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Leaf Printed Autumn Banner

These gorgeous leaves will last long after the last trees are bare!

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Invitations, goodie bags, treat toppers, decorations and more!

Reese's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

This can't be beat dessert is worth raiding your kiddo's candy stash!

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Monday, April 27, 2009

Muffin Tin Monday


Today was our first attempt at a themed Muffin Tin Monday, and this week's theme was "Under the Sea." We had a hot dog octupus, blue "ocean" yogurt with fish graham crackers, "sea cucumbers" with ranch, an apple and bologna sailboat, starfish shaped cheese, and a string cheese jellyfish. The biggest hits were both of the shaped cheeses!

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Banana Bundt Cake



After a big shopping trip to Costco we always seem to end up with a few extra bananas that don't get eaten quickly enough before they start to become overripe, so tonight I decided to try a new recipe for banana cake. I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com and then tweaked it to suit our tastes and ingredients we had on-hand. This cake is lighter and less dense than a traditional banana bread, and it is delicious finished with powdered sugar or vanilla frosting. The recipe is sized perfectly for bundt pans and Nordicware pans. The cake is moist and delicious, especially sliced while it's still warm!


BANANA BUNDT CAKE

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 c. butter
1 c. granulated sugar
¼ c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
4 mashed ripe bananas
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 c. vanilla yogurt
¾ c. chopped walnuts (optional)
confectioners’ sugar or frosting for topping


DIRECTIONS:

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Add bananas and mix well.

In a second bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with vanilla yogurt, stirring just until combined. Stir in walnuts if desired.

Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar or drizzle with vanilla or cream cheese frosting before serving. Yum!



This little guy snuck out of bed at 9:30 because he knew Mommy would be frosting the cake, and he just had to help (taste test the frosting, that is!)



I bet this cake would be fantastic with only a light sprinkling of powdered sugar...but since my 3-year-old was helping me with ours, it was served under a delicious lake of vanilla frosting. :)

Friday, April 3, 2009

Dollar Store Project: Birds Nest Wreath



We needed some more springtime decorations around this place, so I came up with this quick craft for my boys to make. Everything for this project came from the Dollar Tree, which is my new favorite place for coming up with inventive craft ideas. It was fast, easy, and the grand total for two wreaths was a whopping $4 (and we still have half a bag of moss left!).


Here's what you need to get started...


Wreath forms (these come in three or four different sizes, all for $1 - the ones we used were the smallest ones), a 2-pack of birds, a bag of moss (we ended up only using 1/2 a bag total), a glue gun, some white glue, and a bag of miscellaneous twigs, leaves, etc. that we collected at the park



Start by spreading a generous amount of white glue on to your wreath.



We used the small tubes of Elmer's School Glue, and the boys managed to squeeze every last drop from the tube.



Grab a handful of your moss and start sticking it to the glue, making sure you press hard to get it all to stick. This is the part where I should mention that it would be in your best interest to put down newpaper or whatnot under your work area. Clearly, I learned this the hard way when I had to scrape up glued-on moss off of my glass table.



The kids loved squeezing and spreading around the white glue, but in the end I had to go back and reattach some of the moss with the glue gun.



Time to add the fun stuff! We broke down our large sticks into smaller pieces, and then we got out the hot glue gun. I had Sawyer hand me whichever stick he wanted to use, and then I applied the glue and placed it where he wanted it. If it was a really big stick and he was insistant upon doing it himself, I would put a dab of glue in the middle and let him glue it down himself, making sure he was only holding on to the ends of the stick. I just don't trust my kids with hot glue lol



When you're all finished with the sticks and leaves, use hot glue to attach your little bird.



Sutton & Sawyer's finished wreaths adding some Springtime cheer to our house :)