Valentines Scavenger Hunt

What is one to do to ensure that her homeschooled daughter receives a whole pile of Valentines on the holiday of love? Have a Valentines scavenger hunt, of course. All you need is a bunch of valentines, candy, paper, and a pen, and you're set to make this a tradition in your house. (The Drama Queen loved it so much that she asked if we could have a scavenger hunt for every holiday!)

Anyway, the night before Valentines Day I went around the house and hid sweet little valentines and candy for the kids, three of each in each hiding spot so no kid was left out. I then wrote out a series of (easy!) clues for the kids to use to find all their treats. Here is a little glimpse into the action: (disclaimer - our hunt took place first thing after breakfast. The Drama Queen had already gotten dressed, but somehow the Beast had become Spiderman during the night and the Spud had lost his pajama pants. I took photos anyway.)

Angry Birds Cake Pops: A Quick Tutorial

We made Angry Bird cake pops for the Drama Queen's sixth birthday. They were my first attempt at cake pops, but I thought I would share how I decorated them for any Angry Birds fans that wanted to make their own. I had plans to make all the different birds as well as the pigs, but as the night wore on, it became clear that that wasn't a realistic goal. So I settled on making the yellow bird, the red bird, and a pig.

First, I made the cake balls. It's super easy - you just make a cake mix in a 9x13 pan and then crumble it into fine crumbs when it has cooled. Then take a can of frosting (chocolate fudge for us!) and mix about 3/4 of it into the cake crumbs. Combine it well and make sure to not add too much frosting, or the mixture will be too soft. Then mold the mixture into nice round balls for the pigs and red birds. Mold some of the mixture into flattened triangles for the yellow birds. Put all of your balls and triangles on a parchment paper covered baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for several hours or freeze for fifteen minutes. You don't want them in the freezer for too long or they will be too cold, causing the candy coating to firm too quickly.

For the yellow bird, I melted vanilla candy coating and tinted it with yellow candy coloring. I inserted a lollipop stick in the coating and then into the base of the triangle cake ball. I dipped the triangle ball into the coating completely and gently tapped off the excess. The eyes were made from vanilla chips with the tips cut off to make them flat. The eyebrows were simply orange sprinkles, and the hair and wings were cut pieces of black licorice. I made the beak with melted orange coating on parchment paper. All decorations were attached with more melted candy coating used as "glue", and the pupils on the eyes were done with black decorator gel.

The pig was dipped just like the yellow bird, only this time the candy coating was tinted with green candy coloring. The snout was made from a lifesaver hard candy dipped in green candy coating and the ears were made from smarties candy dipped in green candy coating. His eyes were also made from cut vanilla chips and decorated with black decorator gel.

The red bird was dipped in red candy melts and had a beak made just like the yellow bird. His eyes were the same as the pig and yellow bird, but his eyebrows were made from cut pieces of black licorice as well as his wings.

I ended up making six of each character, and my daughter (and family) loved them. Be warned that they do take quite a bit of time to make. Since candy coating does not stay fluid for long and tends to firm up pretty quickly, you do have to have time to work uninterrupted. Unfortunately I had a very cranky baby that night and tried to both decorate Angry Birds pops and soothe the poor baby. (picture me rocking her in her car seat with one foot and balancing a bottle in her mouth while trying to precariously attach a sprinkle eyebrow at the same time. yeah. not so fun.)

Sweet Sweet Reward

When the Drama Queen turned four last year, she was "promoted" to the next Sunday School class. This meant a move from upstairs to downstairs and of course a new teacher. Mrs. P was so kind and sweet to our little girl - we knew it would be a good transition. We were not prepared, however, for the gargantuan bag of treats the Drama Queen brought home that first Sunday. The brown paper sack was filled with full-size candy bars, bags of Skittles, and ring pops! Since Mrs. P knew our daughter had two little brothers at home, she put three of everything in the bag. Yes, people, this meant that there were three full-size Snickers bars in there as well as three bags of gummy bears and three more of whatever treats Mrs. P chose to send home that week.

We thought it must have been a special Sunday for every kid in that class to be able to take home such treat bags! (There were 25 kids or so in her class). But we were very wrong - every Sunday the Drama Queen brought home yet another bag stuffed with candy treats. It didn't take us long to learn how to quickly intercept the treat bags after the service. We fell into a standard routine - take the treat bag from the Drama Queen, quickly analyze its contents and find something small the kids could enjoy on the way home (i.e. nothing chocolate!), and then put the bag away in the pantry "for later." Having their sweet tooths immediately satisfied, the kids would forget about the rest of the candy.

The Nerd and I, however, would not. Anything chocolate was shortly consumed or put in the freezer for those chocolaty cravings later on. Other candies, such as Skittles and gummy bears, were put into a container for "potty treats." It got so bad that the Nerd and I would be huddled by the van, checking to see what treats we (I mean the kids of course!) got that day. Some Sundays we would crow with delight upon finding Reese's Peanut Butter cups or Three Musketeers bars. Other weeks we would be disappointed to find only ring pops and laffy taffy.

Oh sure. We commiserated with the other parents of the class, laughing at jokes that Mrs. P had stock in all the local dentists and complaining that rewarding the kids' good behavior with sugary treats was setting the bar a little high.

Truth was, we loved it. Not only were we getting sweet treats to look forward to every week, but a teacher cared enough about our little girl to spoil her a little and send treats home for her brothers too. (shh, don't tell Mrs. P she was really spoiling us!)

This past June all the kids got promoted again, and the Drama Queen moved on to another, decidedly-less candy-filled class. We were not disappointed for long, however, as the Beast got his turn at being in Mrs. P's class. Although I worried that his autism and lack of attention would hinder him from being in a "regular" class, he seemed to hit it off well with Mrs. P. Who wouldn't? The woman is a regular candy store!

So the Nerd and I still get our weekly treats. This week we scored some packages of Rolos, which I decided to make into Rolo pretzel treats (here's the recipe - so easy and wickedly delicious!) I don't know how Mrs. P does it - but we (and our ever hungry sweet tooths) are eternally grateful!