Roasted Brussel Sprouts Medley

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!! I hope you all have had a great time hanging out with your family and friends AND you have had some GREAT food! This year I decided to make this really simple and yummy vegetable dish and when I posted a picture on Facebook a few of my friends asked for the recipe. So I decided to post it here! 

If you don't know or have never seen it before, this is what Brussel Sprouts look like on the stalk! Brussel Sprouts are a cultivated bunch of wild cabbage that are selected for their leafy and small green buds which look like mini cabbages! Brussel Sprouts, as with broccoli, contain sulforaphane, a chemical believed to have potent anticancer properties. They are also a source of indole-3-carbinol, a chemical which boosts DNA repair in cells and appears to block the growth of cancer cells! They are also a great source of Vitamin C!

 Roasting these little cabbage like veggies are a prefect way to enjoy the health benefits and flavor at the same time!

Here is what you need:

• 1 1/2 Pounds of Brussel Sprouts, trimmed of the stalk and cut in half
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
• 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
• 1-2 Tablespoons of chopped fresh Rosemary
• 1 Tablespoon fresh Chives
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine brussel sprouts, carrots, garlic, & onion.

Drizzle with Olive Oil, stirring to coat.

Add rosemary, chives, salt, and pepper.

Put mixture on a foil covered cookie sheet!

   

 Bake until lightly browned, about 30-45 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Serve warm from the oven! YUMMY!!!

I wanted to add what I am especially thankful for this year! 

Our FIRST Thanksgiving with our sweet little Garren & HEALTH!!!

What are you especially thankful for?

Christmas Countdown & Other Ideas

 The kids have been asking and asking how many days till Christmas! They know it's after Thanksgiving but it's always good for children to have a tangible way that they can actually SEE how many days until the specific event they are waiting for is. I usually make a paper chain but this year I wanted to make something that looks cuter! So instead of paper links I made little Christmas lights!

With this Christmas light string, your kids can count the lights till the big day arrives! Just simply cut away a light each day! I also wrote on the lights when specific things are happening. For Example, there is a light that says Thanksgiving on it!

All you need is different color construction paper, ribbon, tape, glue stick, and a stapler!

Simply draw light shapes on paper and have your children get some fine motor skill practice by cutting them out!

   

 Then cut a bunch of little black squares, one per light! We used a glue stick to glue the black squares to  make each look like little lights!

   

 Then I took my ribbon and stapled the lights to it!

Every other light or so I added a little piece of tape to stick it to the wall the way I wanted it! We also made a little sign at the end of the light chain that said "It's Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus!" 

Only 39 days till Christmas! =)

Another fun and simple way I decorate our home for the holidays is with silver ornaments on a string hanging from the ceiling. I bought two or three packs of different size plastic ornaments and also silver bells from the Dollar Store! This is the Fourth year I have done this so I've lost a few ornaments over the years! I am planning on adding more but here is what my entryway looks like. This picture doesn't really do it justice.....

 I used puffy paints to put a little design on some of them and tied ribbon in different lengths to each ornament. Tack them to the ceiling wherever you want to add a little Holiday flare!

 Lastly, I know many of you have already seen my idea of a Keepsake Christmas Tree Skirt! I wanted to show you a picture with this years handprints on it! My first year with THREE kids hand prints! I love how little Garren's hand is here and I know I will always treasure that I got this! Jason and I were also talking about how we should have our handprints on the tree skirt at least in one place. So we added our hand prints by the trunk. On top of them we wrote Mommy & Daddy. 

Hopefully these ideas inspire you to bring a little Christmas to your home, without spending a lot of money! What are some decorations you have come up with for the Christmas season that don't cost a lot of money?

Thanksgiving Conversation Rolls

 Here's something fun to keep the conversation at Thanksgiving interesting!

Both kids and adults will have fun with this one!

Simply get any roll of refrigerator biscuit or crescents. It just depends on what your family prefers. You could make homemade rolls but I'm sure you already have lots of things going on in the kitchen so simple is best!!! 

Along with your biscuits, write out conversation questions, on regular white paper with a pen, to go in each. Or even better, type them out because it's easier to read!

Butter up your paper and add them to the dough before you roll them up!

Bake as package says!

   

 Here is my boy opening up a roll to find a question!

Tip: Let people know that there is something inside the roll so they don't just bite or rip right into the roll and mess up the question paper!

Here are a few fun ideas for questions when there are adults and kids both in the conversation!

~What would you grow up to be or change about your career if you could do it now?

~If you had $100 to give to ANYONE, who would you give it to and why?

~Speaking of Holidays, what is your favorite part about Thanksgiving?

