Cake Mix and Pudding Cookies

Posted By:  Stephanie

These cookies are so good and soft!  I know some people love a crunchy cookie but I am all for a nice and soft one.  I've never had a recipe that gave me that perfect fluffy cookie until now.  A friend made these, told me how to make them and I couldn't wait to try it out myself.

All you have to do is follow the instructions on any cake mix, minus one egg that it calls for and add one pudding.  It's that easy!  Oh and of course they wouldn't be the same without being topped with frosting!  The only trick to making these fluffy and not into flat pancakes (I did that once) is to make sure that your eggs are at room temperature.  The pudding should already be at room temperature because it is not the pudding that comes in the refrigeration section at the store, you will find it near the cake mix in the warm aisle.  I'm sure there is a better term for that but I'm not sure what it is.  = )  

Now that the weekend is here you should run to the store and give it a try.  As with any baking adventure in our house Little Lou got involved and loved it.  She likes when we use the hand mixer and before we turn it on she gets excited and yells, "I want to make noise!"  I sure do love that girl!

Have you made cookies from cake mix?  If your recipe is different please share.

Little Girl Gift Idea

Posted By:  Stephanie

I love these little feet!  They belong to my sweet 2 year old Little Lou.  She LOVES to have her toes painted and feels so special every time she looks at her feet.  Her friend was having a birthday party who is turning 5 on Tuesday and when thinking about what to get for her we decided to get her a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure.  It's always fun to get someone a gift that is a little different then they would normally get, and what 5 year old gets manicures and pedicure gift certificates?  I don't know many, that's for sure!  I just I would share this gift idea and also tell you that if you do get a gift certificate for a little one in your life, check with them, a lot of times they have a cheaper price for children under 12.  We were able to purchase a manicure and pedicure for $30!  She is a special girl and we were so happy to celebrate her birthday with her.

What are some gifts that you give kids that might be a little out of the ordinary?  We would love some great gift ideas!

Hand and Foot Print Wall Art

Posted By:  Stephanie

WARNING:  Throughout this post you will see that she looks miserable.  For the record she made lots of funny faces but never cried. = )

As you may remember we are going to be working on Lou's big girl room and I have slowly been accumulating a few things for the room once it's done.  On this random night I decided it was craft time and we needed to make a little something for her room.

She's ready!

We picked two colors that will match the bedding in her room.

Purple for her hands and pink for her feet.

She liked seeing her hand prints on the canvas.

See, looks like she is crying but I assure you, she was not.

I was having fun with this as you can tell haha!

The finished product.  

We used a very thin canvas that we will either just hang on the wall or frame.  I haven't decided yet.  I'll make sure you see it when it's in the room.  Lou's favorite part of this project was washing her feet in the sink.  My favorite part is having something that she will be able to keep for years and eventually show her kids some day.

Toddler Tuesday - Keep the Balloon off the Ground and Mommy Moment

Posted By:  Stephanie

Hello and happy Tuesday!

I'm sure many of you have played this game some time in your life but this is also a great game to play with your toddler!  You can use one balloon or tie a few balloons together and play the same way.  Basically the only real rule is to keep the balloon from touching the ground.  This is a great game to play inside on cold days because the balloon wont hurt a thing and it will keep them busy while getting energy out at the same time.  I personally think this mindless game is super fun!

*PLEASE NOTE - Deflated balloons are a serious choking hazard that can cause permanent damage to any living thing that can swallow.*

Have you played this game with your toddler?

___________________________________________

Mommy Moment:

Yesterday while Lou was taking a bath she got up onto her knees and started pushing.  Once she sat down a log floated to the top of the water.  I grabbed it out with my bare hand and asked her "Did you do this?"  She responded "Neow" (her word for no) Me "Hmm, I think you did."  I put the poo in the toilet, washed my hands and got her out of the bath.

Thoughts on this:

I NEVER thought that I would willingly pick up poo and not even get grossed out about it.  I mean, there is NO way I would have done that in the past and I can't say I would do that for another child either.  I guess you know you are a mom when you do what you gotta do, even when that means picking up poo with your bare hand without thinking twice.

Have you had a similar poo experience?

