Happy Halloween!

Pin It I cannot tell you how excited Kirsten is to go trick-or-treating for the first time tonight. She keeps asking about it every 2 seconds. We're going to bring Cam along too, so this will be the first time for both of them. To be totally honest, I'm a little excited too! I just love seeing my kids do things for the first time. I'm pretty sure they're just going to love this. Here's some pictures I took of them in their costumes last weekend. I had so many good pictures I had a hard time narrowing it down. I may have had to bribe Cam with a lollipop to sit still, but it totally worked. He only had a few tastes. And can you believe how long my 3-year old's hair is?!?! Kirsten is a cupcake and Cam is a monkey. I can't wait for tonight!



















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fun food friday: happy halloween

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So this one is pretty lame, but that's what you get when you've got two impatient, hungry kiddos. I wanted to add a few more things to the plate, but the kids had other plans. Regardless, it's still pretty cute and they thoroughly enjoyed it! Here's how I made this cute pumpkin and bat lunch:

jack o' lantern - chicken sandwich cut into pumpkin shape, shaved carrots, cucumber stem, and fruit leather face

bats - fruit leather cut with bat cookie cutters



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flashback: handprint ghosts and handprint spiders

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Here's a couple Halloween crafts we did last year. These are super easy and make great keepsakes. I just love turning my kids handprints, footprints, or thumbprints into animals and other cute stuff. I just can't get enough. Here's the super easy directions:

Handprint ghost:

What you'll need:

black paper
white paint
paint brush
googly eyes
glue
sharpie

Directions:

1. paint your child's palm and 4 fingers white (excluding the thumb.
2. stamp your child's hand on the black paper
3. glue on 2 googly eyes
4. use your sharpie to draw a spooky mouth

Handprint spider:

What you'll need:

white paper
black paint
paint brush
googly eyes
glue
sharpie

Directions:

1. paint your child's palm and 4 fingers black (excluding the thumb).
2. stamp your child's hand sideways on the white paper
3. repeat this process with the opposite hand and slightly overlap where you stamp.
4. glue on googly eyes
5. using your sharpie, draw a face on your spider Pin It

thumbprint spiders

Pin It Kirsten's spiders



Camden's spiders



Here's another great, easy Halloween craft. Simply turn your child's thumbprints into adorable, friendly little spiders. Normally I hate spiders, they really creep me out. But these little guys are just the cutest, it's hard to be afraid of them. Here's the super simple directions:

What you'll need:

paper
black paint
black sharpie
googly eyes
glue

Directions:

1. stamp your child's thumb in black paint and have them stamp their thumb on the paper.
2. using your sharpie, draw legs on your spider and a dangling web
3. glue on googly eyes



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pumpkin whip dip

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This photography session has been interrupted by my children. They couldn't keep their hands out of this, it is soooo good. I had some pumpkin left over from making pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and this recipe immediately came to mind. I am so glad I made it. It was delicious, and I'll definitely be making this again. For extra cuteness, serve this dip in a hollowed out pumpkin, or a cute ceramic pumpkin container like I used. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 container cool whip, thawed
1 box vanilla instant pudding mix
1 can pureed pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together instant vanilla pudding mix, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice.
2. Fold in the cool whip.
3. Chill in the 3 refrigerator until serving.
4. Serve with graham crackers, sliced apples, sliced pears, gingersnaps - whatever! Pin It

Halloween jammies

Pin It I bought these Halloween skeleton jammies last year for the kids and they still fit - just barely. The kids adore these pj's. The skeleton glows in the dark, which is actually pretty cool. Here's a quick pic of the kids in their jammies. They're getting very excited about trick or treating next weekend. It will be their first time. I took some pictures of the kids in their costumes yesterday - just wait until you see them! Too cute.

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fun food friday: mummy dogs

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I'm sure you've all seen mummy dogs before. I had never made them for my kiddos, but knew they would absolutely love them for Halloween. These are really fun and they made a great lunch. I served some fruit on the side to make this lunch a wee bit healthier. Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent rolls
10 large hot dogs
Cooking spray
Mustard or ketchup, if desired

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. Unroll dough; separate at perforations, creating 4 rectangles. Press perforations to seal.
3. With knife, cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 40 pieces of dough.
4. Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog to look like "bandages," stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate "bandages" so hot dog shows through for "face." On ungreased large cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs; spray dough lightly with cooking spray.
5. Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot.
6. With mustard, draw features on "face.".
7. Serve with a dish of blood, aka ketchup.

