May 6, 2021 How Much Screen Time Are Your Kids Getting?
Before the pandemic, we didn’t have any screen time. I’m not saying that to brag. When the kids were at home when the pandemic started, we quickly went from no screen time to a few shows a day. That’s in addition to the time they spent on the computer for classes. At 2, my youngest was watching television with the “big kids”, because how do you say some can watch but others can’t. I would NEVER have let my oldest watch television at 2. Funny the differences with a first child and any other children that come after :).
So when I needed time to make dinner, what happened? Television. I needed to clean the kitchen after a meal, yup, television. Judge all you want. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Tell me you’ve been there…
When I pictured myself as a mom, I never pictured myself as having television show themed birthday parties, but here we are, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. In the grand scheme of things, it isn’t a bad show. I remember it from when my niece was a kid. Friendly for all ages and has multiple seasons – which is key when you are in a pandemic. There is nothing worse than a show with annoying voices that get stuck in your head, or a show that only has one season and a) your kids are upset when there aren’t any more new shows, and b) you have to watch the same six shows OVER AND OVER AGAIN (because I can definitely recite some shows basically word for word). Don’t even get me started on humming the theme songs even when my kids aren’t around!
My kids LOVED this cake by the way. Tell me your favorite shows for younger aged kids and how your screen time has changed during the pandemic.
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May 4, 2021 Recycled Crayons For Valentine’s Day And Every Day
I had known about recycled crayons for a long time, but never got around to making them. And then, the pandemic hit. We did every craft project known to man.
There is something so wonderful about a new crayon. It’s sharp, it colors so smoothly…. and then all the sudden you find yourself faced with having to peel the paper if you want to color more. My kids deem those crayons “no longer useable”. Side note, I remember when I was a kid and my mom bought me a huge box of crayons that I wanted just because it had the sharpener built in!!
I can’t tell you how many crayons we have in general. Never mind the broken ones or ones that I find in the bottom of my bag that we got from a restaurant 80 years ago. In our house, we have a big jar, and we throw all of the “we aren’t using them anymore” crayons right in. When you have enough crayons, dump them out, peel the paper off and have the kids help you break them into smaller pieces. My kids like that part the best. We have silicone molds in so many shapes, but I love the heart ones the most. The silicone molds make it so easy to pop the crayons out when you are done. They’re great for Valentine’s Day or any day for that matter. We made Valentines and attached these homemade crayons to them – so cute.
When you have the crayons broken up in your silicone mold, place them on a cookie sheet for stability. Bake them at 250 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Keep an eye on them while they are cooking! When they are done, let them cool. Pop them out – they’re ready to go!
These make great birthday party favors! They are a good choice for Halloween for kids who have allergies and can’t have candy. You can even give some to friends for Earth Day!
Have you ever made recycled crayons before?
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April 29, 2021 Driveway Birthday Parties…The New Trend?
Can I be honest for a minute? The one thing I actually don’t mind about the pandemic is that birthday parties have gone away. (EEK, I admitted it!) The BIG ones, the ones where you invite the whole class, you know what I’m talking about. And if you had more than one kid, forget about free time. Our weekends used to be PACKED with birthday parties. I would have a steady supply of LEGO kits and birthday cards at the ready in our house and sometimes we would be DOUBLE BOOKED.
I kind of like having just our immediate family over (socially distant of course) in the driveway – keeping focus on what is important. My kids don’t need 8,000 presents, which they would previously rip through at lightning speed. They wouldn’t even get to enjoy what they received because there were 20 other gifts to open. I ask my parents to get them experiences, not toys. I ask family to get practical gifts like clothes, art supplies or books.
Last year, we had a friend surprise one of my kids with a Birthday parade – all the kids from class made home made signs, beeped and waved from their cars. I think that was one of the best birthdays so far! There was a lot of love that day!
Have you scaled back on birthday parties? Tell me what you’ve done to celebrate – I’d love to hear your ideas.
