Holiday PreK Class Gift - Hot Chocolate Cups

So clearly I underestimated how much time I had available to blog. Between two kids, full time work, and the usual holiday craziness, I have very little free time. But now that Christmas is over and I have a little break from work, I wanted to share these super cute cups for JJ's classmates:

In the past, I have used inspiration from pins I have from here and here to make Snowman and Reindeer cups:

I considered making the Santa belt version this year but decided against it because A) I was trying to steer away from Santa/Christmas specific and B) there are 30 kids in his class and it just seemed like a lot of work. Instead, I remembered some versions of personalized Starbucks cups floating around Pinterest and a facebook group I was apart of when I first got my Silhouette Cameo a couple years ago. Knowing that I already had a ton of red cups left over from past Christmases, I had a new plan.

I followed these instructions and downloaded a blank jpeg file of the logo and added the white text on top of the green. Disclaimer: I used the logo for personal/parody use, not to make money or to be confused with the actual Starbucks brand. I downloaded the Santana Black font to get a close match to the old Starbucks logo (I read that you can use Gibson and Freight Sans too, but I was looking for something free). 

The software that comes with the Silhouette makes it easy to curve the text. I created a whole sheet, then printed it on full sheet shipping labels which are really just a full sheet sticker. Once printed, I sent the sheet through my Silhouette which cut the circles out. JJ helped me put one on each cup and we filled them with a hot chocolate pack and some Hershey kisses. The most time consuming part was finding the right font. The rest was simple, but repetitive. Here's what 30 finished cups looks like!

In the end, they were simple and pretty inexpensive. Next year JJ will be in kindergarten (most likely in public school) and hopefully I can recycle this idea and use the same stickers. I hope the kids liked them and hope you all (if there are any readers left) had a great holiday!

Roadtripping with a Toddler

It seems Shannon and I have been MIA for a couple of weeks. And no, its not because our family trip to North Carolina was disasterous, I think we've just both been busy catching up on life since we got back. Actually, I was only home in NJ for 20 hours before I had to hitch a ride with Shannon back to Boston to attend a work-related conference. 

Anyway, I have a bunch of stuff to post about, but I am going to start with the actual travel to North Carolina. I was really nervous about how JJ was going to be strapped in the car seat for 7-8 hours. He is usually pretty good in the car, but he's almost two so he has been known to throw a tantrum here or there. I started pinning all sort of tips and tricks months ago in hopes that I could be well prepared. The two I found most helpful were this one from The Fun, Cheap, or Free Queen and this slideshow from Joslyn Gray at Babble. The biggest overall themes were to have his comfort items (lovie, blanket), plenty of snacks, and new toys/distractions. When all else fails, load up the iPad with some videos.

The weekend before we left, I hit the local Dollar Tree and Target to pick up some things to keep him busy. I got a little basket from the dollar store to hold everything. It was the perfect size to sit next to him on the arm rest but set back far enough that he couldn't see or reach it. 

Tools to keep a toddler busy during the 7 11 hour car ride

I was hoping he would sleep for half the ride (we did leave at 4am), but he was wired and knew something was up so he didn't go back to sleep until about 6. He was content with his lovie and blanket though so it was an easy couple of hours. Once he woke up (after only an hour and half, maybe) a sippie of milk and some cereal filled him up and killed some time. After that, though, he started to get a little whiney so I broke into my arsenal. First up were a couple new books (all from the dollar store):

The "first words" one in particular was loaded with a bunch of pictures on each page so he spent awhile looking through each page, pointed at the photos and starting over. 

After that was a mini magna doodle from Target. It helped that it was "Cars" themed, but this kept him busy for awhile. And as a bonus, it was really easy to bring along in my bag when we went out to dinner during the trip just in case the restaurant didn't have crayons. 

Mini Magna Doodle, so much cleaner than dealing with crayons.

JJ is into transportation right now. Anything that moves - planes, buses, trucks, fire engines, and most of all trains. I found these adorable little wooden cars in the dollar spot at Target and knew he would love them. 

