mommyapolis

I am a huge advocate for “Bare Escentuals” make-up.  My favorite product that they sell is their lip gloss.  I LOVE IT…  I LOVE IT so much that I am very cautious of it’s location in hopes of keeping it safe…  I have one tube that was a gift and when I thought it was “LONG GONE” I broke down and purchased another tube for $15 (spendy, right?).  Then, LUCKY ME, found my first lipgloss in my winter coat pocket (it was there all summer, poor thing)…

Recently I have been spending a lot of my free time thinking about what we have, what we don’t have, what we need, etc..  My greatest confession is that I can easily get caught up in our financial situation.  My husband works in youth ministry with a little photography business on the side and I am a teacher.  A dream that I have had since I was a young girl has been to be a stay at home mommy.  I love teaching, but this is something I’ve always wanted.  Financially it’s probably not the best decision for us at this time.  As I watch my boys grow up and realize that my dream is slipping away it takes me back to “lipgloss”. I would GLADLY give up lipgloss if it meant I could stay home with my boys, GLADLY…

That’s not my point, however… My point is this:  We live very comfortably.  We have a home, car, food, toys, clothes, entertainment, education, great jobs and LIPGLOSS.  We don’t think twice about spending $15 here and $10 there on non essentials like lipgloss.   We are SO FORTUNATE.  SO FORTUNATE…

My two tubes of lipgloss will feed our World Vision Sponsor Child and his family for ONE MONTH… ONE MONTH, that is my point.  I think we should all take our lipgloss money and use it to help someone less fortunate.  That is also my point!

So take the lipgloss challenge, use your lipgloss money to help someone else.  Here is a link to World Vision …  or if you have a favorite charity by all means go there.  February is a great month to share your love…

We are fortunate and every time I wear my lipgloss I am reminded of it.

I thought it might be fun to celebrate New Years Eve at NOON this year instead of midnight. That way my youngsters can enjoy the countdown without the fuss of staying up way too late (mostly too late for mommy)…  We will of course have all the “MAGIC” that comes with New Years Eve in the form of noise makers (they might be homemade), confetti, cheering etc..  It would be cool if I had a ball to “drop” too, but that seems a little ambitious for this mom with a 7 week old, maybe next year!  We are expecting more snow so I thought we’d have make some snowman treats this year… I did a little blogging research and here is what I came up with! I’m not sure which treat we’ll try at our New Years “Eve” party. I think the kids will love either of them.   I’m planning to make New Years Hats tomorrow, as well… WE’LL SEE if I get that done or not!

Now who wouldn’t love to dig into these sweet snowgirl and snowman milkshakes from Whisk? I still can’t get over their adorable-ness…. I also saw a similar recipe for Ghost milkshakes in Family Fun…  I can’t wait to try them out….

Recipe

Snowman’s buttons:
4 tablespoons chocolate chips

Milkshake:
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Raspberries or strawberries for garnish
Whipped Cream

Whipped Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Red food coloring

For the  buttons: Melt the chocolate either in a double-boiler or in the microwave. With a toothpick or paintbrush, paint buttons on the inside of a clear glass. Put the glass in the freezer while you make the milkshake and whipped cream.

For the milkshake: In a blender, combine ice cream, milk and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth.
For the whipped cream: Whip cream until almost stiff. Add sugar and vanilla Beat until cream holds peaks. Put into a piping bag or Ziplock….

Take the glass out of the freezer. Fill with the milkshake. Top with the whipped cream. Serve with a spoon and a straw.  YUMMY….

These Snowman shots from Babble look super easy. You can Make them ahead of time and set them on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Then all you have to do is pop them out to serve.

Snowman Shooters

• 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1 pint of vanilla ice cream
• 1 Small &  1medium ice cream scoops
• 8-12 Mini chocolate chips
• 4-6 gummy oranges, orange dots, tic tacs etc.., cut into tiny spears

In a medium, microwave-safe bowl, place the chocolate squares and microwave them for 35-40 seconds, just enough to soften.  Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the chocolate, then return to the microwave for 50-60 seconds.  Remove and stir until the chocolate is fully melted and a thick hot fudge sauce forms.

Spoon hot fudge sauce into the bottom of 4-5 small shooter glasses.  Using a medium-sized ice cream scoop, scoop some of the vanilla ice cream into a rounded ball and plop it carefully on top of the hot fudge sauce.  Use the small sized scoop to do the same, placing the second scoop on top of the first one to create the snowman’s head.