Recipe adapted from Pillsbury



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handprint black cats

Pin It Kirsten's handprint black cat:



Camden's handprint black cat:



Here's a really fun and easy handprint Halloween craft. Camden just loves making handprint crafts, and Kirsten has done so many now, she's really starting to like them now too. She doesn't always like to get her hands dirty though. Here's how we made these handprint cats:

What you'll need:

paper
black paint
paint brush
craft foam to make cat's face
scissors
glue

Directions:

1. using black paint, paint your child's palm, and stamp on the paper.
2. using your craft foam, cut out a cat's head, eyes, nose, and whiskers
3. glue these pieces to your cat



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clementine jack o' lanterns

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This is a really fun way to add a little Halloween touch to your kids lunches or snacks. I've seen a few variations of these using markers to colour the jack o' lantern face, but I don't have any food markers and didn't feel comfortable using a regular marker on my kids food. Instead I used a black sticker sheet, and cut out the shapes and stuck them to the orange. The kids loved these! I'll definitely be doing this again. It was so easy. Pin It

boo cups

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I found this recipe in my Kraft What's Cooking magazine and knew my kids would love this Halloween treat. It was so easy to make and tasted just like a creamy and delicious creamsicle. Yum! Plus, it's super cute too. A great Halloween treat. Here's how you make it:

What You Need

3/4 cup boiling water
1 pkg.(3 oz.) JELL-O Orange Flavor Gelatin
2 cups ice cubes
2/3 cup thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, divided
8 miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Make It

ADD boiling water to gelatin mix in large bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add ice; stir 3 to 5 min. or until gelatin is thickened. Remove any unmelted ice. Whisk in 1/3 cup COOL WHIP until well blended. Pour into 4 dessert dishes. It will be pretty liquidy at this point but will firm up nicely in the fridge.

REFRIGERATE 30 min. or until firm.

DROP remaining COOL WHIP by spoonfuls onto desserts to resemble ghosts. Add chocolate chips for the eyes

Recipe from Kraft Canada

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Mr and Mrs pumpkin head

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This is a brilliant idea. It's decorating pumpkins preschool style without having to use any knives. The kids absolutely loved this. It was so easy and they loved switching the parts around and playing with them. I don't like messes and decorating our pumpkins this way was definitely mess free! If you want to decorate a pumpkin with your toddler, but would like to avoid knives or big messes, then this is the way to go. Fun and clean, I love it! Here's what we did:

What you'll need:

a couple small pumpkins
something strong to poke holes in your pumpkin (I used the end of my electric beater whisk)
potato head pieces or other small decorations

Instructions:

1. using the end of my electric beater whisk (it was the absolute perfect size), I poked holes in our pumpkin where the parts were going to go - this step is definitely for the adult as it requires a fair bit of strength

2. put your potato head parts in the holes you created in the pumpkin and have fun playing

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fun food friday: a beautiful Fall day

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In keeping with all the wonderful Fall things we've been doing this week, I made the kids a fun Fall lunch. I just loved how colourful this was and it was pretty easy to do. I had lots of peppers leftover from last week's turkey that I had to use up before they went bad, and giving them to my kids again further confirmed their dislike for them. Oh well, they ate everything else on the plate! Here's how I made it:

House - chicken sandwich cut into house shape and crusts cut off - use crusts to make roof and chimney on house - fruit leather door and window and marshmallows coming out the chimney

Tree - pretzel stick with cut coloured peppers, coloured peppers and sliced celery on the ground for grass. Pin It

thumbprint and handprint fall tree

Pin It Kirsten's Fall tree



Cam's Fall tree



One of my favourite crafts we've done is this spring blossom thumbprint/handprint tree. I knew I wanted to try it again come the Fall because it would be beautiful. I was right. I'm disappointed in the kind of paint I used though, because the colours are very muted. I won't be using that paint again. It was more of a gel paint, and it didn't provide the rich, vibrant, Fall colours I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong though, it's still beautiful, just difficult to see in the pictures. Here's the instructions:

What you'll need:

paint - brown, red, yellow, orange
canvas or paper
paint brush

Directions:

1. paint your child's palm and half way of their forearm with brown paint, and stamp this on your canvas
2. have your child dip their thumbs in the red, yellow, and orange paint and make thumbprints all over the tree for Fall leaves

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leaf prints

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The trees in my backyard are in full Fall colour right now and it's just gorgeous. I just love Fall, probably because I don't have to rake up all those beautiful leaves. Thanks for that honey!! We did this project a few weeks ago, but I've had so many things to post I haven't gotten around to sharing it yet. This was a craft that just Kirsten and I did and she really enjoyed it. Here's what you'll need:

What you'll need:

leaves, various shapes
paint, various Fall colours
paint brushes
paper or canvas

Instructions:

1. paint each leaf a different Fall colour and stamp on your canvas or paper.


