podge. Add tissue paper squares and cover with another layer of mod podge for a shiny clear coat. This was for our visual arts teacher, so we hot glued some letter beads onto it spelling out “in my art era”. Cute as a Valentine, can double as a Christmas ornament.
We found these super cute conversation heart beads on Amazon and used them to make our own headbands. We bought plain headbands on Amazon, although you could certainly use ones you had laying around the house.
Add a little hot glue onto the headband to secure the beads.
How cute are these?
Another fun gift idea would be these Valentine Stanley cup tags. They’re so cute for teens and tweens. You can have them personalized with a name too! They’re available for 30oz. and 40oz. tumblers. Made by SHRH designs.
I saw Amber make these Valentine boxes and thought they were so adorable. After watching, we made our own version – check them out on my Instagram below.
Our signature snack for Valentines are chocolate covered pretzels. We make them in all colors and with all different kinds of sprinkles, how cute are these ones with the word ‘love’?
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February 12, 2025 Snackle Box: Love Valentine Edition
I love the snackle box trend, and think the Valentine snackle box is super cute. We found these at Target and they come in a few different designs. The “LOVE” and the “XOXO” styles were my personal favorite. We filled ours up with some colorful candy, but the sky is the limit on what you could add in here. Other ideas would be: pony and alphabet beads to make a friendship bracelet box, a container os slime on the side and fun sensory mix ins, or for that beauty product teen/tween you could fill the letters with those sample products that come in the flat pouches.
Tie everything up with a cute little bow – we picked this conversation heart ribbon right at our local Dollar Tree – and add a fun gift tag. Cute for kids, friends, teens/tweens and even teachers (make sure to throw a little gift card in too – punch a hole in the corner and tie it on to the bow!)
What would you fill your snackle box with?
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February 10, 2025 Valentine’s Day Ideas
Valentine’s Day is coming up quickly. I wanted to show you some cute baskets that I put together for the kids last year to give you inspiration as you shop this year. The wire baskets are from Target, and I use them for a bunch of things year round. The acrylic tags were personalized with the kid’s names and I found them on Etsy. The seller is on a break, but I am sure that you could find something similar. I love these Kid Made Modern heart water color sets. You can find other brands on Amazon. The heart goggles aren’t available, but the same brand offers a heart style here. I picked up a fun note pad from TJ Maxx and one of those light spinners that my kid’s love. The big hit here was the unicorn chapstick and the jelly beans!
The boys are always a little harder to shop for, but I found these cute shirts at J.Crew saying “Heartbreaker”. They don’t have the same baseball shirt style this year, but here is a similar shirt. I love the Rey to Z hats, you can get them with lots of different things on them: letters, big bro, little bro, auntie, etc. You can’t have any gift basket in this house without Pokemon cards, and of course a little chocolate (and only the best, Gräem for the win!)
For the littlest, we picked up a fun art kit that the big kids could help her with, a hat – because we are into backwards hats these days, but also a few hair bows and clips that we had been saving for a while (we went though a period of not wanting to put anything in our hair) and are just getting into fun stuff now! Throw in some delicious chocolate from Gräem, a simple heart tee from target, and a fun necklace and she is one happy kid!
Are dessert boards a thing anymore? Asking for a friend. Either way, I still love them. Added in all of my favorite things and if they aren’t in anymore…well more for me I guess 🙂 Homemade chocolate covered pretzel rods, macarons (and these days you can pick them up at Whole Foods if you’re in a pinch), my favorite cookies from Bisous Sweet (it doesn’t have to be Valentine’s Day for me to get these, frankly, any day that ends with a ‘y’ will do!) and some red candies to fill in the empty spaces.
Don’t forget to show your gal pals the love this Valentine’s day. I love single serve bottles of bubbly. Pop on a cute tag (these are my favorite – Little Notes from E. Frances Paper) and drop off as a little reminder of how fabulous you think they are!
One of my favorite bakeries made these cookies years ago and I had to reshare them because they are so cute! They have closed their doors for walk in retail, but you can still order cakes online!