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April 27, 2021 You Know You’re a Mom When…You Pick Up Your Own Birthday Cake
Finish this sentence: “You know you’re a mom when…”
Mine is when you pick up your own birthday cake. Since this was a big birthday for me, I decided to go big or go home. That means, not just one cake, but three. And my husband came through with a cake as well, even if it was a few days late (better late than never).
Every month, Blackbird has different flavor cake in addition to the standard vanilla and chocolate. They claim that it serves 2-4 people, but in this case, I made my own suggestion that it was really a single serving! I mean, it did say “personal sized”. This one was two vanilla doughnuts with house made jam and vanilla buttercream frosting. AMAZING. I could have eaten this alone in my closet and it would have been my best birthday ever. I think I was smart enough to make a homemade cake as a decoy cake – the kids ate that one and I had this one to myself…
Blackbird Doughnuts Locations in South End, Fenway, Harvard Square, Beacon Hill, Brighton and Newton Centre
Order cakes online through the catering menu.
This is the pie of my dreams: the party pie sampler from Elm Street Sweets, a sister bakery to the Rosebud in Somerville. They hibernated over the winter, because it just wasn’t feasible to keep it open, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that it re-opens. The pie is 9″ and has two pieces of cookie dough brownie pie, two pieces of cookies n’ cream pie and two pieces of peanut butter fudge pie.
Elm Street Sweets Pickup at The Rosebud in Somerville or Posto in Bedford
Next up, New City Microcreamery in Hudson, MA. I love this ice cream cake because it actually has CAKE in it. Make sure to plan ahead if you want a customized cake, three days ahead actually. They do have pre made cakes in the freezer should you need one last minute. Choose up to two different kinds of ice cream and one “funk”. We went with the mint chip and the chocolate chip cookie dough. Cakes come in three sizes: 6, 8 or 10 inch – we went with the 6″.
New City Microcreamery 29 Main Street, Hudson, MA
I first fell in love with Milk Bar when I went to New York a million years ago. Their now called “Milk Bar Pie” is one of my all time favorites. I was also in love with their corn cookies. You used to be able to buy the mix and make them at home. The ones at the store in Harvard Square are good, they just aren’t the same as I remember. Side note, you can buy Milk Bar truffle crumb cakes at Target, and they will definitely tide your craving over. Back to the cake: 6″ will feed 8-12. Its three tiers of rainbow flecked vanilla birthday cake with birthday frosting, crunchy birthday crumbs and of course, rainbow sprinkles. My husband gets brownie points for this one!
Milk Bar Boston location at 3 Brattle Street in Cambridge but they ship!
So tell me, have you ever picked up your own birthday cake(s)?
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April 22, 2021 Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner: Nan’s Market Fried Chicken
I love me some fried chicken. With the pandemic, there’s no chance you’ll catch me at a restaurant….and you know how take out goes, by the time you get it home…it’s just sad. But not Nan’s fried chicken. Everyone I know loves it. Even my brother, who doesn’t like food like that, said he actually made a noise after he had his first bite. Not only is is flavorful but the skin is so.darn.crispy. The chicken comes in three flavors: Original, Nansville Hot and Kid Friendly. Here’s the deal – it’s only available 4-8pm and you have to order it TWO HOURS IN ADVANCE…so people….PLAN AHEAD! You won’t be sorry.
In addition, don’t even think about getting the fried chicken without the biscuits. These things are the REAL DEAL. I may have had two, don’t tell anyone….
Whatever you do, if you have to reheat them, DO NOT, I mean it, DO NOT put them in the microwave! Toaster all the way, low temp, slow to warm it up. Cover them in butter and maybe even drizzle some honey over those bad boys.
Not in the mood for the whole 5 piece fried chicken thing? I can’t imagine that ever happening, but they also offer a fried chicken sandwich at lunch time. Southern style with a farmhouse twist, crispy marinated all natural chicken breast on a soft roll with a smoky mayonnaise and a slaw of shaved cabbage, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts.
Want to make your lips tingle? Try Nan’s Garlic Beans: lightly seared green beans with fiery Calabrian chilies, garlic, cider vinegar, sea salt and olive oil.
