If you arrived into my classroom when I was teaching, you would have been greeted with a giant Eeyore on my desk. It should be no surprise to you that my gloomy old pal was the first Disney “E” that came to mind. After that, I went a little outside of the box while looking at old magical moments from adventures to Walt Disney World.
Be sure to stop by Focused on the Magic by clicking on the button above to join in the Disney magic this week.
Each year, I ask the boys to think about the kind of cake and theme that they want for their birthday. Every year, I hold my breath waiting and wondering what they will select. Last year, NHL wanted lions and it was a challenge, but we made it happen. This year, he is really into Harry Potter and the Muppets. I was not too sure where this would go. At first, I was going to attempt sorting hat cupcakes, but as time crunched for the family party on Labor Day, my patience dissolved. Thank goodness NHL agreed that he liked the Kermit the Frog cupcakes that I found online. The original that I saw was posted on Simply Being Mommy.
NHL agreed that he liked them. Before we settled on anythingm I wanted to purchase items to make the crucial Kermit eyeballs. They were the focal point of these cupcakes. To do this, I ordered black edible markers and we bought some Mentos. The black marker worked beautifully on the Mentos, but there was a catch. The kids did NOT like the strong mint flavor. I reached out to my Facebook and Twitter friends for ideas on other possibilities. In the end, I finally let go of my type A personality and settled for cute, functional, and something the kids would like.
Yes, I settled on white chocolate melting wafers. They were not perfect because the texture was not as smooth as the Mentos, but they worked. I had to go quickly because it was a warm day and the marker did not dry on the rough surface of the chocolate. Once they were done, they were placed inside the refrigerator to chill while I baked some cupcakes. The band-aids shown below were simply inspiration and were not used since baking went smoothly.
Cupcake baking went according to plan. Once they were all cooled, the cupcakes were placed into the amazing Cupcake Courier
I found that it was easiest to frost and decorate the cupcakes while they were sitting on the shelves of the courier. Trying to place them back in after they were finished was not the easiest. Here is how they looked as I was working and finishing up.
The best part was that transporting the cupcakes was easy. I put the entire courier into the refrigerator for the night before, then pulled it out, and we were ready to head to the lake. The cupcakes made it all the way there and it was easy to pull out the trays to display for everyone to select the Kermit that they wanted.
Now, I brace myself to see what cupcake creation the boys ask for next, or what I may try now that I have my new courier, corer, and other goodies. If you have any suggestions, I would love to know.
Dear NHL and JSL,
A few weeks ago, we were out at a craft store looking for a gift for someone. At one point, NHL looked at me and asked to let him pick out some yarn for a project. You had a specific item in mind. One of your stuffed friends wanted a blanket like I had made myself. It was impossible for me to say no. We went to the yarn section and you picked out something extremely bright. It was called Crayon and I think I know why. I quickly knit up a small blanket for on your bed.
Once you saw that your brother had a blanket for someone, you also wanted one JSL. I realized this when we were at the craft store getting supplies for the Kermit cupcakes. Since we were there, you selected the yarn that you liked. There seemed to be a theme going here with your colors. Yours was actually called Psychedelic. I really loved the way it stripes and turned out. When I finished yours the other night, I left it by your pillow for you to find in the morning.
It was a lot of fun seeing both of your faces when I let you select the yarn and then again when I was finished with the items. I guess it really is hard for me to say no to something like this. Of course, now I recall hearing the two of you mention new scarves for the winter. Hmmmm…
Love,
Taking vitamins is something that we really try to do every day with the boys (I am bad and often forget mine). My five year old son will often get sick of a type and refuse to chew them based on the flavor, color, or any other reason under the sun. Thank goodness NHL is really flexible about vitamins and likes to try different things. He’s also super at reminding us as well. When we were offered the opportunity to try the new alternaVites for kids, NHL said “Yes please!” right away.
This new product for children is a quick-melting multivitamin and mineral crystals that contains no sugar, artificial colors, flavors, or sweetners. One packet a day contains 17 essential vitamins and minerals that are formulated for children 4 and up. There are two kid friendly flavors available – strawberry bubblegum and raspberry cotton candy. They are certified kosher parve (perk for us) and do not contain egg, milk, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish, or shellfish.
The packets are versatile and can be taken by kids a variety of ways. The key that NHL learned quickly, you must gently and carefully sprinkle the melts onto the tongue. You can not pour too quickly, or raspberry cotton candy power will fly around the room (we speak from experience here).
Of course, you can be creative when taking them. For kids that may not like the texture of a powder, they can be mixed into smoothies, yogurt, pudding, or shakes. They can be sprinkled onto strawberries or other fruits. You can even put them onto a spoon for a child to carefully lick off. I think we will be trying this for JSL since he is not a fan of the melting on your tongue method and I would prefer not to use gummies. NHL likes them so far in our trial and if he did not, well they he would not remind me and ask for them.
alternaVites Kids Giveaway:
alternaVites would like one lucky reader to try a month of the alternaVites Kids at your home. To enter, please use the Rafflecopter below and be sure to read the rules listed. If you would like to purchase alternaVites, you can use the discount code moms20 for 20% off your order at the alternavites.com website.
To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section and Rafflecopter. Giveaway begins September 17, 2012 and ends September 25, 2012. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to US residents only.
Disclosure: I received a sample of alternaVites Kids to facilitate this review as part of a campaign for Global Influence. No other compensation was received and all opinions are 100% my own. This giveaway is sponsored by alternaVites who will fulfill the prize package to the giveaway winner.
Monopoly sure has changed since we were children. The classic board game now comes in a wide variety of themes. I remember celebrating when they released a Disney edition right around the time TechyDad and I got married (we have it stored away). Then, they released the game for sporting teams, cities, states, and locations all over the world. Monopoly has been computerized, made into a Nintendo game, and has a junior version for children. Then, there are newer ones that have been released.
NHL is interested Monopoly again – only the not specifically for kids edition. He had played the junior version, but recently was given the Monopoly Here & Now game. It was really interesting to check it out. The familiar old top hat is gone and now you can select more modern items like a laptop computer or a cell phone. These are a few of them below.
NHL had fun setting things up. I loved looking around the board at the new properties that you can buy. Rather than Reading Railroad, now you can purchase airports like LAX. Of course, I had a favorite that was not even the infamous dark blue “Boardwalk” location, check it out:
A girl can dream right? Seriously, can you imagine buying Walt Disney World for 2.4 million dollars? If you are wondering, the Boardwalk position is held by Times Square in New York City. Oh and yes, the dollar values are a lot different. Check out the money:
This was probably the only part that kept messing me up. I was so used to $500 being my maximum value, not $5,000,000! So the recent Monopoly fun got me thinking for this weeks question:
If you could make up a property to place on your dream Monopoly board, what would it be and why? Oh and for giggles, what figure would you love to be you when you play the game?
P.S. Please be sure to enter my current giveaway for books 1-7 of the Bindi Wildlife Adventures.
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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
Aloha #220
