Teddy Bear's Picnic

We had a Teddy Bear's Picnic party at our house recently!

Here's what we did:

(more in order of pictures than of how we did it ;)1. Each visitor got a party hat for themselves & a matching one for their Teddy Bear.
2. Treat bags consisted of party blowers, teddy grahams, gummie bears, play doh, and silly bandz.


3. We played pin the bowtie on the Teddy Bear.
4. We played Musical Chairs (no losers- when you were "out" you went to get your face painted)
5. We played "Hullabaloo" while waiting for parents to pick kids up


6. We opened a big picnic basket to find dishes for each child & their bear, and set up the picnic
7. We made a teddy bear cake!


8. We played "spin the rootbeer bottle" to decide which gift to open.
9. I marveled at how cute the kids were, watching Talia open her gifts. They were all so involved!

Recharged

Yesterday I got to go with my little sister to pick my parents up at an airport across the border in the U.S. (While we've been dealing with "snowmagedon", they've been in Florida for 10 days- lucky them!) We left early (by several hours) so that we could do some shopping. It was great! I got stuff with my birthday money & it was fun to spend time with my sister :)

Since we got home late, I stayed over at my parents' house & drove home this morning. Yesterday was a nice little break from Mommyland, and a chance to recharge my batteries, so to speak. Now I'm back to regular life, having some computer time (and eating leftover ice cream cake) while the girls "nap" (actually I can hear them singing together in their room- which is cute, but if I hear footsteps, I'm going up there to lay down the law ;)

It's good to be back :)

The CSN Stores Gift Code giveaway is ending tomorrow. If you're reading this, and you want an extra entry, just go, post a comment on the giveaway post that says "recharge" and you'll get another chance at winning. :) Thanks for reading!

Rainbow Cake

For Talia's "Family Party", she wanted a rainbow theme. This is the rainbow cake that I made for her: I only did one layer of round cake, and that really wasn't a big enough cake for all of the family we had over (luckily we had some ice cream to go with it, but next time, I hope I'll remember that we need something larger!) I was really happy with the way that it turned out, though! Now that I've made a couple of cakes recently, I'm feeling ready to conquer something bigger... I've got plans for an even cooler rainbow cake for St. Patrick's day... ;)

If you're looking for other rainbow ideas, there are a bunch in my St. Patrick's Day Ideas Roundup!

Teddy Bear Cake

We needed a Teddy Bear Picnic Cake for Talia's Teddy Bear's Picnic Birthday Party this year!
Here's how I made a Teddy Bear Face cake:

Teddy Bear Cake

You can tell from the pictures how I made it, I think. It's a very simple teddy bear cake design that anyone can do without a mold or a lot of experience!

1. 'Glue' the ears on with frosting before frosting the whole cake with light brown chocolate frosting.

Teddy Bear Face Cake

2. Frost the cake with light brown frosting

3. Draw the face on with a toothpick

4. Add the darker chocolate frosting, the white for the eyes, and the chocolate chips for the middle of the eyes.

Teddy Bear Picnic Cake

Note: I would've used black for the mouth & nose, but I don't have black food colouring. I was planning to use a grass tip for the bear, to try & make it look furry, but when it was time to frost the cake, I found out I don't have one of those tips ;) So, I improvised.

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Other Great Cake Posts:

Tangled Barbie Cake

Extra Easy Rainbow Layer Cake

Watermelon Ice Cream Cake

Kit Kat Candy Pile Cake

Ladybug Cake

Cake Frosted with a Rainbow on Top

Candy Cane Cake

5 Minute Microwave Chocolate Cake (Single Serving)

Swirly Rainbow Inside Cake

Pumpkin Roll (complete with photo & video tutorial)

Valentine Treat Toppers & Candy Bar Wrappers

I love this idea I've seen crop up all over blogland, of printable treat toppers. I also like the printable candy bar wrappers. Here are some cute Valentine ones that I have seen & bookmarked for future use:



1. Mini Treat Bag Labels from Sweet Metel Moments2. Mini Chocolate Bar Wrappers from a little lovely
3. Treat Toppers from it's a crafty life
4. Valentine Poster/Wrapper/Card from Beth at it is what it is5. Personalized Candy Wrappers from eighteen25
6. Frog Pack (includes tic tac toe game, etc.) from It's Always a Party at the Parkers
7. I missed this cute polkadot wrapper from the hands on housewife when I made the collage above:


Go check 'em out!

Caramel Skor Apple Dip

I am not a fabulous cook. I don't love to do it. Baking is another story- I guess I just like the end result better, so I'm happy to do it ;)

Anyway, I wanted to start sharing with you some of the recipes that I have tried and liked. I'm often looking recipes up online because I don't have my own tried & true recipes for very many things.

Sometimes, I'll share a photo with you, of my creation. Sometimes I will show you a photo from the original recipe share-er. Always, I will either share the recipe with you or send you straight to the recipe via link.

To start with, today I want to share with you a delicious Caramel Skor Apple Dip Recipe. (You'll notice, in keeping with my habits, this recipe does not involve cooking & is super easy ;) I've had this several times before (made by others), but didn't have my own recipe for it. My husband wanted some to add some deliciousness to our fruit feast (which we had because we had been almost completely deprived of fruit for a week). I told you, I stink at the whole cooking thing, and sometimes that spreads to the whole "providing balanced nutrition" part of mothering...

but back to the recipe....
Doesn't this look delicious??

[photo taken from the website with the recipe which I will be linking you to]

There are a lot of recipes out there for a layered dip like this one, but we wanted it all mixed together with a little skor sprinkled on top- and we found it at Zestycook.com. All you need is cream cheese, caramel, skor bits, and brown sugar. (and apples)

It is DELICIOUS. Try it. The end.

Wait... not the end... do you have a favourite fruit dip?
Cuz I would LOVE to hear about it & expand my fruit dip horizons!