Here’s an easy Valentine’s Day cupcake idea, courtesy of your local grocery store candy aisle. While I was grocery shopping the other day I browsed the candy aisle for some cute Valentine’s Day candy I could use as cupcake toppers.
I found these really cute heart shaped lollipops, so when I got home my son and I made these pink cupcakes with the red heart lollipops stuck in the top. I cut the sticks two different lengths so one could stick out from behind the other.
My son wasn’t wild about the pink, so we made a few with …read more

By the time I was 9, I could whip up a mean batch of chocolate chip cookies. I go in spurts getting my kids in the kitchen and teaching them how to cook. I have a friend who happens to write a great baking blog who is very good at getting her kids in the kitchen. In fact, I think they can probably cook better than me.
My goal this Thanksgiving was to have my kids help. I had 3 pies to make (chocolate, pecan and pumpkin) and a batch of turkey cookies. That was one pie for each …read more

The kids and I made a couple of the recipes from the Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook I wrote about last month. I thought I’d share a few of the photos out here of our baking day!
We started off with the Creamy Berry Cups. The recipe called for mini-phyllo cups. I didn’t see those at the grocery, and so thought I could just whip a few up from frozen phyllo dough (which I had never used before and next time I should ask one of you for your opinion and you can tell me how …read more

It’s popsicle season! I picked up these popsicle molds a few weeks ago, and we filled them with a little grape kool-aid, froze them, invited a few friends over and shared a treat! What I like about the homemade popsicles is that you can determine how much sugar is actually in them. If you make the Kool-Aid yourself, you can put less sugar in the mix than is recommended, it’s still plenty sweet and a fun treat for the kids! They also have a great time helping to make them, though then all you hear for …read more

I was really excited to find the Better Homes and Gardens: New Junior Cook Book while walking around Barnes and Noble the other day. I like glancing through cookbooks for fun and inspiration, and I’m always interested to see what they feature in the ones that are designed for kids. As I’ve said before, I think cookbooks should have photos of the goal for the appearance of the finished product. I know it helps me when I’m cooking.
So, it was exciting to see that this book was definitely designed for kids in all of the cartoon-type illustrations …read more

An early Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mommies out there! I know that for me, the ideal way to honor me for Mother’s Day would be allowing me to sleep in as late as humanly possible, followed maybe by a pedicure, and dinner by myself with a book (only time for dinner when you sleep until about 4 in the afternoon ).
However, I thought it would also be fun to throw out some ideas of events to do with those little people who make it possible for us to bear the illustrious title of “Mom”, …read more

Randa of Free Stuff 4 Kids asked about the recipe that I used for the alphabet/shapes/blob pretzels, so I thought I’d share a couple of them out here for all of you. (Thanks for your patience, Randa!)
First off, though, I forgot to mention the first time that the idea for the alphabet pretzels came from a Zoom booklet that my daughter received months ago in her Chick-fil-a Kid’s Meal. As is often the case in our home, it’s just a short time after the cooking day, and I no longer have a clue as to what happened to …read more

The kids and I took some time out today to make pretzels. Not just any pretzels, oh no. We did some very special letter shaped pretzels. The plan was an entire pretzel alphabet. Oh yeah.
Well, we didn’t quite get the whole alphabet, but we did get a few letters in there, as well as some squares, hearts, and other shapes. The main goal, though, of having a bit of fun and learning away from our regular curriculum was accomplished.
The kids love to help mommy in the kitchen, so I try to remember to plan …read more

A couple of weeks ago, Kate at Babylune issued an “Eating the Alphabet” challenge, and my family and I took her up on it, kinda. I’m not known for my excellent follow-through, but it was fun to attempt this challenge with the kids.
We started out by writing the alphabet, and then drawing pictures of all of the fruits and veggies we could think of with those letters. We never did come up with anything for Q or X, but I was impressed by how good the pictures of the watermelon and kiwi turned out. …read more

Kate must’ve known that I waited a day to go to the grocery, and that I’ve been thinking that I really must do a better job of bringing healthier foods into the house. Over at Babylune, she’s presented an eating the alphabet challenge. I’ll be joining her, in part because my hindquarters could use the help.
What does this have to do with our usual toys, games, books and fun stuff to do theme here? Well, we all know that food is fun, right? Even kids know to ask what we’re eating everytime there’s …read more