Need a quick grab a go lunch? Try one of their grain bowls – you can completely customize it! This one is brown rice with all natural flank steak, sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts. You can even get double protein if that’s your thing.
I saved the best for last, and I almost don’t want to write about it for fear that there won’t be enough…but the chicken and dumpling soup is AMAZING. It’s a family recipe, the measurements are literally by “egg shell full” 🙂
Pick up a cup, or a pint, but me, I buy 2 quarts at a time….and all my friends want me to pick them up some as long as I’m going, so every time I walk into Nan’s they’re like, “Oh, so you’re the one who is buying 20 quarts of soup!”
While you’re there, they have a great grab a go case and you can even mix and match your own 4 pack of beer. Let me know what you think of the fried chicken!
Nan’s Rustic Kitchen and Market
27 Great Road, Stow, MA
Open Tuesday — Sunday 7 AM – 8PM
Breakfast until 11 AM (last online order 10:30 AM)
Lunch menu served 11 AM – 8PM
Dinner menu served 4 PM – 8 PM
Market Shopping 7 AM – 8 PM
Tags: kid friendly, retail, take out
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March 28, 2021 Random Acts of Kindness: Easter with Cubze
With Easter less than a week away, I thought I would share some fun ideas of what we are doing in our house. We usually have a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt, but this will be the second year that we will have to cancel it due to the pandemic. And while we are not having any big get togethers, sometimes it is fun to put boards and tables together to make things special.
I picked up this cute tablecloth from Target. They’re $5, and I have them for almost every holiday you can think of. They are great because they are inexpensive and they are durable. We keep them on our table for a month to do crafts on, and when they get really dirty, I don’t feel bad about just throwing them away.
The flower and gingham plates are from Target, as well as the melamine egg plate. The bunny napkin is Meri Meri – I mean, how cute are they?!
I made the Easter board on a melamine plate from Crate and Barrel and filled it with peanut M&M’s, Oreos, jelly beans in an edible nest, Ferraro Rocher eggs, chocolate bunnies from EHChocolatier, and Cubze from The Happy Chocolatier. How can you have an Easter board without Peeps? (Personally I can’t stand them, but the kids love them). Yes, those are Lady Gaga Oreos, but they were pink and green, so I threw them on the board too!
I think that it is fair to say that this year has been hard on everyone, but especially the kids. They have missed out on holidays, family get togethers, seeing their friends on play dates, birthdays…and the list goes on. So this year, we decided that even though we couldn’t have our friends over to look for eggs, we would bring the hunt to them. We are filling eggs with Cubze and surprising friends by leaving them in their lawn! Yes, we could put in the usual suspects (and don’t get me wrong, give me ALL THE REESE’S), but this time around it is quality over quantity, and we love a good local business! The truffle Cubze come in a variety of flavors (traditional milk and dark chocolate, but also flavors like dark chocolate orange, milk chocolate cappuccino, and cookie & cream to name a few) and are the perfect size for when you need a special treat. Each truffle comes with an inspirational quote about happiness – just a little pick me up to your day! When you buy Cubze you are supporting a local business and, as an added bonus, with every sale, a percentage of the profits are donated to Feeding America.
We are also leaving little treat bags of Cubze for our mailman Steve (who is just the greatest), our UPS driver Dan and our milkman. We like to surprise them every once in a while with fun things (pictures the kids draw, notes, treats etc.) because we appreciate all that they do and it’s important to acknowledge them. I tell my kids every day before they go to school to remember to be kind and to be a good friend.
When I was putting together baskets this year, I decided to really scale back. Instead of filling their baskets with lots of $1 items (although WHY is that the stuff that they love the most?!?!) and things they will look at for 5 seconds and promptly forget about, I went with practical items. I put Cubze in for the kids – yep, you read that right. It’s funny how they will eat maybe one or two good pieces of chocolate and be happy – as opposed to trying to eat 200 pieces of the “regular” candy. My little guy continues to surprise me because I just found out he actually PREFERS dark chocolate.
