Easter Egg Treats

Have you seen that commercial where the mom and kids are making Rice Krispy treats the shape of eggs with M&M's. I thought that would be fun to make, and to make a design with the M&M's in the eggs. I was planning on to do it for FHE the other night when we did the egg hunt and dyed eggs. But the night got away from us. Yesterday and today the kids didn't have school and so I thought that would be the perfect time to do it with them.

So we made the Rice Krispy Treats, so many helping hands we had lots of krispys flying every where. We got a large plastic eggs and molded five eggs. Once they came out of the egg and were laid on the plate, they kind of fell apart. I don't think that I added enough Rice Krispy, but Kyle enjoyed that they were so gooey. Once the eggs were formed the kids went to town putting M&M's in. But with each one they put in the less it looked like an egg. My idea wasn't turning out quiet right. But the kids were having fun doing it.

As the kids were getting done I wanted to get their picture taken with their eggs. But Karlee kept saying "Wait, I gotta add more." As you can see she was intent on getting all of them on. We waited and then she got in the picture.

Here they all are with their flatten Easter Egg treats.

They really enjoyed eating them (especially the M&M's).

I guess a better idea would have been to used frosting and more Rice Krispies and maybe they would of turn out like these.

Kallie's American Girl Party

On Saturday Kallie had her 11th birthday party, for some reason I haven't been in the party planning mood. I had a hard time getting this put together. But it turn out okay because Kallie had fun and enjoyed herself and that is all that matters. After Jaron's birthday Kallie was talking about what kind of party she wanted (about ten different kinds). Finally narrowed it down to just one. An American Girl party - she loves the books and really, really wants a doll (but they cost $100). I looked online to see if there was any ideas out there on this theme. I came across this kit and I knew Kallie would love it.

This is Samantha's Mystery Party Kit, it comes with invites, scripts, character cards, name tags, clues, and even a parents guide to give you hints for the party. The party/play takes place in 1904, on the character cards it tells the girls how to dress like the character coming to the party. We invited seven girls but only two were able to come. So we spread the characters through the family too.

Here is Kallie and her two friends that were able to come to the party.

Kallie was Samantha

Karlee and Kelsie step in to play two characters, they were twin sisters and they had so much fun being able to come to the party and take part of their big sisters party. My sister Serena also came down from Portland and help out with the party, she even played a character or two. I am sad because I didn't get a picture of her dressed in outfit. But I am so grateful that she came, Thank you Serena. I even got into the party and played a character, the maid. Even one of the girls mom stay and played a character, (she was going to stay anyway thought we let her join in the fun.)Once everyone got here and in character, (that would be running to get in my costume as the guest come) we began the play. Almost all of it takes place in the dining room.

The girls are just getting into the play.

One of the girls had to hide under the table during part of the play, that is why they are looking down at the table. (I had got this kit a month before Kallie's party and really wanted to read the script, but she didn't and I think it paid off because she had so much fun as she and her friends went through the play together.) Look at her smile in this picture.

They are trying to figure out a message in Morse Code, it was clue in the mystery.

Another view of what Kelsie and Karlee were doing while the older girls figured out the Morse Code. Karlee enjoying cookies which were part of the play. We made it all the way through the play and had a good laugh when we figured out the mystery.

After the play we gather in the living room and open gifts and sang Happy Birthday. Here is a picture of the cake. This is not what I plan on doing, I want to make Petit Fours but ended up changing my mind at the last minute and made this two layer cake and decided to put a K on it. I know it is plain, I wish I had more creative juices that day.

We are singing "Happy Birthday To Kallie" and here I am dressed as the maid.

Look the candles are lit, grateful for Serena for doing that for me. :0)

This the banner that Kallie and I made for her party. Then I made 5 tissue pom poms and a had a pretty white table cloth with purple (fake) flowers in a mason Jar and that was about all I did for decorations.

This is the table as we got ready to have the girls come in for the little luncheon.

Enjoying their luncheon and then the cake and ice cream came. After the food we went into the living room and watch the Samantha movie and it was fun to see what your character looked like in the movie and who you were.

I really was racking my brain on what I could do for a goody bag, and not spend a lot of money. Friday evening I came up with this candy that maybe was around in 1904. Tied it close with twiney string. I wanted to give them lace fans like they did in the Samantha books but I guess you need to think about that before the night before the party- because there are no fans in town. But I am happy with how they turned out.

Here is the Birthday Girl.

All in all it turned out okay, Kallie and her friends had fun and that is all that matter.

