Red Velvet Muddy Buddies By: Siobhan

Red Velvet Muddy Buddies

Today we have another Valentine's Day post. Yesterday Leo and I made some delicious red velvet muddy buddies. I found the idea on Pinterest. This was a fun alternative to regular muddy buddies and was a nice festive snack. 

1 box Rice Chex cereal

1 1/2 cups white chocolate melts or chips

1/2 cup chocolate melts or chips (we used mini chocolate chips)

4 oz cream cheese, room temp

3 Tbsp. milk

2 cups Red Velvet Cake mix

1 C. powdered sugar

1 bag red M&M's or other candies

Heart sprinkles or any pink/red Valentine sprinkles 

Pour Chex cereal into a large bowl.

Mix the chocolate together and melt in microwave at twenty second intervals. Stir in cream cheese and milk once chocolate is fully melted.

Mix the chocolate into the cereal, being careful not to crush it.

Note: The chocolate mixture will get very thick when the cream cheese is added.

Add cake mix and powdered sugar to a large tupperware (with a lid!) or a ziplock bag. Pour in half of the cereal mixture and shake until fully coated. Repeat.

Put muddy buddies in a large baking pan to cool. Stir in candy and sprinkles. 

Place muddy buddies in treat bags and enjoy!

Valentine's Day Hairstyles By: Siobhan

 

Valentine's Day Hairstyles

It's almost Valentine's Day, and Filia has been asking for a lot of heart hairstyles recently. I looked some up off of Cute Girls Hairstyles  and these are our favorites...

Double Heart Twists

Ribbon Twistback

 Accent Hearts

 

 

Happy Hairstyling!

Valentine's Day Floats

Looking for a yummy, easy Valentine's Day treat? Try these floats! Get some vanilla ice cream and put it in a glass. Add some pink soda (we used raspberry gingerale.) Top with whipped cream and sprinkles.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Heart Chains Craft

Valentine's Day Heart Chains

Today we have another fun Valentine's Day craft for you all. This one is a lot quicker and easier than the Olaf Valentines, but they are very cute. Tert and Filia had a lot of fun making these. 

Supplies: Red Paper (we used two shades of red cardstock), scissors, and a stapler

1. Cut strips of paper along the width of a sheet of paper (about 1/4-1/2 inch depending on how big you want your hearts)

2. Fold your strips in half. 

3. Staple the folded edge

4. Fold edges down

 

5. Staple edges together.

To add hearts onto the first heart to make a chain, repeat steps 1-4 and then loop the heart through the previous heart to make a chain before doing step 5. (It sounds a lot more confusing than it is!)

Tert and Filia were our pro heart chain makers. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Click here to see our Frozen Olaf Valentine Tutorial. Stay tuned for more Valentine's Day posts!

Snow Day Sillies

Sometimes I can't help but wonder how ludicrous our home school would appear from an outsider's point of view.  Today was another snow day (which means a frenzy of schooling at Alma Mater Academy, since our extracurricular commitments were all cancelled).  The kids were bouncing off the walls by lunchtime, and I started writing down the crazy things they came out with...

Filia opened the day with the earnest prayer, "Dear God, please give Mom and Dad some time together to talk...and please let me have a baby sister."

Filia lost her favorite rubber rat "Squeaky" in a massive snowdrift when she brought him out for a tea party with his friends.  I was the mean mother who didn't let her make paper boots for him; thus it's my fault that he's shivering out there until springtime.  : /

Looking for another form of entertainment, she started playing a wild game of "puppy."  I heard Leo exclaim, "DAD!!  If Filia is going to play that she's a dog, she can't be so realistic!!  She just lifted up the toilet seat with her TEETH!!!"

Lux learned to open all of the child locks, dumped the diaper pail, shattered the cover to Stella's camera lens, ate some soap, sprinkled fish food on the floors, threw his fake kitchen food and a bagel in the toilet, and broke our bathroom cabinet. Whenever it looks like he's going to get in trouble, he puts on an angelic grin and exclaims, "BUTT!"

Tert helped me find our place in the science book by reminding me that "we left off on the page with the girl who had melons (melanin) in her eyes."

I started to fade around lunchtime and handed Rus "George, the Drummer Boy" to read to his brother.  I told him it would be perfect since he's studying George Washington this week.  About a page in, Rus looked at me with the same smile his dad wears when he wants to "set me straight without hurting my feelings," and said, "Umm, Mom.  I really don't think this book is about George Washington because George Washington was a GENERAL in the French and Indian War.  So...I don't think he'd just be a little kid playing a drum in the Revolutionary War since that came later."  I apologized for the mix-up, and he said, "Oh, that's okay.  You're just tired, Mom, and I know how that feels."  :)

Frozen Olaf Valentine Tutorial By: Siobhan

It's almost Valentine's Day, and we have a lot of Valentine's Day crafts and recipe posts coming up. We were snowed in from church yesterday, and Tert, Filia and I had a lot of fun making these. They are essentially just melted Olafs, with a cute tag that says: 'Valentine, You're Worth Melting For!'

 Supplies: You'll need some jumbo marshmallows, regular marshmallows, mini marshmallows, pretzel sticks, mini chocolate chips, candy corn (regular or Valentine's Day candy corn), to/from tags, a hole punch, twist ties, markers, treat bags or ziplock bags, red ribbon, and scissors.

Click here to print out these to/from labels. Cut out the labels and hole punch them.

 I didn't have any treat bags, so we just cut off the top of a ziplock bag.

 First, slice a jumbo marshmallow in half lengthwise. This will be the base of the snowman. Place it inside your bag.

 

Next cut a tiny bit of marshmallow off the front of a regular sized marshmallow. This leaves a sticky area where you can push on two mini chocolate chips for buttons.

;

Cut the regular marshmallow in half. The half with the chocolate is the body. The other half is the head. Your bag should look something like the top right picture.

 Put a candycorn, two mini marshmallows, and a pretzel stick snapped in half in the bag. Put a twist-tie on the top of the bag. Tie a ribbon onto it and add a tag.

 Little Lux had his first marshmallow. He loved it, but he had trouble fitting it into his mouth :) 

I hope you enjoyed this valentine tutorial. Stay tuned for more Valentine's Day posts this week...