Why yes, those are Valentine’s Day pajamas in the Easter basket. I bought them this year and forgot to give them to the kids, so in to the basket they go. I mean, hearts don’t have to be JUST for Valentine’s Day. I picked up those cute bunny glasses from the dollar spot at Target. We use so much chalk in the summer time I feel like I should own stock…so these Crayola egg shaped chalk boxes were a good find. I always like to add a book into each basket – and we are a Duck and Goose loving family.
My kids have been asking for cameras for the longest time. I found these at Target for about $25. We will see how they hold up!
To friends, we decided to forgo the traditional baskets with candy and decided to make a baking themed basket. Cute bunny plates and carrot napkins by Meri Meri, bunny ear measuring spoons, some fun baking cup liners, Easter colored sprinkles, some spatulas and of course some Cadbury mini eggs, because you have to have SOME chocolate!
For my daughter, I picked up this cute rainbow basket for under $10 at Target, which she can use to store all her “treasures” in when Easter is over. We picked Betty Bunny as our book for the basket, written by an old friend, added Cubze for the sweetness factor and some bunny ears from Pottery Barn. To be honest, I bought these a few years ago and I put them in her basket every year, she doesn’t seem to notice and I get to reuse something – win win. Everything is rainbows and unicorns as far as my daughter is concerned, so I picked up some cute gardening gloves for about $5 each. We can never have enough art supplies and I love everything ooly makes – pictured are the ice cream erasers and the scented twist up crayons. We use so much washi tape – so I picked up this cute four pack from Michaels.
And last but not least, for the littlest bunny in the house, some cute carrot and bunny pajamas from Old Navy, pink bunny slippers from L.L.Bean, a blue goose made by Le Voyage D’Olga (that I bought from one of my favorite stores – Gus and Ruby Letterpress), sparkle bunny ears from J.Crew and the book Easter Bugs.
What are you doing to make Easter special?
Disclaimer: I was gifted samples of Cubze. All opinions are my own.
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October 16, 2020 Quarantine Activities For Kids
We are how many months into this quarantine and I’m sure that like me, you are struggling for new things to do with your kids. I don’t know about you, but those rainy days kill us – we are trapped inside of the house with no way to burn off that excess energy. We do a LOT of baking in our house. I love that a lot of bakeries are giving out recipes for their beloved treats, so when SusieCakes put out the recipe for their sweetheart sandwich cookies, we jumped at the chance to make them. While the original recipe calls for buttercream in the middle of the two cookies, we opted for jam – we made so much home made jam this year! We used these cute bunny cookie cutters for the inside, but you could use whatever you have on hand. You can find the recipe here.
With more than one kid at home, there are bound to be arguments. Sometimes we need to go to our own corners – here’s where those forts come in handy! We happen to have these teepees at our house, but you could easily construct a fort with pillow cushions and sheets or blankets. We string up some holiday lights on ours and my kiddos love to go in there are hide from one another or read books.
Another idea if you are stuck inside is to make an indoor obstacle course using things that you already own. We brought in hula hoops so the kids could hop from one to the next, we practiced jumping over the jump rope on one leg and on two, crawling under the pool noodles, doing forward rolls on the gym mat, and practicing throwing fake snowballs into a bucket. Or maybe just use found objects on the floor and pretend the floor is lava and you can only step on the objects you’ve set out (but be careful they don’t slip).
I don’t know about you, but we have a TON of Easter eggs in our basement. I filled ours up with loose change and hid them around the house. Not only did the kids go crazy having fun looking for the eggs, but afterwards, we emptied the eggs and sorted the coins. After sorting, we counted and rolled them so we can deposit them into the bank. This is a great independent activity, guaranteed to give you at least 30 minutes of peace and quiet to yourself.
If the weather is nice, go outside and find a place where you can feed the ducks – or in our case, there were just a lot of Canadian Geese and sea gulls, but hey, the kids were amused for 30 minutes! If we have left over bread we just throw the pieces in the freezer and take them all out when we have enough to feed the birds – sometimes though, we make croutons).
