Toddler Straw Valentines

Nothing like a last minute craft project!  I'm not a procrastinator at all, but when daycare told us on Monday night that Connor's class was having a Valentine's Day party, I only had a few days to prepare.  Connor had tubes surgery on Tuesday morning (second set) so we had some extra time in the afternoon to do some crafting.  

I decided on a simple Valentine's note with a non-food gift for each child since daycare is nut-free and it's hard to find snacks that all the kids can eat.  I printed out sheets of Valentines and then had Connor color on them with pink, red and purple crayons.

 Each circle is 2.5 inches and I used a hole punch to make hole on the top and bottom of each one.  It looked really complicated to get the paper on the straw without ripping it, but it ended up being pretty easy to do.

I ended up grabbing a little box of sticker for each child, so I just tied those on with a ribbon.


Happy Valentine's Day!

Sweet Sugar Cookies

I can't decide if it's a bad thing or a good thing that I try to keep all the common baking ingredients in the house at all times. It definitely comes in handy when I have a random craving for something baked. Over the weekend, Hubby and I really wanted some cookies, so I was able to come up with something using stuff we had in the house. The verdict: 2 thumbs up from Hubby and all the cookies were gone by the next day!

Adapted from here
Ingredients:
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add in egg and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

Using your hands, make small balls of dough and place them onto a cookie sheet.

Bake 7-10 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown.

Dip in milk & pig out!