~My favorite musical group is_______. Why?

~What is one of your favorite books? Why?

~What is one of your biggest wishes?

~What are you secretly proud that you can do?

~What do you remember getting in BIG trouble for?

~What is your favorite thing about someone you are sitting next to?

~If you had a superpower, what would it be and why?

~What common household things are you thankful for?

~What would you like to be thankful for NEXT year at this time?

~Would you eat a turkey that fell on the floor?

~What non-meterial would you like to get/give this Holiday season?

I hope you all have a great time eating and talking and hanging out with your family and friends!

Here is one more idea for Thanksgiving day, that I blogged about last year! It's a simple craft/game for the kids in your life! Click on the picture to find out how to make these cute turkeys and play the game!

Easy Enlarged Prints!

Guys, I can't believe I JUST found out about this!! You know the commercials for Staples with the "easy" button....? Well, I just pushed it for the first time and they ARE right! 

It was SO EASY! =)

Staples has ways to make Enlarged Prints for a really great price!!! I saw this idea on Pinterest and I had to try it out for myself! This little girl was going to have an Art Party and they made two huge prints as part of the decorations! Click on the picture to see what else they did for her party! There are some great ideas!

Since I was trying it out, I wanted to have a picture and text to see how it turned out. We made a jpg file with these few elements, you can use programs like Illustrator or Photoshop. You can also just upload a picture to their website if you don't know how to use these programs.

You go to the Engineering Prints and they have three sizes to choose from (18"X24", 24"X36", and 36"X48"). I chose the smallest size, 18"X24", and it was only $1.79! I used a very low quality picture so I was nervous to see how it was going to turn out! I thought it was going to be grainy!  Both my husband and I were amazed by the quality of the print! 

It is printed that day which is very convenient!

Now, the reason it is so cheap is because it's not photo paper, its just printed on regular paper BUT that is what makes it great because you can color them in!

My daughter and I had a fun morning coloring the print!

 It was fun to color in our hair on the photo. Kiki went a little crazy with the peach crayon on her face! 

 Now, that I know about this, the sky is the limit! This is great for parties of all sort (at home or at school functions)! Print out text and have kids make huge signs! Another AWESOME thing is you can find free coloring pages of many of your child's favorite characters. Print them LARGE just for a fun craft or for their birthday they can be used as "life size" decorations! They can be used in a game...For example, for Kiki's second birthday I actually drew out a HUGE Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba. We used him to play Pin the Eye on the Muno! Now ANYONE can do this, you don't have to know how to draw! 

It's so EASY, just click on the button and it will take you where you need to go to make your print!

Thanksgiving Countdown

We are starting our second year of our Thanksgiving Count Calendar tomorrow! However, since I didn't start the first day of November, this year we are going to do a countdown! We are counting down 20 days till Thanksgiving but you can literally start this whenever you get it made! It would still be fun even if you counted down 10 days! You can click on the link above to see how simple this is to make! We had fun coloring in the numbers! 

My kids favorite part of this is picking out a piece of Halloween candy that they get to eat every morning when they wake up! We use a sharpie and put their initial on each piece's wrapper so they know which one is theirs! 

I also added a new element to the calendar! We put one of Brenden's sight words in each pocket! This way, every morning when the kids get their candy, there is also one word we can talk about and practice while eating breakfast!

If you haven't read my first post on the Thanksgiving Count Calendar, the main reason for it is so you can write down one SIMPLE thing that you were thankful for at the end of each day! Everyone picks a color of paper and you write it out on your color strip and leave it in that days pocket. Then on Thanksgiving, you pull all of the strips out and read them! It's a great way to get the whole family in on thinking positive and being thankful, all month, leading up to Thanksgiving! Here is what it looks like with our thanksgiving strips in a number pocket! 

Do you have other ways to get the whole family thinking of what they are thankful for?

I would love to know what they are!

Trick or Treat Sack AND Keepsake!

 I went to a Halloween event with my kids and I was wishing I had sacks for them! I mean, we have the normal plastic buckets which are so cheap that they can break if your child plays with them too rough! 

They cost a fortune and all for a character that your child might not even like next year! I mean, come on, how much are we already spending on the costume!?!

They are also annoying to store for the year to come because they are too bulky! 

"Why haven't I just made some kind of sack for them!?!" I thought to myself.

They can use the same one each year! If it gets dirty, it can be washed! If it rips, it can be sewn! It can, also, simply be folded and stored away, taking up no space in the Halloween bin! 

Ok, here is were this idea becomes genius!

You know all of those CUTE hand/footprint ideas for Halloween! I am a sucker for those like most moms BUT what am I going to do with them? If they aren't framed, they will be ripped up as the years go on! I am, also, not one of those people who like to keep stacks of papers....

