HOMEMADE SNACK DAY!!

We took this afternoon to make a BUNCH of snack foods and a messy kitchen! :)

We made kale chips with sesame, garlic, and ginger and JJ loves them! He called them green crackers and has been munching on them all afternoon. I just coated the kale in the sesame oil and ginger, garlic, a little salt, and pepper and baked on low at 350 until crispy.

We also made some cookie dough to freeze and have when we want a special treat. We made oatmeal chocolate chip. But I added wheat grem, flax seed, and a little nutritional yeast. (these double as a milk cookie for me, which helps with my milk supply for evee)

Homemade nutella from this blog! I love the recipe and don't feel as bad when JJ wants it every am on his homemade wheat bread.

Roasted garlic hummus for myself and my mom.

Grahmn crackers! I love these and cant wait to make some homemade marshmallows another day.

Goldfish crackers! JJ loves these and so does Evee and they don't have any icky oils.

Chocolate peanut butter granola bars!

Fruit leather fruit roll ups!

I think we have some yummy healthy snacks now that I can feel good about both of my kids eating. 

make your own felt board & pieces!

I made the kids a felt board after going through my old toys and remembering how much fun it was as a kid to have a felt book. I looked around and really like this tutorial I found and went from there.

I made them one using an old picture frame and some black felt. It was what I had and I wanted it to literally be a blank canvas for them. I love it and it hangs in my kids playroom where my awesome brother attached it to the wall for me. I know this isn't ideal for all but kids will love any kind of felt board big or small. It is such an open ended activity and lends itself to adding new things all the time.

I just glued black felt to the "wood" back already part of the frame and took out the glass. Put it all back together and had my brother mount it with some very heavy duty brackets for me.

I am left handed and I don't know if its because of that or just lack of skill but I am not good at cutting things out. So with that in mind I decided to use some non fusible interfacing and trace my kids some letters and stories. The first three stories we have made are five little monkeys, three little pigs, and five little ducks.

 I looked all over using google images and found pictures I liked printed them out and trace using a black fabric marker.

 I then colored the pictures with colored pencils. It actually works and the kids love them! 

DIY Soccer Ball Cake with Cupcakes!!

   Its been a while again since I have posted. We had a lot of sickness in the house the past month and have been super busy! Its the time of year I tend to get crazy busy with projects, cleaning, organizing, holidays, and outside fun!

   For my first blog back I thought I would post about my recent experience with making a 3D Soccer Ball Cake and cupcakes for my friends little mans 3rd birthday! When she told me she couldn't find an organic cake that still tasted good and didn't want to spend $200+ for a cake the tasted like butter and cardboard, I was intrigued. I knew her little man wanted a soccer ball cake and I spent a long time looking for options. She also sent me a few that I liked. I found this one and the soccer cake here and decided that I wanted to make a 3D soccer ball on top of a round cake that looked like grass with cupcakes around it that were little soccer balls on grass. I even found grass looking cupcake liners.

Here is my journey in making this cake.

I decided to make the soccer ball part out of cake after a disastrous incident with organic marshmallows and Rice Krispies.

I used a Pyrex small bowl because it is oven safe. This is how my torte chocolate cake came out. I froze them. (totally lost picture of before I added the ganache)

Then I made ganache and put the halves together and covered them to make them round and easy to cover in fondant.I forze this again.
I then made fondant and covered it to get this.

I made two round cakes froze and put rasperberry in the middle and covered with homemade green buttercream icing to look like grass.

I also made 30 chocolate cupcakes and covered them with green grass icing.

This is how it looked when I set up the table for Jrs party! Best part is it turned out pretty much like I wanted visually and tasted great!!

I have to say I was pretty proud!