La-La-Loopsey Cookies

Another thing my DD is a fan of is La-La-Loopsey.  In fact, that was the theme of last year's birthday party.  She did get a baby La-La-Loopsey doll this year from one of her great-grandma's.  I had seen these really cute cookies that looked like the button eyes.  The original recipe called for using the store bought tubes of dough, which makes sense because it's already round and easy to get the button shape.  I wanted to try the recipe we used for DD's birthday cookies again so we just used that recipe and I used a juice cup to cut them out since I didn't have a round cookie cutter.  So this is kind of a repeat post but you have to see these super cute cookies!!

DD helping pour powdered sugar and crack the egg.

One change we made this time was that we used lemon extract instead of vanilla.  I don't think I used enough extract, though because it wasn't a real strong lemon flavor.

Ready to roll!

I baked them for 5 mins and then after they come out, we used a clean straw to poke the holes.  Then we let them sit on the cookie sheet for a couple more minutes.

Here is the link to my original post then the link for the La-La-Loopsey twist:

http://www.exphome.blogspot.com/2015/02/birthday-5.html

http://onecharmingparty.com/2013/04/23/button-cookies/

 

Frozen 5

In my previous post I talked about Stage 1 of my daughter's 5th birthday party.

Stage 2 was to be a sledding party with friends but we didn't have any snow (except for hard, frozen piles) so we had to scratch that plan but it sounds like the snow is coming this week so we may need to try to throw something together this weekend.

This post will be about Stage 3 - the family birthday dinner!!  It will probably also be mostly pictures.

It's hard to tell but this is a Frozen Happy Birthday banner one of DD's friends had given her.

I decorated the top of DD's playhouse with quilt filling to make it look like snow and then I put lights underneath it to make it glow.

Our main dish was "Stone Trolls"

http://www.familyfreshmeals.com/2014/07/honey-garlic-crockpot-meatballs.html

In a deviation from the theme, DD requested pink camo cupcakes with green frosting!

 The little cake on the left was her cake to blow out a candle on.  

Elsa stood guard over the punch bowl.  

 http://foodfamilyfinds.com/under-the-sea-blue-raspberry-lemonade-sherbet-party-punch-recipe/

I used the above recipe but couldn't find raspberry-lemonade kool-aid so I thought I'd substitute tropical punch kool-aid, forgetting it was red not blue.  So the color was off but it was still yummy!

We got her a kite for her birthday and used it as decoration.  Warning: cheap kites are made cheaply.  I don't know that this will stand up to any sort of wind but she can't wait to go to Grandma's and fly her kite!

The aftermath of the food.  I was kicking myself for not getting a picture before we ate!

http://www.ramblingrenovators.ca/2014/04/a-frozen-5th-birthday-party.html#disqus_thread

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DD!!  MOMMY & DADDY LOVE YOU!!

Birthday #5

As regular readers know, I don't talk a lot about my kids on here.  In earlier posts I have detailed some of our issues with my son's allergies.  I also have a daughter and this past week she turned 5!  I'm not sure how that happened but it did and like most girls her age, she is a huge Frozen fan!!  I had planned an elaborate 3-stage birthday celebration:  Stage 1 - make snowflake cookies to take to Children's Church (I teach her Children's Church class and her birthday landed on a Wednesday so we had class on her birthday), Stage 2 - sledding party with her friends, Stage 3 - family dinner with Frozen themed foods.

This post is about Stage 1 - making cookies!!

All our yummy ingredients!!

Butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract (although any flavor could be used)

It looks like a solid chunk of dough but it was actually very crumbly.  

This was after DD smashed it together!

Glittery snowmen and hearts (we discovered we didn't have a snowflake cookie cutter) ready to take to class!  The kids liked them and I was excited to find a sugar cookie recipe I could actually make without them being too crunchy.  I'll link to the original recipe.  They make their own frosting but I didn't want to deal with that mess at church so we used sparkly, glittery sugar crystals.  The kids ate on a cheap 97 cent tablecloth and we gathered it all up and threw it away when we were done!  Success!!

http://creativedetails-eventplanning.blogspot.com/2014/10/frozen-in-california-frozen-birthday.html?m=1

I also did a birthday interview with her and here are her answers:  

 (hopefully they show up ok)

Here is the link to one I used:  http://www.agirlandagluegun.com/2012/04/party-shout-outs.html

 

Chocolate Lasanga - for a Good Cause!

Every year our church has a dessert auction to raise money to send kids to camp.  It's one of our funnest fundraisers as we all bid crazy money for sugar!

Awhile back one of my friends suggested Chocolate Lasanga as a possible blog post so I decided I would kill two birds with one stone and make it for the auction.

The auction was supposed to be last week but we had a winter storm going on so it got post-poned to this week.  

Here is a sneak peek as to one of the items available for auction:


Step 1:  

Make an oreo crust with crushed oreos and melted butter.  A food processor/blender would have made the chunks of oreo smaller but I like the old-fashioned 'rolling pin and a ziploc bag' method.

Step 2:

Mix cream cheese, a little milk, sugar and cool whip

Step 3: 

Whip up some pudding (2 small boxes with 3 1/4 cups milk)

Step 4:

Top with cool whip and mini chocolate chips

 

Ingredients:

Servings:

30

• 36 Oreo cookies
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cold milk
• 1 (12 ounce) container Cool Whip, divided
• 2 (4 ounce) packages chocolate instant pudding
• 3 1/4 cups cold milk
• 1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Begin by crushing 36 Oreo cookies. I used my food processor for this, but you could also place them in a large ziplock bag and crush them with a rolling pin. When the Oreos have turned into fine crumbs, you are done.
2. Transfer the Oreo crumbs to a large bowl. Stir in 6 tablespoons melted butter and use a fork to incorporate the butter into the cookie crumbs. When the butter is distributed, transfer the mixture to a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan. Place the pan in the refrigerator while you work on the additional layers.
3. Mix the cream cheese with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add in 2 Tablespoons of milk, and sugar, and mix well. Stir in 1 and 1/4 cups Cool Whip. Spread this mixture over the crust.
4. In a bowl, combine chocolate instant pudding with 3 and 1/4 cups cold milk. Whisk for several minutes until the pudding starts to thicken. Use a spatula to spread the mixture over the previous cream cheese layer. Allow the dessert to rest for about 5 minutes so that the pudding can firm up further.
5. Spread the remaining Cool Whip over the top. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips evenly over the top. Place in the freezer for 1 hour, or the refrigerator for 4 hours before serving.

Here is the link to the full recipe:  http://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-lasagna-502197

It was really simple and looks so yummy!  I hope it does well at the auction!

One last glimpse of the yumminess

Do You Want To Build A Snowman?

This weekend brought a lot of snow to our state.  So much so that most churches around even canceled services.  In preparation for all the snow, I decorated our refrigerator.

First a before picture:
               (You would think I had kids or something)

And after I got done decorating:

And after my DD added feet (DS helped, too but you can't see the blue swirls on Olaf's buttons - lol):

This was a super, easy fun project and I'm loving how clean the refrigerator is!  Everything is just cut out of construction paper and taped on.  The original blog used a plastic hat and other actual objects but I didn't have those items around the house and was not fighting crowds at the store again when construction paper would work just as well!

http://jeanscraftycorner.blogspot.com/2010/12/day-2-of-20-days-of-christmas-snowman.html


Happy Winter!!