My First Feature!

You may have noticed a very pretty very colorful FEATURED BUTTON over on the right hand side of the blog...

YEP THIS ONE!!!!

It's from the shared Link It Up Thursday over at These Peas Taste Funny and Seven Alive!

I'm so excited to be featured over at this weeks Link it up Thursday link party its for my Father's Day Hand Print Art! (well its Delaney's hand so I guess its her art...)

Hop on over and check out the Link up! Lots of great projects and great ideas too!

Thanks ladies!

Kid Craft! Father's Day Hand Print Art!

So its almost Father's day... what a great chance to celebrate daddy for all the amazing things he does! (Or in spite of all the things he does or doesn't do that drive you nuts... )

Since we made some hand pint art for Mother's day I thought it would be nice for grand parents to have a matching set of hand prints and well I guess our daddy deserved one too!

So here is our Daddy's day hand print art in 5 easy steps!

Paint your kiddos hand with the colors of your choice in stripes and then place their hand on the paper. (Remember its very important that you use a paint brush to paint their hand so that you get all the ridges and lines in the hand and so you don't end up with a mess!)

Once its dry add your greeting. You can have your older kids write this themselves or for younger ones like ours write it out and get them to trace it over with a crayon or a pencil. (Easy way to sneak in some learning with the fun!)

 Then add your eyes and a smile with a marker, again your older kiddos can do this themselves!

Have the kiddos draw in some seaweed or other fish friends. (You could have them paint this part too.)

And the final step wait till Father's day to show daddy! (This one is a little harder with a three year old!)

Our inspiration for this one came from a google search and I just had Delaney choose from a couple of options. The original idea for this art work (which I thought was brilliant) came from Hand Print and Foot Print Art! Stop by and check out Amanda and her great hand print art!

What are you crafting for Father's Day? I'd love to see all your awesome Daddy inspired art and crafts so post a link in the comments!

Hope you and yours have a wonderful Fathers day!

Make It Monday! Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf Knock Off!

So as you may (or may not) know we live with my sister, what you don't know unless you know my sister is that she loves Starbucks Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf.

So over the weekend while getting ready to visit our mom she looked around to see if she could find a recipe for "the most amazing thing in this world"... well maybe thats is an exaggeration but if you know my sister you know that she is the worlds biggest exaggerator... ok well maybe it runs in the family! As soon as she found this recipe posted by a lovely food blogger from Calgary, AB. (yes that is in Canada...) over at Tease-spoon of Sugar she emailed it to me and was on a desperate man food hunt for lemon extract and poppy seeds.

This is the recipe

3 Cups flour
2 1/2 Cups sugar
1 1/2 Tsp salt
1 1/2 Tsp baking soda
1 1/2 Tbsp Poppy Seeds
1 1/2 Cups Milk
1 Cup plus 2 Tbsp Canola Oil
3 Large Eggs
3 Tsp Lemon Extract
(or you could use vanilla and add lemon zest if you don't have lemon extract)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep 2 loaf pans... (YEP 2!) In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and poppy seeds. (I mixed with a fork and just made sure that it was well mixed but the original recipe said to use a stand mixer.) In another medium sized bowl, combine wet ingredients. Slowly pour the wet into the dry and mix with a stand mixer on lowest setting. Mix until completely combined and continue to beat for about 1 minute on medium. Pour into pans and bake for approximately 1 hour and 5 minutes; or until toothpick inserted into the loaves comes out clean.

I had to turn the temp down on my loaves to about 300 as they were completely brown after just 30 minutes and I was so afraid they would burn... and while they aren't black, they sure are over cooked! It is still very moist and its still very yummy but it is certainly over baked... 

I am still 100% behind this recipe and I will likely try it again and hope that the oven isn't out to get me on that occasion as well. 

But if you think this is good you also need to stop by Tease-spoon of Sugar and check out these other great recipes! Baked's Sweet and Salty cake which I will be making very soon and her Cinnamon Swirl Bread which will be on the top of my husbands MAKE THIS NOW list! There are so many great recipes over there that I could fill a full post with just the things I want to make! YUM! 

Do you have a knock off recipe that you just LOVE? Have you tried a knock off recipe that you were hoping would turn out just like the original? Let me know how your knock off went in the comments!

Tell the Truth Thursday! The Only Thing I Like About Dora!

Ive never kept it a secret... I'm not Dora's biggest fan. It's an ok show and if your kids like it and you do too well that's great but at our house we don't watch Dora and have only one Dora DVD and the only reason we have that is because it was given to Delaney as a gift. Personally I find it to be too repetitive and too to tell the TRUTH annoying... But like I said that's my opinion.

However there is one thing that I am greatful that Delaney has learned from Dora. At the end of each show Dora asks what was your favorite part of the day... And after seeing this on tv and in the one DVD she does have Delaney has been asking us what our favorite part of the day was as we are tucking her into her bed at night...

She always asks us for more than one favorite thing... usually she asks for 5.

As much as I dislike Dora I do love this little snippet we have picked up from her... It gets us to stop and think about what we did during the day and pick out what made us happiest. It gives me a little more insight into Delaney as well... I get to hear straight from her adorable little mouth what sparked her thinking, what put a smile on her face, what made her happiest.

And as much as it is good for us to hear and participate in, I think its so fabulous to hear Delaney appreciate all the little things in her day, for her to be grateful for the things that make her happy and for her to see that its not the things you buy or the money you have its the people and the experiences that make your life rich!

What do you and your kids do to appreciate the little things? Do you have a little Dora watcher? Tell your TRUTH in the comments.

(Please keep in mind that this is just one Momma's opinion and I am in no way paid or compensated to share this opinion nor am I trying to put down the Dora brand or Nickelodeon.) 

Kid Activity! All About ME!

Once a month I set aside a day for just DELANEY! (When Max gets a bit bigger he will have his own day too of course!)

Its called "All About ME" day... easy to remember hey!

On this one day each month Delaney gets to pick out her own clothes, how she wants her hair, what she wants to eat for Breakfast, Lunch and Supper as well as the activities that we do through out the day. What she doesn't realize is that during the day I get her to draw a picture of herself or her family, I take a picture of her, and I ask her the same questions and record them into a note/scrapbook for her.

Its my way of capturing the little changes in her each month and seeing how much she changes so when I am sitting home alone drying my tears and she is at her prom I will still have a little something that shows me that she was just a little girl once...

Want to do it yourself but wondering what to ask your own kids.... well here is a list of questions I ask delaney some of them might change depending on how old your child is or what their interests are....

What is your name?
How old are you?
Where do you live?
Who is in your family?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your best friend?
What is your favorite show or movie?
What is your favorite thing about Momma or your favorite thing to do with Momma?
What is your favorite thing about Daddy or your favorite thing to do with Daddy?
What is your favorite thing about your sibling(s)?
Where is your favorite place to go?
What is your favorite toy?
What is your favorite food?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Are you excited to go to school? and Why?

Some of her answers crack me up.... and some leave me with more questions. Either way I get to hear straight from her what she is thinking and what she likes...

For example the last time I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up this was her response. "Momma could you tell me what I want to be?" I said no... "I'd like to be, I'd like to be CINDERELLA!"

When I asked if she was excited for school " Yeah when I'm 4 years old" Why? "because school is my favorite time of year" Why? "Because I really like my favorite time of year!" pretty sure when she is 12 or 15 this will not be her answer about school... that is if she is anything like me.

She loves her All About Me days and I love being able to give her the attention she deserves. Do you set aside time for each of your kids individually? and what do you do with them during their one on one time?