High Five for Friday

Hi! Today I'm linking up Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week. Honestly, I've had a pretty terrible week so it's nice to go back and think about the stuff that made me smile this week.

1) Last weekend was gorgeous! I went for walks that I desperately needed. Grant & I played outside a lot and took bike rides. It was such perfect weather.

Grant was ecstatic when he got to ride through the puddles!

2) On Saturday we went to our first outdoor movie! A couple parks around do this from time to time and we never get to go. This time they were showing Planes Fire & Rescue - one of Grant's favorites! So I popped an obscene amount of popcorn, packed a cooler, some chairs, and we enjoyed a fun family movie night at the park.

We ate popcorn for days!

Waiting for the movie to start

Hooray!

3) On Sunday we made wind cars from the mini crate I ordered from Kiwi Crate. It was so much fun for both of us. We had races in the kitchen by blowing on them and we were both laughing so hard! I've decided to try out a regular subscription just to see if we like it.

I did have to help but he got to do a lot too. It was
a great activity to do together.

He loved how they worked!

4) I sent a tray of goodies to school for the staff as a thank you for Teacher Appreciation Week. I hope they enjoyed them, they definitely deserve them!

Caramel snickerdoole bars, twix chocolate chip cookies,
and some personalized Hershey kisses.

5) I love Grant's artwork, especially now that he's drawing things that are recognizable. My favorites ever so far is his first picture of me (I look like an orange on two toothpicks) and the family picture he drew for us (we all look like oranges on toothpicks). This week he brought home my third favorite. A brachiosaurus being struck by lightning while eating a leaf (he also told Husband that there is lava but you can't see it because it's far far away but it made the lightning).

6) Last night I finished up a cake for the daughter of friend. She's worked really hard to become a nurse practitioner and I'm so glad I was able to make this cake for her party tonight. Congrats to her!

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Hi there! Today I'm linking up Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) Last Saturday for dinner we did a picnic in the park. I love doing this because Grant gets so excited about it even though it's a super simple dinner (he got to help make brownies for dessert so the excitement started there). After checking the weather all week and being assured of no rain...it rained. We manage to finish our meal before it really started and since it wasn't raining at home, we had dessert there and played some frisbee in the yard.

Part of the reason he loves picnics is because he gets to have a sprite.

Making friends with crickets in the yard

2) Also over the weekend, we made pine cone bird feeders! Grant loved the project and the kept checking to see if birds were eating from them. They didn't that day but one morning this week we did get to see a big cardinal having some breakfast. Then that same day one disappeared (squirrel theft?) and now they're both gone. But it was so fun to do together and seeing Grant's reaction to the cardinal using them. The day he & Husband discovered the missing one, Grant said to me "Mama. I have bad news. Bad news is when you have to tell someone something that isn't good. OK. One of the pine cones is gone!" I love this kid :)

3) One more of weekend fun, Grant got to test his new rain boots. He's been talking about rain boots for at least 6 months and the Easter Bunny granted his wish. We got a lot of rain over the weekend and had a huge puddle in the street. FYI: rain boots don't keep your feet dry if you're jumping in the puddle!

4) Crazy hair day at school!

Checking himself out.

5) I sent some "dirt cupcakes" to school for a fun treat! (Recipe HERE)

I love getting pictures from the teachers :)

6) Last night we had a semi-date night. I say semi because it was more for Husband. For his birthday I got him tickets to the Eric Church concert. This is not really my thing but I hope he had a good time. 

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some fun stuff from the past week.

1) Friday night Grant went to my in-laws house for the night while Husband and I enjoyed our Christmas present from my sister. Hockey tickets! They were really great seats and it was, for the most part, a great game...until they lost. Can't win 'em all, right? (Or even most, as this season is turning out).

2) After we picked up Grant Saturday evening, we went out for dinner with my in-laws. And since we were in the neighborhood-ish, we finally took Grant to the new Bass Pro Shop that opened. Husband's thought was that Grant would love their huge fish tank...and he really did...but we ended up spending over an hour in the store because it's actually kind of a fun place. 

