Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day!!
Hope you spend your day snuggled up with those you love!!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Class Treats

As promised, here are the Giant RK Kisses we made for CJ's class treats on Friday. (When I pulled out the recipe it occured to me that I've been creating these for well over 10 years! I think that we first made them at the home where I nannied. "My" oldest boy has a birthday on February 13th and he took them as his birthday treat in grade 1 ... well that young boy is turning 20 this week!! Happy Birthday Jon! Yikes, how time flies! )

I struggled with how to get a good picture of them, the foil really threw things off. BUT here it is:


You need a few funnels, available anywhere ~ the cheaper the better!


Caramel RK Treats
16 cups of Rice Krispies (set aside in a huge bowl)
I thought that I had regular RK but it turns out that all I had was the
Holiday RK so my kisses look a little festive ... wrong holiday though!!
Tee Hee. They'll taste fine and I'm sure the class won't care!

Add together:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
1 3/4 cups light corn syrup
Boil 3 minutes, remove from heat.
Add one can sweetened condensed milk.
Boil 3 additional minutes.
Pour over RK and mix well.
Form kisses by first greasing your chosen size of funnel (first time only). Scoop up the RK mixture.

Then turn onto waxed paper immediately. Do this approximately 49 more times. (I used the itty-bitty funnel for most of them but made a huge one for Moto-Moto. I think that it would make about 50 class treat size ones.)

Let set up for at least on hour but beware of little ones helping themselves!

I give them a flip to dry the bottoms too and leave them another 1/2 hour. Clean up the dishes, making sure you get all the caramel off the spoon.

Wrap them with foil, add a little personalized note in light blue font so it's like the real deal. Well, I'm off to finish cleaning the kitchen without my helpers and continue to wrap the rest for Friday's party.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Teacher Valentine Treats

Tonight CJ and I finished packing up treats for her teacher and all the helpers in her classroom. We snuck our own personalized messages into premade fortune cookies. You could make your own but it was pretty easy to sneak our messages into these ones. Of course, we dipped them into chocolate and added heart sprinkles. Everything tastes better with a little chocolate.
We packed them on shredded red paper (from one of the finest stores) in little take-out boxes ~ we picked up a whole sleeve of them for cheap cheap. I think you can get them at wedding stores now or bigger ones at Michaels... added a little ribbon, a foam heart with a button & more ribbon. I think they turned out pretty cute!

This was also a "teachable craft" ~ it gave CJ practise at the first step in Shoe-Tying 101. Look at this darling at work ...

Just put it here ...

Cross it over, poke it through ...

PULL ...

And ta-da, I did it!!!

It was a good night. Little sister played quietly (well, not so quietly) with her puppets while we got this little job done. Stay tuned tomorrow for class treats Giant Caramel RK Kisses. You should have time to make a shopping list and make them for all your little friends too!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Valentine's Day Party

CJ had a few friends over for a Valentine's Party today. She hasn't seen some of her daycare friends for awhile since Daddy stays home in the morning to play with the girls and I'm home in the afternoon. When the girls first got here we played: CJ has been waiting to play Twister with someone who is way more flexible than her Mom! None of the girls had played before but were anxious to try and had a great time!!

Craft time ~ we decorated our "Love Shacks". We didn't make any gingerbread houses at Christmas time so I pulled out our gingerbread village cookie cutters (found at a garage sale for $3) and made a little shack for each of the girls. I think they ate as much candy as ended up on their shack!

Viola, finished "Love Shacks". You're all singing the song right now aren't you!?

"Valentine Colours" was our next game, thanks D for the idea, the girls loved it! We started with "pink", player one touches something pink and sits down. Player two touches the pink item selected by player one then a pink item of her own, player three touches items by player one and two and one of her own etc, etc. Lots of fun! Then we played "Pink heart, pink heart, who has the pink heart?" (Our Valentine version of "Button, Button").

Snack was little heart shaped chocolate bowls filled with strawberries topped with whipped cream and their initial. I'm quite happy with how the bowls turned out. I picked up the heart silicone form at Dollarama (it was a dollar) then poured a couple of tablespoons of melting chocolate in it and brushed it up the sides. A couple minutes in the freezer to set up and carefully released them. The initial topper was an idea from pal Saucy . And of course they had "love potion" in pink sugar rimmed cups.

We ended with The Frog Prince puppet show and some giggles!! Hope you girls had fun!

Thank you Auntie Viki for ALL your help!!
After supper tonight CJ thought it time to demolish the Love Shack, she thought it was pretty tasty!!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Valentine's Party

CJ has invited a few of her friends to a Valentine's Party. Here are some very quick last minute invites I threw together in the 30 minutes that CD was asleep. Little turkey thinks that she's a big girl and doesn't need to nap anymore.

Stay tuned to see what fun we've planned for Sunday's party.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Happy (or Not So Much) Groundhog Day!


I did not need to see my shadow to know that winter is hanging on. It was a darn chilly walk through the park to work today. Before I left for the morning I drew little groundhogs on all our thumbs and taught CJ a little poem. (Not my thumb, Moto-Moto's)


I'm a little groundhog
Furry and brown
I'm popping up to look around
If I see my shadow down I go
Then six more weeks of winter OH NO!

Charmed Life

How lucky I am to be able to get together and craft with a great bunch of ladies. I attended a charm bracelet party hosted by Sassy and Saucy, look at the darling little home-made Valentine from Saucy, and the cupcake and strawberry shortcake by Sassy . They both smelled like strawberry!! They are giving away one of our fabulous charm bracelets, pop over, leave a comment and they will let the lucky winner know on Tuesday.

Here are the charms that I made ~ chocolates and sugar cookies.


There was talk of learning how to use our new Christmas cameras better ... I'm up for a little Canon Workshop, just let me know when and I'll be there!