One of the last things I broke out, and was the biggest hit of all, were magnets. I picked up a magnetic wipe off board (meant for college dorm rooms I guess?) from the dollar store and brought along a new set of Melissa and Doug animal magnets. He loved moving them around, taking them on and off, and making all kinds of sounds.

A magnetic wipe-off board from the dollar store and some new animal magnets kept JJ busy for a long time.

I also brought crayons and printed out blank coloring pages of his favorite things (Lightening McQueen, Thomas the Train, etc) but I never wound up using them in the car. I put the crayons in an old travel wipes case and tucked the coloring sheets in there as well. Also handy to throw in my bag and bring with us to keep him busy if we stopped somewhere to eat.

A couple boxes of dollar store crayons fit nicely into a travel wipe case. Throw in a couple small sheets of paper and you have a super easy portable coloring case.

A couple other things I learned along the way:

• I have read that snacks, especially new and fun ones would keep kids happy. Unfortunately, JJ isn't adventurous when it comes to food. He likes what he likes. He had no interest in the fruit snacks I bought, just stuck with cereal, goldfish, and cheese. 
• "Pencil pouches" from the dollar store are great for storing the little things. I kept the animal magnet set in one, some foam puzzle pieces (see the top row, middle pic at the top of the post) in another, and some first aid supplies in a third.
• In the first aid pouch, which I kept in the glove compartment, I had pain reliever for JJ, all kinds of pain relievers, antacids, and migraine pills for Joe and I, some alcohol swabs, bandaids, mini sun screen, and anything else I might need along the way. I had more of everything packed away in our suitcases, but I wanted to have this stuff handy in case we needed it and I wouldn't need to dig around to find anything. 
• I saved a couple books and bought a few more things than shown above and tucked them away under a seat. This way, I was sure I had something new and exciting for the way home. 
• I really didn't need to spend a lot of money. I think I spent less than $15 for this stuff (with the exception of maybe the magnets) and it all came from the dollar store or Target. The Dollar Tree was a gold mine of little treats/treasures and there are even more possibilities if your toddler is a little older and you're not as worried about choking risks. A lot of the items worked well in the rental house as well. All the kids had fun playing with the magnets, moving them back and forth between the board, the fridge, and the 2 (!) dishwashers. 

Overall, JJ did great. He didn't sleep as much as I would have liked on the way down, but he was 50 times better than I expected. We didn't even turn on a movie until about hour 9. So had we not hit any traffic, I don't think he would have needed it at all. The vacation must have worn him out though, he slept a lot more on the way home!

So we survived our first big family trip as parents. It was a lot of fun, but more exhausting than the last time we went 2 years ago. I have another vacation related post to share, but right now I am onto researching tips for flying with a toddler. Its a whole new ballgame for us and both Joe and I are nervous. Anyone have any tips for us? We leave in a little over a month!!

Disney Dreaming

This week, our extended family is (hopefully) enjoying some beach days and seafood nights in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. By the time you are reading this, Joe and I will have already braved the 8 hour car trip with our 20 month old. I have been doing a lot of googling and prep work for some tips on traveling with toddlers (using mainly this post and this one as inspiration) so I will be sure to do a post on how well (or disastrously) it went once we get back. 

Anyway, although I am on vacation right now, that doesn't stop me from dreaming about and planning my next one! I love to travel and we sort of took a hiatus when JJ came so I am so excited over the idea of taking two vacations in one year. Even more so that the next one will be to the Happiest Place on Earth! This October we will be taking JJ on his first visit to Walt Disney World in Florida. It will be his first time on a plane and our first time going to "the world" with a kid. 

Getting back to the point of my post. Joe has a tendency to leave his pocket change all over the house. Usually it ends up on his nightstand or the kitchen counter, but it pops up in the laundry and sometimes on the bathroom sink as well. It drives me crazy, so a long time ago we designated an old pretzel bin as our change collector:

Definitely not cute, but we tucked it away in a closet so it didn't really bother me:

Once we decided (meaning I finally conned Joe into being on board with) taking JJ in October, I was inspired by this pin to jazz up the jar:

source: Wilbur Road

Of course none of the cabinets or closets in my house are that neat or organized, but I thought the "Disney Fund" jar was adorable and could definitely help my tired looking pretzel jug look a little nicer. I took some Disney scrapbook paper I already had and cut a band to fit around that ugly half-removed label. Then I downloaded the waltograph font and printed out the label. I thought Jay's mouse-ears were cute, so I just cut out a couple from construction paper and backed them with some cardstock to give them some stability. 