Sometimes I just don’t want to deal with the hassle of markers. My kids end up with marker in places you have no idea how they even could have gotten here. We always have some fun cardboard shapes on hand (we picked these up at the dollar section at Target) and I let my kids go wild with washi tape.
Coffee filters can be used for so many things. You can have the kids color on them with markers and then dip them in water (or spray with spray bottle full of water) and let the colors bleed into one another.
Another option of how to color coffee filters is to use water colors on them. Makes sure to put a paper towel under them so the colors don’t bleed onto your work surface.
We used some of our coffee filters to make these fun hot air balloons! All you need besides the colored coffee filters are some pipe cleaners and construction paper.
Another project we used the coffee filters for were these fun flowers. Grab the coffee filters in the middle and scrunch the filters up. Do this three or four times and then secure the bottoms with a pipe cleaner.
You could also use the colored coffee filters to make fun butterflies.
We love to bead in our house. Great for small muscle control and hand eye coordination. If you are cutting your own string, you can tape off the end to make it easier to thread the beads.
See what patterns your kids can make: can you make a necklace with all round beads, or all pink beads. Write out a pattern on a piece of paper and see if they can follow it: heart, square, heart, square or, perhaps round, round, square, round, round, square, etc.
We have a few large windows in the front of our house, and every month or so, we like to change things up. Everyone in our neighborhood compliments us on them and they can’t wait to see what we are going to do next. This one was a flower scene: we used contact paper with glitter for the centers of the flower and then construction paper for the rest. Use your imagination!
Other displays included a rainbow made from all hearts, and an underwater scene with fish, whales, and even an octopus!
Have your kids use their imagination and write a book! We got this “Make Your Own Little Golden Book” as a gift, but you could certainly just fold up some white paper in half and you’re good to go.
Paper plates are something we try and craft with in our house. Relatively inexpensive and you can make about a million different animals with them. We colored our plates and cut the plate to look like butterfly wings. Throw in a popsicle stick covered in pompoms and antennae made with a pipe cleaner and you are good to go.
I can’t remember where we saw the inspiration for these, but my kids loved making them. Get about 12 or so brown paper lunch bags. Glue them all in the same direction two or three at a time – this will make the cutting of the patter easier. After you cut your first two or three bags that have been glued together, add another two or three and repeat cutting out the pattern.
After you have all the bags glued together, take the first bag and glue it to the last bag and viola! you have a beautiful snowflake!
My kids LOVE science experiments, the messier the better (for them). One simple one is the reaction of baking soda and vinegar. We keep a bunch of these plastic egg cartons on hand (they are perfect for painting) – so just add a few drops of food coloring on the bottom of each space. Cover with baking soda. My kids like to guess what color each one will make!
Have the kids pour the vinegar on top of the baking soda and watch the colors bubble up! Or if you have droppers, those are certainly a good way to help with those fine muscle control skills!
Salt dough is super easy yo make, it’s just three ingredients: flour, salt and water. You can find the recipe here. Roll out the dough and cut them into fun shapes with cookie cutters. Cook for about 2 hours and let completely cool. We used paint markers, but really, any paint will do. If you want to give them an extended life, spray them with something like Modge Podge Sealer.
We took it one step further and made ornaments for friends. We placed them on their trees during the day so they could have a scavenger hunt for them later.
I’m not going to lie, this one is a little messy. We made nail polish rocks. Fill up a shallow pan with warm water. Pour in your choice of nail polish and quickly dip your rock (or object of choice) into the liquid – pull out immediately and place on a wax paper lined sheet pan.
You should be good for two dips, but after that, take a chopstick or something similar and swirl it around the water to collect the used nail polish and wipe on a paper towel to discard. Begin again with new polish. We found that flat, light colored (well white is the best) rocks were the best. Again, if you want them to last longer if you are placing them outside, use a sealer like Modge Podge on them.
We all have about a bazillion extra stickers at home. If you need 5 minutes of quiet time, get out a large piece of paper and, for example, draw a circle and a square on it. Have your kids place the square stickers in the square shape and the circle stickers in the circle. All other stickers that are not circles or squares can go in the blank space left on the paper.
