We don’t go over bored for Valentine’s Day, but we always get the kids these little heart cream filled chocolates and try to have dinner together.
Affirmation Hearts
I cut out hearts and wrote attributes, strengths, and affirmations on them for each child. Then I taped one to their door each day until Valentine’s Day. First thing in the morning on the 14th, I placed their name and the rest of the hearts for them to see when they woke up that morning. They really enjoyed this and looked each morning to see what the newest heart said.
Baked Spaghetii and Meatballs
Ingredients:
1 package spaghetti
1 lb. ground beef
1 jar spaghetti sauce
2 cups shredded cheese
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Cook and drain spaghetti noodles.
In a separate pan, brown and drain ground beef.
Add spaghetti sauce and warm through.
Spray a pie dish or casserole dish with cooking spray, then add spaghetti noodles.
Top with sauce and ground beef mixture.
Top with cheese.
Place in oven for around 10 minutes or until cheese is brown on top.
Warm the meatballs in the oven with marinara sauce for 30 minutes.
Serve with garlic bread and salad.
Chocolate Raspberry Tarts
Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 teas. water
2 TBS flour
1 sheet pastry puff
1/4 cup chocolate chips
16 raspberries
2 TBS powdered sugar
Directions:
Beat the eggs and water with a fork.
Sprinkle flour and unfold pastry sheet.
Roll out into 16×16 inch square.
Brush pastry with the egg.
Cut into 16 squares (4×4)
Place 1 raspberry and 1 teaspoon of chocolate chips in the center of each square.
Fold the pastries over to form triangles and crimp the edges with a fork.
Prick the tops of each pastry and brush with egg.
Place onto baking sheets and freeze for 15 minutes.
We do all of our Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve each year. So for Christmas day I decided to put out finger foods for the kids as they were coming and going throughout the day. This way I don’t have to be in the kitchen cooking, so I can enjoy Christmas day too.
Hot Chocolate Bar
My kids are crazy about hot chocolate. We got some different flavors, but I also just made some in the crock pot to have out all day. Then we added marshmallows, mints, chocolate chips, chocolate wafers and chocolate stirring spoons. I added a scoop of peppermint bark ice cream to mine… YUM!
Cheeseball Platter
My husband loves cheeseballs so we have one almost every holiday. I placed salami, crackers, and cheeses along with the cheeseball.
Fruit Pizza
Ingredients :
Crescent Roll Dough
Cream Cheese 8 oz.
Marshmallow Cream 1 can
Fruit Diced Tiny
Directions:
I spread the Crescent Roll dough on a pizza pan.
Then I baked it according to the directions on the can.
Mix together the Cream Cheese and the Marshmallow Cream to spread on the Crescent Roll.
I cut the fruit into tiny pieces.
I placed the left over fruit and dip in a platter for the kids.
Vegi Pizza
Ingredients :
Crescent Roll Dough
Sour Cream 1 tub
Ranch packet
Vegetables Diced Tiny
Directions:
I spread the Crescent Roll dough on a pizza pan.
Then I baked it according to the directions on the can.
Mix together the Sour Cream and the Ranch packet to spread on the Crescent Roll.
I cut up the vegetables into tiny pieces.
I placed the left over vegetables and dip in a platter.
Cheesecake
My simple little pleasure, cheesecake!
Christmas Potpourri
I got the idea for Christmas Simmer Pot gifts from https://mommymadethat.com/stovetop-potpourri-gift/. We made these for teachers, baby sitters, coaches, and neighbors. Just add orange slices, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and pine tree sprigs to some simmering water. Smelled delightful all weekend.
Family Christmas
The kids all got X-men Storm shirts from Baby Storm this year!
This is the first time that we have celebrated Star Wars Day. We had tons of fun with our snacks while we watched the movies.
Light Saber Popcycles
I made these Light Saber handles from felt. I used hot glue to hold them together and glued buttons on as well. We go though a bag or two of these popcycles a week at our house (even in the winter). My youngest loves that now his hands don’t get cold.
Light Saber Pencils
Since we are having school at home because of COVID-19 stay at home order, we got to use our Light Saber Pencils.
Wookie Cookies
We made our Wookie Cookies with a gingerbread recipe.
Ingredients:
3 cups flour
3/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup water
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 egg
White Chocolate Chips
Chocolate Melts
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Once dough begins to form a ball in the center, dust generously with flour.
