heart fruit cups

As Room Coordinator I get to plan lots of fun for the class parties! It's a bit of a stressful job with coordinating and planning, but usually only for the week leading up to the party. And, I have been blessed with some willing and able parents who volunteer to bring things in or come and help out! I shared about my "love juice" water bottles last week that each of the kids received at the party, but for another part of the snack I decided on fruit cups! I wanted the snack to be healthy because I knew the kids would be getting plenty of treats and candy they could take home and eat. They didn't need to be on an extra sugar high! I'm sure the parents appreciated this a little more than the kids might have. ;)

I was making fruit cups for 26 kids, so I had to get speedy with my cutting or I would be in the kitchen all day long, so I got out my Pampered Chef Egg Slicer and cut away on the strawberries. It was SO QUICK!! I always forget I have this handy kitchen tool for strawberries!

Just like that...perfectly sliced strawberries!

And, what's a fruit salad on Valentine's Day without some heart-shaped fruit?!

Top it off with a little extra sweetness with some whipped topping...

It made my day when one of the kids shouted, "Hey, there's heart shaped fruit in here!" Oh, good...they did notice!

valentine's day 2013

Valentine's Day 2013 was so fun...and yet extremely exhausting!!

The kids woke up to PINK heart-shaped waffles, strawberry milk, and a strawberry-banana fruit salad for breakfast. I pulled myself out of bed extra early to help give them a little LOVE from me on Valentine's Day. {I must insert in here that I am NOT a morning person. At all! So, getting up early to make them a special breakfast was definitely a gift for my kids and a sign of my love for them. It had nothing to do with "overachieving". Trust me, a warm cooked breakfast does not normally happen during the weekday at the Boos house, so a few times a year on fun holidays, I like to treat them!}

As part of our Valentine's Day tradition, each of the kids got a new book. Typically the new book is Vday themed, but I totally forgot to order one from the previous month's book order, so mama scrambled the night before to find any sort of book to have on the table. And, of course a little candy treat from mom! They also got a little something in their mailbox...finally!

Peter Pan for Austin...

 And Alice in Wonderland for Mikayla...

 

 They loved them! And they will never know mama had to scramble.

One quick picture on the way out the door to school. The little pouches they are holding are Vday gifts for the teachers. Tucked inside were candy and silly socks (Mikayla's teacher's favorite!) I attended both of the kids' class parties, but if I posted those pictures it might be a bit of picture overload!! Maybe another day?

 When Daddy got home the kids had so much fun showing him their class valentines they got at school.

 And, of course as tradition always continues year after year...it was heart shaped pizza for dinner!

I tried a new dessert this year to end the (already sugar-high) day and made them Strawberry Ice Cream Floats...topped off with whipped cream, red sprinkles and a licorice straw. All you need is vanilla ice cream and strawberry soda (the only kind I could find was the Safeway brand). It was super yummy and when the ice cream was left and there wasn't much soda, we stirred it together and it kind of turned into a little bit of a strawberry milkshake. Yum!!

I hope your Valentine's Day was filled with lots of hugs and kisses!

kids in the kitchen - yogurt parfaits

On Monday I shared about our time in the kitchen making mini pizzas for lunch. Mikayla saw the pictures I took of Austin and since she was in school during that time, she said she wanted her turn in the kitchen! I don't know about you, but sometimes I have a hard time coming up with after school snacks that are a little more beyond, "just grab some crackers". I want to try to work on making a yummy (and extra special) snack at least once a week. This was the one for this week!

Strawberry-Yogurt Parfait

Wash your strawberries:

 Cut them into slices:

(Mikayla is using the kid-safe Pampered Chef knife, but if were to do this again I have an easier plan in mind for her to slice the strawberries!)

 Toppings include:

strawberries, vanilla yogurt, granola

 Start with granola on the bottom of the cup.

 Add a generous helping of vanilla yogurt.

 Add strawberries.

 Repeat the layers until you are satisfied.

 This looks so delicious!!

 Austin wasn't sure at first if he wanted to join in, but...

 ...he was all over the strawberries. Every. Last. One.

 Enjoy!!

Mikayla was so excited about this treat that she just had to make her daddy one after dinner that night. He LOVES parfaits, so he was really surprised to find out that this was his treat!

Have you been playing with your kids in the kitchen this week? Join in the fun and link up!

love juice!

For the second year in a row I have volunteered to be Room Coordinator for my daughter's class (well, technically this year I told the teacher if no one else signs up, let me know...guess what? Yep, no one signed up!) My favorite part of being Room Coordinator is the creative part!! We are keeping it a little bit simple for this year's Valentine's Day party so I was off the hook on planning the craft and games, but I just had to add my own special little touches to make it extra fun...

How about some {LOVE} juice?!

Mix contents with bottle of water and watch it turn red!

And, you know what saved the day (and stress)?

THIS FREE PRINTABLE for the flavoring packets!!

I so appreciate other bloggers who are willing to help the rest of us keep our sanity, so that we can still enjoy the creative process without fumbling over the logistics of the project. Because I was able to quickly print the labels and attach to the packets, I was able to have fun with the part I love to do the most...creating the finished product!

*All products are Stampin' Up! (of course!)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

kids in the kitchen - mini pizzas

Recently I have been reliving the days of when the kids were pre-schoolers and I remember all those fun times in the kitchen, making snacks or lunch or whatever! (I have been going through some "my babies are not babies anymore" moments lately!!)

I have a lot of documented time in the kitchen with Mikayla (her little brother wasn't quite the age to be in the kitchen as a helper!) like when we made Homemade Waffles, Banana Muffins, or Cool Whip Sandwiches. Seriously...click on some of those links and your heart will melt with that sweet little baby face who is now almost 7 years old!!

Well, I thought today it would be little brother's turn to be my kitchen helper. We've done plenty of this over the last couple of years (and especially recently), but today I picked up the camera to document him making one of his favorite lunches. Right now Austin goes to preschool (Jr. Kindergarten) 4 mornings a week, but he is home in time for lunch, so we get to enjoy the afternoon together. We try to do some fun things together just him and I right when he gets home and cooking in the kitchen usually happens once a week!

Mini Pizzas

• English muffins
• pizza squeeze (we love the Contadina pizza squeeze)
• shredded cheese
• toppings ~ our favorites are turkey pepperoni and olives

Step One:

Squeeze the pizza sauce onto the English muffins.

Step Two:

Using the back of a spoon, spread the pizza sauce over the English muffins.

Step Three:

Sprinkle on the cheese.

Step Four:

Add your toppings. And, in true Austin-fashion he decided to make pizza faces.

Pizza faces ready for the toaster oven.

Step 5:

Carefully walk them to the toaster oven (yes, I did say to him carefully)...

...and then this happened!

{Let me just pause for a moment to say that had this been 2 or 3 years ago, I may have just freaked out a little and thought this was a major catastrophe. But, guess what? Not anymore! I've learned that life's too short to cry over spilt milk...or in this case pizza on the floor. We just scooped it up, turned it over, added a little more cheese, put the face back together, and into the toaster oven it went.}

Step 6:
Let the cheese melt in the toaster oven until nice and crisp.

Step 7:
Put a smile on  your face and enjoy!

And before I could get the apples cut and on the plate, Austin had already snatched the olives and gobbled them up!

{And, in browsing my blog to reminisce of the days when my kids were little, I found THIS POST where the kids made muffin pizza faces back in 2009. So precious!!}

I am joining in the link up for Kids in the Kitchen...a new weekly series I just found at the blog Sensibly Sara. Come join in the fun (click on the picture below).