Hannukah Family Fun

Hannukah FHE--

chocolate covered dreidels

Every Monday in December we have Family Home Evening with our extended family.  Our week to host is always the week of Hannukah and we teach the family about the celebration of miracles and finish up with playing dreidel games.  This year I learned a new tidbit to teach the family about.  Outside of Israel

the letters on the dreidel, Nun, Gimmel, Hey and Shin, stand for the Nes Gadol Haya Sham, which means A Great Miracle Happened There.  BUT the new thing I learned is that in Israel the letters on the dreidel are a bit different and stand for the Nes Gadol Haya Po, which means A Great Miracle Happened HERE.   That makes sense to me.  Anywhoo, for treats normally we just get some doughnuts and make some rice milk Iberian cocoa--nummers.  This year I saw an idea on one of the fabulous blogs that I stalk that got the idea from good ole Martha.  Soooo, I decided to get my craft on.

Then as we were walking thru the Wal-mart on Sat night to get a few last min things we saw the gingerbread man shaped marshmallows...mmmm.  Then Aaron thought we could dip those in chocolate to give them pants and a yamika.  Well...this is how they turned out...

We saw gingerbread flavored marchmallow men...yu-um!  some of them became chocolate covered...YU-UMM!!

See the chocolate yamika our little ginger boy is wearing

 Earlier in the week I came across a make your own dreidel out of paper....which gave me the idea...so after I printed it out and enlarged it like 300% ....this is what I came up with...I then filled them with the "gelt"  chocolate money, pretzels, choco kisses, and marshmallow men.  Thank you Martha

 

 

paper dreidel boxes to hold all the gelt

I will have to add pics to this post later on today or tomorrow with the family fun pics that Aaron took using his evidence camera...but for now Happy Hannukah!!

Silhouette Giveaway

ok so I have entered about 5 different blogs contests to WIN a Silhouette machine...I am so wanting one!  For each of the blogs contests you can make a blog entry for an additional entry...so I decided to make a generic blog entry and just start a list of all the blog contests instead of an individual blog entry for each:

1.  HowDoesShe

2. Make It and Love It

3. Homemade by Jill

4. Infarrantly Creative 

5.  We Are That Family

6.  Grosgrain Fabulous

7. Thrifty Decor Chick

8.  The Idea Room

9.  Shanty2Chic

10. Tatertots and Jello

11.NoBiggie

12. Moms Review 4 You
13. Love Stitched
14. Our Best Bites
15. Kara's Party Ideas
16. Love Stitched
17. A Beautiful Mess
18. TomKat Studio

Apparently the Silhouette company in addition to creating such a fabulous machine having all these giveaways and a fabulous sale next week.

TaterTots&Jello Silhouette Giveaway

 have been wanting one of these machines for quite some time now....also been wishing for the funds to magically appear...that just hasn't happened...other things keep taking priority.  Silly things like ovens, children's teeth both with braces and without, husband's teeth, husband's nose biopsy (no probs there!),  ovens again!, oil changes, school clothes for 4, student loans :-(, classroom supplies for 4 and for 24, etc, etc, etc,...
so I am hoping to win the giveaway from TaterTots&Jello...

The Idea Room Silhouette Giveaway

I have been wanting one of these machines for quite some time now....also been wishing for the funds to magically appear...that just hasn't happened...other things keep taking priority.  Silly things like ovens, children's teeth both with braces and without, husband's teeth, husband's nose biopsy (no probs there!),  ovens again!, oil changes, school clothes for 4, student loans :-(, classroom supplies for 4 and for 24, etc, etc, etc,...
so I am hoping to win the giveaway from The Idea Room...

Ok so for about a year now I have been lusting after.....

 

but recently on SEVERAL of the blogs that I stalk I have noticed them mentioning....

the Silhouette...

either in their everyday crafting

or in various giveaways (hence this blog entry as a method of entering one of such give-aways)

I was AMAZED at all the things that the cricut could do...they do have an amazing info-mercial and since we don't have cable or satellite frequently it is the only thing to watch during the wee hours.