Rooooaaaar!

3) I was feeling crafty on Sunday and made a necklace for my sister out one of my Dad's old ties. One of Dad's favorite things was dressing up so when my sister found his old ties for me, I knew I had to make us both something from them. 

Sister's pick of the ties. I think it turned out pretty well!

4) Tuesday evening was gorgeous and I had no plans for dinner. So right after we all got home we went right back out, swung through a drive-thru for a quick dinner and headed to the park. We ate dinner at a picnic table and then turned Grant loose on the playground until it got dark. So much fun! We'll definitely be doing that more.

5) I rarely make dessert to go with our meals. Desserts are typically a special occasion thing but I want to start making a treat to go with dinner every once in a while. It's difficult to do given Grant's dislike for cookies, brownies, cake, ice cream, etc. But the boy loves popsicles and snow cones. I found this on Pinterest ages ago for Jello Shaved Ice and whipped it up for a treat this week. Not only did it turn out as easy as the recipe sounded, it was good too! I say that as someone who absolutely despises Jello with every fiber of my being!

I made this using cherry lemonade flavor Jello. It was
easy that I made a grape one too.

HAPPY FRIDAY!
I hope you all have a great weekend :)

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New Recipe: Red Velvet Peanut Butter Blossoms

I don't think I've seen a Christmas cookie prettier or more Christmasy looking than this one. So naturally, I had to make them when I saw this recipe from i am baker. I made these cookies for our Christmas day get-together and dubbed them "The Prettiest Christmas Cookie Ever". I was a little wary of the red velvet/peanut butter combo. I'm not sure why, it just seemed weird. Guess what? Not weird at all. Quite tasty, in fact. I know this because I was eating them long after they probably should have been thrown out. 

The reason I'm sharing the recipe so long after Christmas is obvious, right? Wouldn't they also make a great Valentine's Day treat? I think so too.

Red Velvet Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:

• 1 bag Hershey's Kisses
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (I use Reese's)
• 1 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring (I used AmeriColor brand)
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch salt
• 1/4 cup red sanding sugar (sugar sprinkles)

Directions:

1. Heat your oven to 375
2. Beat butter, peanut butter, and sugar in a stand mixer for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Turn mixer to low and add in egg, milk, vanilla, and red food coloring (your batter will be a bright red-pink color - don't be alarmed!). Mix for about 30 seconds to incorporate, then turn mixer to medium high and blend until light and fluffy.
3. In a separate bowl mix cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt (original recipe says to sift but I hate sifting and it almost never seems necessary). With mixer on slowly add flour mixture to sugar mixture and beat until just combined (now your batter should be a gorgeous red color!).
4. Remove mixer bowl from stand. Shape dough into 1 inch balls (I used a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop). Pour red sanding sugar onto small plate or bowl. Roll dough ball in sanding sugar and place on prepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
6. While baking unwrap Hershey's Kisses. Once cookies are done baking, remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate Kiss into the center of each cookie. The cookie should crack around edges.
7. Allow cookies to cool to room temperature.

RECIPE SOURCE: i am baker

Notes/Suggestion:

• I was disappointed when I first put in my red food coloring and didn't get that gorgeous perfect red color. I almost added more. But once I added the flour/cocoa mixture it was the perfect red velvet color. So don't get discouraged and don't add more food coloring.
• I can't remember if I greased the cookie sheet or not. Her instructions just say to put them on your "prepared cookie sheet" and since I made these a month ago...I just can't remember. 
• The recipe makes a lot of cookies and they seem to last forever. Seriously, I was eating them a week after I made them and they were still good.

Enjoy!

High Five for Friday

It's November! Which means the state fair is over and my fall season can finally begin! Today I'm linking up with Lauren to share some of the good stuff from my week (and then end of my October).

