My girls love coloring pages like these. Even my 10-year-old will color these since they are more ‘grown-up’ than most coloring pages. To print, click here.
I’ve posted this recipe here at New Nostalgia before. It is a favorite of ours. It is a great way to get a chocolate fix and at the same time some wholesome goodness from healthy ingredients. I had these miniature red polka dot paper holders on hand and thought they would be a great holder for our Chocolate Mud Balls. I think they make great little Valentine treats!
The original recipe calls for wheat germ, oatmeal, chocolate chips, sesame seeds, peanut butter, and honey. I was out of sesame seeds, so instead, we threw some homemade granola into my food processor and gave it a whirl. I also didn’t have enough peanut butter on hand, so I added some almond butter. It worked out well, although I do think I should have added a touch more honey for a bit more sweetness.
Peanut butter & honey, melting together. The spoon had some dry ingredients left on it, which is why you see some chocolate chips and lumps in there. 🙂
My youngest is really getting into cooking and baking lately. It has been so much fun to have her in the kitchen with me. She is confident and very independent in her skills, which is really refreshing when it comes to cooking! It was her idea to make a homemade Valentine treat to take to our neighbors, so she got really into this project!
Adding dry ingredients to wet.
It is quite thick…takes some muscle.
No baking! Here is the finished product, rolled and packaged to hand out to our neighbors for
Valentines Day. You can find these containers at the Dollar Tree, 4 for $1.00 for this small size (6×6), and 3 for $1.00 for a round cake pan size. (8×8) I have talked about these pans before, when I used them to package up Christmas Cinnamon Rolls for our neighbors
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We used this fun printed tape to secure the packages. I found it on clearance at Micheal’s for .50 cents. Great deal.
My little one found a heart sticker and wrote a little love note on it.
She had great fun delivering them to our neighbors. It was so fun to see her walk in the snow delivering her gifts. I was really proud that it was her idea and she followed through until it was complete. She is my perfect Lil’ Valentine!
7 Valentines Day Craft Ideas
Egg Carton Heart Art from A Little Hut
I just love this. You could make all kinds of shapes and colors out of these egg cartons. What fun!
Button Heart Valentine’s Day Card from K Werner Design BlogSimple and Beautiful.
Puffy Tissue Heart from KabooseI remember making tissue art as a kid. These are cute, my girls could do this craft without much direction from me. Bonus!
I think this is so elegant. You could use any color felt and a heart-shaped foam form. These white ones would be beautiful to decorate a winter wedding. Red would be great for Christmas. Brown for fall.
Potato Stamp Art from Cafe MomI plan on using the inside of brown paper grocery sacks for this project.
This idea almost seems cruel! It smells like chocolate, looks like chocolate, but you can’t eat it!
I have never seen this craft before. What a great way to package little Valentine treats!
***this post is from last fall. I’ve been busy having fun with my girls on their fall break, too busy to write new posts!!
If you love pumpkin, this post is for you! I am planning on going crazy during the remainder of this fall with the whole pumpkin food theme. I have collected a few recipes that have caught my eye, and now that it is pumpkin eatin’ season, its time to try a few!
Every year when it comes time to carve pumpkins and scoop out all those pumpkin guts, I have great intentions of saving the seeds and making them into some kind of roasted goodness. And every year, my good intentions go right out the window after a long night of carving, and even longer time of cleaning up all those pumpkin guts. This year I am FOR SURE going to do it. I have Old Bay Seasoning sitting in my cupboard, which is what I need to make Maryland Pumpkin Seeds.
*I made these and they were yummy!
This Creamy Pumpkin Pasta recipe is one I am very excited about. Doesn’t that sound so very comforting?
*This pasta is one we will have at least once every fall. I made it and it was creamy goodness..
We are all about pancakes in this house, so Fluffy Light Pumpkin Pancakes are a must try!
*These are everything their name says they are. So good!
The picture of these Soft Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies has not left my brain since I first got a glimpse of it, I really hope they taste as good as they look! (I am going to use applesauce in place of the oil and maybe some maple syrup instead of all that sugar!)
*I replaced 1/2 the oil with applesauce and used pure cane sugar (sucanat) instead of sugar. I made them last fall and I am hoping to get the energy to make them again, seeing the picture again makes me remember how wonderful they were!
This Black Bean Pumpkin Soup I have made, and it is to die for. It got two thumbs up from my husband, and it is very healthy. (I used a small amount of bacon instead of the ham)
I have yet to find a chili made with turkey that I like, maybe this one, Pumpkin Turkey Chili, will be THE one?
As you know, I am a smoothie lover. Not so sure about a Pumpkin Smoothie, but if it can make a vegetable taste like dessert, I’m all for trying it!
Thank goodness I have until the end of November to make some of these! I have a feeling my family will have had their fill of pumpkin by then!