BUT while I have thought that cricut was wonderful...I have also noticed that you have to constantly be buying this or that for it and the this's and that's COST $$$--cha ching....these things add up FAST....

and I have also thought wouldn't it be cool to be able to just hook it to my computer...well apparently I wasn't the only person who thought it would be cool to hook it to my computer...

THE SILHOUETTE hooks to my computer just like a printer...well it would hook to my computer if I had one...for now I will just have to imagine it hooked to my computer...ahhhh  imagination....IF ONLY

The things I could do with a silhouette:

1-25. cut MY OWN vinyl for whatever around the house labeling project I want, whenever I want, without having to bug my vinyl lady constantly (sorry Jenn).

2.  label my entire pantry with cuter labels than my label maker can do

3.  label the laundry room supplies (detergent, bleach, softener, dryer sheets, stain remover, darks, lights, whites, shirts, towels, jeans, etc)

4.  label the craft closet supplies (paint, fabric, kids crafts, etc)

5.  label the kids toy bins (army guys, legos, polly pockets, pet shops, etc)

6.  label the kids clothes drawers  (socks, underwear, pants, shirtes, etc)

7.  label movies as OURS to help those that borrow remember

8.  label inside of kitchen cupboard with a menu board  (one side already has a recipe label/holder)

9.  label school supplies for kids so I don't have to write their name 1500 times (altho I love my kidlets so I could write their names a jillion times if I had to.)

10. label my label maker ;-)

11. label my christmas decor boxes so I can find what I need to find

12. label my halloween decor boxes

13. label my easter decor boxes

14. label my valentine decor box

15. label the various boxes that I have stuff set aside for the kidlets later on in life

16. label my and my husbands high school memoirs boxes

17. label

18. label

19. label

20. label

21. label

22. label

23. label

24. label

25. label and then label some more!

26. stencils

27. classroom decor

28. classroom supplies

29. classroom lesson plan stuff

30. classroom bulletin boards

31. classroom sharing

32. PRESENTS

33. super cute crafts

34. the coolest posters ever for my kidlets school projects

35. super cute scrapbook stuff

36.  create the cutest peacock room that my daughter will LOVE!  (maybe that's a bad idea...might never get her out of there!)

37. make super cute cut outs for my primary class

38. make super cute guitar/music room for another daughter!

39. just saw a super cutie fairy idea for my littlest fairy!

40.  I am sure that there is some manly ideas just on the cusp of my brain for my oldest--just entering high school this fall --eeek!!  I bet he could use it for some of those school projects--(his hand writing..how oh how could I as a teacher have a son with handwriting like THAT!)  OMGG (oh my goodness gracious!)

Shanty2Chic Silhouette Giveaway!!!

I have been wanting one of these machines for quite some time now....also been wishing for the funds to magically appear...that just hasn't happened...other things keep taking priority.  Silly things like ovens, children's teeth both with braces and without, husband's teeth, husband's nose biopsy (no probs there!),  ovens again!, oil changes, school clothes for 4, student loans :-(, classroom supplies for 4 and for 24, etc, etc, etc,...
so I am hoping to win the giveaway from Shanty2Chic...

Ok so for about a year now I have been lusting after.....

 

but recently on SEVERAL of the blogs that I stalk I have noticed them mentioning....

the Silhouette...

either in their everyday crafting

or in various giveaways (hence this blog entry as a method of entering one of such give-aways)

I was AMAZED at all the things that the cricut could do...they do have an amazing info-mercial and since we don't have cable or satellite frequently it is the only thing to watch during the wee hours.

BUT while I have thought that cricut was wonderful...I have also noticed that you have to constantly be buying this or that for it and the this's and that's COST $$$--cha ching....these things add up FAST....

and I have also thought wouldn't it be cool to be able to just hook it to my computer...well apparently I wasn't the only person who thought it would be cool to hook it to my computer...

THE SILHOUETTE hooks to my computer just like a printer...well it would hook to my computer if I had one...for now I will just have to imagine it hooked to my computer...ahhhh  imagination....IF ONLY

The things I could do with a silhouette:

1-25. cut MY OWN vinyl for whatever around the house labeling project I want, whenever I want, without having to bug my vinyl lady constantly (sorry Jenn).

