Cookie Party 2012

One of my favorite holiday traditions is the cookie party that my friend Marilynn hosts. This year, I made some yummy Macaroon Kisses... they are delicious (and I usually don't like coconut!)

Macaroon Kisses


1/3 cup butter (softened)
3 oz. cream cheese (softened)
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
5 cups coconut (divided)
48 kisses (dark chocolate)

Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg yolk and extract.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add gradually to creamed mixture.  Stir in 3 cups of the coconut.

Refrigerate dough 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle (if desired, I didn't find this to be necessary).  Shape in 1” balls or use a small cookie scoop and then roll in coconut.  Place 2” apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes (or until lightly browned.)

Remove from oven and push a kiss into each cookie.  Allow cookies to sit on cookie sheet 2-5 minutes until chocolate is soft.  Transfer cookies to cooling racks.

If you want to check out some other pictures and recipes for delicious cookies, check out the Christmas Cookie blog!

Hey Ferb, I know what we're going to do today....

 Trick or Treat!!!

Happy Halloween to all.... This year we decided to continue on with our love of Phineas and Ferb...

The Flynn-Fletcher Family... Sadly, Lawrence didn't make an appearance... and Ferb had to be on Coleman's bag since we couldn't convince any of our neighbors or friends to join our family for the night...

Liv made an excellent Candace... she doesn't often try to "bust her brother" and isn't in love with someone named Jeremy (lovely bag, no?) but she still pulled it off. She had a parade at school that Sophia and I got to go to. She had to explain to people who she was... but if they were fans of the show, they totally got it as soon as she said it. Sophia loved being there because all of the kids would point to her and say, "Hey, look! It's Perry!" She felt just a bit famous :).

Coleman loves, loves, loves this show. I love that the the characters are mostly nice to each other, tell the truth, and are quite intelligent. The plots are simple enough that Sophia likes it but witty enough that Ryan and I even sneak in an episode or two after the kiddos go to bed. People who know the show loved the costumes and recognized us immediately... those who didn't... well, they didn't. Some thought Coleman was a rooster! Sophia and I went to Coleman's class for his party.

Ryan made a great Doofenschmirtz... all evil and ugliness aside, he at least had the clothes down :). Sophia's debut as Perry the Platypus was great. We've been planning this for weeks... and a couple of weeks ago Soph decided she wanted to be a cat instead. We finally convinced her to put on her Perry costume by telling her she would be a kitty cat that looked like Perry the Platypus :). In the days leading up to Halloween we kept asking Sophia what she was going to say at the door... her response: "Me want candy!" I think she caught on to the whole idea of trick-or-treating... when they got home I asked her if they had gone to a few houses... she answered with, "No... a lot!" and then I asked if she got a few pieces of candy she said, "No, a lot, a lot, a lot!" She's been chowing down ever since.... She loved her Major Monogram bag and kept calling it "my Major Monogram bag."

Ryan rigged up speakers and played the "Doofenschmirtz Evil, Incorporated" jingle from his lab-coat.  We brainstormed about what "inator" he could carry around but never built one.... we should have made the Trick-or-Treat-inator to suck all of the good candies out of trick-or-treaters bags...

We all know that Linda and Heinz didn't end up together... but they did go on that one date... :)

It definitely wasn't my best year for creativity in the culinary area, but we had a few yummy Halloween treats... My headstone cakebites didn't work as well as I hoped (the white chocolate seized up, likely from the food coloring I added?) so we turned some of them into ghosts... We made some mummy pigs-in-a-blanket, spiderweb salsa with chips, and had some jack-o-lantern slush. The cake in the top right corner was made by someone at Ryan's work and I loved it... they just used strawberry pieces to make a pumpkin. I loved the Frankenstein rice krispy treats that two of my friends made for our pack meeting this month. We didn't have very many trick-or-treaters this year, which was strange because we had beautiful weather... 71 degrees! The ones that did come to our door got to take some Perry fruit snacks, Smarties, Nerds, or Dum-Dums. I am quite sure the significance of the candies was lost on everyone but me and Coleman (and Liv after we explained it to her) but that is okay :).

