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A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

“A lifestyle blog with a focus on my food adventures”

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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January 31, 2025 100 Days of School Craft

When I had my first, I thought I was pretty crafty. I handmade my kid’s Valentine’s for school, no store bought for this family. By the time my second came around, I was still feeling pretty proud of myself, until she came home from school and she had this Valentine of a sheep, like the one above, with pompoms glued on to it. It was from a boy mom, first child. IMPRESSIVE. It stuck with me. Still has, to this day. So when we had to do our 100 days of school craft, for some reason, this popped into my head. I looked up a picture of a sheep on Google, printed it out on my Cricut, ironed it onto a shirt, and hot glued 100 pom poms onto the body of the sheep.

What is your 100 Day of School craft?

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January 30, 2025 Will You Be Mine? Valentine Piñatas

I always like to pick up discounted Valentine merch at the end of the season. I found these at Home Goods last year – filled with gummy candy, which I promptly threw out. The piñatas themselves were still good and we filled them with out own treats (fresh ones!) to give to friends this year. How cute are they?

If you can’t find these, you could also make them inexpensively. Pick up some heart shaped boxes at the end of the season (you can find them at Michaels for about $1) and then cover with fringed tissue paper to make your own.

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January 29, 2025 Chinese New Year and Dumpling Making

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, Leah invited us over to make dumplings at her house. The kids and I took over her kitchen and we got to work.

The kids liked the pork dumplings, but we also made a mushroom version for Henry and Dan.

The kids had the best time scooping and filling. They tried to pinch the dumplings, and even came up with some new shapes and ideas of their own. The “pizza” style became popular towards the end!

Leah made these dumplings, look at how well they are folded! Best part of the day, definitely the taste testing!

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January 28, 2025 Viral Chocolate Chip Valentine Cookies

I was chatting with my hairdresser and she was telling me about how she tried to make the viral chocolate chip cookies for her boyfriend, but they turned out a total bust.

I asked her if she tried to make one of the cookies home made, knowing that I had tried that too, and made the same mistake. So much for trying to be fancy. Do yourself a favor and just buy the premade cookie dough – the chocolate chip and the cut out sugar cookie hearts. Place the sugar cookie hearts on top of the chocolate chip cookie dough (I got the heart sprinkle ones, but as you can see, you couldn’t even see the cute sprinkles), and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Pillsbury cookies aren’t my jam, but boy, they are cute…and the kids loved them!

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January 27, 2025 Chinese New Year Crafts

Chinese New Year falls on January 29th this year, the year of the snake. It is said that people born in the year of the snake love with their entire hearts. White rabbit candy is very popular, a milk based candy with a soft, chewy texture and a vanilla flavor.

Last year was the year of the dragon, and we did some fun crafts for school. We made paper chain dragons.

Cut out long strips of red paper in equal lengths.

Staple the first strip of paper into a circle and begin making a paper chain. Make as long as you’d like.

Tape the head of the dragon to the first link and the tail of the dragon to the last link. for extra stability, tape or glue popsicle sticks to the head and tail and make the dragon dance.

These toilet paper roll dragons were a fun craft. You will need: empty toilet paper rolls, streamers, pom poms, eyes (either stickers or googly eyes), construction paper, and double sided tape.

Measure out the width of the toilet paper roll and then roll the construction paper to fit completely around the roll. Use double sided tape to attach streamers to one side of the paper (the long side). You can cut into squiggle shapes or leave straight).

Add two pieces of tape to the short sides of the paper.

Roll the paper around the empty toilet paper roll and secure with the double sided tape.

This is what your finished product should look like.

Add two small pieces of tape towards the back for the pom pom eyes and two pieces of tape near the streamers for the nostrils.

This is what the final product should look like. Glue googly eyes to the back set of pom poms or use eye stickers.

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January 25, 2025 Harry Potter: The Exhibition – Extended By Popular Demand

Sponsored Post: I was hosted for this experience. All opinions are my own.

Witches and Wizards alike will love the Harry Potter Exhibit now at the CambridgeSide Galleria. Fans now have until April 27th to come and experience the magic. Choose your house carefully and earn points by completing tasks. Make potions, test out spells and even face your biggest fears! Have the chance to see authentic movie props and costumes and even try your hand at quidditch.

The boys loved trying to repot the mandrakes and taking pictures until the famous stairs on Privet Drive. The interactive experience made it fun for everyone – they loved seeing their names pop up on the Marauder’s Map.

They have just announced a special ticket bundle that includes 4 FLEX tickets (go any time), 4 commemorative posters, and 4 audio guides for $175 (a $250 value). We went on MLK day when the kids had off of school – it’s a perfect place to spend a few hours during school vacation week!

We had so much fun doing this together since we are on book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and we have just finished the first movie!

For more information, or for tickets, check out their website.

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January 24, 2025 Scandinavian Traditions: Good Luck For the New Year

Sometimes you have people come into your life, and they turn out to be very special people. We are fortunate to have so many of them. We have a neighbor, who told us about our house when the owner’s were thinking about selling it, and we bought it before they put it on the market. Turns out the woman who sold it to us, used to be my math teacher (small world). Same neighbor introduced us to a friend of hers, who was just getting back into the working world after taking some time off. She has been helping my son, and he ADORES her. From day one, she just gets him. She is patient and calm, and she has increased his confidence tenfold. For that, I can never repay her. I rave to her to all of my friends.

As if that wasn’t enough, for the holidays, she gave him this wonderful gift. I love that she shared this tradition with him. Apparently, it is a Scandinavian tradition that if you feed the birds on Christmas or New Year’s Day and then you will have good luck in the New Year. It has practical origins, in that the farmers would hang bundles for the birds on Christmas, hoping that they would stay out of the barn where the harvest was stored.

So thank you Ms. Krista, for all that you do!

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January 23, 2025 Cirque Du Soleil Presents: Ovo

Sponsored post: I was hosted for this show. All opinions are my own.

Cirque du Soleil’s show Ovo’s name comes from the word “egg” in Portuguese. The colorful characters in the show are reimagined insects that guide you through a beautiful story, one that has no words.

Ovo has all the components you want in a show: athleticism, agility, music, excitement, intensity and humor. The performers amaze and delight you act after act. We were engaged and on the edge of our seats the entire time. The ants juggle corn and kiwis (and each other) with precision, the scarabs show amazing feats of strength in their arial act, and dozens of artists take flight up a vertical wall, all in sync with one another.

The international crew blends together both masculine and feminine energies, depicts both strength and gracefulness, has familiar components that make Cirque, well, Cirque, all while keeping the show fresh and exciting.

Ovo is the 25th Cirque du Soleil live production created on the company’s 25th anniversary. For more about their show, click here.

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January 22, 2025 Camp Mom: Do You Want to Build a Snow Globe?

Cakey Cat Snow Globe

With the school vacation being 92,090,233,643 days long, we were looking for things to do. Lots of things to do. We had some extra supplies from a craft we brought to school, so we used the extra snow globes from the Dollar Store, some glitter, fake snow, beads, and some 50% off ornaments from Target to make these fun little snow globes. You could really use any little figures that you have at home, and any craft supplies – leftover pieces of ribbon, pipe cleaners, pom poms, the sky is the limit on what you could create. And we kept these as dry snow globes, no water needed – but you could always make some with water and add a few drops of glycerin to make things float nicely. Make sure to hot glue the figures to the lid a hot glue the lid closed if you’re using liquid in the snow globe so that little hands don’t mistakenly open the snow globes on your floor! What would you put in your snow globe?

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