Much cuter, right? Before we leave, will bring the bucket to the bank and cash it in and have some extra money for food, snacks, and souvenirs. I am considering getting tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party so I might use the cash towards that. 

Anyone have any tips for travelling to Disney with toddlers? I realize its going to be a much different trip than we were used to (no more drinking around the world in Epcot or multiple trips on the Tower of Terror), but I  know being able to see it all through my son's eyes gives it new meaning. 

4th of July 2013 Recap

It seems like I took a short, unanticipated vacation from the blog. Nothing really happened, I just haven't had time to sit down and type something up. Its been a busy summer! Anyway, here's a quick recap of our 4th of July weekend:

We started off the holiday with a trip to the pool Thursday morning. After an afternoon nap (for JJ) we headed to my parents for dinner and then to the high school for their local fireworks show. JJ did much better than I anticipated considering how late it was and how delayed the actual show was. He seemed to enjoy them, but lost interest after 10 minutes.

Friday Joe had to work so JJ and I just hung out: played, did some coloring, tried to go outside but it was 1000 degrees. After he went to bed, I took the opportunity to make something to bring to Joe's parents' annual 4th of July BBQ the next day. If you remember last year, I made the infamous Flag Cake:

2012's Flag Cake

and while it came out cute, I was looking for something a little easier and less time consuming this time around. I originally wanted to make these bacon ranch deviled eggs but didn't realize I was out of ranch mix until it was late. Plan B: Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs:

Source: All Recipes

Joe is a bit of a deviled egg purist, so I made half regular and half "bacon cheddar". There's really not much to post - its sort of like just making egg salad but only using the yolks and then putting it back into the whites. Here is the filling ready to be mixed:

And here is the finished product (the paprika topped ones are "regular" and the bacon topped ones are the Bacon Cheddar):

Anyone know what is supposed to go in that middle spot? Just filling? Some sort of garnish??

As always, the recipe is at the bottom of the post.

I also made some of my chocolate chip cookies (a favorite of my father in law) to bring for dessert. 

Before we ate, we took JJ down to the lake for the first time. While I am not  fan, I prefer cement ponds myself, he loved it. I think he liked the fact that he was in control and could just walk in and out and always have his feet on the ground. 

Back at the house, we dried off, tried to stay cool, and enjoyed the food. The eggs were a hit - but to be honest, they sort of just tasted like a regular deviled egg with some bacon. Next year I will have to try the ranch version - they sound delicious! 

Things to Note: I sort of skipped #1 and just made hard boiled eggs my usual way (put eggs in room temp water just about covering eggs and bring to boil, boil for 10-12 minutes then place in ice-water bath). I also cheated and used precooked bacon. So basically I only followed Step 3. 


Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs
from USEREMILY3260 on All Recipes

Ingredients:
12 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 slices bacon
2 tablespoon finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon mustard

Directions:
1. Place eggs in a saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, and cool. To cool more quickly, rinse eggs under cold running water.
2. Meanwhile, place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Alternatively, wrap bacon in paper towels and cook in the microwave for about 1 minute per slice. Crumble and set aside.

3. Peel the hard-cooked eggs, and cut in half lengthwise. Remove yolks to a small bowl. Mash egg yolks with mayonnaise, crumbled bacon and cheese. Stir in mustard. Fill egg white halves with the yolk mixture and refrigerate until serving.

I have a bunch of things in my backlog to post about - hopefully I get some more computer time soon. I have tried a bunch of yummy dinner recipes recently - so stay tuned!