Toddler Tuesday - Build a Fort

Posted By:  Stephanie

Good morning!  I normally would have already posted by now but I couldn't sign on last night and then today we have been loosing our electricity on and off all morning which has made it very hard to get on the Internet.  Oh well, HERE I AM!

Today is Toddler Tuesday and I have an activity that is fun for both kids and adults, or at least Will and I think it is fun.  Some of you have mentioned that you live in nice sunny states where you don't have rain often (not the case here) but when you do get rain you aren't sure what activities to do with your kids.  Here is a great idea for you...make a fort!

I was selling my fabric gift bags at a bazaar this last weekend and when I came home I found that Will and Little Lou had made this fort.  I know, you can hardly see it with the camo blanket on top. ; )

They made this one with a bunch of chairs and then they put pillows inside so they could get comfy and read books in the fort.  As you can see it was hard to take pictures of Lou, she was all over the place LOVING IT!

Will wanted me to make sure I mentioned that if you make a fort under a table you should put chairs together in front of it to make a hallway kind of thing with a blanket over it as an entry to the fort.  He says that is was his favorite when he was little because he would pretend he was in an igloo.  I just love that guy.

Kristi and I used to make forts too, there's just something fun about getting into your own little space you built.

Did you make forts when you were little?  What was your favorite kind?  Under a table, chairs, something else?  Please share your ideas and the memories you have from when you were little, or what you've done with your kids.

PS Yes, we have already decorated for Christmas, I'll be sharing about that another day.

Toddler Tuesday - Baking

Posted By:  Stephanie

Baking is a great activity to do with your toddler.  Although you can't see from the picture below she was helping me by holding the mixer, she liked how fast it was moving.  Not only is this a fun activity but your child is learning at the same time.

If you have a toddler/child that likes to get involved even more, you can have them help measure what needs to go into what you are baking and dump all the ingredients into the bowl.

We made both cupcakes and a small cake.  She was offered a try of our finished product but didn't want any.  Works for me, I would rather her not eat sweets but there's no way I would have her help me then not offer at least a bite.

= )

(Maybe some day I'll be good at frosting.

This was my first time so I'm going to let me skills slide a bit.

I hope you will too.)

Now for the recipe tip I found on Babblings and More.

When baking a cake or cupcakes from a box substitute mayonnaise for the oil, add a tsp of baking powder and 1-2 tsp of vanilla extract, the more the better!  We made lemon so we used 1 tsp lemon extract and 1 tsp vanilla extract.  Make sure you take it out of the oven when it is still a little spongy.  This makes for some super moist and yummy cupcakes and cakes!

Do you have a trick for making especially good boxed cupcakes/cakes?

Toddler Tuesday - Playing in Water

Posted By:  Stephanie

Happy Tuesday!  I hope your week has started off as a good one.  Can you believe we are SO close to the holidays?  I can't, this year went all to fast.

Yesterday I decided to take an idea that I found on Every Day Game Plan and put it into action with my girl.

First I got the largest bowl we have and put warm water in it with some dish soap.  I made it bubbly and then gave Little Lou her favorite kitchen items to play in the water.

Here she is checking out the bubbles.

She wasn't really sure about the bubbles so I tried to show her they weren't so bad by playing in the bubbles first.

That didn't work out so well.  Her favorite kitchen items ended up out of the bowl because...

she thought the bubbles were NOT COOL!

So I dumped out the bubbles and gave her some fresh water to work with.  She went for it.  At one point she was even trying to put her face in the bowl and rub water all over her face, silly girl.  Let me show you how much she enjoyed this activity...

THIS MUCH!

I don't know about most kids, but I really thought she would enjoy playing in the bubbles.  Oh well, she loved this activity anyway without them.  After playing in the water for a long time, I needed to get other things done but she didn't agree with being "all done", so I dumped out the water, dried the bowl and turned it over to let her bang on it and make noise instead.  She was okay with that.

Now go get a bowl out momma, your little one(s) wants to play in the water!

What other ideas do you have for water activities?

Toddler Tuesday - Dress Up

Posted By:  Stephanie

Good morning!  Did you all survive the night with the trick or treating/treaters visiting your home?  We had a good time visiting family and Lou got some fun treats from Gramma and Auntie, lucky girl!  I was trying to get her to say "treat" on the way to see Gramma, instead she looked out the car window and started saying and pointing to the trees.  She cracks me up all. the. time!

