Recipe Time: Homemade Crackers!

Snack time in this house requires a crafty mommy. Maybe not so much if I was comfortable giving Lauryn the "snacks" you find on the grocery store shelves. But since Im not, I have to get creative when 2:30pm rolls around. Lots of kids snacks revolve around crackers. So I have been scouring the internet looking for a healthy, yet easy to make cracker. And I have finally stumbled upon a gem!

1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup water
Seasonings to taste - I used Herbes De Provence

 Pulse all ingredients, except water, in your food processor until crumbly.  *Be sure to add any seasonings now!

Turn your machine on and let it run as you add the 1/4cup of water. Continue to run your processor until your dough starts to ball up.

On a lightly floured surface, or on parchment paper as shown, roll the dough out to 1/4'' thickness. This dough rolls extremely easily. It freezes really well too.

Since Lauryn is going to be the only one really eating these crackers, I decided to use our handy 1'' flower fondant cutters. You could just use a pizza cutter and cut the dough into small squares if youre not into the shapes. I think it adds a cutesy little flair. :)

If you have little hands helping you with this process, dont fret if they decide to eat a "precooked" flower! The dough is perfectly safe raw. No raw ingredients means no chance for crummies in tummies. 

Place crackers on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in a preheated 400 oven for 12-15 minutes, or until they start to lightly brown. 

*Again! Make sure you add your seasonings to the dough before you add the water. I completely forgot and had to dump some seasonings on the crackers last minute. The seasonings didnt stay on the cracker well after baking. 

As you can see, some of the seasonings survived baking, but most fell off when I removed the crackers from the parchment paper. Sigh. Theyre delicious though! And how easy are they?! About 30 minutes in the kitchen and I made 80 bite sized healthy crackers for my little girl.

Of course she had some crackers with cheese for snack today! Nutritious and delicious. Mommy and baby approved!

Be sure to check back soon! I have two recipes coming up that I am super excited about! Homemade goldfish crackers and homemade graham crackers! YUM!

Mother's Day Craft!

So I'm a little late with this post, but! this project is super easy, super cute, and can be done right now! Gather up your littles, some paint and some paper. Youre about to make the best bouquet of Mothers Day flowers, the kind that never die! We chose to do 3 different colored flowers. These cute little cards got sent out to Lauryn's grandmothers for Mothers Day. They all loved them! Heres what you do...


1. Dip your childs hand in the lightest color paint you have (we did yellow first, then red, then purple). You could also use a paintbrush to apply the paint to your kiddos hand, which is what we did, it makes things a lot easier!

2. Have them do an open hand stamp onto the piece of paper. Then proceed with the next 2 (or more) colors.

3. Allow the handprint flowers to dry, then using a small brush, paint on flower stems, and leaves.

4. Once the stems and leaves are done, paint a pretty bow around the flowers, giving the illusion of them being tied together in a little bouquet.

Tada! The whole project took us about 20 minutes from start to finish. Cute, easy, and in my book, a better bouquet of flowers than any amount of money could buy!

Happy First Birthday Lauryn!

Its amazing how fast a year goes bye! Lauryns first birthday was April 12, and let me tell you, she was the happiest birthday girl Ive ever seen! So heres a few snapshots from her birthday day and her party! Party pictures were taken by J.Gerren Photography! If youre in the Camp Lejeune area and are in need of some pictures I highly recommend her! Not only is she a great friend but shes an amazing photographer! Onto the pictures! :)

We started the birthday girls big day by filling her bedroom floor with over 110 balloons. All blown up by mommy and daddy. She LOOOVED it! We plan to do this every year.

Birthday breakfast! Pink whole wheat strawberry banana pancakes! I think from now on though were going to do Cake Batter Pancakes! How fun would that be?! And I think she'll survive not eating a healthy breakfast one day a year :)

After breakfast we went for her birthday pedicure! Her very first one, which she loved! She's such a girly girl and I love it!

Going for her first bike ride ever! This was her big gift from mommy and daddy. Seriously the best $100 weve probably ever spent. This bike is super sturdy and itll grow with her for years!