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thanksgiving leftover panini

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I found this recipe after Thanksgiving last year and I've been waiting all year to make it. I modified it a bit in that I didn't make my own homemade pumpkin yeast bread (which I'm sure was delicious) and just bought a fresh loaf of bread from the bakery. This sandwich was delicious. It was sweet and salty at the same time, which is one of my favourite taste combinations. I'll definitely be making this again. Here's the very simple recipe:

What you'll need:

1 loaf of fresh bread - I used a calabrese loaf
brie cheese
cranberry sauce
leftover turkey

Directions:

1. slice bread, and butter both outside pieces
2. on one piece of bread spread a layer of cranberry sauce, layer with pieces of turkey and layer with pieces of brie cheese, place other piece of bread on top
3. place on a panini grill and grill until brie cheese has melted and you get beautiful grill marks on your bread.

Recipe adapted from Annie's Eats Pin It

Happy Thanksgiving (for my fellow Canadian readers)

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Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I have so many wonderful things to be thankful for. I have a beautiful, healthy, wonderful family. I am truly blessed. I brought out my camera, tripod and remote to try to get a few family pictures yesterday because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Technically, they're not perfect (it's hard to take the pictures when you're in the pictures), but they are so dear to me. We really don't take enough family pictures, or even pictures of James or I with the kids for that matter. I'm making a conscious effort to try to do this more often. Although my kids probably have over a million pictures of themselves, the best memories and those with friends and family. I'm sure I will treasure these pictures for a long time, as I hope my kids will in the future. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Pin It

homemade pumpkin pie

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Ok, so it may not be the prettiest pumpkin pie you've ever seen, but I'm pretty proud of her. I've made homemade pumpkin pie several times before, but this was the first time I made my own pie crust, and didn't buy a pre-made pie shell. I'm not going to lie, it wasn't easy for a newbie like me, but I'm hoping it will taste so much better (I haven't actually tried it yet). My crust edge is all cracked and broken, and the pie separated from the shell around the edges because I may have baked it just a few minutes too long. Oh well, I'm pretty sure it will still taste great. This is the pie I'm bringing to my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner tonight (yum!) so I certainly hope it goes over well. I like the pastry pumpkin I made to add to the top. I think it adds a nice element for presentation, and it's all about presentation people. Here are the recipes I used to make this pie:

For the pie crusts:

Ingredients:

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 lb tenderflake lard
1 egg, stirred slightly
1 tablespoon vinegar
7/8 cup cold water

Directions:

1. Stir the flour and salt together.
2. Cut in the lard with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the shortening is in pea size pieces.
3. In a measuring cup, combine the egg and vinegar.
4. Add enough cold water to make one cup.
5. Stir the liquid into the flour mixture, adding just enough to make the dough cling together.
6. Stir the water in with a wooden spoon until mixed thoroughly, then gather the dough into a ball, and separate into 6 portions.
7. Cover and refrigerate for one hour, you can chill overnite, covered, providing you leave it at room temp for 15 mins before rolling.
8. Lightly flour surface and roll into circles, then pat the dough into pie pans, following pie recipes. Be careful not to stretch the dough.

* I rolled out a little more dough and used a pumpkin cookie cutter to cut out a pumpkin shape. I put it on a baking sheet, brushed it with an egg wash, and baked it for about 20 minutes at 350F. When the pie was baked and cooled, I placed this on top for decoration. Cute!

For the pie filling:

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/2 can (28 oz/796 mL) E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN
1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
1 tsp (5 mL) ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp (1 mL) ground ginger
1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
3/4 cup (175 mL) evaporated milk
1 (9-inch/23 cm) unbaked home-made or frozen deep dish pie shell

Directions:

1. Beat eggs lightly in medium bowl. Add E.D.SMITH® PURE PUMPKIN, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt - stir until well combined. Blend in milk. Pour filling in pie shell. Bake at 425ºF (220ºC) 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC) and continue baking 30-35 minutes longer or until knife inserted in centre comes out clean. I always have to bake mine quite a bit longer for the knife to come out clean. Cool.