Make sure to check out Love And Flour, their cakes are beautiful.
I love a good m&m cookie on Valentine’s Day, they make a bold pop of color!
I love a good sheet pan meal, pancakes are no exception. Use your favorite pancake recipe but make on a baking sheet. Cook at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. They come out light and fluffy and you can cut them out into cute shapes with cookie cutters – and everyone gets warm pancakes at the same time!
Don’t want to make sheet pan pancakes, try making them in muffin tins. My second favorite way to make quick meals for the whole family – and everyone gets to eat a hot meal at the same time! My kids think that eating anything with a toothpick is more fun, so we found these cute heart food picks to use and we let them dip them in whipped cream and sprinkles! What is your favorite pancake topping?
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February 7, 2025 Design Your Own Valentine Tote
We always dream up new Valentine crafts for our friends. We picked up some inexpensive totes from our local craft store and used our Cricut to outline friend’s names on the bags. We threw in some Crayola fabric markers and it was up to each friend’s imagination to create the bag of their dreams. Perfect for snow gear for school!
For a school craft, we had all of these left over ceramic yogurt cups we were looking to reuse. We decided to make a heart flower bouquet. You will need ceramic yogurt cups, pipe cleaners, cut out hearts, paper shred and play dough.
First step, cut out five of the same size heart shapes. We used a heart shaped cutter, you could use a Cricut or trace hearts and use a scissor. Fold hearts in half. You make multiple flowers in different sizes or colors, use 5 hearts per flower.
Add glue to one half of the heart and stick to one half of a second heart.
When you get to the last heart, secure around pipe cleaner to make the “flower”. Add a ball of play dough in the bottom of the yogurt container to secure the flowers. Push pipe cleaner flowers into play dough to allow to stand up straight. Add as many stems as you’d like.
Share in the comments how you use your left over yogurt containers!
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February 6, 2025 Valentine’s Day Fudge Brownies
I usually don’t have time to make homemade brownies, so I fancy up some box brownies. (Throw in some candy or add on some home made frosting…) But I found myself with some extra time the other day and decided to make some fudge brownies from scratch. I found a recipe from Karli, cookiesfordaaays on Instagram, and hers looked amazing.
The recipe couldn’t have been easier to make and they came out delicious. Perfect for a dry run for Valentine’s Day.
You can keep the brownies plain, as is, or add frosting. Check out her recipe here.
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- Posted under Recipes
February 5, 2025 Sweet Treats for Your Sweet Valentine
Desserts are my favorite – I think you should eat them first. We bake desserts for friends for all the holidays, it’s our love language. I usually don’t make sandwich cookies of any kind, because I just can’t handle the extra step, but we had some fancy jam, and, these seemed like a fun idea for Leah.
My neighbor from growing up is the best baker. She makes these iced sugar cookies that I adore. She’s even given me the recipe, but I can’t make them taste as delicious as she makes them. So I patiently wait until Valentine’s Day, or my birthday, and I don’t even share them with my kids, that’s how much I adore them.
Cupcakes are our go to dessert to make in our house, the design options are pretty endless. We made these piped hearts with sugar crystals and plain vanilla frosted topped with jelly hearts.
When you want something besides a food options, I give those too. I made this up for my little. A heart belt bag from Target, sparkle boots from Target, Ooly scented stamp able markets, ooly chroma blend watercolors, Construction Site: You’re Just Right, an ice cream truck notebook, some fun bracelets, and some heart glasses that you add glow sticks to.
Another popular dessert that we make on Valentine’s Day are m&m cookies.
If you are looking for a fun and festive dessert, but are short on time, don’t be afraid to take a short cut. We bought mini ice cream sandwiches and rolled them in different sprinkles. They look like a million dollars, that you spent so much time on them, when really, it was under five minutes in the kitchen (most of which was spent unwrapping the paper).
I love all the containers from Bullseye’s Playground. I picked these up last year and filled them with all kinds of fun and colorful Valentine candy.
Another close up of the cupcakes, this batch in chocolate.