Gently press the carrot nose & chocolate chip eyes into the snowman’s head.  Return to the freezer and allow to freeze until ready to serve.  You could also double the recipe and make “bigger” snowman sundaes if you don’t have shot glasses….  I also think you could make the same “concept” with Rootbeer floats…

SNOWMAN HANDPRINT PICTURES:

This cute craft is super easy!  You will need blue or green construction paper, tempera paints, makers and your child’s hand…

1.  Paint your child’s hand with white paint…

2.  Have them press their painted hand onto the construction paper making sure to separate the fingers…

3.  The fingers are now the different snowman, and the “palm” of the hand is the snow bank.  Allow the white paint time to dry.

4.  Using markers or paints have them decorate their snowmen.

5.  You can put multiple snowmen on each paper, cut out one hand and make it into an “ornament or wall hanging”, be creative and have fun!

• 24 ounces white chocolate chips
• 24 ounces milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 20 candy canes

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. Pour the  chocolate chips onto the pan and spread them around. Bake for a couple of minutes until they look a bit melted. Then take the pan from the oven and spread the chocolate around with a spatula. Put the pan in the refrigerator to cool and harden for about 30 minutes.
3. Next open the candy canes, place them on a cookie sheet under a clean dishtowel and crush them with a hammer (this part is fun for kids). Sort the larger candy cane pieces from the candy cane dust.
4. Melt the white chocolate chips in a double boiler (I used a smaller pan in a bigger pan), stirring constantly. Add the peppermint extract and stir in the candy cane dust which will color your chocolate a light shade of pink. Let it cool a bit, then pour it over the top of your milk chocolate layer.
5. Sprinkle with candy cane pieces and press them down gently so that they stick.
6. Refrigerate for several hours, shake off the excess candy pieces, then break the bark into chunks.

We packaged ours into gifts for the boys teachers… I attached a coffee shop gift card to them, as well…  Just a little something sweet!

I bought a kit…  and this is why…  Making Gingerbread Men is a bit disappointing for me.  It never fails that my “men” lose a limb, burn, or spread a little too much.  So this year I bought a kit by Wilton so that my boys could decorate their “men”…  INSTEAD we made homemade ginger cookies… The big, soft, yummy kind…  so for me it was the best balance…  The recipe for these is from All Recipes…

Our family celebrates Advent as the season to prepare for Christmas or the birth of the baby Jesus.  The key thing about Advent for our family  is that it  leads us up to the birth of Jesus and takes us through the story leading up to Christmas so our children learn something about why we celebrate Christmas.  This year we are going to celebrate Advent in a couple of different ways.

1.  We have one of those cute Advent Calendar with the pockets for each day of December.  I know many people who put treats or toys in these pockets and let their children open one each day starting on December 1st and leading up until the 25th.  Instead of putting treats or toys in the pockets, we write down the names of 25 different people and/or families that are important to us.  We put one “name” in each pocket.  On that day, we take the name out of the pocket and talk about why they are important to us.  We then say a little prayer for them making sure to honor what a blessing they are to us.  We try to include teachers, friends, neighbors and family members in our pockets…

2.  We have a book about Advent that we read each night that tells us a story and gives us a family game or activity to do.

3.  This year we are going to make a “Jesse Tree”.  This is something new for us that I read about on the internet.  Basically you can either make a tree or use a small Christmas tree.  Each day of Advent you make an ornament that represents a story or person that is important to the story of Jesus.   If you google “Jesse Tree” you will see all sorts of ideas… A few examples are:  1.  Make and apple ornament when you talk about Adam and Eve.  2.  Make a rainbow or an ark ornament to talk about Noah.  3.  A colorful coat for Joseph.  4.  A harp for David etc…  These sites have so many different ideas that represent different people/ stories from the bible.  I am going to choose 25 that I feel are the most appropriate for the ages of my children.  We are then going to make one ornament each day and hang it on our little 4 foot tree.  I will try to post them as we go…

Please share your ideas in the comments section…
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The boys and I are working hard on a Thanksgiving banner.  Our banner is going to say “Give Thanks” once it is complete.  We are not finished yet, but I thought that I better post now so that if you want to make one you can get started…  The only part of this project that I did for them was cut the paper and tell them the letters to write…  They are writing the letters and decorating them with water paints.  Once all of the letters are decorated and dry, I am going to attach them to a ribbon and hang them from our mantle for a Thanksgiving decoration.  You could also do this for Christmas stating something like “BELIEVE” or “JINGLE ALL THE WAY” or something cute like that…  I will post a picture of our completed project tomorrow when it is done and dry!    My one piece of advice is that if you are going to decorate your banner with water paints make sure that you use a permanent marker to write the letters because washables will bleed!  I think that these would be cute decorated with crayon or marker, as well, especially if your child is a little older and can draw cute little images on the banner (turkey, pilgrim, corn, etc..).  You could also make it out of fabric and use fabric markers…  Be creative and enjoy!  It’s also a great way to teach them what it means to “give thanks”…