Father's Day 2013

Happy Belated Father's Day to any dad-readers out there! I hope you had a wonderful day full of time with your kids, barbecue, and beer (isn't that what all Dads want?). We spent the afternoon at my brother and sister-in-law's house enjoying family, food, and some gorgeous weather. 

One night last week before Joe got home from work I took some updated pics for his "DAD" frame. Look how big my baby has gotten!

7 Months in 2012 and 19 months in 2013

Not my best photography work but I was on borrowed time and it is much harder getting decent shots of a very active 19 month old than it was with a not-yet-crawling 7 month old. 

I also put together a little beer-themed gift to give to the boys at my brothers. I found "Beer Cheese Dip Mix" from the Beer Bread Company at a local store and ran with the idea. While picking up the ingredients for the dip I brought (see below), I also found "Backyard Brew" marinade mix from McCormick Grill Mates and "Cheddar and Ale" pretzel nuggets by Pretzel Pete. 

I packaged them together and gifted them with a 6-pack of some seasonal summer beer. I have no pic with the actual beer because (as usual) I neglected to be prepared and pick the beer up ahead of time, but you get the idea.

Anyway, on to the food...back in December I had the opportunity to snack on a delicious Loaded Baked Potato Dip at a Christmas party my friend Michelle hosted. It was delicious and I have been thinking about it ever since. I knew this would be the perfect chance to attempt it. I googled around, found one that seemed simple, and pinned it last week:

Source: Comfy in the Kitchen, credited to Hormel

It was super easy to make - just gather your ingredients, mix, and bake!

I saved a little bit of the cheese, bacon, and onions to garnish the top. 

The Verdict: Delicious! I don't think it was quite the same version as what I had last year, but still tasty. It can definitely be addicting (especially when paired with salty chips) and its not healthy so you might want to avoid this if you are trying to watch what you eat.

Things to Consider: Not much to say - just that it takes about 45 minutes in the oven so give yourself time for that. And its best served a couple minutes out of the oven.

Loaded Baked Potato Chip Dip

Source: Comfy in the Kitchen

Author: Hormel 

Prep time:  5 mins

Cook time:  45 mins

Total time:  50 mins

Serves: 8

 

Ingredients

• 1 (16 oz) container sour cream
• 1 (3 oz) jar Hormel REAL Bacon bits
• 2 cups freshly shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 (8 oz) cream cheese
• 1 cup chopped green onions

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix all ingredients well with mixer.
3. Place in an oven safe casserole dish.
4. Bake for 30 mins covered, then an additional 15 mins uncovered.
5. Serve with potato chips!

Notes

Make sure to use REAL bacon bits/crumbles, or you may also make your own bacon bits. Do not use imitation.

Easy Fixes: 2 Hits and a Miss

We've all seen those things on Pinterest - the kind that get a million repins with the caption "genius!" - Little tips and tricks to help make our lives a little easier. I thought I would do a quick recap on 3 that I have recently attempted - 2 were great, 1 not so much (but the failure is totally my fault). 

First up - bib storage:

Unfortunately its a dead-end pin, but the caption reads "Command hook on back of highchair or baby seat." I gave it a shot a couple months ago, but because of the angle of JJ's highchair, it didn't work out so well. They kept sliding off the back so I wound up stealing the hook to use for some holiday decorating. A couple weeks ago, however, I found a couple packs of command hooks on sale at Target:

and thought of another great place to keep them. I stuck one up on the inside of the most used cabinet in the kitchen - the one that holds our dishes and JJ's sippy cups:

and its now the perfect spot for his bibs. So much better than hanging them on the knob on the outside of the cabinet like I was doing before!

Next up - another use for those new hooks - the Kitchenaid Mixer attachments!

Source: The Hyper House

Julie at The Hyper House did a post about her baking nook and included this picture. I pined it awhile ago and kind of forgot about it until I scored those hooks at Target. I quickly stuck a couple up on the inside of my pantry door:

and now the ones I don't need stay out of my way (I used to store them in the mixing bowl so they would be hanging around my already cluttered countertops when I was using the mixer):

Clearly we don't paint the inside of cabinets or pantry doors in this house...

