I can’t believe I didn’t take a better “BEFORE” picture, but the “AFTER” picture of this once red, beat up coffee table is stunning. It’s amazing what a little paint and some help from talented friends can produce.

National Pancake Week is February 19-25.  My kids LOVE pancakes, so National Pancake Week is certainly worth celebrating in our house!   We love experimenting with different flavors and syrups, but plain pancakes can be dressed up with a little food coloring.

To make these, start with a bowl of batter, uncolored.  Make a pancake (or 2), then add a drop of food coloring to your batter.  Repeat this until all of your batter is gone.

You can do this with ANY pancake recipe – even the ready made stuff you can buy in the grocery store.  This is my “go to” pancake recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 cup flour (if I’m not going to add food coloring, I use whole wheat flour)
3 tsp. baking powder
3 Tbsp. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. canola oil
3 eggs, separated

DIRECTIONS:
Combine all ingredients, except egg whites.  Place egg whites in a separate bowl and beat until stiff, white peaks form.  Fold egg whites into batter mixture until completely incorporated.

Ladle batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto hot griddle.  I use an ice cream scoop to measure out my batter.  Bake until bubbles start to appear.  Flip over an bake other side until golden brown – about 1 more minute.

Also known as, “Cakes I see on Pinterest that I have to try”:

I think the outside of the cake was a total success – easy to create and pretty to look at.  I might need a little practice with the inside of the cake (it looks more like a chevron than a heart), but my kids were impressed.

If you’re like me, you’re always on the lookout for something cute and easy to make either for some bake sale or classroom celebration.  With three children, it seems like I’m always making something for someone to bring to school.  Chocolate dipped Oreos are one of my go-to treats.  They’re relatively quick, and with all the wide variety of candy melts on the market, they can be easily adapted to any holiday.

Any project that uses just 3 ingredients is something I can embrace.  Actually, you only need 2 – Oreos and chocolate.  You can be cheap with this and use store brand cookies.  Even Oreo purists won’t know the difference once they are covered.  Also, DON’T use Double Stuff – the filling tends to melt a little when it hits the heated chocolate.  As much as I prefer Double Stuff, regular cookies give the best results.  If you want to make them a little fancier, you’ll need some white chocolate or colored candy melts.

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper or parchment paper.  Melt the white or colored chocolate.  I put the chips in the microwave for 1 minute, then stir.  Then I put the chocolate back in the microwave for 1 minute longer, stopping every 10 seconds to stir.  Once I have a bowl of melted chocolate, I’m ready to start.  Dip each cookie 1/2 way into the chocolate, let the excess drip off, and place the cookie on the waxed paper to set.  I’m an impatient type, so I usually put a tray of dipped cookies in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.  Can I let you in on a secret?  The reason I dip mine in two colors is not to make them look fancier.  It’s because it’s easier.  Once the chocolate coating dries, I can pick it up and easily dip the other half.  With one color you have to figure out how to dip the cookie without leaving finger prints.

Once the lighter colored chocolate has set up, repeat the process on the undipped side of the cookie, dipping it this time in milk (or dark) chocolate.  The result is a two toned thing of beauty and deliciousness.  As an extra embellishment, I piped a heart with melted white chocolate.  In the past, I’ve also added gigantic heart sprinkles that I found at Walmart or even those sugar decorations that you find in the birthday cake aisle of the grocery store to the top.  Simply use a dab of melted chocolate as glue to secure them to the cookie.  Of course, it’s not necessary.  They look beautiful and taste delicious unadorned.

Happy “Baking”!

This one was just for my little girl!

Want a quick way to impress your kids?  Bake up a batch of these.

Ordinarily, I’m not a huge fan of processed foods.  However, sometimes I’ll give in just for a quick, fun effect.  Of course you could make these using your own bread recipe, and they would be amazing – go for it.  I, on the other hand, broke down and bought a can of breadsticks.  Fifteen minutes later I had bread for dinner & dessert.  It doesn’t get easier.

Simply open the can and separate the breadsticks.  Normally, you twist 2 pieces together – don’t do that.  Just take one strip and bring the end together to form a heart.  You’ll want to pinch it at the bottom to make a point.

Place them all on a cookie sheet.  I usually leave half of them as they are.  One the other half I brush on some melted butter and sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar.  Bake them according to the directions on the package.  Dessert and bread for dinner are done on one pan.  It couldn’t be easier!

