Lemon Spiral Cookies

One of my favorite stores is Mardel, I love to shop their bargain books section as well as the clearance shelf in the kids section. Recently I was browsing around and stumbled upon a box of recipes cards for kids. They are from Usborne and looked really cute. The idea is that one side has pretty pictures of all the treats, so the kids look at everything and decide what to make. Then you turn the card over for the recipe. Sounded fun and they were 50% off, who could resist? When we got home I let Oliver spread them out and look at them, he chose Lemon Swirl Cookies, which looked really fun. Oliver said he wanted to bring them to school for his class, so I let him know that we would need a lemon. For two days that is all he talked about, sweet lil guy, something to be said for perseverance. Daddy went and got a lemon, pronto. (I was sick so I was not willing to go walk around the grocery store, that is why I didn't go the 1st day.)

On Saturday we baked them. I learned a few lessons on this first "go around". I would have double the recipe, followed the directions and only refrigerate for 30 minutes. I couldn't roll the dough out as much as I would have liked, as a result when I rolled the two colors only the ends stayed "spirally" the rest looked as though the were happy faces with no eyes, lol. Also, I should have used a sharper knife when cutting, and finally I DIDN'T TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FINAL PRODUCT (duh)! They turned out yummy, the boys ate them all up on Sunday. All in all, I enjoyed doing this recipe, I will make it again, just make some adjustments, stay tuned...

Oliver and his lemon

butter and lemon yuminess

the recipe card underneath shows a picture of what they are supposed to look like

2 separate dough balls

Slicing after chilling

Letting loose with glitter...this should be interesting!

I have always, always loved glitter! Don't think I am one of those girlie types either, pretty much a tom-boy. However, I have always thought glitter was so pretty. So sparkly and shiny. In the past, whenever I would craft with the boys I pretty much played dictator over the glue and glitter, not wanting any uncontrollable mess. Well let's just say since I have been "blog walking" I have been super-inspired but several different blogger moms/bakers/photographers. This blog post sparked an interest in me to see glitter all over everything and not freak out about it. I knew my boys would be more than happy to let loose with those 3 big, tempting shakers full of glitter. We gave everyone their own glue, construction paper, and glitter... SUPER FUN! And yes, there is still glitter on my floor and specks keep showing up in the weirdest places - but, like the other blog said- what a great reminder of letting loose, getting dirty and having fun.

Snow-much Fun!

I have been following an super-cute blog and have been completely inspired, an old flame has been re-light I used to love to do so many creative things but I pushed all that aside at some point... After seeing what this blogger did with a little food coloring and snow - I knew my boys would love it and they completely did!

My husband bought the spray bottles, he bought 2 each of 2 different kinds (we found that the full action pump sprayer is better than the one finger pump)... the first time out we mixed red and blue to make purple, red and yellow to make orange, then had blue and the last bottle with red.

Oliver found squares that another child must have made with a snow mold, he filled those in with different colors. We also made footprints and then colored them. Samuel couldn't manage to get any color out, he would throw the bottle in the snow. I guess he was hoping that would get the color out. When Oliver was finished I took all the tops off and let Samuel pour it on the snow, he really liked doing that - looked like a slushie!

When Preston came home from school he was thrilled at the idea. He headed just as a fresh layer of fluffy snow fell. Perfect day!