Blog Break

Since it's been a busy bloggy month, I've decided to take a few days off from posting.   Also, I left my camera at my mom's house, so I don't have access to any pics from the last week :)   Have a Happy New Year!!!

A Santa Playdate

We had a super fun playdate on Sunday with cousins that we rarely see.  E(3) and I worked hard to make goodies for the playdate, and most of them were edible.

We made a rice crispy treat gingerbread man and Christmas tree.  The kids loved the twizzlers, but didn't eat much of the rice crispy treat.




We made cinnamon and sugar pretzels.

We made a brownie gingerbread man that actually turned out to be more brick than brownie.  The kids thought it was funny that they could pick him up out of the pan by his foot.  Eventually, someone sawed off pieces for the kids to eat, and I was glad that none of their teeth came out while they ate it.


My mom made reindeer food (recipe coming in a later post), and it was deeeeelicious!


She also made her famous forgotten cookies.


The 6 and older kiddos had a wonderful time playing in the treehouse while the 5 and under crowd played on the trampoline.

I'm not a big fan of trampolines, especially ones without nets, so I was glad that I had candy cane playdough to lure the little kiddos inside to play.



After playing with playdough, they had fun making foam gingerbread boy/girl ornaments (craft kits from Dollar General).


The highlight of the afternoon was a visit from Santa Claus!  (the girls are lucky that their Grandpa is one of Santa's helpers!)
Here are Santa and my mom!


Santa and the girls


The kids ran off to play after taking pictures with Santa, so I called them back to thank him.  O(6) sang him a song, and E(3) did a little dance for him.

What a wonderful, fun afternoon!  Thanks to everyone who made it a success!!!

Cinnamon and Sugar Pretzels

E(3) and I had fun baking together last weekend (O was busy listening to an audio book and organizing her room and wasn't interested in joining us). 

First, we made cinnamon and sugar pretzels.  E(3) LOVED unwrapping the butter, placing it in the bowl, and chopping it up (one of the 2 things on her Christmas wish list was butter...the girl LOVES butter!). 


After melting the butter in the microwave, she mixed in a teaspoon of cinnamon and a half cup of brown sugar.  She stirred in about 16 ounces of pretzels to coat them.
We baked the pretzels at 350 for 30 minutes.  I stirred them every 10 minutes. 


This simple and yummy recipe came from a fellow homeschooling mama!
After we made the cinnamon and sugar pretzels, we made Christmas rice crispy treats!  The girls always love making rice crispy treats, especially since I let them lick (gnaw on) the spoon when we're done!

A "Humongo" Sugar Cookie & A Gingerbread Cottage Playdate

The girls had fun mixing up sugar cookie dough and pressing it into this Christmas tree pan to make a "humongo" cookie for a gingerbread house decorating playdate last week!

They decorated it with sprinkles before we baked it.


The plan was for the kids to decorate the tree with icing (using the squeeze bottles from E's bday party) before eating it, but the icing would NOT come out of the bottles!  Eventually, we gave up on the squeeze bottles, and E(3) spread the icing using a butter knife.


The kiddos had fun building and decorating their gingerbread houses (even though the houses collapsed at least 3 times each before finally staying together!).

Christmas Tree and Gingerbread Boy Baked Pancakes

My mom made baked pancakes for the girls last week, and they were delicious.  She made a gingerbread boy and a Christmas tree, and the Christmas tree was the most popular (it had sprinkles!).


Each girl chose a cookie cutter and cut her own pancake pieces from the large pancake. 


SO much fun and delicious!