1) The state fair does fireworks every night of the fair at 9:45, which is way later than Grant's bedtime. But as a treat on Saturday we met for dinner after my shift at the fair was over and then parked near the fairgrounds for Grant's first actual fireworks display. They were much closer than we thought they'd be but that wasn't a problem. Grant loved them! I'm so glad he's not scared of them (my sister was for years...now she just hates clowns) because fireworks are great!

Waiting for the fireworks to start!

Open-mouthed amazement the whole time. Except for the
few minutes that he spent pointing out to us that the fireworks
didn't come from where we first told him to look. Smarty pants.

2) Even though I spent 6 days at the state fair for work, I couldn't let Grant miss it just because I was sick of it. So on Sunday, the last day, we took Grant to the fair. We ate, went on some rides (ok, I was the only one who rode with him), people watched, ate...the usual fair stuff. Grant had a great time and even rode one ride by himself! (That doesn't sound like a big deal but, to me, it is considering it's the fair.)

Riding all by himself!

His souvenir from the fair...love at first sight!

3) Monday I surprised Husband and Grant with some cupcakes after dinner from Sugarland in Cameron Village. They were so good!

I bet you'll never guess which one was for Grant. 

It's possible that I may have stuck his face in it...

4) I didn't have time to carve any of our pumpkins this year, which makes me sad (but I will definitely be harvesting their seeds for roasting - which makes me happy!). However, Grant and I made time to use this Mr. Potato Head Pirate kit that I bought after Halloween last year and have been saving! It wasn't nearly as easy as they lead you to believe, but we got it!

5) Halloween! I baked a Halloweeny cake for my coworkers and last night we took Grant trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. No hesitation this year! He loved every minute of it.

Cake for work - fun!

Trick-or-Treat!

6) BONUS: Did I mention the state fair ended and my schedule is back to normal! Thank goodness it only comes once a year.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

I hope you have a great weekend!

New Recipe: Jell-O Marshmallows (Halloween Version!)

I came across this recipe shortly before the 4th of July, thought it looked easy and decided to give it a try for our cookout. My chocolate-hating-marshmallow-loving sister gave them two thumbs up. My marshmallow-hating husband couldn't keep his hands off them. And the two kids (Grant being one of them) at the cookout kept asking for more. I'd say they were a hit. Bonus: they're really easy.

Except for some water and toothpicks or sticks, those are your ingredients!

Stick your sticks (or toothpicks) into your marshmallows

 Get a little assembly line set up (the marshmallows are
easiest to coat when using a plate for the Jell-O powder)

 Dip your marshmallow in water and then shake off the
excess water (or blot it on a paper towel).



And then roll your damp marshmallow around in the Jell-O powder
and make sure the bottom and sides are completely coated.



Then you put them on a plate and let them set in the fridge
for about an hour. They for a tangy crust because of the
 Jell-O powder that goes nicely with the squishy marshmallow.

Jell-O Marshmallows

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of jumbo marshmallows
• 1-2 boxes of Jell-O (whatever flavors you want!)
• Toothpicks (or lollipop sticks)

Directions:

1. Put toothpicks (or sticks) in all your marshmallows. Make sure to push them all the way down so they'll stay in while you dip. Then arrange them on a large plate or tray.
2. In a bowl of water (deep enough to cover your marshmallow when dipping) dip your marshmallow all the way in. Lightly blot the excess water from your marshmallow then roll the marshmallow in the Jell-O powder.
3. Then put them back on the plate and once they're all coated put them in the fridge for about an hour to get nice and crusty :)
4. Eat 'um!

Recipe Source: The Country Cook

Notes/Suggestions:

• When I made this recipe the first time (using blue & red Jell-O for the 4th) I used toothpicks because there were going to be lots of adults around to help the kids. This Halloween batch was for day care so I thought it might be easier for the teachers if I used lollipop sticks instead.
• I love how adaptable this recipe is to any party theme! And it's such a fun and easy treat.
• Just in case you're curious, this is how the 4th of July version turned out:

 Enjoy!