Out for her birthday dinner! We went to Red Lobster, and found out she LOVES flounder, who would have guessed?! I asked our waiter to assemble the birthday crew and we ordered dessert. They sang to her, which she thought was the greatest thing ever, and then she attempted to pick up the ice cream and devour it whole. I dont think my husband and I have laughed so hard in a long time!

Now onto her birthday party fun! I got in waaay over my head with this party. I didnt realize how long it would take to get everything together! Thankfully we have amazing friends who were willing to show up an hour early to help us finish, which we did JUST in time. It reminded me of TV game shows, you know, when they have a time limit and finish just as the buzzer sounds? Well our buzzer was sounding and people were filing in our front door as I was laying out the rainbow fruit tray! I breathed a huge sigh of relief once it was all ready and I could relax and enjoy the party I had worked so hard to plan!

Lauryns party invitations! I bought them at Party Suppliers and printed them myself! I love how they turned out!

Guests were greeted by a zebra ribbon wreath which I made. It took quite a long time to make but it was soo worth it!

We filled the entry table with "A Year of Lauryn". One picture from every month of her life. I bought the wooden frames from Michaels, unfinished, and did the zebra pattern myself with white and black acrylic paint and some painters tape! They were super easy and turned out really cute! We then labeled the frames with a pink glitter number for her age in months.

 The candy bar complete with the main decorations! I made the poufs myself, Ill make a "how to" post about them hopefully before the move! They were super easy though, cheap, and look great!

Another shot of the candy bar!

So many goodies!

This was Lauryns "smash cake". She demolished the cake by the way! Pictures to come!

These were the cupcakes I made for everyone else! In pink and black zebra striped cupcake liners. The cupcakes themselves were even zebra striped thanks to Duff Goldmans Zebra Cake Mix! I bought the boxes at Michaels for $7.99 a piece, each box made 18 cupcakes. Topped the cupcakes with hot pink buttercream frosting as well as black sprinkles and tiny edible pearls.

I purchased the pink and black licorice as well as the lollipops online, but made the dipped marshmallows myself! They were a big hit!

Sugar cookies, decorated with Candymelts and edible pearls! These were really tasty but took a looong time to finish. The pearls all had to be put on one at a time by hand, very tedious!

Again, the gumballs and sixlets were purchased online, chocolate covered pretzels were made by me. Everyone loved them!

It all looked fantastic!

I wrapped the water for the party in zebra duct tape that I found at Michaels! Love the way it turned out!




 These were the party favor bags I made for the kiddos! All I needed were some plain white bags from Michaels, a "Thank you" and Zebra stamp, as well as some Zebra print paper and some string!

Goodie bags were filled with tiny bubbles, which I bought at the Dollar Tree! I got 9 bottles in a pack and only paid $1! SCORE! I also tossed in a small bag of animal crackers and the recipe for moms!

My mom's best friend from high school was so kind to crochet these little zebra hats for the kids! Everyone got one in their goodie bags!

Arent they the cutest in their little zebra hats?!

Our party girl decked out in her Zebra hat!

Look at those rolls above her knees! Gosh I love her!

Time for cake!!! So glad we stripped her down to her diaper before cake time!

 Look at that smile! She loved her cake!

She seriously had such a great party! I was so pleased with how it turned out and received so many compliments! As stressful as it all was, it was totally worth it and I cannot wait to start planning her second birthday party! So long as she doesnt get any older! 

Recipe Time: Animal Crackers

Kids love animal crackers. I love animal crackers! But, I wasn't too keen on feeding the over processed snack to my daughter. So I scoured Google to find a homemade version. That is where I came across Julie.

Onto these adorable crackers!

Homemade Animal Crackers:

1 Stick Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/8 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Oats
11/2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (Optional)

1. Cream together softened butter and brown sugar.

2. Add in the egg and vanilla, then combine well.

3. Now mix in the cinnamon, allspice, and salt. *I just used cinnamon for the plain cookies. For the chocolate cookies, I nixed the cinnamon and allspice completely.

4. Next add the oats, baking powder, whole wheat flour, and optional cocoa powder. Mix well. *I used 3Tbs of cocoa powder for our chocolate crackers.

