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! ;)

6 Ways to Get Your Kids Ready for Back to School!

This post is sponsored by Bayer. To make sure these products are right for you, always read and follow the label.

Summer has already come to an end here in Utah and although we've already started school, I know it's just around the corner for my friends back in Canada! Getting your child ready to go back to school may feel like a full-time job, but with these helpful tips they will be ready to go back and have fun in no time!

1. Get Back into A Sleep Routine

The Printer Ink Solution!

We use our printer a lot in this house! We've gone through several printers, each with their own special features, but the one thing that has always been a big nuisance, no matter the printer, is ink! Buying replacement ink cartridges can be just as expensive as the printer itself!

Our Printer Ink Problem

This was a big issue with our last printer, which wouldn't let us print with black ink unless all of the colour cartridges were working. That printer was designed so that ink was being used up even when we weren't printing things, to keep the nozzle clear and wet. We went through so many colour cartridges each year, that we finally decided it would just be cheaper to get a new printer!

Cartridge-Free Printer

It was at this point that Ken's parents told him about their new printer with Epson's new "Eco Tank" technology. These Eco Tank printers are designed to work without cartridges! When Ken told me about it, we knew this was the ink solution we had been searching for- NO MORE CARTRIDGES! The printer has refillable tanks on the side of it that you simply top up any time they get low.

Enough Ink for 2 Years

The printer we got was the Epson ET-3600 and it has everything we need in a printer. It comes with two sets of ink bottles (one to fill your printer with, and one to refill it with later). The ink that comes in the box is enough for up to 2 years of printing (up to 8500 pages). To put this in perspective, that's equivalent to about 50 ink cartridge sets!!

Back to School Clothes Haul & a Contest!

I loved back to school shopping when I was younger! It was an opportunity to go out and get some new things and usually to have a mommy daughter date in the process. This year I spent some time with each of my daughters, looking for clothes for the Fall.  We're still on the hunt for some things, but with a special contest going on, I wanted to share with you what we found at Carter's | OshKosh. They've got a lot of cute, colourful clothes right now and we've always been happy with their quality and durability so they're a favourite place to shop! Make sure you read to the end of the post because you don't want to miss the contest!

Talia is headed straight into those tween years and her tastes are changing. I was quite happy to be able to find cute shirts with sayings on them that she liked and I found appropriate.  The "Best Day Ever" shirt in the photo above was one of her picks along with this "Free Spirit" shirt with gold accents.  She styled it with her own jean jacket, some new moccasins, and a pair of OshKosh Moto Jeggings.

Chocolate Chip Cookies from My Childhood

These are my childhood cookies! Here's simple recipe & tutorial for chocolate chip cookies that you can freeze for later!

With school around the corner, I've been thinking about how I will try and organize school lunches and other meals. I've been pinning ideas of meals and snacks that can be made ahead and frozen for future use.  I haven't done much with freezer meals in the past, but I think it would help a lot if I could get ahead on some of these things!

The first thing I decided to make was chocolate chip cookies. This is the one recipe I remember helping with most when I was a child and we always used the same recipe from my mom's cookbook. Over the years, my sister Amber got really into making them and made some adjustments to the recipe to perfect it to our liking.

So today, I give you: Chocolate Chip Cookies from my Childhood! :)

We usually double the recipe, so the recipe I'm sharing with you will make approximately 5 dozen cookies (perfect for freezing!)  I made these today and we kept one dozen out and I froze 4 dozen.

Here's what you'll need:

Fridge Organization for School Lunch-Making with Frigidaire Gallery Custom-Flex & A Giveaway!

I've been working on organizing my whole house (it seems to be an ongoing project that never really ends).  I wrote last month about how I've organized my container cupboard so that it actually stays organized and today I wanted to share a little about how I've organized my fridge to make school lunch-making easier.

Organization Tip:

As I continue to find better ways to organize areas of my house, I'm finding it helpful to think about:

- When I use things
- Where I am when I use them
- Which things I use together  

This helps me to figure out the best places to keep things. 

Back to School and Home Alone!

