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!