Cover dough with plastic wrap or wax paper and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Dust a smooth surface with flour, and roll out a section of the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.
Use a gingerbread man cookie cutter slice out your Wookiees. Wookiees are tall, so you may want to stretch out the head and feet! Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet, and score the cookie’s surface with a fork to look like fur.
Bake at 350˚F/180˚C for 10-12 min.
With melted chocolate in a piping bag, add the bandolier, eyes and nose.
Add white chis to the bandolier.
Star Wars Snacks
We used Teddy Grahams for our Edible Ewoks, donut holes for our Death Star Donuts, and Rolos for our Han Rolos!
Light Saber Pretzel Rods
Definitely the favorite snack of the evening. I dipped pretzel rods in melted candies and chocolate. Then I added round sprinkles for the buttons.
7 Leia Dip
Last we had 7 Leia Dip with Trooper Scoopers for dinner!
This is the first Thanksgiving dinner that I have ever made. My family came for a visit from the west coast, so I had a lot of help 🙂 I also tried to make some fun Thanksgiving Treats to snack on during the beginning part of the day!
Carmel Apple Turkey
My boys LOVE carmel and apples so I made this little guy to snack on.
Thanksgiving Cornucopia
I used Pillsbury Crescent Dough to shape and bake the Cornucopia, then added the fruit that my family likes.
Fruit Dip
I also made my fruit dip that the boys LOVE! Mix one package of cream cheese with one jar of marshmallow cream!
Vegi Dip
Mix one tub of sour cream with one Ranch packet for the vegetables.
My Thanksgiving tradition is to make Gingerbread houses; so I decided to build them with my nieces and nephews this year. It was so much fun, now there are 11 cousins and J is the oldest!
We used Graham Crackers and Waffle Cones for our Gingerbread Houses and Christmas Trees this year.
I used a pear for the Turkey’s body and then cut up fruit to place around the pear for the Turkey’s feathers. These cousins just LOVE fruit.
I read “The Night Before Thanksgiving” to the cousins before bed… It is a great book with cousins and other extended family members. These cousins just love reading too.
For the 4th of July we grilled and had some fireworks. It’s been really hot this summer with record highs of over 100 degrees so we just had smaller fireworks this year. We grilled hot dogs and corn on the cob then we had watermelon and chips too. The boys love fireworks and have been looking forward to today for a while now.
I filled the kiddy pool with water balloons and had a little water balloon battle.
The boys liked the tanks and the parachutes this year.
The smoke bombs were a favorite for the kids and adults. We stuck a green smoke bomb down one snake hole and some of the smoke came out of another snake whole next to it.
We had a Halloween Bonfire again this year. This time we set up a table outside with all the pumpkin carving tools and told people to bring their own pumpkins to carve. The boys actually helped us gut the pumpkins this year… in the past they have said it was too slimy for them. T really like looking at the candles in them. It was fun making jack-o-lanterns together!
We roasted hot dogs and smores too. This was the biggest bonfire that we have ever had, was a fun time!
I bought caramel apples this year instead of making them… they were much better! J just LOVES caramel apples!
We always have an egg hunt and Easter baskets for the kids, but this year we decided to have one for the adults too with huge prize baskets. Everyone pitched in a few dollars to pay for the prizes and it ended up being tons of fun. The boys enjoyed dying and hunting eggs and they loved their Easter baskets too.
My husband hid 3 dozen eggs for the adult egg hunt while I assembled the prize baskets. We had one for the guy with the most eggs and one for the gal with the most eggs. Some of the eggs were camo colored for more fun!
My father-in-law won the guys and my sister-in-law won the gals basket!
We decided to have a bonfire for Halloween this year. First we went to a nearby pick-your-own pumpkin patch to choose two big pumpkins. We rode in a wagon pulled by a tractor to the pumpkin patch. After choosing our two pumpkins we placed them in the wagon with T and pulled them to the car so we could take them home and carve them.
My husband and I decided to try more difficult designs this year. We each choose our design and dug in, the carving defiantly took longer than our usual triangle eyes and toothy smile jack-o-lanterns. In the end we were very pleased with our work.
We roasted hot dogs for dinner, and had soda for drinks.
We roasted smores for dessert and had homemade caramel apples and candy corn too.