Little Lou was a Ballerina, I was Will (this is what we call his uniform, the hat and the red shirt are his go to pieces) and he was a Navy guy.

Little Lou loved her costume, she walked around the house saying "Pretty"!  This got me thinking, about Toddler Tuesday.  Most times we put away the costumes to use the next year for another kid, instead why not keep it out and let them play dress up until the costume doesn't fit anymore?  It makes the kiddos happy and you will get much more use out of it.

If you haven't already, you should start a dress up box for your little one.  Our girl is just getting to the point where she is thinking it is fun to wear certain clothing items so we will get her collection started.  Dress up is fun for both boys and girls.

I remember going over to a friends house when I was little and they had a huge chest FULL of dress up clothes.  All 5 kids in that family would dress up all the time and when I went to their house I was happy to get in on the fun.  My favorite dress up item at our house was my flapper dress.  I loved putting that thing on a shaking around the house watching the tassels flap around.

Did you play dress up when you were little?  What was your favorite thing to dress up in?

Hand Print Spider in Web

Posted By:  Stephanie

Hello!  I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, we sure are!  Today we went to our cousin's 4th birthday party which was also a costume party for the kids, and us adults joined in too.  My cousin Lora, birthday boys mom, came up with this fun hand print spider for the kids to do.  Little Lou wasn't into getting her hands dirty but we made one anyway, I wanted one to take home and I wanted her to go through the steps so I could show all of you!  Do you need a last minute craft for kids this Halloween weekend?  This is the one for you!

Lora drew a spider web on white paper and copied them so that she would have enough for everyone.  Next, she cut them out and pasted them onto a black piece of paper for background and to make it sturdy.

This stamp pad was perfect for this craft, I will be looking for this in more colors for other projects I'll do with my girl.  It washed off SO easy!

Push hand into stamp pad, you might also want to rub it around.  This part she wasn't a big fan of.

Make hand print going one direction on the web.

I should have made sure there was a little more ink on her hand but it did look a little darker in person.

Do the same thing with the other hand.

It will look a little something like this.

Now you get to make cute little face for this spider.  Lora cut out foam with sticky backing that you can find at most craft stores.  Here I am putting on the eyeballs for the spider.

Lou's spider doesn't have a nose, but you can do whatever you want with your spider.

Take off the backing,

and place it in the middle of the spider.

Punch holes and put ribbon through to hand it.  This one was made by my cousin Angie.

Here is Little Lou's!

Out of the 15 or so kids that were there only our girl and one other one didn't like getting their hands dirty, all the other kids LOVED it and wanted to make more than one.

Thank you Lora for a great day and for the craft we got to do and take home!

Toothbrush Bracelet

Posted By: Kristi




It feels like forever since I had a project to share. Finally, I had time for some crafting! When Steph and I were little we used to make toothbrush bracelets. I remember making a TON of them. We once even sold them at a craft bazaar and had a lot of fun doing it. I haven't heard of anyone making these in a long time but for some reason the memory of making them came to me the other day and I thought making one sounded like fun. I took some pictures as I went so that if you wanted, you could give it a try too.

You will need to buy some toothbrushes, one toothbrush per bracelet that you want to make.

These are really fun to make with the little kid toothbrushes that have characters on them or are all sparkly. Unfortunately, the store I was at when I bought them didn't carry those.

Using needle nose pliers, remove the bristles from the toothbrush. Another bummer, I couldn't find mine so I used the next best thing. The nice thing about projects is that if you don't have a tool or supply you need you can often supplement it for something else.

Place your bristle free toothbrush in a pot full of boiling water. After about five minutes remove your toothbrush from the water with tongs. 

Place your toothbrush in a towel and bend it into a bracelet shape with your hands. Don't touch it, it will be HOT!

Once you get it to shape the way you like it place it in cold water for a few minutes to harden completely.

Remove it from the water and put it on. 

This site has some awesome toothbrushes that would look amazing around the wrist.

This could be a fun gift for your dentist during the holidays. You could wrap it up in a cute see through bag with a thank you card. A nice gesture and quick and easy to make!

Sorry for the poor picture quality. Steph and I must have the worst camera luck. Mine just broke! = (