Last year Blackbird Doughnuts offered these cute chocolate chip cookies shaped like doughnuts.The kids adored these. Hope they bring them back for this year.
Another container from Bullseye’s Playground – we filled this one with our sprinkle cookies.
This glass Tupperware was from Target as well, but not the dollar section. Although I did pick up at the end of the season, so they were deeply discounted. One of my other shortcuts (shhh don’t tell anyone) is to get store bought brownies if I am short on time, and top with a delicious salted caramel sauce. It makes them seem very fancy. If you have a few extra minutes, but not a ton of time, you can fancy up some box mix by swirling in some sauce or peanut butter!
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February 4, 2025 Valentine’s Day Sweets and Treats
I love a good m&m cookie on Valentine’s Day. They just give a good pop of color and a nice hearty cookie with a crunch on the outside that I love. Our neighbors love these too, they even request the crunchier the better 🙂
I know that snackle boxes are the new thing, but I love a good old fashioned muffin tin. Why not use what you have and not go out and get something new. And mine just happen to be pink!! Fill with all your favorite candy – a real mix of salty, sweet, gummy, hard, chocolate, crunchy, and maybe even throw a bowl of popcorn on the side just for good measure.
Usually I am a strict vanilla with vanilla cupcake kind of gal, but I do make exceptions on Valentine’s Day. I do love a strawberry frosting and the garnish, well the sky is the limit. I love these XO chocolate covered crackers, I love the Valentine Candy that is available, m&m’s, anything Reese’s….and while I don’t actually like the taste of conversation hearts, they do sure make a cute decoration.
These Crescent Ridge cupcakes come as a six pack and can be in your weekly delivery for $16.50 a package. They start with a brownie base and are topped with vanilla or cookie dough ice cream. Top with some whip and sprinkles and you are good to go! Chef’s kiss.
They did at one point last year do a collaboration of a red velvet ice cream whoopie that was kind of knock your socks off….this year they are doing a gingerbread one, which I like….just not as much. They also have a peppermint ice cream sandwich option which is enough to rock your world. Did I mention they can get delivered to your door?
Ok, Simple heart sugar cookie heart cut out. My neighbor growing up makes these. She gave me the recipe. I follow it to the precise T. They NEVER come out the same. Im convinced that she left one key thing out so that I can’t ever make them as good…. 🙂 The frosting is light a sugary, but not TOO sweet, and when I was at college and I was missing being at home….I would legit eat the whole tin in one sitting. But let’s not unpack all that psychology right now.
As I mentioned in a previous Valentine post, I rarely have time to make from scratch brownies, so I like to fancy up box brownies. One way would be to cut then out into shapes. I do like this option, but there is a lot of waste. And by waste, I mean, add to my waist-line. But I cut this batch up into hearts and I think they are just thge cutest things in the whole world.
Keep them plain, as is, of you can add a little frosting. Make from scratch, or if you are in a hurry, put premade frosting into a piping bag and add a little to the tops of the hearts and cover with fun sprinkles.
Here are some fun rainbow ones I tried to make cute.
Another fun thing that we sometimes do at our house is sheetpan pancakes. SO we tried to make then and then cut then out and make them into fun shapes because I certainly can’t compete with my son’s friend’s dad who can whip up colored pancakes every weekend. I mean, we all have our strengths…
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February 3, 2025 Advent Calendar for Valentine’s Day?
Are you always trying to keep things new and exciting for your kids? I can never keep up with all the things they see on social media. I tried to get a little crafty and take some inspiration from those ornament wreaths I saw over Christmas. I whipped out the hot glue gun and started attaching the cute heart containers to a heart wreath from the Dollar Store. Each heart had something fun inside (nothing too crazy): a little candy Swedish Fish, Lindt truffles, gummy nerds, sweet and sour hearts. I added some non candy treats as well – some conversation heart stickers, a few heart poppers, a slinky, a disco heart keychain, a small eraser, some ninja bounce balls and even a little Starbucks gift card shaped like a conversation heart. Go as big or as little as you want – but make it fun and personalized.
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- Posted under Crafts
