Woodland Fairy Themed Birthday Party

1st Day of School lunchbox notes

Now that it's time for Keira's 8th birthday party, I decided it was about time to add some pictures from her 7th birthday party. It's been such a busy year, but I've still managed to pull off some pretty cool parties and events, including an apple themed banquet at the state hospital. Click on the picture below for more Grease themed party ideas.

Valentine's Day

I completely love Valentine's Day. This year it's a little hectic being that I'm in school, but we were still able to make some awesome Valentines for the class, and we have a little som'n som'n planned at home for the family.

Anywho, here are the Valentine's Day cards that the kids made this year. Of course, I had some help from my wonderful friend, Pinterest. Thank you to the originators of this idea- Jacolyne Murphy and Brooke Wookie

And since we're on the subject, here is what we did last year

I found some squeeze-its and attached a chocolate kiss. The cards say "a kiss and a squeeze"

Those cookies are something I had time to make last year, they really don't take long. They're called breakfast cookies and they're jam packed with good ingredients. It was my attempt to counter balance all the sugar intake from the day. They went over really well, everyone loved them. I made them for both classes.  They're called Hearty Breakfast Cookies. Here's the recipe

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup peanut butter (I used tahini in case of allergies)

1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

1 cup all­purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups quick cooking oats

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup raisins

1. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together butter, peanut butter, brown

sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Beat in eggs and water.

2. Mix together flours, oats, wheat germ, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Mix into

peanut butter mixture. Stir in raisins. Drop by ice cream scoopfuls 2 1/2 inches apart

on greased cookie sheets. Flatten slightly.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 18 ­ 20 minutes. Cool on cookie

7 days of School lunches

With school and work, my mornings are very hectic. I let the kids check the lunch menu before the week starts, and there is usually one day a week that they like what's served. For the other days, I have a nightly system to make their lunches super easy. After dinner the night before, I just package the leftovers in these containers, and voila! Easy lunches for the next day. I get asked all the time for lunch ideas, so I figured I'd take pictures of a few days and post them here. So here ya go...

Sashimi Birthday Treats

Sashimi birthday treats for my little foodie

Used - rice crispy treat for the "rice", swedish fish, and fruit roll ups cut in to strips for the seaweed

My little guy loves sushi, and LOVED this treat for his class. They were also small enough that the teacher was happy not to get the kids amped up on sugar and they were easy to pass out.

The Zombie themed birthday party was a lot of fun. Our son started out asking for a "Nazi Zombie" party, like his video game, but we decided that even for us, bringing Nazi's to the party is not the best idea ever. So he settled on just Zombies. We painted faces, cooked gross foods, beat a pinata... click on the picture to see more of the party!