Reese's Pops (with secret ingredient)

I want to start showing you guys what I did for my baby shower! I had lots of fun making everything with a Tiger theme! I wanted to have lots of yummy treats for all of the guests. I got this idea when I was talking to my friend Natalie, and I told her that I could add veggies to ANYTHING, AND it will still taste good!!!! So I decided to try to add carrots to Reese's pops! I have already made these before on my blog in the form of Reese's Eggs. You can click on the link to see the options for dairy free or peanut free on this recipe. Also, I talk a little bit about what is actually in the store bought peanut butter cups and why it's better to just make your own! I changed the measurements a little to make room for carrot! I could have added more carrots but I was nervous to, this time, because it was for our baby shower! So if you want you could probably use two large carrots and be ok!

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter filling

• One Large carrot
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 cups Creamy Peanut butter 
• 1/4 cup butter melted
• 1 tablespoons milk 

Chocolate coating

• 2 - 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips 
• 1 tablespoon butter 

First, I put the melted butter and raw carrot in my food processor to grind it up as much as possible...we don't want chunks! Then I added the Peanut butter to the processor and blended it all together.

   

 I then added the ingredients along with the powdered sugar to a large mixing bowl. All you need is about one tablespoon of milk to make this a nice pliable dough.

 Form into balls and insert lollipop sticks or something else like it. This amount of dough makes about 34 pops. Then put in the freezer for about an hour.

 Here is where it gets interesting.... you melt your chocolate 30 seconds at a time in the microwave until its nicely melted... This is a VERY quick process....it only takes about two plus minutes and your chocolate can easily get over cooked so be careful! Once melted you dip each ball in and then I came up with sticking the sticks into a piece of foam. The chocolate needs to dry without touching a surface! 

*Another tip, if your pb ball ends up falling down the stick just bring it back to the top and push the stick sideways a little and it will stay put.

 Once they are all coated, put in fridge! Next steps are optional, if you choose not to do them then you are done and you can eat your pops whenever you want!!! 

I wanted white stripes on mine, kind of like tiger stripes. I put them on the foam close together and, after melting white chocolate, I drizzled it over the tops of the pops with a spoon!

Here is where I got crafty! You can use this idea for not just reese's pops but cake pops.... to display at your party table! I had some "White tiger" tissue paper, a foam block, and mod podge. 

 I basically painted the mod podge on the foam block and covered it with the tissue! After it dries you have a perfect holder for your party pops!! Just stick them in and set out on the table!

 Here they are! Cute Reese's Pops to match my theme, WITH VEGGIES  IN THEM, and no one knew until I told them! A hit with adults and children!!!

   

The "Passie Fairy"

We have had A FUN and BUSY weekend! Today, my precious sweet Keaten turned 3 1/2 years old! I start celebrating half birthdays with cupcakes at 3 1/2 because it is a reason to get pictures taken and to write in their big kid book! My baby book which I LOVE, I wrote a post about it HERE, ends at age three.... Up until this point I take pictures of my kids monthly, from then on I document every half year and any other important thing happening in between. I will post about my "Big Kid" books later...

Along with turning 3 1/2 Kiki also knew it was a special day! This is the day the Passie Fairy came to our house! If you haven't heard of this before, it's a GREAT idea when you feel your child is ready to lose their pacifiers!

Here is a BEFORE and AFTER shot of my big girl!

   

If you don't know the story behind the "Passie Fairy" it is that she comes and collects ALL the passes and takes them to other little babies who need them! Furthermore, when collecting the passes, she leaves a present behind! =)

So first thing we did was draw a picture and write a letter to the "Passie Fairy".... She told me what she wanted to say, with a little help, and I wrote it down. =) Then, in the evening, we collected ALL of her passies and added them to the bag!

 I found a large gift bag and hung it up by our front door. Another good idea is to hang it from a tree outside but it was lightly raining so I chose to keep it indoors. Kiki then put the note and the passies in the gift bag.

 

 Can you believe, we had NO CRYING at night when she went to bed without her passie.... she still had her babies and her pillowcase to cuddle, which helped! =) When she woke up, she was SO EXCITED to see what the Passie fairy left for her!!!

Here is my BIG GIRL with her Muno pillow doll and a little gum ball machine! I do love that she was asking for something cuddly because I told her that when she is feeling sad about her passes she could go get her Muno doll that the passie fairy gave her and hug it!

 

I am just praying that the coming weeks are going to be as easy as this first night! I guess she was ready for this.... I will have to say, It was very hard on me and I had many talks with my husband reassuring me that it was time! We only have 8 more weeks till we have a new little one in the house who will need passies so we wanted her to be ok with not having hers! Oh, the joys of being a Mommy...so much change and S...L....O....W....L....Y letting go!

One more thing to add, my big six year old just noticed his FIRST loose tooth yesterday!!! So I guess TWO Fairies will be visiting our home this week! =)

Fun Personalized Water Bottles

It's not even summer yet and we are having LOTS of beautiful days playing outside! This means LOTS of water to be drunk! =) I found these cute bottles at Walmart for a dollar and my head filled with ideas of how I can make them more desirable! I love the cute handle and so do my kids!