I admit, I throw away most of my sons school papers immediately after looking at them out of the backpack, even the art (I'll normally just take a picture of the cute stuff). 

Also, I have THREE kids!!! That can add up!

However, Combine the Trick or Treat sack with hand or footprint art and I'm SOLD!!!

Every year choose a different hand or foot print idea and paint it to your child's sack, along with the year! What a GREAT way to have the keepsake art and also put it to use! I am now just so sad that I haven't thought of this sooner for my big boy Brenden, but glad I thought of it soon enough! It's never too late to start, unless your kids are too big to trick or treat, then save this idea for your grandchildren! Also, if your child is older, maybe you will want to choose a hand AND footprint idea for each year so their sack will be totally decorated in a few years!

Here's all you need:

• A pillowcase per child (I chose white)
• Fabric paint (slightly watered down acrylic paint works just the same)
• *Optional* Fabric markers

First, I taped off a section that my kids could decorate around where I drew their names. I used fabric markers for this part!

 Since this is our first year doing this, I wanted them to chose a foot AND handprint that they wanted! Here's what they chose! Kiki wanted her pumpkin at the bottom of her sack and Brenden wanted his spider at the top of his sack! I am so pleased with how they turned out! They are SO CUTE! I used Glow in the dark puffy paints in the spiderweb, for the spiders eyes, and for the dates!!

 Here is Kiki with her new Trick or Treat sack! If you don't want it as large, you could just cut some material off the top, fold over and sew. If you don't have a sewing machine you could use hot glue! With the extra material that you cut off, you could use it to make a strap for their sack!

Can you imagine how fun this is going to look as the years go by! It will be full of cute halloween pictures and memories of their hand & foot size!

How cute did this turn out!?! Garren's First Halloween....

His footprint is smaller than an acrylic paint jar!

I pulled together some of the CUTEST ideas of Halloween hand and footprint art from Pinterest! Now just pick your favorite and get started! 

Witch HandPrint!

Bat Print!

Cat Print: Just paint on the cat face instead of making it!

Ghost Print! 

If your sack is white, like mine, just paint a square of black and let it dry. Then add the ghost print on top of it!

Spider Print!

These pumpkins are made by stamping your child's fist!

And if you want to make it visible for nighttime Trick or Treating....Use Glow in the dark paints!!!

Here is a follow up post that I did for this trick or treat sack! I decided to use who my children were dressing up as as inspiration to their hand/footprint for the year! Click on the picture below to go to the post!

Here is another follow up post of 2014 & 2015 to give you more ideas of how I came up with hand and footprints for the costumes my kids wore. Click one the picture below to see that post.

Here is one of the Footprints from 2016. Click on the picture to see the post!

Also, if you like this idea, you will love my Christmas Tree Skirt Keepsake! Just click on the picture below!

Rice Krispy Cupcakes and Simple Marshmallow Treats

My Kiki turned four yesterday! We were going to our moms group on her actual birthday and we wanted to bring a treat to share that we know everyone would be able to eat! Most of the children in the group are younger so I wanted the treat to be small, cute, and Gluten & PB Free!

The solution I came up with was SOOOO simple! 

They only take about 15 minutes to make AND that's with a child helper!

Here is what you will need:

• 3 Tablespoons of butter(or substitute)
• a package of marshmallows
• 6 cups of Gluten Free Rice Krispys (you can use regular too!)
• Candiquik (white melting chocolate)
• Sprinkles 
• Candy to make a "cherry" on top. You could use jelly beans, sixlets, gum balls, m&m's, etc.
• Mini cupcake paper wrappers

Just follow the instructions HERE to make original Rice Krispy Treats.

Then get your hands a little wet with cold water so the mix wont stick.

Form into small balls that fit your cupcake wrappers.

Melt your chocolate in the microwave. It's very important that you don't over cook the chocolate! Every 15 seconds, pull it out and stir till desired consistency.

Then simply dip the top in your chocolate. We added one drop of red food coloring to make it pink.

   

Then immediately add your sprinkles and "Cherry"! 

They will stay good for a few days covered on your counter but best served that day or the next!

Another SIMPLE treat we made to share with other friends were these cute marshmallow pops!

Same idea as the rice krispy treats but just with a marshmallow on a cake pop stick!

      

These literally take at the most five minutes to make! You just need a piece of foam to stick the sticks in to let the chocolate dry!

 

Here is our Halloween version! 

My kids LOVE Candy Corn!!!!!

You could also leave out the stick and just put the decorated marshmallow into a small cupcake wrapper for a different look!

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