Last up was this pin which I saw floating around but apparently never actually pined until I went looking for it while typing up this post:

Source: Martha Stewart

Martha suggests running a couple lines of acrylic-latex caulk across the back of a slippery rug to keep it in place. On another recent Target outing, I picked up a little mat for the kitchen floor:

The problem? It will not stay in place. I remembered that pin, but didn't really feel like breaking out a caulking gun, so I made a feeble and 2 minute attempt using some hot glue - its close enough to caulk right?:

Wrong. While it did stay in place for a couple days, eventually all the hot glue peeled off. Without the glue though, I am able to wash it (and it def needed it after the mess of Mother's Day). I would like to try and use caulk so it will stay in one place - but does anyone know if I will be able to throw it in the washing machine? Should I just get some sort of non-slip mat for underneath?

Anyway - there's a quick recap on why Command Hooks are great (and even better when they are on sale!) and how hot glue does not have the same non-slip qualities as caulk. 

Anyone else have some quick and easy Pinterest tips to share?

Mother's Day - Grandma Gifts

Happy Friday everyone! As Shannon said Monday, Joe and I hosted our 5th Annual Mother's Day brunch - my second as a mom. We have the menu pretty much down to a science, but this year an emergency call to the plumber was necessary to clear out a backed up drain. Nothing like a little drama to throw the day into a panic. Thankfully it was cleared very quickly and didn't really disrupt our festivities. 

Anyway, I have a post planned for one of our menu items, and another one for the gifts JJ gave all the moms in attendance, but I wanted to start with the Grandma Gifts. I skimmed Pinterest for a couple of ideas - there are lots of cute ones out there involving handprints and footprints. But like I said back around Valentine's Day, the thought of letting JJ get his whole hand covered in paint makes me twitch. He's a very active little guy and I can imagine handprints all over my house. I did have some success with thumbprints, so when I saw this:

Source: Disney Dreamer Designs

I knew I could come up with something. I did some googling and found this awesome page, Kids 4 Crafts that had a lot of examples of cute little bugs made from fingerprints. 

I didn't get any pictures of the first steps, but basically I just gave the pots and saucers a light coat of spray paint primer. Once dry, I used a sponge paint brush and some acrylic paints to put some green "grass" on the bottom and saucers, and a blue "sky" on the top half. It took about 3 coats and still wasn't perfect, but I knew I was covering it anyway so that didn't really bother me. Once dry, I busted out the stamp pads, distracted JJ in this highchair with a crayon and some paper, and took over the use of his left thumb.

Ignore JJ's can of crunchies in the pic - it took a little bribing at first but then he loved  it.  If you look closely at some of the pics you can even see where he drew with his crayons on the pots too.

JJ's little thumbprint heart.

I let them dry overnight because some of them were pretty thick. The red didn't really show up too dark, but the yellow and brown came out great. I used a black sharpie to draw the bug features - using the pins as a reference and coming up with some of my own ideas.

That little guy in the top right is my favorite. He looks like he's ready to dance.

And I used a paint pen to write "Happy Mother's Day 2013" across the top and "Love JJ" around his thumbprint heart on the saucer. Knowing they would probably be put outside, I gave them three light coats of a matte spray sealer. Once dry, I finally filled them with some (apparently oversized) flowers on Saturday. I love a good poem (stay tuned for more poems with the other Mother's Day gifts) - so I came up with a short one, and printed it on some clip art of snail and popped them in using a bamboo skewer. I think they came out adorable!

I realize the plants are a little stuffed. Despite my years working at a flowershop, I have a black thumb when it comes to plants!

Overall it seems like a lot of steps, but to be honest I started them Tuesday night, and had them done by Saturday morning. The total working time is pretty short, you just have to allow time for drying (primer, paint, thumbprints, and sealer).

Hopefully JJ's Grandmas are better gardeners than I and can keep these flowers alive through the season. They were both happy to get a personalized gift from the little man. And it sort of helps set up future gifts - providing new flowers for the pot every year! Anyone else out there craft something up for Mother's Day?