And when all else fails, have them do some printables. Here are some of our favorites:
http://www.littlegoldenbooks.com/activities/
https://www.joshfunkbooks.com/stuff-for-kids
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April 5, 2020 Easter
With the state that the world is in right now, Easter is bound to look a little different this year. For us, I usually host a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We have about 25 littles and 50 adults come together for an afternoon of fun. This year we had to cancel, but hopefully we will get to do it later this spring.
I put together some really simple Easter baskets this year, glad to not be going overboard. I added things that I could order online easily and tried to support local/small businesses whenever I could.
This top basket has a stuffed Jellycat bunny, some vanilla caramels from McCrea’s (they’re offering free shipping), chocolate bunnies on a tractor and on a motorcycle from Laughing Moon Chocolates in Vermont and flutter nutter bunnies from EHChocolatier (they’re offering curbside pickup if you’re local).
For my daughter I picked up this cute unicorn hooded towel from Pottery Barn Kids, because we are all about the unicorns these days (and the llama-corns and kitty-corns). I added in these cute ring dings from the Ring Ding Bar (they’re offering free shipping), my favorite bunny from Harbor Sweets, some sparkle sunglasses (you can never have too many pairs), some chocolate bunny pops from EHChocolatier, and some fun stationary (with stickers) from local shop Calliope Paperie.
Here’s a better look at those ring dings starting on top left and going clockwise:
Peanut Butter and Jelly: Peanut butter cream filling and raspberry jam schmear form the nutty nucleus of this snack cake that makes for a tastier (and tinier!) alternative for your lunch box.
Pistachio Raspberry: Savory and sweet meet in this delightful marriage of fruit and nut. Nutty pistachio cream filling and tangy raspberry jam sit within a sandwich of pistachio cake and green-tinted white chocolate.
Nutella: Chocolate cake and a dark chocolate shell encase a savory-sweet center of thick Nutella cream, choc-full of classic Ferrero flavor.
Red Velvet: A red chocolate shell and red velvet cake filled with tasty vanilla cream that’s as smooth as the surface that inspired it.
Strawberry Shortcake: Vanilla cake and pink-tinted white chocolate surround strawberry jam and strawberry cream filling.
Lemon: Lemon cake and white chocolate cream fill yell-tinted chocolate shell in this tantalizingly tart addition to snack cake canon!
Check out my post from last year for more inspiration!
What is your Easter going to look like this year?
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February 18, 2020 Valentine’s Day Crafts and Baking
Valentine’s Day may be over, but I love hearts all year round. Between working on our school Valentine cards, our crafts at home and our grazing boards for friends, we have been celebrating all month long.
When I have the time, I like to make things from scratch, but usually, because the littles are running all around the house, I take a few short cuts. For example – those cupcakes above? Made the cake from a box mix. Made the frosting from scratch because, I mean, let’s be honest, nothing is more important than the frosting!
These cookies I make from a sugar cookie recipe I got from a friend. I love them because they aren’t sweet, as some sugar cookies can be. The frosting is just confectioner’s sugar, milk and vanilla so it is SUPER sweet – but paired with the cookie (that isn’t sweet), it just works out to the right amount of sweetness.
I always stock up on sprinkles. Those cute ones on the cupcakes – the multi colored hearts – were a cute find at Michael’s. I love all things pink and red, but these were a refreshing change of pace. At Michael’s they have smaller $1 packets of sprinkles and you can always find some cute things at Home Goods.
I put together this cute grazing board for a play date: vanilla cupcakes, sugar cookies, M&M’s in Valentine colors, cinnamon hearts, gummy hearts and Starburst jelly bean hearts. Let’s not forget The Happy Chocolatier in the mix with their cubze – the fun messages inside just make me smile.
For play dates, I sometimes like to have one structured activity and then have some free time to play. My go to is decorating cookies. The kids could really care less what the cookies taste like, so if I’m in a rush, I just pick up a roll of cookies from the market and cut them out in fun shapes. I buy the frosting from a jar and divide them up into little cups to keep things from getting too messy. My secret trick is doing everything on either baking sheets or disposable aluminum plans (which work well because the kids can just take these home afterwards). I give each child a set of their own sprinkles – I put them in egg containers that I cut in half. It has been a hit at every play date!