2.  label my entire pantry with cuter labels than my label maker can do

3.  label the laundry room supplies (detergent, bleach, softener, dryer sheets, stain remover, darks, lights, whites, shirts, towels, jeans, etc)

4.  label the craft closet supplies (paint, fabric, kids crafts, etc)

5.  label the kids toy bins (army guys, legos, polly pockets, pet shops, etc)

6.  label the kids clothes drawers  (socks, underwear, pants, shirtes, etc)

7.  label movies as OURS to help those that borrow remember

8.  label inside of kitchen cupboard with a menu board  (one side already has a recipe label/holder)

9.  label school supplies for kids so I don't have to write their name 1500 times (altho I love my kidlets so I could write their names a jillion times if I had to.)

10. label my label maker ;-)

11. label my christmas decor boxes so I can find what I need to find

12. label my halloween decor boxes

13. label my easter decor boxes

14. label my valentine decor box

15. label the various boxes that I have stuff set aside for the kidlets later on in life

16. label my and my husbands high school memoirs boxes

17. label

18. label

19. label

20. label

21. label

22. label

23. label

24. label

25. label and then label some more!

26. stencils

27. classroom decor

28. classroom supplies

29. classroom lesson plan stuff

30. classroom bulletin boards

31. classroom sharing

32. PRESENTS

33. super cute crafts

34. the coolest posters ever for my kidlets school projects

35. super cute scrapbook stuff

36.  create the cutest peacock room that my daughter will LOVE!  (maybe that's a bad idea...might never get her out of there!)

37. make super cute cut outs for my primary class

38. make super cute guitar/music room for another daughter!

39. just saw a super cutie fairy idea for my littlest fairy!

40.  I am sure that there is some manly ideas just on the cusp of my brain for my oldest--just entering high school this fall --eeek!!  I bet he could use it for some of those school projects--(his hand writing..how oh how could I as a teacher have a son with handwriting like THAT!)  OMGG (oh my goodness gracious!)

10/10/10

10/10/10

doesn't happen every day!

ok so I'm a little bit of a freak about this date...have NO idea why just thought it would be a good reason to have fun with the family for absolutely no reason what-so-ever!
I set the alarm on my cell and we had a mini-celebration in the kitchen at 10:10 on 10/10/10.  Leah was so cute--amidst all the wahooing she said very loud and very serious in a matter of fact voice "Ok I am now scared so stop this"



anyways to add to the fun we had a 10 brunch...
If I would have been really on top of it I would have added oranges and bananas
but we had
10 scrambled eggs
link sausage
regular patty sausage sprinkled with brown sugar
maple patty sausage
quick breads both blue/huckle berry and cinnamon
orange juice
milk

mmm...sausage--definitely a 10 in my family

blueberry/huckleberry quick bread is the 1 and cinnamon bread is the 0  together they make the 10 for all!

the whole 10 spread

Homemade Oreos??!!

http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2009/02/oreo-cookies-made-from-scratch-just.html

Don't they look Dee-li-shus!  I'm really quite amazed that I made such a tasty treat!  I saw something somewhere about homemade oreos...so I did a little blog searching then I googled it and came up with the same sites that I found blogging...Both sites used the same recipe so away I went.  The only thing that I did different from these websites was to use one of those cookie dough ice cream scooper things AND I also tinted my cream filling orange in honor of the season.  Totally amazed...the recipes did say that you can vary the amount of sugar used in the cookie and I did use the max amount...hellooo you know me the more sugar the better...the only problem with this is that you really can only eat one of these cookies in a sitting... I finally sat down and ate one and about 10 min later the sugar kicked in...whoa baby

maybe next batch I will try to make smaller cookies--pa-ha don't know where that came from...cookies can never be too big!  yumm

Poached Pumpkins

Poached?  I'm not referencing a cooking technique.  I'm in Idaho and hunting season opens today and if you know anything about hunting then you will know the poaching is basically stealing.  I saw this idea on one of the like jillion websites that I stalk weekly.

the website that I saw--I don't even remember which one used all white lights, but I picked up some orange lights for like $3 at the Walmart.  My kids had fun decorating each jug.

My NEW biggest WANT--A silhouette!

