Top Of the Mornin' To Ya!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Monkey set her trap last night to catch the leprechaun, but he's a sneaky fellow.  He ate all the gold chocolate coins, and left the wrappers on the floor.  He was nice enough to leave her a new pair of socks (fun stuff, right), nail stickers, and candy.  I don't think she will ever catch him.

I try to send in a little something for her class every holiday, and I didn't want St. Patrick's Day to be ignored.  These treats were simple to put together -- we probably spent an hour working on them. 

Her classmates are going to get some Leprechaun Kisses.  We were going to do something with "Kiss Me, I'm Irish", but she's at the age where she doesn't want the boys to get the wrong idea.  I found this free poem here.  You could print it out on card stock so it's sturdy, but I used plain old white paper.

We filled green sandwich baggies (found them at Target) with Hersey Kisses.  I cut the tops of the
bag (removing the zipper part), and used green ribbon to tie the bags closed.  To finish the treat, I stapled the poem to the top of the bag.  BAM! 

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We did something similar for the 4th grade teachers, and her band instructor.  Instead of Hershey Kisses, we put Peppermint Patties in gold sandwich baggies (gotta love the Target!).  I found the cute tag here, and stapled it to the bag. 

 

This is what she put together for her teacher.  The Monkey did this one all herself.  It's a Pot of Gold.  She painted a flower pot black, made a rainbow out of pipe cleaners, and filled it up with Rolo candy.  You could use the chocolate gold coins to fill up the pot if you wanted to.

I hope that you and your family have a great St. Patrick's Day.  I want to leave you with this one thought:

 

You son is your son today, but your daughter is your daughter forever.

A man is only a son until he takes a wife. But as a daughter gets older, she will stay near the family, draining it of money and time for years to come. In Irish Gaelic, it's Is é do mhac do mhac inniú, ach is í d’iníon d’iníon go deo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Birthday Candy Bouquet

It's birthday party season.  If you are a parent of an elementary school aged child, you know what I am talking about.  For those that don't, allow me to explain.  The Monkey is in a class that has just over 20 students in it, and she averages a party invite about every two weeks.  More often than not she ends up missing them, due to previous commitments.

But not today!  Today she went to a laser tag party (she's there as we speak) that included a chocolate chip cookie cake.  I'm not sure what she was more excited about -- the cake or the party itself.

I wanted to do something a little bit special for this friend, because she is a "good kid".  You know, she's the kid you want your child to stay friends with for as long as possible.  She's friendly, polite, kind, considerate....just a good egg.  I saw posts all over Pinterest for a candy bouquet, so I decided to make one for her.  Here's how you can do it.

Supplies

(I purchased all of these at the Dollar Tree, so this is not something that will break the bank)

4 boxes of movie theater candy, roughly all the same size

One block styrofoam

Package of crazy straws

6 regular size candy bars

Packing tape, glue, and a piece of cardboard

Line the boxes of candy up so that they form a square (sorry, for some reason I neglected to take a picture of this step).  Use the packing tape to tape the boxes together FROM THE INSIDE.  This way, the recipient will not see the tape.

Cut a piece of cardboard to fit the bottom of your "box".  I used an empty cereal box.  Line the candy boxes with glue, and attach the board.  You will need to allow the glue to set, so walk away and do something. 

Once the glue is set, turn your masterpiece upside down so the board is now on your workspace.  Place the styrofoam inside your candy vase.  You most likely will need to cut it to fit the space. 

Attach the candy bars to the crazy straws with a piece of packing tape.  If you don't have the straws, you can use a wood dowel or a ka-bob stick.  I thought the straws were a fun addition to the craft, and it was something that could be used again.

Once you have the candy bars taped to the straws, you can place the straws in to the styrofoam.  You want to place them as far down into the foam as you can, so they can be stable.  You don't want things to fall apart when you are giving the gift.

The styrofoam looks pretty ugly, so you want to fill up all of the empty spaces.  You can use more candy if you, like Hershey Kisses.  Or you can fill it up with strips of crinkled paper, or even Easter grass.  I had some tulle left over from when I made my niece a tutu, so that is what I used. 



Voila!  You are done.  You have now created your own candy bouquet.  My aunt told me that she found a store selling candy bouquets for $30, which is CRAAAZY to me. This cost me $11 to make, and I'm sure it could even be made for less money if I shopped around.

The birthday girl loved her gift.  The first words out of her mouth were....well, they were "Thank You".  Remember, I just gushed about how polite she is.  The second words out of her mouth were "AWESOME!".