Happy Birthday Kallie!!!!

Love you.

Dying Eggs

For the second part of our FHE we dyed Easter Eggs.

The whole crew.

Kallie working on a two colored egg.

Jaron Making his color more intense.

Kelsie wondering what color to do her next egg.

Karlee excited to do it all by herself.

Alycia and Olivia working on their eggs together.

Backyard Easter Egg Hunt

Alycia and Olivia came down for a visit and we wanted to do some Easter fun. For FHE we put together Easter egg hunt for the kids. Luckily with daylight savings it stays lighter longer. But we still had lots of rain to go along with hunt. Here are the kids hunting for the eggs...

Here the kids are checking out their eggs. And then we got them all together for a group shot. I tried to get one good shot of all of them, but I had to share them all with you.

Happy Egg Hunting!!!

Recipes Why???

You may be asking yourself why does Angie keep putting all these recipes on her blog? She not a chef or cooking blog. I was looking at putting my blogs into books and I notice that you can make books just on the certain labels you put on your post. I thought that it would be fun to make a book with just recipes with pictures of the kids making and telling where we got the recipe, or maybe what happen while we cook it. And it would be a fun keepsake for the kids, me (and maybe grandmas :0).) So bare with me through the recipes, if you want you can skim through those post.

Brown Sugar Muffins

In between conference we made these yummy brown sugar muffins. The first time we had these were at the Ellison Family reunion and they were so good (thanks Anne Gene), we wanted to make them again. The whole family join in the fun.

Brown Sugar Muffins

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup milk

Mix together butter and brown sugar; add egg and blend throughly. Add flour, baking soda and salt; mix. Combine vanilla and milk with butter mixture and mix again. Spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray and fill 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12 servings.

Kelsie ready to share.

General Conference Candies

Do you ever have a Hard time getting your kids to sit still for General Conference and listen to the speakers? I do. I have tried everything from the conferences packets that you can print off from sugardoodle, coloring book and finally just giving up so I could just listen. On one of the blogs I stalk she had this idea, and I thought I would give it a try. And it worked like a charm.

Here is her example of hers. I grab four containers I had around the house and then wrote four words on paper and put it in front of the bowls. Instead of letting them take one each time they heard the words, (they got to excited so they weren't reverent and listening.) I gave each one a notebook that had the words written on it and so when they heard the word they would mark a tally under it. Then after conference was over they would get candy for tally. We changed the words each day, I picked the words the first day and then they came up with the words we were going to listen for on Sunday.

They all got into at first, younger two didn't last that long but Jaron and Kallie stuck around and listen to conference, more then before. We watched General Conference on the internet, and it would cut in and out but we loved being able to watch what we could.

Mom's Apple Crisp

For April Fool"s dinner tonight I made apple crisp. My mom's apple crisp, she would always make it for us growing up and I love to make it for my family. It is fast quick and easy. It is especially Yummy when it is warm for the oven served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Mom"s Apple Crisp

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1/8 cup cinnamon

1 soften cube of butter

6-8 Gala apple (or which ever you like)

Peel and slice apples, place in an 9x13 pan. In a mixing bowel combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Mix together with a fork cutting the butter into the dry ingredients. When there is no chunks of butter left pour evenly over the cut up apples. Put in the oven that is heated at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

April Fool's Dinner

As April Fool's Day approached the kids kept asking what I was going to do for it. Was I going to do the same thing I did the year before: Here ? I really couldn't find anything new to do for breakfast, figured I wouldn't do anything for dinner. But then I heard some fun ideas on the radio and knew I could pull it off without having to buy anything really.

First Joke:

Eat dessert first.

They all really enjoyed that especially since there was ice cream.

Second Joke:

They each got to pick out a utensil out of the bag with their eyes closed.

Kelsie picking

Karlee picking

Here is Kelsie and Karlee trying to eat with them.

Kallie eating with hers.

Kelsie and Karlee again.

Jaron really got into his. He enjoyed it the most.

Third Joke:

Jell-O as Juice

I made Jell-O earlier that day and so when they tried to drink it wouldn't come out.

Karlee trying to drink hers and she was confused when it wouldn't come out.

Kallie trying to pour some more in her cup.

And Kyle eating with tongs.

Fourth Joke:

Peas and Carrots got the idea here.

Once Kelsie found out it was candy, she was like "this is all I want for dinner". We asked her if it was really peas and carrots would she still want to just it, or at all. She said no, figured. We all had a fun dinner laughing all the way through it.