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If you were to ask me, "what is your favorite dessert?" I'd tell you cheesecake. Pumpkin cheesecake. It is so delicious and decadent. However, due to it's delicious decadence it is not something I make or eat on the regular.
I feel like when it comes to a sweet treat, nothing beats a good cookie. There is just something about cookies. They're easy to make, and fun to bake with my daughter. You can make a lot at once and give some to other people, or you can freeze some cookie dough for later. (Or... you can just eat some cookie dough.) That is probably why we have so many cookie recipes on the blog! Crazily, until recently, I did not have a cookie jar at my house. I found this really cute one on Amazon! I really love having a cookie jar. It makes the cookies last longer and I don't have to have a huge mess on my counter. If you're in a cookie mood and aren't sure where to start, check out one of our links below for a great cookie recipe!
Jam Thumbprint Cookies : simple and easy, light and tasty! These cookies are a perfect sweet treat!
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles : These cookies are definitely a favorite around my house! Brown Sugar Pecan Snickerdoodles: If for some reason you're looking for a non-pumpkin snickerdoodle option, we've got you covered there too! Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies: You know I have given you a lot of pumpkin recipes, because of my deep and abiding pumpkin love. These chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are perfection! 3 Ingredient Cookies: My mom made a whole collection of delicious cookies you can make using only three ingredients! Sprouted Wheat Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies: A fun take on oatmeal raisin cookies. Plus you know how much we love sprouted wheat around here! Chocolate Covered Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: Speaking of a fun take on oatmeal raisin cookies, try this recipe that uses chocolate covered raisins instead! Chocolate Chip Zebra Cookies: Chocolate chip cookies are a classic, and these zebra cookies make them even more fun! Strawberry Shortbread Sandwich Cookies: These cookies have a delicious lemony and strawberry filling which goes great with the delicious shortbread cookie. You won't be sorry you made them! Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies: We have plenty of delicious vegan recipes for our vegan readers. Try out this tasty chocolate chocolate chip cookie! Owl Sugar Cookies: Last but not least, we couldn't not have a cookie that involved our signature owl look! This sugar cookie recipe is our favorite, and my mom shows you how to make them look like cute little owls!
Well I hope that cookie list gives you a good start! Baking cookies is fun when you do it with someone. Get yourself a cute cookie jar to fill and it becomes even more fun! Happy baking!
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Once a week, I have lunch with my grandchildren and their parents who live near me. I always bring lunch and try to mix it up each week with different things. My 4 year old grandson, and his baby sister LOVE milkshakes. Since the weather here in Phoenix is definitely good milkshake weather, I thought we should have a milkshake contest and find out which fast food restaurant has the BEST milkshakes.
I was amazed at the definite opinions these little ones had! One milkshake, that I usually love and thought would win, must have had something wrong with their machine that day, because it tasted terrible and very chemically. My grandson tasted that one before anyone else and declared it was awful tasting. We all agreed! I'm not going to tell you yet who won. Actually, it is still an on going process and we may have to have a run-off to find the winner. Besides, I don't want to influence your choices when you try this fun activity with your family! But, here are some tips on how to make the Milkshake Contest work with your kids.
First of all, I created this printable score sheet to give to everyone to use as a tally for their choices. There is space for 5 different milkshake brands. Of course, you don't have to test that many in one day. We did 3 one day and 2 another. I went and purchased all of the milkshakes and took them to the house where we were having the competition. A better and easier way would be to do the following:
We tested Culvers, Jack in the Box, Sonic, McDonalds and Burger King Shakes. If you have a favorite shake in that general price range, let us know in the comments and we will give it a try!
I also got to thinking that you could do this contest with homemade shakes. Get a few blenders together and see who makes the best! Any excuse to have an ice cream treat during 116 degree weather is great! Let us know if you give it a try and who you think makes the BEST CHOCOLATE MILKSHAKE!
Fancy glasses make milkshakes more fun! Dollar Tree has a bunch to choose from!
OTHER CONTEST IDEAS:
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Staying at home, not able to get hair done very easily, wearing a mask when you must go out. Has anyone been wearing makeup at all during this pandemic? I was thinking about it the other day and decided that if we aren't wearing makeup, at least when we go out, we are missing the opportunity to let our eyes be the window to our souls, so to speak. Let me explain what I mean...
In my regular, pre-pandemic life, I always made it a point to put on a little makeup and to smile at people when I passed them. It always made me happy to see them smile back and I hope that by being friendly it would brighten their day a bit. It always amazed me to see the saddest looking person's face light up with a return smile. Now, wearing a mask, no one can see me smile. I look people in the eyes and it is hard to tell what their expression is. But then, the other day I saw someone with eye makeup on and her expression, just through her eyes seemed so friendly, that it made me feel like smiling, even though no one could see it. That is when I decided that I was missing an opportunity to play up my eyes and still try to spread some cheer in a world that really needs it. "Since the pandemic began, we often hear the term “social distancing”—implying the idea that we should keep a certain distance between ourselves and other people. Personally, I prefer the term “physical distancing” rather than “social distancing” to refer to this practice."..." Mask your face, don’t mask your heart."--Dieter F. Uchtdorf #stopit
So, I talked to my girls and asked them to make up their eyes and share a photo of themselves with a mask on. We are sharing some of our favorite eye and eye brow products today to help you out and encouraging everyone to look one another in the eyes and try to let people see that you care. Lindsey even shared a hashtag with us to remind us that we can overcome sadness, hatred and hard feelings when we replace those feelings with love. Since you can't smile at others with your mouth, show your love through your eyes. #stopit
Another great reason to put on your eye makeup is that you will feel better about yourself! It does wonders for your self esteem to just know that you are looking your best and feeling confident. And besides that, playing with makeup satisfys that artist flair in each of us. If you are stuck at home, learning some eye makeup techniques can be a lot of fun! Here are our tips and tricks:
Me- Don't mind my bandana mask, my regular ones were in the car and I was too lazy to go and get them, ha ha.
