Apple Shaped Oreo Cheesecake Truffles

With Fall around the corner, it felt like the right time to share these Apple Shaped Oreo Cheesecake Truffles! I have a recipe for you, but don't feel you have to make them look like apples- they're good with any coloured coating, fancy-looking or not!

It's been nearly 10 years since I threw my sister a School Themed bridal shower, and made these Oreo cheesecake truffles, dressed up to look like apples! They were so cute and it's time to revisit that recipe!

My mom & I worked together on these with a recipe from a friend of ours that is so simple & so delicious! Want to try them? I thought so! ;)

FHE Idea (Family Proclamation)

I'm posting about an FHE idea over at Chocolate on My Cranium today, as part of "Celebrating Family". You can link up your ideas over there, and enter a giveaway, too!

Treasure the Moments That Matter Most!

I love this video. It's what I strive so hard to do as a mother and a person. It's so hard to do, and I can use any reminder I can get. I hope it will inspire you to enjoy the moments today :)



I'm posting again over at HowDoesShe? today. :)
Go check it out!

Making A Parachute Out of an Umbrella

A couple of nights ago, I made a parachute out of a broken old umbrella. It was fun to be sewing again. I took pictures along the way and made a tutorial up to show you how I did it, incase you want to make one like it.

See how much fun they're having with it? ;)


The tutorial is over at HowDoesShe. If you didn't see it there yesterday, go on over & check it out! I'm excited to tell you that I'm their newest writer! I'll be posting a couple of times a month with fun ideas like the ones I share here. I hope you'll come over & visit me there :) (and you should probably read that blog all the time anyway, if you don't already, cuz it's full of great ideas! ;)

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday I guest posted on HowDoesShe? again. Go check it out & leave me some comment love if you've got a minute! :)

The post is on 10 Ways to Include Young Kids in Spring Cleaning. I'd love to hear ways that you've had your kids help out with spring cleaning!


Talia, washing the cupboard doors.

If you missed my first post on HowDoesShe (about making a storybook with your child as the author/illustrator), it's here.

How Does She Publish A Storybook?

You guys, I am so excited to be posting over at HowDoesShe today! I've been following this blog for a long time and I love the ideas they share over there. It's exciting to be invited to share some of mine! Here's a sneak peak at what I'll be posting about: This is a really fun project that Talia & I worked on together, so you won't want to miss it- but you'll have to click over to check it out- and I hope you'll take a moment to leave some comment love! ;) 

Feature Time

Talia's Teddy Bear Picnic Party is being featured today over on "Or So She Says".

I'd love it if you'd stop over & leave a comment!

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...and while you're actively participating ;)

Enter the My Lip Stuff Giveaway (it ends soon!)

And Tell Me Something About You!

Feature at ABC & 123

Hey everyone, I'm being featured today, over at ABC & 123, one of my favourite blogs to get fun ideas from! Go on over to check the post out if you'd like, and while you're there, have a look around! They've got some great ideas there from all kinds of fun blogs!

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If you're visiting my blog from ABC & 123, don't miss some of the fun things going on here:

Yesterday's Giveaway Post.

The Christmas Sharing Time which is a great way to find and share great ideas- check it out & add your own great ideas!

Love Letter Books (Guest Post on Or So She Says)

My guest post on Or So She Says goes up today! Please head over there and check it out! I'd love it if you would support me by commenting over there and letting me know what you think! :)

The post is about Love Letter Books- you'll have to click over there to see the details!



And despite the fact that this is not Friday, I want to do a little feature on Or So She Says:


I've subscribed to this blog for quite a few months now and I've really enjoyed it! The whole blog is basically a collection of great ideas that are useful in all kinds of different areas of a woman's life (recipes, deals, ideas, tips tutorials, the list goes on!). They have contests over there, too, and I actually won one! (a post will come eventually about that).

Definitely check them out- I think you'll like them! (And today is a great day to check them out, with yours truly as the poster.. hint.. ;)

Number Wheel

Chasing Cheerios recently shared this Number Wheel from www.homesschoolshare.com

I printed and laminated it & then went to the dollarstore in search of wooden clothespins that I could write on. Instead I found these adorable plastic ones. And you know? I think maybe a little craftiness is rubbing off on me from all of the blogs I've been reading lately, because I thought of the idea all on my own (haha :) to gluegun these foam hearts onto the clothespins since I couldn't write the number on like you could with wooden ones.


I was pretty happy with how they turned out & I'm excited to see what Talia thinks of them. I'm thinking that when she gets tired of using them to count with, I could teach her about odd & even numbers by the white & pink hearts.

p.s. This post was featured on ABC & 123's Teaching Children to Count by 2, 5, 10 post!

Stuffed Snowman

You can find detailed instructions for this activity over at Filth Wizardry (that's where I got the idea from).

It's such a fun & cute thing to make!