I recently saw this CUTE Muno, from one of my daughters favorite TV shows (Yo Gabba Gabba), water bottle on Amazon. Yo Gabba Gabba things are hard to find so I thought about buying it for her. It was only $2.69 but shipping was $4.02 making this water bottle $6.71 plus tax! I could do better than that!!!

I came up with a fun character that both of my kids would love which matched the color of their water bottle! The blue was a perfect to put the Captain America shield on and, of course, the red for Muno!  I first drew it on the bottle....It's ok if you mess up a little because the paint will cover your mistakes! You could see I messed up on the drawing of Muno's eye at first but you can't tell after I painted it!

   

I wanted to stop here but my kids took control after that! THEY wanted to paint their water bottles TOO! Since I didn't want them to paint into my work...I taped off half the bottle for them to go crazy!

If you aren't very crafty to paint a symbol on the water bottle you can go right to this step..... I printed the character of my child's choice along with their name. After all the paint is dry and you have cut out anything printed from computer or cut from a magazine.... you bust out the Mod Podge! This will seal your paint and also work as glue for the other stuff you want to add!

   

Here is what the bottle will look like with the Mod Podge painted on it!

Just simply let it dry for a few hours and here you have it!!! A Muno and Captain America Water Bottle, PERSONALIZED by my children! See what you and your kids can come up with! =) If you have problems getting them to drink more water....this might help!

I just added a recent picture of another water bottle I did for the little guy I watch! He LOVED Brenden and Keaten's bottles so much and he kept asking for his own. I painted the Wolverine face and Mod Podged the printed out character to the bottle! 

   

Tissue Pom Poms

I am getting ready for our Tiger theme BBQ Baby Shower or "B a B y Q"! These Tissue Pom Poms are so easy to make and really add to the decor of any type of party.... Here is the simple instructions!

All you need is 8 sheets of tissue paper in a stack. The length should be longer than the width, but there is really no exact size or color scheme.... I wanted the pom poms all different sizes for my decorations!

You just fold your tissue paper stack like an accordion... about 1 1/2 inches.

After you fold the tissue, round off or give pointed edges with scissors.

   

 I then tied ribbon to middle of the flooded tissue! Then gently pull the layers apart.

    

 Here is a finished Pom Pom!

 I got this cute idea from Martha Stewart! If you follow the link she also tells you how to make Pom Pom napkin rings. 

 For my party decorations, I just tacked the string to the ceiling and then curled the rest of the ribbon. I made the lengths different sizes and also added in some balloons to the mix. Add some crepe paper for the finishing touch! I've seen other people tie everything together and make somewhat of a chandelier decoration to hang in one spot. Some people even hang these in their  along with paper lanterns. 

 I will do another Blog post after the Baby Shower is over but for now enjoy this sneak peak!

Baby Onesie: Present From Older Siblings

Here is a fun project YOU can do for your new little one OR you can have older siblings help and make their own onesie for the new baby! If baby isn't born yet they can bring it to the hospital the first time they meet! (This is what we are going to do)

What child wouldn't want to give something to their new sibling that they can actually use, see on, and be PROUD of! =) 

All you need is a pack of Steam-A-Seam 2, scraps of cute fabric(in my case I had my kids pic out what they liked at the store), fabric markers, an iron, and something you are going to put your design on (like a onesie in this case). 

You find a cute idea and draw out the outline on a white piece of paper. You flip it over to get the mirror image. With this tie shape the mirror image is the same.

One side of the Steam-A-Seam is designed to peal away VERY easily. So you are going to draw your mirror image on the opposite side!

Then you peel away the easy side and stick your design to the back side of your fabric. Cut on the line with SHARP scissors!

 When you turn fabric over, you will see what it will look like when it's ironed on to the onesie!

Here is where I had the kids color in their tie designs with fabric markers! This was such a fun process! We talked about our babies and how cute they would look and why they were drawing what they were drawing for their sibling!

NEXT step before ironing onto the onesie..... Don't forget to peel the backing off before you lay it on your fabric! It will be sticky so it will hold to the fabric when you place it down!

 Then you simply iron for a few seconds and it is DONE!!!!

 Here are my kids with their finished onesie! Doing this project got us SO EXCITED to see our new little one wearing them! Brenden couldn't stop talking about how much fun it's going to be to have a new baby in the house!

  

 We were lucky to do this special craft on the day that I watch Gage (I am his nanny). His mommy just had his baby brother Hogan almost three weeks ago. Here is the CUTEST example of Gage's artwork in use! Such a fun present to give to your little sibling!

Brenden wanted to match his baby so he clipped a tie on his tank top.

I also wanted to show you something else I did with this same idea! My Mother In Law made a baby blanket, for my baby on the way, out of fabric I picked out! She did a BEAUTIFUL job and I LOVE the blanket!!!! I can't thank her enough for all of her hard work! I wanted to add a G to the blanket, Might be the new babies first initial! =) So here is the EASY process!

Unlike the tie, the G shows you how I drew it out and just flipped it over to trace the mirror image! 

  

 Here is my Cute fabric G!!!!

 After ironing it onto the blanket.... Here it is! So cute and so simple!!!! My kids are already coming up with other ideas of where we can iron on designs...not for the baby but for THEM! =) 

Get Creative!