They got home with so much candy and spent a bit of time trading and paying the 'mom and dad tax.'

They taught Sophia how to say "Happy Halloween!"

Hope your Halloween was great too!

April Fool's Funnies

Olivia and Coleman have been looking forward to this day for weeks. Coleman kept saying, "Oh, I just can't WAIT for Wednesday!" and I'd have to ask him what he was so excited for (April Fools Day is not one of my favorite holidays--after all, there aren't any presents or candy associated with it!).

Ry and I decided that with all the excitement and anticipation, we couldn't disappoint.

Olivia woke up to find her closet empty and Coleman's dresser drawers had been removed. All the couch cushions were piled high on the floor (much to their delight) and the kitchen chairs and stools were all upside down. The crowning moment though was breakfast... we served orange juice (which was really jello so it wouldn't come out when they tried to drink it) and we froze cereal, milk, and a spoon last night. I wish I had caught their expressions and "What the...?!?" questions. It was very fun!
At school Olivia made this fun April Fools Day tie and had a few tricks pulled on her by her teacher and the custodian. She offered to make Coleman's bed and pulled a classic trick on him... she short-sheeted his bed (as she saw on the Disney channel). Tonight when he got into bed he laughed and laughed. He thought that was a good one! Olivia laughed and laughed too.

**Do you play tricks on anyone for April Fools?
**Any ideas for next year?

The Leprechauns Strike Again

St. Patrick's Day brings leprechauns to our house... the kids wanted to lure them with drawings of rainbows and pots of gold and four leaf clovers. They made sure to wear green jams so they wouldn't get pinched during the night. (Too bad for Coleman he fell into the toilet just before bed... we had to scrounge up some mis-matching pajamas, but at least we got the green on.)

They woke up to find that the leprechauns had turned their toilet water green and the milk in the fridge (copycats from last year!) and had spread the kitchen table with M&M goodness, plastic "Kiss Me I'm Irish" necklaces, some green shirts... and an iTunes gift card for Ry (those leprechauns are smart and know what we like!). The kids had even been kissed by the leprechauns and had a green mark on their noses.

We had toast made with green bread (I must have had extra time on my hands being home with sick kids) for breakfast...
...and green hot chocolate (Stephen's French Vanilla... it was tasty!).
Liv's green dot had mostly come off, but Coleman's is there is full force.

For dinner we had beef stroganoff (I can't bring myself to make or serve beef brisket or corned beef and cabbage) and we dyed the noodles green (did I mention I had some extra time on my hands at home today?).

And finally we made some green Snickerdoodles to finish off the day. Green cookies with green milk is a great way to end a holiday, if you ask me.

We love Snickerdoodles... especially my Grandma's recipe.

Here it is if you feel inclined to make them:

Grandma W.'s Snickerdoodles

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 3/4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cream together shortening, sugar, and eggs. Mix in dry ingredients. Dough should be dry and stiff. Roll dough into 1" balls (or use a cookie scoop) and roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy!



**Did you have any leprechaun visitors at your house this year?

Valentine's Day 2009

We spread our Valentine's celebrations out over the weekend and had lots of lovey dovey goodness which included:

Helping in the kids' class parties. In Olivia's class we made pictures for the kids' parents, just like the ones of our kids below. In Coleman's class we didn't take photos--but we had a great time throwing bean bags into heart buckets and the kids shot off pink balloons at a heart shaped bulls-eye.
Cute Valentine Kids! Liv got her cute sweater from her cousin McKenzie (we love hand-me-downs) and Coleman's awesome heart pirate shirt was saved from last year (although it might be time to retire it--if he lifts his hands up to high we get some serious belly views).

I love flowers--even though Ryan knows I don't expect them, they are always such a nice surprise.

Ryan got a paint can full of memories and coupons and candy. I loved the idea when I saw it on Good Things Utah. You can buy clear, empty paint cans at Roberts (or other scrapbook stores) and with a little scrapbook paper, ribbon, and chipboard it makes a great gift for your sweetie.

The kids got their own little boxes full of treats, a Valentine's book, and a bunch of chipboard notes telling what we love about them.

It was fun to come up with some of the many reasons we love our kiddos.