Ok so for about a year now I have been lusting after.....
 
but recently on SEVERAL of the blogs that I stalk I have noticed them mentioning....

the Silhouette...
either in their everyday crafting
or in various giveaways (hence this blog entry as a method of entering one of such give-aways)

I was AMAZED at all the things that the cricut could do...they do have an amazing info-mercial and since we don't have cable or satellite frequently it is the only thing to watch during the wee hours.

BUT while I have thought that cricut was wonderful...I have also noticed that you have to constantly be buying this or that for it and the this's and that's COST $$$--cha ching....these things add up FAST....

and I have also thought wouldn't it be cool to be able to just hook it to my computer...well apparently I wasn't the only person who thought it would be cool to hook it to my computer...

THE SILHOUETTE hooks to my computer just like a printer...well it would hook to my computer if I had one...for now I will just have to imagine it hooked to my computer...ahhhh  imagination....IF ONLY

The things I could do with a silhouette:
1-25. cut MY OWN vinyl for whatever around the house labeling project I want, whenever I want, without having to bug my vinyl lady constantly (sorry Jenn).
2.  label my entire pantry with cuter labels than my label maker can do
3.  label the laundry room supplies (detergent, bleach, softener, dryer sheets, stain remover, darks, lights, whites, shirts, towels, jeans, etc)
4.  label the craft closet supplies (paint, fabric, kids crafts, etc)
5.  label the kids toy bins (army guys, legos, polly pockets, pet shops, etc)
6.  label the kids clothes drawers  (socks, underwear, pants, shirtes, etc)
7.  label movies as OURS to help those that borrow remember
8.  label inside of kitchen cupboard with a menu board  (one side already has a recipe label/holder)
9.  label school supplies for kids so I don't have to write their name 1500 times (altho I love my kidlets so I could write their names a jillion times if I had to.)
10. label my label maker ;-)
11. label my christmas decor boxes so I can find what I need to find
12. label my halloween decor boxes
13. label my easter decor boxes
14. label my valentine decor box
15. label the various boxes that I have stuff set aside for the kidlets later on in life
16. label my and my husbands high school memoirs boxes
17. label
18. label
19. label
20. label
21. label
22. label
23. label
24. label
25. label and then label some more!
26. stencils
27. classroom decor
28. classroom supplies
29. classroom lesson plan stuff
30. classroom bulletin boards
31. classroom sharing
32. PRESENTS
33. super cute crafts
34. the coolest posters ever for my kidlets school projects
35. super cute scrapbook stuff
36.  create the cutest peacock room that my daughter will LOVE!  (maybe that's a bad idea...might never get her out of there!)
37. make super cute cut outs for my primary class
38. make super cute guitar/music room for another daughter!
39. just saw a super cutie fairy idea for my littlest fairy!
40.  I am sure that there is some manly ideas just on the cusp of my brain for my oldest--just entering high school this fall --eeek!!  I bet he could use it for some of those school projects--(his hand writing..how oh how could I as a teacher have a son with handwriting like THAT!)  OMGG (oh my goodness gracious!)


check out the giveaways and to see real information for this on:

http://www.sugardoodle.info/joomla/

http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/08/silhouette-giveaway.html

http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/2010/08/silhouette-giveaway.html

Cute Can Container Re-Do

I use Pirouette cookies a lot in my birthday cakes' decor.  So the container gets empty really fast..."oh dang this one is broken can't use it on the cake, guess I'll have to eat it"..."one for the cake, one for me, one for the cake, two for me"   you get the idea...but I can't throw them away....after all they are perfectly good containers....so I kept them around trying to figure out what I was going to do with them...I thought about sand blasting the factory design off of them...but I don't have a sand blaster AND they are really expensive to rent AND cost a lot to buy....I didn't think that spray paint would stick...BUT IT DID!!

Years ago I spray painted a desk and bunk beds white (I don't remember why I spray painted them-- it made sense at the time...maybe one day soon I will get pics of them on here) so I have LOTS of white spray paint left over...well not so much now...this project finished off a can and worked on another....

Step 1: After emptying tasty treat from can...

Step 2:  spray paint (it took me at least two coats)

Step 3:  trace a design (I traced different sized buttons)  if you have a steadier hand than I you can skip this step.

Step 4:  Paint your design

As you can see I REALLY like Pirouette cookies.

