C is for Cookie

Today we had a little fun with letters ... a little yummy fun!

It would be one thing to just hand the kids some markers and put them to work practicing their letters. But wouldn't it be just a bit more fun if it involved cookies???

Yes, I couldn't agree more.

So, we copied the instructions given at Bake at 350, and we gave it a go at our house. Our results were not quite so elegant as hers, but what can you do?

(Um, eat them up? Yes, eat them up, yum!)
(he's concentrating, really, despite the appearance of being bored senseless)

Then use the letters (cookies) to spell out little words like:

and:

And I didn't have to worry about the mess we created ... I had some very happy helpers when it was time to clean up!

You Gotta Fight, For Your Right, To PAAARRRR-TAY!!!

Thank you Beastie Boys for providing my life's mantra ...

well, maybe not my whole life's mantra,

but there are moments when it is time to Party,

and sometimes I do have to fight for my right to throw a party.

Perhaps I could have warned my husband about this obsession before we were married, but I think some surprises are a good thing.

And the fact of the matter is, I Love Parties.

So, as a sort of a compromise, the tradition in our home is that

the Big "4" is the start of the friend birthday parties!!!

Remember who turned 4 this week?

Oh, yeah ... it's his turn!

Let's Hear for The Boy!

We tried something new this year ... have the party at the park!

(A little FYI ... fabulous!)

The King, The Boy and I set up the party

while Bert picked up the girls from school.

He was such a good little helper, "organizing" the safety sabers for me.

And The Boy had to test everything out just a little before his friends arrived.

Once they were all there and suited up in the Jedi training gear,

(okay, I realize I mixed up the colors, they should have had a white vest

and a tan tie ... blah blah blah ... details ...)

Bert taught them the "art" of saber combat and they all got a turn with him.

The Boy had the last and the longest turn of them all,

he really liked pounding on his Daddy.

We popped bubbles with the sabers ...

... I love the happy faces in this photo,

they might have been having a little fun.

We played "Master, Master, Jedi" with the sabers, too.

There was also a little balloon game, too,

but the wind kind of put a quick end to that one.

Then we sent our young Jedis on a little obstacle course,

this was the youngest Jedi in training that day

... isn't he so darling???

(and thanks to all the moms who stuck around and helped -

BIG, BIG thanks)

At the end of the course, there was a special surprise waiting for each guest!

The Boy's VERY COOL nephew dressed up as Darth Vader and each kid was able to personally defeat Vader! I hope he doesn't have too many bumps and bruises from his work today. The kids loved it! (well, most of the kids loved it)

After we defeated Vader, it was time to destroy the Death Star ...

We finally got Vader to come to the good side and take a whack at it himself

... he did pretty good!

With peace once again established in the universe,

it was time for a little celebration.

We lit the candles, sang happy birthday and

the wind blew out the candles,

but we still had The Boy pretend to blow them out,

he made it seem mostly authentic.

(although it is pretty obvious by the size of his dimples

that he thought it was a pretty silly thing to have to do)

So, the party was over, the balloons got away and floated away into the sky

and The King sat back and enjoyed some pizza!

It was a good day!

Many, many thanks to all the party websites for the ideas I found and used for this event!

Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you.

You feed my addiction and make parties work on my budget!

Bless you!

Sundae, Bunny Sundae

I have been so busy documenting our trip to Arizona, that I haven't even made it to Easter. So, here is all of our Easter fun in one easy, sweet, little post ... Enjoy!

So, here is a quick shot of the kids on Easter morning, I took it while they were still fresh and clean, my how that changes as the day goes on.

Later that day we tried to get an outdoor shot on the lawn with their easter baskets ... you can see The King was not very happy about that. But, if you look closely you can see our little Hyacinths poking out ... they are my favorites ... I am so glad they are here!

We ended up stopping at a neighbor's house that evening, they are moving and we wanted to say goodbye. The kids were so excited to see a real rabbit on Easter and The King even seemed to be influenced by the bunny ...



... and he has started crawling this week! Wahoo!

Did you want to see him crawl? Of course you did, just click play:




Monday we had a little Easter Egg hunt with the cousins ... Grandma G set it up at her parents' property. I don't know how much longer the property will be in the family, so it was so good to let the kids go up there and play.

I can't believe The King let me put these on him ... cute, eh?

Thing 2 scored some serious eggs.

Thing 1 loved her frog!

And The Boy was all over that Spiderman kite ... so we were off to the field to fly!

We were lucky to have some good little gusts of wind and The Boy got his kite flying ... he was so excited!

Thing 2 had her kite flying very well, but I never did get a good photo of it ... darn!

And Thing 1 was all over the field with her kite, she kept getting into crashes with other kites ... her kite ended up being a total loss by the end of the event.

That's how it goes!

I am sure we pick up a few more kites soon, it's pretty cheap entertainment, doesn't get much better than that.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter, we sure did.

I am going to start with what I think will be a new tradition for us: Bunny Sundaes. These were so well received that they were devoured almost immediately upon being served. I think since I now bribe my children with ice cream on Sunday, we might have to make Bunny Sundaes often. (And with all that fresh fruit you can't feel too guilty about it, right???)

I Could Write a Sonnet about your Easter Bonnet ...

... however, since it is made out of these, I think I'll just eat it instead!

Oh Yeah!

Somewhere in the big old world wide web, I came across the idea of making Easter bonnet cookies using peanut butter cups.

However, since I have never seen a BROWN easter bonnet,

(the example I saw had brown bonnets

... love chocolate, but still ...),

here's my attempt at a lighter, more dainty little bonnet.

Key word here: attempt ;)

I turned to my old friend, Bark Coating and I gave it a little yellow tint.

Then I covered the peanut butter cups in the melted coating.

If you use toothpicks, put the pick in at an angle,

as that makes it soooo much easier to remove onto waxed paper.

And FYI: This step needs to be quick, or else the chocolate will start to melt.

I even put the peanut butter cups in the freezer before using them,

just to be on the safe side.

So, in, then out, and onto wax paper to set.

Now, you will need a cookie to use as a base

and plenty of frosting, pink and blue and yellow worked for me.

(You can use store bought cookies,

I have a cheaters example at the end of this post using

store bought cookies and I really liked it!)

Here's a little action shot of our messy work area.


To assemble, I put a huge gob of frosting on the bottom of the peanut butter cup and then placed it on the cookie. The frosting would ooze out just enough to create a "ribbon" looking edge around the hat.

Then I added flowers, lots of flowers!




And pretty soon we had ourselves a bit of an Easter Parade.



Bonnets were all over the place!



The kids wanted in on the action, so I handed over the frosting and put them to work.



Thing 1 did pretty good!



The Boy made a work of art!




Thing 2 had some cute bonnets, but she ate one right away!

And The King wondered where his cookie was!
Too bad buddy, maybe next year!




Okay, now as mentioned, I have a few Cheater versions ... YAY!



Cheater #1

Just use a store bought cookie - I loved the scalloped edge -
very dainty!







Cheater #2

Don't dip the Reeses, just take advantage of the pretty pastel colored foil wrappers the peanut butter cups come in for Easter.

Finally ... The Ultimate Cheater:

Store bought cookie AND no dipping ... couldn't be much easier than that and they are still quite lovely, I think!

I'll be watching for your Easter treat,

I always love fun ideas!