Recipe for pie crust from Tenderflake
Recipe for pie filling from E.D.Smith Pin It

fun food friday: gobble, gobble, it's a turkey

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In keeping with our Thanksgiving theme this week, I made a turkey sandwich for the kids to enjoy. They both thought this was adorable, but unfortunately, neither of them ate the peppers. They did both try them though, and that's all I can ask for. Nothing drives me crazy more than them refusing to eat something and saying they don't like it when they haven't even tried it. This little turkey was super cute though and I had a lot of fun making it. I can't wait for my real turkey dinner this weekend though. Here's how I made this sandwich:

turkey - cut 2 pieces of bread into large circles and cut another piece of bread into a smaller circle. Place the smaller circle on top of your 2 larger circles to make a head. Make your sandwich with whatever filling you want - meat, cheese, peanut butter, whatever. The turkey feathers are orange, red and yellow peppers. I also used the peppers to make the feet, beak, and red gobble thingy. I used candy eyes that I found at the dollar store for the eyes. I love these candy eyes, they're so cute. For decoration I put twisted fruit leather around the plate. I love these little fruit snacks. They're portable, nutritious, 100% fruit, and my kids ADORE them. Here's a link to them if you haven't seen them in your grocery store. I'm pretty sure these are only sold in Canada though. They're so much better than those sugar filled, artificial fruit flavoured, chewy "fruit" snacks - you know what I'm talking about.


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Thanksgiving flashback: handprint turkeys

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Here's the craft we did last Thanksgiving, before I had a blog. Only Kirsten partcipated because my little Cam was only 9 1/2 months last Thanksgiving. These are really fun and colourful and they make a great keepsake. Here's how you make the handprint turkeys:

What you'll need:

paper
paint - brown, red, orange, yellow, green
paint brush
googly eye
glue

Directions:

1. paint the palm and thumb of your child's hand brown
2. paint each of their 4 remaining fingers a different colour - red, orange, yellow, and green
3. stamp their hand on your paper
4. glue on a googly eye
5. using your paints, paint on a beak, legs, and a red gobble thingy Pin It

thumbprint Indian corn

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Here's another great Thanksgiving craft. These were really easy to make and the kids (as do I) love these thumbprint crafts. Cam especially likes getting messy. He holds his hands out just waiting for me to paint them. That's my boy! Here's the instructions.

What you'll need:

yellow craft foam
green craft foam
scissors
paint - lots of colours - whatever you choose

Directions:

1. using your yellow craft foam, cut out a corn cob
2. using your green craft foam, cut out a green husk
3. glue your corn cob behind the husk and allow to dry
4. let your kids put their thumbprints all over the corn using whatever colours you desire Pin It

paper plate turkeys for Canadian Thanksgiving

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Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend, so all this week I'll be featuring some of the fun things we've been doing for Thanksgiving. These paper plate turkeys were really fun. Here's what you'll need to make them.

What you'll need:

paper plates
brown paint
paint brush
coloured feathers
glue
orange, red, and brown foam
scissors
googly eyes

Directions:

1. paint your paper plate brown and allow to dry
2. cut a circle out of your brown foam and glue to the centre of your paper plate for the head. Cut an orange triangle beak and orange feet out of your orange foam and a red gobble thingy out of your red foam. Glue these to your paper plate.
3. glue on two googly eyes
4. glue some feathers on the back of your paper plate.
5. allow to dry before letting the kids play with it


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apple lollipops

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I just got back from a fun-filled shopping weekend and had a great time. This was just a fun fall treat that I made last weekend. Kirsten loves getting a lollipop as a treat and I thought she would love one shaped like an apple for the fall. It didn't turn out perfect, but it's still pretty cute. She thoroughly enjoyed it too! Here's what you'll need if you want to make one.

What you'll need (to make one):

1 red lollipop
1 green lollipop
lollipop stick
baking sheet lined with tinfoil

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 250F
2. put your red sucker in a plastic baggie and crush it with a mallet to form smaller pieces (don't crush too much because you don't want super small pieces). Repeat this process with your green sucker.
3. place a lollipop stick on your baking sheet lined with tinfoil.
4. arrange all your broken red lollipop pieces in a circle at the top of your lollipop stick making an apple shape. Make sure all pieces are touching so it melts properly. Take one broken green piece and place it at the top.
5. put in oven for 10-12 minutes, or until completely melted
6. remove from oven and allow to cool Pin It

fun food friday: butterfly

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This week's fun food friday is a butterfly. It's not my best work, and that's probably why I haven't posted it yet. I made this a really long time ago. Anywho, it's for the kids and they could care less. They still loved it. This was super simple, and this is how I made it:

chicken sandwich with crusts cut off and cut into triangles, cucumber and cherry tomato wing decorations, cheesestring body with carrot and blueberry antennae and sprinkle eyes, white peach hearts and blueberries for decoration

Have a great weekend everyone! I'm going out of town shortly for the weekend to do a lot of shopping. I can't wait! Pin It