Football Birthday Cake

Football Birthday Cake

Soooo since my son has started playing football....and since he had a birthday....I decided to combine the two into a cake for him....not as manly as his 14 years, but still fun none-the-less.



I think the hardest part of this cake was getting the icing the right color.  It took the entire time the cake baked and then some to get right.  I started off with a chocolate cake.  After it had cooled for a little bit I stuck in in the freezer while I finished making the icing.  The red kept looking pink, then darker pink, then even darker pink.  Even using the no-taste red Wilton food coloring I was surprised that for just two tablespoons of white icing I had to use almost 1/2 the container of coloring!  Then when it came time for the blue I was prepared and just stuck a ton in from the beginning.


All of this was done in between going to various different doctors visits.  I was amazed that everything managed to get done.  I had planned on using the red and blue to create jerseys on the Teddy Grahams, but decided that numbers was easier and just as effective.  I was going to use the leftover white from making the field lines to make pants and I had made some black to make helmets.  I decided that was a lot more work than was necessary, so we used the black to make stripes for the referees.



 After a lot of contemplation of what edible treat could be used a football I decided to go with almonds.  I happen to have some snacking almonds in the cupboard.  I had originally thought of chocolate covered, but cha-ching those things are PRICEY!!  So I just added the stitching and voila.  Since he's 14 I put 14 almonds around the edge of the cake and one in the "game".

Below you can see a pic of the finished product...complete with scoreboard and uprights(goal posts).  The scoreboard is just a graham cracker and all the posts are Piroette cookies (mint flavored...yum-mee)

Cute as a Button!!

Pioneer Fun Day #3 Sewing Lesson--Cute Button Headband

Ok.  I stole, yes STOLE!, this idea right off of another website.  I lifted the idea right off of her site and put it on my own.  I have only changed one thing~ the girls in the pics.  And the buttons used.  And the technique is probably lacking in finesse and accuracy. and oh well you get the picture...

Step 1: choose your buttons and measure out a strip of elastic.  I used the girls heads to measure and made sure that the elastic overlapped so it could be sewed together.  Ended up using about 19 inches of elastic per headband.  I chose black elastic because I know my girls and white elastic would end up dirty way too fast.  Took the girls with me to the store to pick out buttons.  If I was more crafty I would have already had a ton, but I only have the random buttons that come extra with a shirt or pants or whatever...cuz the clothing manufactures have so much faith in their workmanship that they KNOW you will be needing the extra buttons, or else they are saying "ok.  here you go clutzo we know you are going to end up ripping the buttons right off so we got your back."  If they only knew that I am WAY too l-a-z-y to reattach the stupid buttons that come off, cuz I usually end up ripping the pocket buttons off cuz I am a clutzo....

Anyways buttons were on sale at the store MY lucky day 50% off!!! so we got TONS!  More cute headbands to follow....good thing my girls LOVE wearing headbands.  Let them each pick a package of buttons then I picked a few and then I noticed that there were some specialty buttons for .50 cents a pack on clearance so I picked a few more and then a few more.....ended up coming out of the store with like $10 of buttons and $3 of elastic.  I measured out about 11 inches of headband and had the girls each line up their buttons (11 inches worth).  The website that I STOLE from recommended gluing the buttons onto the elastic so we did this with just Elmer's glue.  (I figured that it would dry clear and any excess would just flake off...well it worked ok, but Sariah didn't like the end result and I think I agree next time we'll just line them up and go from there.  The buttons didn't seem to want to stay attached and ended up falling off  which is fine cuz they are going to be sewed on anyways, but kind of a pain...ah well  live and learn

  Each of the girls was already able to thread a needle-THANK YOU MERE'S-so I just gave them a quick review and away they went.

sewing fun!

I let Leah play with the camera while they were sewing and these are some of the shots that she got...

I did get to teach the girls how to know their thread...pretty cool trick I learned from a wonderful Sister in an previous ward.

Mommy messy hair and all..but as you can see by the buckies we are having Fun!

Sleepy girl with her mi-mi...yes we still have a mi-mi, but at least she's potty trained.

Here is my youngest sporting the finished product...pretty cute if I do say so myself...well of course she is, but so is the headband.