owl valentines....!

...the last set of valentines this year....i seriously have to remember that if i have an idea for one....then i have to do something for all 3 kids!....we have a soft spot around here for owls.....and owls are so in now.....seriously owl themed birthday parties, baby showers, weddings, team building events....ok maybe i haven't seen that last one, but wouldn't be surprised if someone did use owls for that.....

.....anyway.....they are made from this stuff.....

...the body is heart shaped peppermint patties (they are even pink inside...so cute!)....eyes are valentine's day m&m's (accents drawn on with a food writer), wings are cherry and vanilla flavored tootsie rolls decorated with some red royal icing, beak is a heart from the heart sprinkle mix.....everything attached with royal icing.....the tootsie roll was nuked for 5-10 secs until it was soft enough to roll out....then used an icing tip to cut out a circle.....cut that in half to make the wings.....

....you end up with a bunch of these little guys.....!

.....the rest of the valentine is cardstock and some oil pastels.....and a quick google search for some cute owl-ish sayings.....


....and all wrapped up to give out monday.....between, the lego dudes, the thomas trains, and these......i'm all valentine'd out now.....i hope the kids are ok with store bought next year....!

...and really now happy valentines day!!!

ps what does an educated owl say.....whom...!

W

Whom.

thomas the tank engine valentines....!

...so in addition to lego, star wars, and super hero freaks....we also have a couple thomas obsessed little ones around here too....

....and since the big kid got lego dudes.....the little guy got thomas to bring in for his friends on valentines day.....they are made with this stuff....

....couldn't find bright blue colored fruit strips to match thomas....(guess that's considered not a "natural" color in the fruit strip world!)...but did find a sparkled tropical flavor at target...so close enough....and if you really want to get technical and think it's green....then you can say it's thomas' friend percy...

...the head is a rice cracker and the face drawn on with candy melt.......(not so sure about the face....experimented a little with the eyes to try to avoid the creep factor but i'm still not happy with it....but it's too late to turn back now!).....

...graham cracker covered with the fruit strips is the base and the other accents are plain m&m's and chocolate candy melt (which was also used to attach the accents).....then wrapped in plastic wrap so the kiddo can hand them out in class.....

...i have one more kid, so one more to go.....! happy pre-valentines day!

ps this is the only train saying i could think of.....bonus points if you know what it's from :)

lego dude valentines....!

...start with these guys......to get these......!


......for the 6 year old's class for valentines day.....

...made these guys before here....and essentially all you need is the lego dude ice cube tray...some candy melts....a sprinkle mix with some little hearts in them...and a little patience....but cute, right?......you end up with a bunch of these......

...originally only did them in the red, pink, and white....they are valentine's day colors are they not...?...well someone took one look and said....hmmmm...."to girlish mom"....(and btw....i'm mom all of a sudden.....no more mommy....at 5 mommy....at 6 not so much....sigh).......anyway.....after that had to go back and do the regular lego dude colors.....with a much better reaction......as in a "they look awesome mom!".....the rest of the valentine is made with cardstock.....and some oil pastels.....so easy.....

.....the lego guys are attached to the valentine with some candy melt.....then wrapped with some plastic wrap so the candy doesn't get to gnarly while being passed out in class....i figure he can let the other boys and girls pick which lego dude colors they each like best.....(although there happens to be at least enough red, yellow, blue ones for the boys in the class....not that they all will pick that one of course....i'm hoping some girls pick the regular colors and some boys pick the valentine day colors....that would be pretty awesome.....!

...is it valentine's day yet...?...happy friday to everyone....!

.....ps if you attempt lego dudes with the candy melt and want the tri color look....you need to have 3 colors ready to go at once....do a little of each section (head, body, and legs)....fill half way in each section....tap the tray to get rid of air bubbles...then fill to the top in the same order.....hard to get pics of that as you need to do it kinda fast....!

conversation heart "cookie pops" and a birthday pie....!