My tip is to do your eyebrows! My girls have taught me that having neatly groomed eyebrows can make a huge difference and since I have begun using an eyebrow powder, I am loving the look of my brows. I feel like they make me look younger! What do you think? I use this awesome brush set that Maddy gave me for Christmas from e.l.f. I am crazy about them! There is a smallish one that is great for doing my brows and I love the angled brush that helps me apply a dark shadow like a liner along my lash line! For a rookie like me, I am so glad that the set comes with instructions for a smokey eye and each brush is labeled to let you know what is to be used for!
Alicia has always had perfect eyebrows and long, beautiful lashes. For this picture she had had a bit of sun as well! She is somewhat of a mascara expert because she has tried many brands and their various types of mascara. Here are the products she loves-
Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer for a tired mom's eye circles. Then some L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara.
Lindsey has that beautiful pregnancy glow to her skin that makes everyone smile. She says that she puts on makeup whenever she goes out, mostly to doctor's appointments since she is working at home! One thing she has been doing with her blond features is pumping up the volume of her lashes by using a lash serum.
She says that she first curls her lashes, then she uses Cover Girl Lash Blast Primer and finishes her lashes off with Cover Girl Flourish Mascara by Lash Blast. She has only been using the primer for a short while, but already sees a difference in the fullness of her lashes.
Isn't Maddy's eye shadow treatment to die for? She is my only child who got my husband's eye color and she plays them up so well. Two of her secrets are her Fenty Killawatt Highlighter and her e.l.f. brow brush that also has a comb! I also love how she does her eyeliner!
I know that I am biased, but my girls are beauties inside and out and they always make me smile!
So, go ahead, put on your mask when you go out and put on your eye makeup as well. Look right at people and let them see your smile through your eyes. Let's make the world a little better by showing we care.
Another way to serve while physical distancing:
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As I have worn the hat of Summer School Teacher for 2 of my grandchildren this summer, I tried to do a lot of hands-on learning with them to keep things interesting! I am a big believer in whole language and integral learning. Today I am going to share a theme that was very instructional, easy to find resources for and something that my grandkids really enjoyed! Here are the parts to the lessons about Plants and Chlorophyll.
The Science Part:
This could also be called the Science, Reading and Vocabulary part. The kids had to learn vocabulary words such as Chlorophyll and Photosynthesis. We kept it pretty basic because my grandson just finished 1st grade. But they learned that almost all plants have chlorophyll and that is the chemical that gives them their green color. They learned that chlorophyll is necessary to help plants obtain energy from light. There are many online resources that will help you make this lesson as in-depth as you would like. Here is a great video that teaches photosynthesis.
The reading workbook that I was using for my grandson happened to have a selection about plants that tied in with our science lesson. One related activity that we did was have my grandchildren help plant cantaloupe in our garden and watch them grow. As the little green sprouts came up, they knew that the sun was necessary to help them grow, as well as the water and the soil. We also took them on a fun field trip! (It was mostly for fun, but we got some learning in there as well!) We went up to a creek area in the mountains.
We went swimming and hiking and my husband pointed out the different varieties of plant-life in the area. There were trees like the Arizona Sycamore, Cedar Trees and Cottonwood. I had my grandchildren collect leaves of all different varieties to bring home for the next part of our lesson.
Art added to the Science!
One way of studying leaves and chlorophyll is to remove the chlorophyll from the leaf. When plants stop producing chlorophyll, the green color also leaves (pun not intended) and the leaf's other pigments show, such as the red, orange and yellows seen in the Fall. There are chemical and heat methods that will remove all of the chlorophyll from a leaf and show the color it will be in the Fall. We did not use one of those methods. But, we did remove some chlorophyll from our leaves by pounding them with a hammer onto cotton fabric.
We didn't pound our leaves until the next day after our trip to the creek. Some of them were a little wilted, some had actually dried out! It was interesting to see which leaves would give off chlorophyll and which ones wouldn't. Obviously, the dry leaves didn't and we talked about why that was. Also, the green shades varied from one type of leaf to another. The pounding of leaves was loud and fun!
Sewing:
In my stash, I found the perfect fabric to back these leaf prints to make them into placemats. I cut them out a little larger than the white fabric so that we could make a border of the fabric on the front of the placemat, framing the leaf prints.
Sewing a simple straight stitch all around the border was a great way to begin to teach my grandchildren sewing. Even my 7 year old grandson did some of the stitching on the machine, but it made him nervous so he only did one side. My almost 9 year old granddaughter, on the other hand, loved sewing and completed 3 of the 4 placemats. (I began by demonstrating on a couple of the sides the way to hold and guide the fabric.)
The placemats came out pretty sweet, and when my granddaughter describes them to people, she tells them that they made them with chlorophyll! So, I am really happy that she can remember to say and use that word!
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
March 2024
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