It was fun to think about what we would use for each part together.
We used:
-an old baby sock for the hat (with a pom pom)
-tooth picks & pieces of the sock for the arms & mittens
-beads for buttons
-googly eyes for eyes
-pom pom for a nose
-marker to make ears, earrings, and mouth
-ribbon for the scarf/bow

Here's Talia, stuffing her old tights with toilet paper (she loved it!)


p.s. This post was featured on Totally Tots' Winter Crafty Corner!

Stained Glass Paper Trees

Today we made Stained Glass Paper Trees. I was reminded of this fun activity idea when I visited Alpha Mom's Blog.

What To Do:

- cut a tree out of construction paper
- cut holes in it (like you would a paper snowflake, or just fold here & there & cut a piece out)
- glue pieces of tissue paper on the back like this:



- hold up to the window & watch the light shine through! :)



p.s. This post was featured on ABC & 123's Holiday Crafts post!

Salt Dough Ornaments

Yesterday, we made salt dough ornaments & it was a lot of fun!
This morning, we started decorating them.
Here are a couple, on display:


I followed the recipe that Filth Wizardry posted for Salt Dough Ornaments, and we had a great time making a few of our own!
Talia loved the stirring & the kneading :)


We rolled the dough and cut it with cookie cutters. We made holes in them with a straw (for hanging, and for weaving- as seen in the first photo). Then we waited (too long- these things take a couple of hours! :) for them to bake.



p.s. This post was featured on ABC & 123's Kid Made Holiday Decorations post!

Paper Chain for the Christmas Tree

Yesterday we started our advent calendar. Talia made her first Christmas card, and I think it'll be a daily thing, to put a cheerio into the cup each day after Talia gets her treat out, so that Katrina can pick something out, too. :) She wanted to be involved too!

Today we made a paper chain for the Christmas tree.

How To Do It:

- I cut construction paper into half inch strips with a scrapbooking paper cutter
- we glued the ends together to make the chain


One green paper & one red paper will get you a chain this long:

2 green papers and 2 red papers will get you a chain this long:

Talia really enjoyed helping me to put the chain on the tree!

This was a great, simple Christmas activity that I'm sure we'll do again in future years.

p.s. This post was featured on ABC & 123's Kid Made Holiday Decorations post!

Making Chocolate Truffles

While Talia worked on her computer games, I got a truffle recipe started. We worked on another activity (post coming soon on this) and played with Katrina while waiting for the mixture to stiffin in the fridge, and then we worked on rolling the truffles into balls and coating them in cocoa, cinnamon, and icing sugar :)

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it yourself:

1/2 cup 35% whipping cream

1 tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

10 oz semi-sweet choc. chips

1 cup cocoa for coating (can also use icing sugar, cinnamon, shredded coconut, chopped nuts, etc.)

1. Combine cream, sugar & salt in saucepan over low heat. When bubbles form around edges of pan, turn off heat. Don't boil. Let steep for 5 min.

2. Stir in choc. chips until melted & smooth. Transfer chocolate mixture to container, cover and refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours).

3. Sift cocoa onto a plate. Using cool hands (this is important- we had to keep washing our hands in cool water to keep from making the balls all mucky!), shape chocolate into small balls, roll in cocoa to coat. Transfer to parchment paper-lined baking tray and refrigerate until firm.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

p.s. This post was featured on ABC & 123'a Christmas Baking with kids post!

Homemade Advent Calendar

Today we made ourselves an advent calendar!!

I got the idea from Filth Wizardry, and posted about it in my Christmas Ideas post a few days ago.

Preparation:

-On Saturday, Talia & I went to a local restaurant supply store and picked up some plastic shot glasses.
-Over the last couple of days, we've been making paper snowflakes.

Process:

1. I cut a piece of tinfoil for Talia to wrap around a piece of cardboard.
2. Together, we taped it onto the back
3. I cut a piece of blue construction paper, Talia covered one side with glue, I stuck it to our shiny board.
4. We decorated with some of our previously made paper snowflakes (we took turns gluing- she was getting tired of it, but wanted to direct my placement ;).
5. I glue gunned the cups to the paper
6. We took some computer time and we decided who she wanted to make Christmas cards for this year. I told her how to spell their names, she typed them out. We printed the page, I cut the names out. She folded the names & put them in the cups.


7. We got a chocolate advent calendar and had fun opening all of the doors in one shot, to get the chocolates out and put them in our own calendar :)

8. While she napped, I stamped the tissue paper with numbers and glued it onto the tops of the cups, so that she could break the tissue paper with her finger and get out the candy and the name each day of December.

(The plan is to make one Christmas card each day, so that she doesn't get sick of making a bunch in a row.)

Alternatives:

I also thought of putting a paper in each cup listing the activity for the day, but I can guess that we'll end up switching things around, so for us, that wasn't the best choice :)

I have seen this idea used as a way to put left over Hallowe'en candy to use as well. You can use it for the month of November if you're doing that, or make a giant one that goes from Hallowe'en to Christmas!