Friday, November 24, 2017

25 Things I'm Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone had a great day spending time with family and Friends. When I look at my life, there is so much to be thankful for, so much we've been blessed with.  I believe the good and the bad, the bitter and the sweet, the overflow and shortage all work together to teach us gratefulness.  I might not know it all the time, but I'm thankful for it.  Here's 25 Things I'm Thankful For 


1.  Family

2.  Everything God has removed from my life that wasn't for my good.

3.  Creativity

4.  A Voice to motivate, uplift, and share

5.  A home.
6.  Health that hasn't failed me

7.  My flaws no matter how big I think they are.  They make me me.

8.  Food

9.  Second Chances

10. Mistakes that provide opportunities to learn
11.  My pastor who not only teaches but truly lives the word of God

12.  A washer and dryer.  It takes it to tear up in a family of 7 to be really thankful. Lol

13.  A husband that takes every aspect of the job seriously.

14.  To be able to stay at home with my tiny humans 

15.  Music -all the feels


16. Friends

17.  Books

18.  Pictures that capture all the phases and all the moments that I don't want to forget.

19.  Clothes - I'm a messy crafty mama so I don't wear real clothes much, but I've been on point lately. Lol

20.  Coupons that help me provide savings for my family and bless others



21.  Amazon prime and UPS because twins and store meltdowns 

22.  A teacher spirit/teaching supplies to be able to encourage, reinforce and challenge learning for my crew.

23.  The struggle - wouldn't be where we are without

24.  Patience - ^^^^

25.  Life - to make the absolute best of the best way we know how and the best way for us

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Not So Spooky Halloween Food and Lunchbox Ideas!

Fall is my absolute favorite season.  The clothes, the decorations, the the crafts and activities, the crisp air and crunchy leaves...I love every single thing about the idea of Fall.  Every single thing except for the fact that it's still 200 degrees in south Georgia (when I started this post)  Fall has finally somewhat arrived. We're where it's cold in the morning, 90 degrees in the day, and back down to 40 degrees at night.  That's the south for ya. I took the babies for a run the other day, prior to our Fall weather greeting, and I was sweating before we started.   So it was taking me a while to get into the Fall mood and I hadn't even begin to make some of the lovely freaky Fall food for the littles.  Say that three times fast. 

So to encourage my Fall mood and to give you guys some fun ideas, I've pulled together some of the fun foods we've been making and some made in years past for Halloween! 

Today, my littlest monsters were all happily giggling and making lots of messes helping in the kitchen.  Never mind my little Halloween sign back there.  I opened it up and it was missing an A.  I keep saying that I'm going to let Caleb color me one, but I haven't.  I think it fits in with the chaos around here anyway.  We are making little ghost and jackolantern cakes here.



Ghost Sandwiches!
Cookie cutters are your best friends for making quick and fun treats for any occasion.  I pulled out the ghost cookie cutter and some raisins and turned our ordinary sandwiches into fun creations.


Jack-o-lantern Blueberry Muffins!
Holiday food molds are another favorite of mine.  They come in a lot of different forms and designs and I would love to have them all!  However, the way my account set up.....
Therefore, the trick to these is buying them after the holiday when they are on clearance, preferably 75% off or more.  I always go in and check the holiday clearance for things that I want but would rather not pay full price for.


Mummy Dogs!
The kids will love these!  They are just as fun for them to make as they are to eat.  Cut up dough/crescent strips and wrap hot dogs in.  Bake and add candy eyeballs for fun.

  
Candy Corn Fruit cups!
Now I'm not going to say I like candy corn because I believe it belongs in the trash.  Note that one glass on the table with Recess pieces!  Layer pineapples, mandarin oranges and whip cream in a cup.  Add candy corn for decoration and you're all set.



Pumpkin Pancakes!
Again cookie cutters here made breakfast just a tad bit better.  Raisin eyes, a candy nose, and a sausage mouth pulled this pumpkin breakfast together.


Love how Caleb added whipped cream eyebrows here.


Silly Face Tacos for Taco Tuesday?
Yes!  Use candy eyes, a food marker to draw a mouth, and arrange the cheese for hair!  I love these.  They are almost too cute to eat.  You could always replace the eyes with something else.




Cinnamon Roll Pumpkins!
Make a pack of cinnamon rolls as usual.  Use food coloring to change your icing.  Add raisins for a face and we used a spinach leaf up top.  We can pretend that makes this healthy. 



Owl Toast!
Now, I discovered these a while back and decided that I had to give them a try.  Variations of fruit make the horns, wings, nose and eyes.  Cereal makes the little feat.hers at the bottom.  I can't wait to make these for the twins.  I can just see their facial expressions.  They probably won't eat it at all and throw it on the floor. lol


Halloween Hot Chocolate Station
Since we have finally been blessed with some cooler temps, hot chocolate is back on the menu.  Our little station usually consists of a few snacks and different little goodies to put in the hot chocolate.


This is this year's station. 



These little ghost and jack-o-lantern cakes are what the littles were cooking in the first pic.  We had little cakes and hot cocoa tonight.  If you saw my Instastory, you might remember my epic fail on these. lol



Spider-Man Waffles
If you have a Spider-Man fan, then they are going to love these!  First, you can find these waffles at Walmart.  They are Eggo brand and berry flavored.  I cut grapes in half to make a spider for the "web."  Cut the tops off strawberries and add icing for the eyes.  It's easier to outline with black icing first, then fill with the white.




Ghost Marshmallows
Use marshmallow bags to stuff marshmallows in.  Then, draw a face on the outside of the bag.  We gave these out as preschool favors one year.



Ghost Cheese
Same concept here just with cheese sticks.



Pumpkin Patch Breakfast
Mini pancakes on a scrambled egg vine technically counts as a pumpkin patch, right?  Use food markers to make faces and pick away!



Witch Hats
We have a mini Halloween party every year and I like to deck the table out.  However, the rest of my party pics are somewhere in a sea of many. lol  So here's witch hats!  These are made from those fudge cookies that are just turned over and a Hershey's kiss.  Use peanut butter as your glue.




Fall and Halloween Lunch Ideas
As you already know, I love packing lunches and I love challenging myself to make themed lunches. I also love the look of excitement on little faces as they open their lunch boxes.  I'm only doing them now for Caleb as the other too have outgrown them.  However, they still think it's kind of cool.  #winning  So Caleb and the twins will be showered with my creative side in the meantime.




One of the easiest ways to make a lunch more festive is by adding a Halloween napkin.  Add a lot of the methods from above to give your lunches a holiday makeover.  Holiday molds, cookie cutters, food markers, candy eyes easily transform lunches.



For more school lunches, click here.




Create silly or spooky faces with sandwiches.