We ate our heart-shaped pizzas with sparkling cider in fancy red goblets (have I mentioned that I love the Target clearance rack?).

I've always loved eating pretzels dipped in caramel and chocolate. I thought I'd try making them myself instead of spending a fortune for just a few--they turned out so pretty and so delicious! I had grand visions of delivering them to friends, but only a few lucky people got them (we liked eating them a lot).

After a fun lunch and movie date with Ryan (we finally saw Twilight--meh!) we took the kids to see "Coraline" in 3-D. We were all amazed with the effects (it's shot in stop-motion photography) but both of the kids thought it was a little scary. Truth be told, I thought it was a little scary too, but I was so enthralled with the imagery that I got over it.

We heart Valentine's Day!

**Did you have any Valentine's surprises?
**What are your Valentine traditions?
**Do you love hand-me downs?
**Do you love Target's clearance rack (or another store)?
**Have you seen (or will you see) "Coraline" in 3-D?

Halloween 2008

My dad found us some cool t-shirts for our Halloween costumes while he was at Universal Studios in Orlando--the Things 1, 2, 3, and 4 from Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat.

I went to Olivia's class to help with the Halloween Party--thank goodness for online party game ideas! My sister in Idaho and my friend in California said that their kids don't get to celebrate Halloween at school... so I guess we should feel lucky that our kiddos got to dress up and have a party in their classes :).

A few years ago I started making trick-or-treat bags to match the kids' costumes... this year we had some fun Dr. Seuss flair.

We all painted our nails black (not sure if we were going for some kind of goth effect for our Things?).

We made a Bloody Cider Punch (recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray) with apple juice, blood (pomegranate juice), chunks of rotting flesh (frozen cubes of orange juice), frozen eyeballs, and some sparkly (Sprite). It was tasty!

Earlier in the week we tried to make Rachael Ray's "Bloody Ears" recipe... Coleman didn't want the blood (raspberry jam) so we tried to make "Muddy Ears" with caramel sauce and chocolate chips. Unfortunately, I bought phyllo dough instead of puff pastry, and they are not interchangeable (who knew?). They tasted okay when they were warm, but when they cooled off they were hard as a rock. The kids thought they looked cool, so that's all that matters, right?

Our Muddy Ears--not too appetizing...

On Halloween Day we made the Bloody Ears again--this time with puff pastry. These turned out much better even though they weren't as beautiful as Rachael's.
All of the Things are ready to go! Thing 2 took Thing 3 and Thing 4 trick-or-treating while I (Thing 1) handed out candy and prizes. I was expecting big crowds since the weather was nice and because it was a Friday night, but we had a pretty slow night. All the more candy for Thing 1---hooray!

**What were you for Halloween?
**Did you make any spooky treats?

Happy Halloween!

At our house we love Halloween. We love candy (candy, candy, candy!), we love dressing up, we love fall decorations, we love trick-or-treating, we love frosting sugar cookies, we love school parties, we love making caramel apples and giving them to our loved ones, and we even love eating jack-o-lantern pizza each year. Ryan's dad took him on a Master Photography tour in Egypt last spring and Ryan's assignment from me was to find us some cool Egyptian costumes--he did well! Olivia and Coleman have been "walking like an Egyptian" all week to get ready--as if they have any idea what they missed in the 80s. Coleman also adopted a wicked laugh--"anh, anh, anh, ahhhh"--that he claims he picked up from all the evil witches he's seen. Those Disney channel shows fill their heads with such crazy ideas!

As tradition at our house goes, Ryan took the kids trick-or-treating and I stuck around to give candy to the neighborhood kiddoes. Some people thought Ryan and the kids were wise men, and one guy asked if I was a Lamanite. Hmmm, maybe we should have walked like Egyptians too. At least we knew what we were :). We had a pretty slow night tonight, and even though some of the cuties picked up the candy by the handful, we still have a cauldron full of treats, so I'm glad I stuck with my time-honored tradition of buying candy that we like to eat too. We'll eat a piece here and there for weeks, until I'm sick of looking at it, and I'll dump it all into the trash. Better start thinking of how we can dress up in 2008. Any ideas??? Hope your Halloween was great!