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Homemade Cream Chese Wontons

We are trying to eat more plant based at our house. I know cream cheese is not at all plant based but we had not yet made wontons so we wanted to try a fairly simple recipe first. The verdict? We LOVE them!

Step 1: Buy your ingredients:

1 8 oz. package cream cheese
1 small package of green onions (green parts chopped)
1 package wonton wrappers
1 small bowl of water
2 cups of oil (we used 1/2 veg and 1/2 olive)
1 small pot to fry

Step 1: combine cream cheese and green onions.

Step 2: lay out wontons and fill each with 1/2 tablespoon of cream cheese mixture.

Step 3: Fold wontons into halves. We experimented with the envelope shape but I didn't like how they fried so we stuck with just folding them in half.

Step 4: Fry in the heated oil for about 30 seconds on each side and drain on a paper towel.

Step 5: EAT!

Dr. Seuss Thing 1 and Thing 2 Pinterest Project

My friend I teach with found a great craft for her autism room for Dr. Seuss day this year on Pinterest. She did these adorable thing 1 and thing 2 hand print crafts with her students yesterday and I just had to do this with my girls at home. I would have liked to have done this with my 2nd graders but I can't imagine hand painting 24 students' hands 4 times each! That would create chaos in my classroom. We are doing other crafts less labor intensive.

Here is the original pin from Pinterest. 

Source: littlekinderwarriors.blogspot.com via Alicia on Pinterest

We began with collecting our supplies. They include:
1 container peach colored paint
1 container red paint
1 container blue paint
1 black sharpie
4 pieces of construction paper
3 small paper plates
3 paint brushes
2 willing little girls

We began by painting one of the girls' hands with the peach color in the center and the blue all around. Repeat with other hand on other piece of paper. Repeat with other girl :o)

 Once both blue hands are stamped and dry, repeat with the red except skip the middle finger or your things 1 and 2 will have 3 legs. If you skip the middle finger when painting you get two arms and two legs with your red prints. Flip the paper over to stamp the red hands.

 

Once they are completely dry, draw on the faces and names on the peach colored sections and have each child sign them. I dated them with today's date and hung them on their bedroom doors. Once we have finished all of our Dr. Seuss celebrations we will take them down and put them into our scrapbook.

Happy Dr. Seuss Week and Read Across America Day!

Pinterest Challenge: Ice Cube Lunch Trays

My children were off of school today but alas, as the teacher I was not. While my mother in law got to stay with my two adorable girls I was working. To celebrate a day where both girls can stay home together I decided to complete a Pinterest Challenge I had been dying to try. I found this great picture of a toddler lunch idea.

.

Source: wileyvalentine.com via Melissa on Pinterest

So I make my own for both of my girls. Now, our tray was a little bigger but both girls just loved it. Here is my interpretation of what I called a Rainbow Lunch Tray.

 From left to right is as follows: 1/2 slice of American cheese, mix of chocolate and white chips, 3 sections of purple seedless grapes, 1/2 filled container of ranch dressing, two containers of brocolli, 1 container with 6 mini carrots, 1 container with cheese cracker birdies (Target brand), 2 containers full of animal crackers (about 6-8 animal crackers total), two sections of blue jello roll up (another Pinterest find) and two sections of strawberries (about 2 large strawberries).

My oldest who doesn't usually like raw veggies devoured her plate while my youngest didn't eat all of her veggies but everything else was gone. I think this may be a snow day/ day off from school/ fun Saturday tradition around here. Long live a $2.00 ice cube tray!

Spraypainting Curtain Rods and DIY Tablecloth into Curtains

I looked and looked all over the blogisphere for something to do with my 3 HUGE windows in our living, dining and kitchen. I did find a lovely tablecloth at Target that I was going to split in half for each curtain. I didn't want them too full and I didn't want to close them as we just pull our blinds down each night instead.

I was able to purchase 3 tableclothes at $19.99 each and split them down the middle. I then sewed a very basic seem down the side I cut and hung them with clips purchased from Wal-Mart.I purchased 4 bags at $7 each so those were quite costly.
I was able to get 3 curtain rods for $7 each at The Christmas Tree Store and sprayed them with ORB (oil rubbed bronze) spray paint which was $6 at Lowes.

The total project cost was:
Curtains: $60.00
Clips: $28.00
Curtain Rods: $21.00
Spray Paint: $6.00

Total: $115.00 for three HUGE windows that run the length of my house.

Pink and Yellow Ikea Klippan Dyed Couch Slipcovers + a Tutorial

We have two Ikea couches and absolutely LOVE our Klippans. We have the 4 seater Klippan sofa and absolutely adore it. We also love it and that the natural covers are pretty cheap at times to purchase. You can see the pink cover we dyed lying on the chair behind the 4 seater couch.

We also have the Klippan loveseat 2 seater.  We originally purchased one and dyed it pink for my daughter's birthday. This is truer to the color than the picture above of our pink cover. This was using 2 bottles of Fuchsia on the 2 seat loveseat cover.

We also wanted to dye a cover dark gray but didn't/couldn't find any black in liquid form at the time and used the powdered gray. It totally didn't work out well. You can see in the picture from this post HERE from last time we talked about dying that it looked too blue.

Well, we bleached that one with a gallon of bleach and lots of rinse water in the bath tub.

We rinsed and rinsed the cover and even did a quick wash in the washing machine to make sure there was no residue of bleach left to mess with our new color.
Then we put two bottles of golden yellow and 1/2 a bottle of sunshine orange into the water.

We then put our freshly washed cover into the water and let it soak. We constantly came back and moved the fabric around to ensure it was all covered with dye.

This picture doesn't do it true justice but we LOVE it with our new curtains and curtain rods.

So now we have a dark gray couch and a yellow loveseat and we just LOVE them both!

Bible Cake for Pastor's Birthday

My grandfather's 84th birthday was yesterday. We had a fabulous church service last night in honor of him and took a 50 question quiz on how well you know your pastor. I only missed 9 which isn't bad since he is also my grandfather.

I made this cake last year for his 83rd birthday and found the pictures today when I began making our 2011 year in pictures book. I also realized that I never shared this awesome cake on the blog. And so... today's post was born.

I began by making a large yellow cake in two rectangular pans. I cut the edges so they would form more of a page look and slid them together on my cake stand.

I made some great homemade chocolate icing and put a layer of coconut beneath it. My grandfather loves German sweet chocolate cake so I pulled a little coconut influence from that.

 

I covered the entire thing in white fondant and began painting. I took gel food coloring in ivory and gold and brushed the entire surface. I then created edges to resemble a book and painted a darker tone.

Do you just love how I steal my child's plastic plate as a palette? Me too!

 

I added a good Bible verse my grandfather likes and some leaf and ribbon detailing. I also purchased a plain white gumpaste cross from the local cake supply store and painted it up. Somehow I got so wrapped up that I totally forgot to take pictures of the process.

I covered the entire cake in gold luster dust to give it a little extra sheen. This picture was taken in my fridge after I finished the cake.

Happy Birthday Grandpa! May you have many many more!