Last week was my son’s 5th birthday.  He really wanted a firetruck themed party so we did our best… With a baby arriving any day we decide to host the party at a local art studio so that our house would not end up a mess.  It was the perfect venue for our art inspired, firetruck themed, 5th birthday party…  Here are some pictures:

These are the cupcakes I made for all of the kids.  I made the firetrucks out of candy melts… Here is the scoop…

1.  Either draw or print off the outline of a firetruck (or what ever shape you want to use).  I copied six to a page.  Tape this paper to a cookie sheet.  Place a piece of wax paper over the image you want to use…

2.  Here is the tricky part… You are essentially decorating upside down so you really have to think about what to draw first.  I chose to do the “white” candy melts first.  I melted them in a squeeze bottle, but you could do a ziplock bag or pastry bag too…  Once you have the candy melted draw anything you want in that color.  I drew (freehand) the ladder, tires and light.

3.  Once you are done with your “base” color. You’ll need to think about what other color you want just a bit of…  Obviously this was black for me.  I drew the black window and wheels…

4.  The next thing I did was melt the red.  Since this is the “all over” color you will want to draw the outline of the firetruck and then cover all the other colors and drawings you made with the red.  This is the only way to get your project to “stick” together.  It will look funny, just remember this is the back!

5.  Pop them in the freezer for a little bit…  Take them out and carefully peel them off…  VIOLA!  It’s a pretty fun “surprise” to see what they look like on the opposite side.  I was hoping they would turn out like I imagined them in my head and they did!

At the party the guests all got fire helmets and fire badges…

We had the party at Kid Create Studio in Eden Prairie and they helped us make a very cool birthday card and firetruck project…  It was a great place to have a birthday party.  The kids were totally engaged, quiet and so creative….

Here are a couple examples of their finished work…  It was so cute to see how different they all were, I love that they were kid centered and kid created…

In leu of gift bags we sent the kids home with their hats, badges, artwork, a few coloring sheets, and these cookies..  I just made sugar cookies and used a firetruck cookie cutter… I then decorated them to look similar to a fire truck…  This isn’t the best picture, but you get the idea…

PUMPKINS EVERYWHERE

The boys and I got a bit of a later start on decorating for Halloween… Maybe it is because the weather is so nice, maybe because of the impending arrival of baby #3, not sure… Either way, we’ve begun the fun!  Here is one project we tried this year….  It’s super easy and very cute!  The best part of this project, for me, was the fact that I planned it to be a pumpkin project and the next thing I knew they turned them into Jack-O-Lanterns and the boys added random supplies from our art cupboard to decorate them to their liking… Love their creativity!

SUPPLIES:

9.5×11 orange construction paper (you can use bigger paper for bigger pumpkins)

Black, Green, or Brown construction paper for stem (and face if you want)

Glue/Glue Stick

Stapler (or glue again)

DIRECTIONS:

Cut one inch strips out of the orange construction paper.  For my preschoolers I first fan folded the paper and then let them cut along the folded lines.  This seemed to work pretty well for them.  The bigger pumpkins were fan folded the “long” way and the smaller pumpkins the “short” way.

Take the one inch strips and lay them out like a “sun” making sure that the ends of each of the orange pieces are on top of each other.  Glue these ends together.  Pinch them together to make sure they are stuck.  Then curve the other pieces up again so the tops of the paper are overlapping at the top.  I then staple these together so that they are certain to stay together.

To add the stem I just folded one end of the paper and had them glue it to the top. We then added the faces, pom pom balls etc.. with glue!  EASY PEEZY!  Here is a close up of one of the ones my three year old made.  You can see that he did the cutting, glueing etc..  It’s not “perfect” but it is more adorable than perfect in my eyes…

I’ve been fairly into “pumpkin” flavored things the past week… I’m thinking it’s because the canned pumpkin shortage is now over!  Maybe it’s because I am 9 months pregnant… Either way, last week I made the most YUMMY pumpkin bars (thanks to my friend Lynn) and this week I’m going to try pumpkin bread.  My neighbor Melanie said she always puts chocolate chips in her pumpkin bread, which I have never tried, but I think I’ll try it this year.  I mean what more could a pregnant girl craving pumpkin ask for-pumkin and chocolate mixed… MMMMMM!  I know they are a good combination because my mother in law makes a chocolate pumpkin pie……  OK so here is the recipe I’m trying:

Apple picking is one of my favorite fall activities.  I’ve vowed to try some “different” recipes this season as I always seem  to make apple sauce, apple pie, apple crisp, etc..  My neighbor keeps talking about apple muffins so I thought I’d try some too… YUMMY!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar (can also do half a cup white half a cup brown)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups shredded apples

TOPPING:

• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.