One of my other favorite activities that we did this month was decorate mailboxes. My kids like to play “post office” all year round. I picked up these cute mailboxes at Target for $1. (Full disclosure, I made this one as a sample) The kids decorated them with stickers and fun washi tape. They had a great time writing each other letters and “delivering them” to friends.
Put together this cute little plate last minute. A strawberry shortcake from Whole Foods, Linzer cookies from the Whole Foods bulk cookie bin, those cute vanilla and chocolate hearts are from Whole Foods too (sensing a pattern here?) Chocolate cubze from The Happy Chocolatier, and assorted heart candy from Priscilla Candy Shop in Concord (which by the way had some really good prices on candy).
I have a few rules in my house, one of them being, we NEVER do glitter. Let’s save that for school and let the teachers clean that up 🙂 But I kind of allowed it for this project. My kids had a BLAST making them. We started off with some self seal laminating sheets. We peeled back half of the sheet and put on our glitter directly to the sticky side – you can use glitter, or in this case, we tried out confetti. When we were done, we peeled off the second half of the paper and folded it over the confetti, making a 5×7 sheet. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect – ours had wrinkles in them! For the hearts, take two pieces of construction paper and fold in half. Cut out large hear and a smaller on inside. We taped the laminated confetti sheet to one side of the heart and then glued the other heart on top of it We left some of the hearts plain, but you could certainly embellish the construction paper with markers, stickers or washi tape. Punch a hole and add some string/ribbon and you have a fun Valentine you can hang in the window! Another idea, if you really can’t stand the idea of using glitter or confetti is tissue paper – find some cute heart paper or some pink striped paper and cut into thin strips! You can make this any time of year just by changing the heart into a circle or any other fun shape.
What are your favorite things to do for Valentine’s Day with your kids?
Tags: candy, cookies, crafts, grazing board, holiday, kids, short cuts, valentines day
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February 6, 2020 The Neighborhood Holiday Party
Every year our neighborhood has an adults only holiday party. This year, we ended up hosting. Hosts provide the main dish and everyone else brings appetizers, sides and desserts potluck style. So what was on the menu? A 20lb whole turkey, a 5lb roast that we did in the Instant Pot and 10lbs of flank steak done on the grill outside. Pretty daunting for me since I’ve a) never cooked a turkey before and b) this was my first time using an Instant Pot.
This was my first time using my new oven and the turkey (which Leah (and her mom) helped me prep via FaceTime)) ended up taking a lot LESS time than it should have…ummm when have you EVER heard of a turkey taking less time?!!? NEVER! So sheer panic ensued and we had to ask a neighbor (read: good cook) to come over and help determine its actual readiness.
People brought their own beverages, but we set out a fun little bar. Hint water and Italian sodas, a few signature drinks – like the Dark and Stormy, and a mimosa bar with peach, orange and strawberry mixers.
Always important to have some non alcoholic beverages – and how cute are these sparkling grape juice options from Welch’s?
HUGE shout out to Whole Foods butcher department who walked me through cooking this beautiful winter warmer roast. The Instant Pot was a little intimidating at first, and I probably should have done a test run, but we were having party after party in December, and there just wasn’t any time.
We had some long tables set up for people who wanted to sit and eat dinner. I always like to have some sweet treats on the table – how cute are these little Lindt Snowmen?
Lindt also has these adorable seasonal truffles.
I love amaretti cookies during the holidays. They are beautifully wrapped and when the party is over I love crumbling them up and putting on things like mashed sweet potatoes or a bowl of ice cream. Not familiar with amaretti cookies? They are delicious Italian almond flavored cookies that are light and crunchy.
And how beautiful are these cookies by Bake?
Does your neighborhood have any fun traditions? Cookie Swaps, Yankee Swap, holiday parties, summer BBQ’s?
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