CD's PJ Birthday Party

CD had so much fun with her friends, running around and climbing on the play structure! She is such a big girl now!
We played "Who Stole the Cookie", four corners, and read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff (one of my favorites).

Sharing her special day with some special people.
Even the bigger girls had fun! Look at how the Sprout is admiring the birthday girl!!

"Little cakes" were made using the wonderful instruction of Saucy!

Big sister decorated these!

Milk and cookie favors.
This was a wedding favor idea I found somewhere but fit perfectly with our pj party theme. The poem reads "It is a delicious moment, certainly, that of being nestled in bed and feeling that you should drop gently into sleep. Sweet Dreams!" Guests also left with a story book to cuddle up with and enjoy.

Thank you to everyone who made our little girl's special day a great one!
Thanks to Sassy's McDreamy for bringing the Sprout,
hope he's feeling better!

A Treasured Farewell

It occurred to me that CJ has been out of school for a month already!

Her end of year farewell was a pirate theme which she was thrilled with, she and Moto-Moto play pirates regularly. She had the perfect outfit to wear ~ her pink glitter skull & crossbones shirt, jean skirt
& white with black heart-crossbone leggings.


Our teacher gifts were treasure boxes filled with sand, gold coins, jewels, a special treasure map thank-you from CJ and a gift card for Starbucks. (Hope you all enjoyed a cool beverage on us!)




For the snack table we made pirate ship & skull-crossbones cookies.


After a trip to the spray park CJ came home to a surprise
"Welcome Summer" banner
(wish I could remember who to give credit to.)


It's hard to believe that summer holidays are nearly 1/2 over!!!
Off for a splash tomorrow with The Sprout & Sassy!

Happy Earth Day!!


My darling 5 year old decided that it would be a good idea

to help our Mother Earth by picking up litter.

She got together some friends at recess time to start and

told them "if you don't know what it is, don't pick it up!"

This evening we went back

to her school armed with some good

garbage pickin' tools that Moto-Moto made for her.

I am so proud of her for thinking of this idea on

her own and being so respectful & responsible

to the environment.

She was a little disgusted...

but only because "people would be so rude not to use the garbage cans."

She thinks that perhaps if there were more places in the playground

for kids to put their garbage it would help.

She is such a good girl! When she saw the previews for

Disney'sEARTH movie she got thinking ... then got really MAD about the world

changing and animal's habitats being destroyed.

What a wonderfully caring little girl we have!

We are so lucky!!

We also had a little fun and made some

EARTH Day Cookies.

Valentine's Day is on the Way

The girls and I whipped up some Valentine sugar cookies. I actually followed a recipe (I don't do that very often) and they turned out pretty good! Of course CJ did most of the decorating so they looked fabulous!

And I needed help with the dishes so the girls started by "washing" the icing off everything! They really are sweet enough already and didn't need the extra!!

M& M Pretzel Treats

We are still busy here at Mrs. Claus' kitchen. Every year I think we have things done and I'm still "making a mess" as Bob says! Here is what CJ & I made this morning. I saw it on some blog awhile ago and can't remember where so if this is your idea THANK YOU and leave me a comment. You need waffle pretzels which we found at Superstore, HUGS and M&Ms which were are Walmart.

Place the waffle pretzel on a baking sheet. Get your helper to unwrap the HUGS and put one in the middle of each pretzel. Place in a 200 degree oven for about 3 minutes. Make sure you watch them, you only want them to melt a LITTLE or you'll have a mess!

Take them out, press a M&M in the middle of each one. Let them set again. (If you live somewhere cold just throw them out on the deck for a few minutes and that'll do it. NOT too long or your M&Ms will crack ~ ours did.)

I think they look kind of fancy ~ Saucy will be proud!

Scrap Jessi's Cookie Swap

Eggnog Tarts

4 dozen baked tart shells
2 cups whipping cream
1 large package instant vanilla
3 cups eggnog
Nutmeg

Prepare pudding following instructions on the box substituting eggnog for milk. Let stand 5-10 minutes. In another bowl whip cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar to taste. Fold ½-2/3 of the whipped cream into the pudding. Fill each tart shell with the pudding mixture, add a dollop of whipped cream & garnish with a sprinkle of nutmeg. Keep refrigerated. Can be frozen but you'll eat them all before they get there.

Red Velvet Oreos

2 boxes Red Velvet Cake Mix

4 eggs

3/4 cup cooking oil

Cream Cheese Icing

Mix together. It will be a stiff cookie dough. Roll into 1/2 inch balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet leaving lots of room for them to spread out. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Cool cookies completely. Use cream cheese icing to "sandwich" two cookies together. Store in an airtight container and they will stay soft. You can roll the edges in crushed candy cane to make them look pretty (though the cookies are quite sweet and don't really need it).

Check out http://scrappyjessi.blogspot.com/ for more yummy cookie recipes.