Yesterday was the first day of school here. Here are my little students, ready to go:

I surprised myself with how much I was able to do before they left. I had ideas of things to do to make the day special and fun for them, but I wasn't sure that I would have the time to do them. The night before, Talia asked me to paint her nails and I did, then Katrina wanted the same but we were out of time, but I actually had time to do them before school in the morning. When I took them to school, I overheard Katrina happily telling her little friend (who was a boy) about her painted nails :)

I managed to crank out a fun breakfast that I saw online (apple shaped pancakes) and I made some little apple place-mats for our dinner that night and got out some cute napkins and cups and straws. Dinner was not fancy (it's so not my area of expertise or enjoyment).. we had "dippy eggs" and toast ;) Then we went to a local frozen yogurt shop (where you get to serve yourself & choose from lots of toppings) for a special treat.

Intentions

This summer I had a goal to do a lot of fun things with the girls to try to make happy memories for them. I made a plan at the beginning of the season, we made summer bucket lists and we talked about what we could do that would cost us the least. We did most of what I wanted to do and I'm really happy with the way that it went! Towards the end of the summer though, I started to think about how intentional I had been with making fun memories and though I felt good about that, I realized that I had let some other things slide a bit (we hadn't been very good about reading scriptures together daily or doing family prayer each day). I think those things are very important for our family, so I decided that I needed to be more intentional about fitting those things in, as we move into the school year.

Goals

Ken and I talked and decided that with the way his schedule is right now, we could all wake up at 7am each morning and have family scripture study and prayer together, to start the day. It's day two and we're going strong ;) haha I feel good about this goal and I think it's going to work as long as his schedule stays like this (we'll see what happens when he graduates in a few months- adjustments may have to be made).

Changes

It's hard to believe that I've really come to this point of having both of my kids at school all day, every school day. Katrina's in grade one and Talia's in grade three. I won't have any little side kicks with me during the weekdays anymore! I'm looking forward to the extra time I will have to get things done and hopefully keep things more in order in our home. I'm working on figuring out how best to manage my time so that I can be most present with my family when the girls (and Ken) come home from school. I have lots of ideas but instead of sharing them now, I'll share them when/if I do them!

Although I'm excited for the extra productive time I will have, I am also sad to see my little munchkins go for so much of the week. I have really enjoyed having them home during the summer. I can't let myself think too deeply about it, or I'm likely to cry, so I just stop myself whenever my thoughts try to go there!

Have you hit that stage when all of your kids are off to school?
If so, what have you learned along the way about how to make the most of your time both while they're at school and when they're home?

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How to Make Your Own School Name Labels

If you're in a pinch and you don't have time to buy school name labels, or you just want to save the money and make them yourself, here's a very easy way to do it!  (I'll also share a link at the end to a discount from a great company to buy them from if you'd rather not make your own!)
Talia got a new set of markers for school and was very excited about it. I wanted to label them, but didn't have any marker-sized name labels on hand.

So, I did something that anyone with a printer, some paper, and some tape could do ;)

Easy DIY School Name Labels

How to Make School Name Labels Yourself

I started by typing her name in a word processor and printing it to make sure my size estimation would fit on the marker. When that worked out, I copied & pasted her name a few more times than I had markers (I had a feeling I'd need extras) and printed.



Supplies:

- Markers
- Scissors
- Scotch Tape
- Printer & Paper

Next, all you do is trim each name into a little strip and pick it up with a piece of tape like this:



Then wrap the tape around your marker like so:



And repeat for each marker. So easy, so done!




So far the labels are lasting well, and I have a feeling they'll stay on for a long time.
Even if they start to wear out though, it wouldn't be hard to re-do these.

[2 Years later, and they are still going strong!]

Name Labels Discount Code

If you're just not interested in doing it yourself, I recommend Mabel's Labels! We like to use them for a lot of our products and they last great, even through the wash! This is an affiliate link for Mabel's Labels. Try this link for free shipping.

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First Day of School

She's gone!



Will she be excited when she gets to school? Will Talia stick with her as long as possible and show her where to go? Will she be nervous or scared or too shy to talk? Will she remember to give her teacher the papers I signed? Will she tell the teacher when she needs to use the potty? Will she be able to open her apple sauce? Will she ask the lunch helper if she needs help? Will her shoe fall off again during recess like it did when she ran to the bus this morning? Will she pay attention and know what she's supposed to do? Will she have fun? Will she come home with a big smile on her face?

These thoughts are running through my mind on a loop, but deep down, I think I feel okay. It helps that she got on the bus holding her big sister's hand and that they sat together (waving, blowing kisses, and signing "I love you" to me). I know Talia will take care of her, and I know her kindergarten teacher is good. Even if she is too shy today for some things, I think she'll be just fine after a few days of getting used to it all. *sigh*

I can't wait to see them get off the bus this afternoon!