5. Form dough into a ball and wrap with waxed paper. Place in the refrigerator for a minimum of an hour, or up to overnight.

6. When ready, grab off a hunk of dough, and let it "warm up" for 15 or so minutes. I tried to roll it right from the fridge and it was hard as heck! Allowing it to warm up helped a lot! Roll the dough out to 1/4" thick on a lightly floured surface.

7. Cut out crackers and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I swear this step seems never ending! So many teeny crackers! Bake in a preheated 350degree oven for 5-7 minutes.

Store in an airtight container and see how long they last. They're absolutely delicious! I even include a few in my husbands lunches for work! Lauryn adores these, and they're super soft so they're easy for her to eat.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

"The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold cold wet day" - Dr. Suess The Cat In The Hat. 

Dr. Suess books were some of my favorites growing up, and we have invested a ton of money into our daughters collection of Suess reads. Being she isn't in school yet to participate in Suess Week, I figured it would be a fun family tradition to celebrate Dr. Suess' birthday every year! I had started the planning for today a few weeks ago, searching Pinterest for ideas (I'll include recipes/links at the bottom of this post!). And all my research paid off! We had so much fun, and I've found even more ways to make Suess Day next year even more Suess-tacular!

 This is Thing 1. Our 3lb Yorkie named Eevee. She hated me all day for making her wear this shirt. But when I found it on Ebay, I HAD to buy it!

And Thing 2! Isn't she the cutest with her Thing hair?! I don't think the feather lasted for more than an hour, but it certainly completed the outfit!

Suess breakfast for Lauryn and hubby. Whole wheat Truffula-Chip pancakes and a strawberry banana Suess hat!

Chowing down on her Suess-style breakfast!

Lunch was an all natural string cheese and red bell pepper truffula tree, along with green eggs and a ham sandwich! Lauryn was unable to participate in the ham sandwich, due to lack of teeth but she thoroughly enjoyed her truffula tree and green egg!

A special treat for after lunch! 1 fish 2 fish jello! This was ridiculously fun to eat!

I even made some Beezlenut Splash for hubby and I at dinner! It contains soda, so Lauryn couldn't partake in this either.

And we ended the night with some mini Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes!

I seriously cannot wait for next year! Ive found decorations to make and more food options! So much fun!


Recipes/Links:

Truffula Chip Pancakes:

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
4 Egg Whites
2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 cups Milk
2 Mashed Ripe Bananas
Food coloring
1 4oz Container Organic Strawberry Greek Yogurt
Sprinkles

1. Combine the whole wheat flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Beat egg whites in a separate bowl, then add to dry mixture. Add EVOO, milk and bananas to dry mixture.
3. Once mix is well combined, stir in a few drops of food coloring (I used pink), and sprinkles.
4. Cook pancakes on a heated skillet until golden. Then remove to a plate.
5. Smear pancakes with Greek Yogurt and add a few sprinkles for decoration. Serve warm.


Strawberry Banana Suess Hats:


1 Large Banana
3 Large Strawberries
Lollipop Sticks

1. Cut the bananas and strawberries into chunks.
2. Layer the chunks onto the lollipop stick until you're satisfied with the hat height.


1 Fish 2 Fish Jello:

Blue Jello
Swedish Fish
Clean fishbowl

1. Prepare the jello as directed on the package, pouring it into the fish bowl.
2. Let the jello sit in the refrigerator to stiffen.
3. Right before serving, remove the jello from the refrigerator, and using a butterknife, make small slits in the top of the jello. Add Swedish fish to the slits to make it appear as they are swimming. Serve immediately.

Fair warning, the Swedish fish get really gummy and slimy when left in the jello. We had left over jello, so I put it back in the fridge, and the fish got gross. Im sure kids would still eat them but they were super chewy!


Beezlenut Splash:

2 packages jello (we used red and blue)
1 2 liter of Sprite

1. Prepare jello as directed on the package. Let cool in the refrigerator until set.
2. Once jello is set, cut into 1" cubes.
3. 30 minutes before serving, pour Sprite into a glass pitcher, add jello cubes and refrigerate until ready to serve.

The jello actually flavors the Sprite while it soaks. Its really yummy!


Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!