**This is a repost from last year. This week is my girls fall break, and we just found out I don’t have to do chemo until next week, so I get to enjoy my girls this week!! This motivated me pull out this “Fall Break List Of Things To Do” post. I will be eager to see what my girls want to add to it this year…
My girls have a week off of school for fall break. Today was the first day, and after chores were done this morning, it only took about an hour until I heard the words “Mom…I’m bored!” When I think of all the awesome things my sweet but spoiled girls have to keep them busy, I was pretty surprised to hear those words so soon into our break!
I know a list helps keep me focused and on track with the flow of my day, so I thought maybe it would help them, too. I grabbed a pen and paper, called my girls into the living room and made them pop- a- squat on the living room floor right in front of my feet. Then I asked them to help make a list of all the fun things they can do to keep themselves busy during break. They really got into it, and we were able to come up with a whole bunch of fun stuff to do! As we brain- stormed, it was neat how they were able to think of things they have not done in awhile, like Lincoln Logs and making paper snowflakes.
When we were done, I copied the list onto a large piece of paper and hung it on our dining room wall. I made a place for each of them to initial beside each idea, so they can keep track of what they have done.
They played with Play-doh for the first time in a very long time today, it kept them quite busy! They are all excited to wake up tomorrow and decide what they are going to do next. I think we were able to come up with enough things to make this fall break very fun!
Here is what we came up with:
Legos, Art, Twister Dance, Karaoke, Sidewalk Chalk, Play-Doh, Nintendo DSi, Pop Beads, Computer, Hullabaloo, Puzzibits, KEVA Planks, Pop Beads, Beads, Paper Snowflakes, Doll House, Babies, Dress-Up, Barbies, Marker Board(Dry Erase Board), Hullabaloo, Scooters/Bikes, Lincoln Logs, Sticks, Crossword Puzzles, Piano, Basketball, Hide n Seek, Sardines, Trace Cookie Cutters, Bake/Cook, Doctor/Nurse, Beauty Shop, Lite Brit, Puppets, Puzzles, Tea Party, Tinker Toy, School, Play Food, Coloring Pages, Polish Nails/Toes, Boochie, Life, Battleship, Circus Game, Drawing Game, Parcheesi, Visit Library, Play At Park, Go For A Hike! Whew!
**This is a repost from last year
We have been having a ton of halloween fun here at the Bowman House. My girls just LOVE all things spooky, and have been creating all kinds of spooky fun. I am not one who is creative enough to come up with a project, so I depend heavily on FamilyFun.com! It doesn’t matter what the season, the Family Fun website always has great, simple ideas.
Here are a few that we tried recently:
Salt Dough Ghosts and Paper Bag Trees
I can’t believe we have never made anything with salt dough before! It is a cup of flour, cup of salt and a half of a cup of water. Mold into any shape and microwave until hardened! So easy! The plan was to just create ghosts, but my girls wanted to get more creative, which was great, it kept them busy the entire evening. The paper bag tree is a cute idea, but all that twisting left my wrists tired, so we decided to make just one! I think making mini trees with brown paper lunch bags would be much better for little fingers and wimpy wrists.
Gotta have a snack in the middle of all this creepy craziness! Apples and Almonds, can’t get much healthier than that!
These were so much fun! My girls spent almost 2 hours at the table creating these, and every few minutes there would be a trio of giggles drifting from the dining room. They just loved finding silly face parts to glue on to their bags. Aren’t they funny?
What would I do without Family Fun? What did moms do without computers back in the day? I am very thankful for ours, its kinda SCARY thinking about doing life without it!
BOO!
**Thought I would re-post this now that it is getting close to Halloween! This is actually one of my most popular posts on the blog, it does really well with search engines for some reason. Let me know if you end up making these little monsters with your little monsters!
In this previous post, I told you about my love affair with mason jars. Well, I’m still having the affair, and I said I would post about all the great things a mason jar can do, so here we go!
Here is a super cute idea for a Halloween craft using mason jars. I have not made them yet, but I know the minute my daughters see them they will beg me to make them. I found them here at Not So Idle Hands and they make me love my jars even more!
Crafts…I wouldn’t say I am a person who likes making crafts. I think it is my impatience. I like the idea of the craft, but I just want it to be done and do not really enjoy the process. Still, I buckle down occasionally and just do it, mostly because I have 3 very crafty girls so it is a way to spend time with them, and I have found that being crafty is a frugal way to decorate my home, so that is also motivating.
These little light up monster jars get me a bit excited because I love anything that creates atmosphere, and I know these will. Maybe I can just start simple and make three of them representing my own three lovely, little monsters. I think these would be fun in my sunroom at night, creating a spooky fun glow!
*update: We made them today! I used tissue paper that we had on hand which happened to be a goldish, coppery color. They were really fun, my girls got really into it. They look cute lit up with a tealight!
I’m happy to be linking to these parties