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A Summer Schedule

Summer has begun and I am proud of myself for starting it with a schedule in place that I think will actually work for us! Last year I spent time making an elaborate schedule that included times, and every moment of the day was assigned to an activity... I think it lasted ONE day before we completely ignored it (though it remained on the wall until school had started, when I shrugged my shoulders, took it down, rolled it up and tossed it.. trying not to feel too much like a failure.

Well, those trial & error moments actually are helpful! It may have taken me 7 years of parenthood to figure it out, but I think I'm on to a scheduling approach that will work for me/us!

Here's What We're Trying:

I ordered a Daily Schedule Pocket Chart by Scholastic (from Amazon).
Then I printed some adorable schedule cards (free from Cara at The First Grade Parade, here).



I'm not scheduling things by time- just by order (everything is less stressful in our world when we go at our own pace!) and the schedule changes every day! I printed a "field trip" card that gets used whenever we get in the car to go somewhere (whether it's something "normal" like grocery shopping or something exciting like a trip to the beach).

Morning 5

We have a "Morning 5" card that stays in place every day, right after breakfast. I heard about this from another blogger, but I don't have the link saved, so I unfortunately can't give her credit, but if I find it again, I will add it to the post! For our Morning 5, there are 5 things the girls need to do to get ready for their day. When they have completed their five things, they come & give me a hug. At that point, I will style their hair (they brush it themselves, but often I will do more to it ;) and check to make sure that their 5 things are done well enough.

When they are finished those 5, they get to play until I am ready for the day. (I'm usually the last one done since I'm helping them ;) We have our list of 5 things on a list posted outside the girls' bedrooms
(shown below).



When I am ready, we do a sort of "opening exercises" for the day. We start with a song and a prayer and read a story from the scriptures. Then we do calendar time. I will post about this soon.

That's the end of the "every day" stuff. The rest of the day will vary depending on what we have planned.
I bought some workbooks for the girls to do some "schoolwork" each day- they are actually having a lot of fun with it!



I am loving this schedule so far because the girls know what to expect, and so do I. I am much better at getting more done when I have something to follow (and the girls keep me accountable ;) I have a good feeling about this schedule- we've already been sticking to it longer than we stuck to last year's summer schedule ;)

Do you have a schedule (written or in your mind) for your summer days?
If you post it, what's your approach?
I'd love to hear your ideas & what has or hasn't worked for you!

Tutorial Tuesday: Graduation Hat Treats!

This has been Talia's last year of Kindergarten!!!

My baby is graduating from Senior Kindergarten, and I can hardly believe it!


But it's going to happen whether I'm in denial or not, so I'm celebrating (even when I sometimes feel like crying)! I found this recipe from the Life Made Delicious website for mini cupcake mortarboards and decided to make them for Talia's class. I go in and volunteer every other Friday morning, so last Friday I brought them. They were so cute! :)




Here's what I used:



- cake mix (chocolate)
- ready-made frosting
(sort of- I only had vanilla, so I had to add cocoa!! ;)
- fruit leather
- Smarties
(if you're in the U.S., you could do M&Ms or something like that)
- Chirardelli chocolate squares with caramel inside
(you can use anything square, but I could NOT find square cookies!! I looked at 3 or 4 different stores with no luck! Finally I decided to just spend the money on a box of After Eights (even though the majority of the kids probably wouldn't like mint). I went to the drug store to get them & found that these Chirardelli squares were on sale for 97 cents because they were "best before June 30th" ... perfect!!! :)

So, I started by making the mini cupcakes.
Then I added cocoa to my vanilla icing...



...until it was chocolate enough :)



Next I cut up the fruit leather (I thought the pieces I cut & took a picture of below would be right, but I had to cut them in half, because they were too stiff, and stuck straight out the top of the hat).



I cut the muffin tops off so that they would sit flat, upside down.



Now, the assembly:
You only need a dot of frosting to stick the chocolate on
(I went overboard on the first one, shown in the picture below ;)



...and then a dot on top of the chocolate, to "glue" the fruit leather & Smartie onto:



(Notice I had to hold the fruit leather down? That's why I cut the fruit leather strip in half- lengthwise- after the first one. Then it was "droopy" enough)




I love making fun food! :)
And the kids in Talia's class loved them, too :)
What a fun way to celebrate this little graduation in her life.

Disclosure: I am part of the Life Made Delicious Blogger program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.