Until next time.....

Peep Pops

Today was the Monkey’s last day before Spring Break begins, so she wanted to bring in a treat for her class.  Nothing says Easter to me like a Peep, and what kid (or adult) doesn’t like chocolate.  This was a no brainer!

Supplies:

• Peeps
• Chocolate wafers
• Sprinkles 
• Lollipop sticks

This is the cruel part of the recipe – you need to…ahem….put a stick up the bunny’s butt.  Dab a little bit of the melted chocolate on the top of the stick, and then jam it up there.  You want to press the stick as far as you can without it coming out the other end.

So sorry Mr. Bunny

Melt the chocolate according to the package directions. 

Most people would dip the Peep into the chocolate, but I prefer the spoon method.  Hold the Peep over the chocolate, and spoon the chocolate over the treat.  Use enough chocolate to cover the Peep, and then gently tap the stick on the side of the bowl.  This will allow you to get rid of any excess chocolate.

You can “dress up” your Peep with sprinkles, or you can leave them “naked”. It’s up to you.  We left one naked because one of her classmates has a food allergy, and can’t eat anything with the color purple in it.  We didn’t want to not include her in on the fun.

Place the treat on to a piece of wax paper to allow the chocolate to set, which should take about 10 minutes.

Since she was giving these out to her classmates and her teachers, I wrapped them in a small bag and tied them with curling ribbon.  

The Monkey informed me today that we are known as the family that brings stuff in.  Does that mean I set the bar high for myself, and I need to bring something in for every holiday?  Or does that mean the teacher and the parents are getting ticked off at me?  I'll let you decide....

Until next time.....

The Luck of the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day (a few days early) !

Here is something I put together for the Monkey to hand out to her class today. It was fairly easy to put together, and took less than an hour to do.  It probably would have taken less time but I was watching Shameless while I was doing it. I love me some Gallaghers!

I designed the notes using Microsoft Publisher, and simply printed them out. The little bags can be found in the jewelry section of the craft store. After cutting the notes to fit inside the bag, I slipped the paper in, and then added a chocolate coin.   This little treat lets everyone have a piece of the leprechaun's pot of gold.

And I will leave you with this saying, which was proudly displayed in my grandmother's home: May you be in heaven a half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.

Until next time.....

Happy Valentine's Day!

Me: What kind of valentine cards do you want to give out to your class this year?

Monkey:  I don’t want to give out any.

Me: What?  You have to.

Monkey:  All the cards have love on them.  I don’t want to give them out to the boys.

Me: How about we get girl and boy valentines?  Look, here are baseball theme ones.

Monkey: (Looks at the back of the box).  Nope

Me: Why?

Monkey: (Reading the box)  Valentines, let’s take a walk in the ballpark together.  See!  It’s like I am asking him out on a date.

End scene.

I thought we could get one more year out of boxed Valentine cards, but I quickly found out that I was wrong.  I didn’t want the holiday to go by without it recognizing, so I started to brainstorm for ideas.  Where did I turn?  Why, Pinterest of course!  I found this Star Wars idea, but the Monkey was not having it.  I went back to the drawing board, and found this cute idea – Pixie Stix magic wands.  Winner!

This is a super easy idea, and can be adapted for any holiday (more on that later).  I bought a box of Pixie Stix at Sam’s Club (50 sticks for $12).  The ribbon was left over from Christmas.  I wanted to use hearts as the topper, but the Monkey said no way.  We found these cute Princess crown and Prince shields at the Dollar Tree (pack of 10 for $1).

Putting them together is a piece of cake, and can be done in four steps. 

1. Step One:  Tape the topper to the label on the candy tube (this will cover it up). 
2. Step Two:  Cut the ribbon into 12” lengths, and tie on the tube. 
3. Step Three: Use your scissors to curl the ribbon to make things extra pretty. 
4. Step Four: Admire your handiwork.

The Monkey loved the end result, and was super excited to give them out to her classmates.  I am sure that the class is going to LOVE them, and I am confident that their parents are going to HATE me.  Today is her classroom party, and I made cupcakes.  Totally not going to lie – these are from a box, and the frosting came from a can.  

Like I said, you can adapt these to any holiday.  Here are some ideas that you can build on:

St. Patrick’s Day à Shamrocks and green ribbon

Easter à Bunnies/Eggs and pink ribbon

Birthday à Balloons and any color ribbon

However you celebrate, have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Until next time....