.....does everyone spend way too much time in the valentines day candy aisle in every store you go into these days....or maybe that's just me....?!....there is a ton of neat stuff out there right now.....but i still think one of my favs are the conversation hearts....even though i don't really like the taste....they remind me of valentines back in the day....we always got them when we were little....so i have a soft spot in my heart for them....plus they come in all those pretty pastel colors and i pretty much like anything in rainbow colors (as i've gone on about before...!)......these were made from a combo of this......

....and is it just me too or does anyone else start start immediately thinking about what you can make from stuff that gets brought home from the food store...?...this is what happens when someone buys too many cookies and they don't get eaten fast enough...and you are stuck inside due to a snow storm.....tried an experiment to see what would happen if i tried the cake pop thing with cookies.....

....blended up the cookies (they happened to be m&m cookies)...then mixed with some chocolate frosting (store bought for this experiment)....until you get the consistency of play doh....

...then shape into whatever....in this case hearts for valentines day.....insert stick (attach with some candy melt)....freeze and then coat with candy and let dry.....and pipe with red royal icing into whatever conversation you like....!...(love how everyone who saw these said....wow those are really cool....and what's a Q T pie?.....and then 1/2 sec later....OHHHHH!)

...and since it was also my dad's birthday decided to make his favorite pie....coconut cream (could not find dream whip so just went with cool whip).....but needed a topper to go with it.....this is the same stuff as the hearts....just cake shaped....with a little white candy melt as "frosting".....and long sprinkles for "candles".....and more melted yellow candy melt for "flame"......

......and you have a "birthday cake cookie pop pie topper"....!...someone called me a genius for that idea....but i'm not so sure mensa would say this qualifies.....but hey i'll take it regardless.....!....

....ps as for the experiment....the cookie pops were pretty dense...and more like fudge with a little texture....and really sweet......but they looked pretty cute.....! happy one weekish before valentines day.....!

snow day brownie bars......!

.....with so much snow in the northeast...the kiddos have had a bunch of delayed openings and school closings...and they've been trapped inside way too much....even an attempt at going outside to "play" in the cool snow....has been hit or miss....since getting on all the snow gear takes for days with a 6 year old and almost 4 year old twins....and by the time they do get outside....the snow is too deep for the littles to walk in....and it's like 2 degrees...and if the wind is blowing...forget it...and i like the snow and all...but only when i'm dressed for it and on a snowboard....!

...so after about 30 minutes of prep time and maybe 10 minutes outside....we head back in....and the first request is hot chocolate of course....or after so many trials of hot chocolate...and it being way to hot....we call it "lukewarm chocolate" now......

....the frosted brownie bars were made one of those days to go along with a nice cup of lukewarm chocolate....the kiddos love to help mix up the ingredients now...and it's fun when they spill the brownie mix all over the table...and get egg shells in the batter...and constantly ask to taste the batter even before it's all mixed up and tasty...(does the powder with un-mixed egg and oil really look appetizing to these kids...?)....anyway...had some frosting leftover so decided to frost them up.....well because everything is better with some buttercream....(maybe that should be my new motto...!)

....this was from a brownie mix....and baked in a square 8X8 pan......i don't frost in the pan....but turn it out and then frost....it's just easier to get an even and clean layer for me that way ....and then cut up into bars....or whatever shape you like.....around the holidays did this with frosted sugar cookie bars....and they turned out great......this time added some large and small rainbow non-pareils as well....with the red...they could be great for a valentine's day party...and not too "girlish"...as my 6 year old likes to tell me about treats that are too pink....!

....oh just got the call....there's another delayed school opening tomorrow.....so do kids in like minnesota go to school at all in the winter or do they just deal with snow as the norm?....or are we just snow wimps out here on the east coast.....??.....regardless....have a frosted brownie bar and a cup of lukewarm chocolate to ponder that last question....!

....ok update....there was 17 inches of snow overnite and schools are closed today......need to come up with another activity to keep these kids busy.....