I know it’s by no means gourmet, but I promise your kids will be impressed.

Although I have three children, my older two are boys.  Boys are really low maintenance when it comes to holidays, at least in my experience.  Sure, we put up the Christmas Tree, scatter a few cobwebs around at Halloween, and maybe put some plastic eggs out at Easter, but that’s always been enough to make my kids happy — until I had a girl.

My little princess thinks every day is a cause for celebrations, and decorations are a necessity.  As you can imagine, she’s incredibly excited about Valentine’s Day.  It’s an opportunity to decorate AND use all of her favorite shades of PINK!  In her five year old world there isn’t anything finer.

I, however, am not big on decorating.  It’s messy; it leads to accumulating more “stuff”; it all has to be put away before the next celebratory season can begin.  The answer – paper.  My crafty child loves making her own decorations, and with a little guidance we can create decorations we both like that can be thrown away.  Lurking around on Pinterest, I happened to run into paper heart chains  from Rebecca at Older And Wiser (love that blog) that looked cute and easy, so we gave it a try.

All you need are strips of paper and some kind of adhesive.  I chose a handy-dandy stapler for speed, but you could use glue or tape as well.  For the paper strips, I cut 1″ strips from sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock, but you could use ANY type of paper.  Just remember, the longer your paper, the larger your heart.  My paper ended up being about 1″ x 11″ — trust me, measurements were not exact.

Fold each strip in half.  This will become the point of your heart.

Bring the unfolded edges together to form a heart, and secure them with adhesive.  Staples were quick and easy.

Continue, linking each heart together.  They’re just like the paper chains you used to make as a child, only WAY cuter!  In about 20 minutes we had enough heart links to make an 8 foot chain – perfect to drape over the curtain rod in our front room.  My daughter was thrilled!

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the Vick’s Winter Warm-up event at Finale Desserterie and Bakery in Boston.  Finale makes the most amazing desserts and hot chocolate.  Vick’s is a brand I know and trust; their VapoRub is a must have in my house.  Combine the two, and I’m there.

I arrived to the event much later than anticipated due to traffic and parking challenges, so I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the incredible selection of treats laid out by Finale.  You’ll just have to trust me when I say, Finale is divine.

I did, however, get to listen to Dr. Meg Meeker, a down-to-earth pediatrician, author, and mother of four.  She won me over almost as soon as she opened her mouth by affirming that moms today put too much pressure on themselves.  We feel we must provide them with engaging extra-curricular opportunities, send them to the best schools, and feed them the most wholesome food, all while making sure we’re setting a good example by volunteering, working and trying to keep a household together.  In her words, “Kids don’t care if the brownies are made from scratch or out of a box.  They just want to eat them with you.”

I’m telling you,  this woman would be my pediatrician if she lived around here.  She doesn’t, but I did get a copy of her book, The 10 Habits of Successful Mothers.  I haven’t finished reading it, but so far I’m really enjoying it.

She shared some advice for moms, especially moms of young children, for getting through the dreaded cold & flu season.  Bottom line, kids are going to get sick despite your best efforts.  Don’t beat yourself up about it.  However, there are some steps you can take to reduce the discomfort when the nasty colds do strike.

• use saline drops in the nose to reduce congestion. (My husband swears by this stuff)
• hydrate – especially when a child has a fever.  Water is good, but they need electrolytes.  Use Pedialyte for children under 2. Gatorade is okay for children over 2.
• change your toothbrushes once a month. (I’ll admit, I don’t do this — but I won’t beat myself up about it)
• humidifiers can help keep you healthy. Homes kept at 40-60% relative humidity can reduce the survival of the flu virus on surfaces and in air.
• keep both acetaminophen and ibuprofen on hand. You can alternate the two to help bring fevers down faster.

Most importantly, you know your child best.  Trust your intuition.  If your child is sick, and the pediatrician doesn’t give you the answers you’re looking for, don’t be afraid to get a little pushy.

Before we left the event we were given a goody bag with tons of Vick’s products.  My favorite is the new Behind Ear Thermometer.  I haven’t had to use it yet, but I think it will quickly become one of my go to items.  It allows you to take a quick (as in one second) temperature from placing it in the hollow behind (not in) the child’s ear.  There is a color coded display to quickly tell if your child has a fever: green means no fever, yellow means fever has slightly elevated (it saves the last 8 measurements), red means your child has a fever.  I think this might be added to my gift list for new moms.

*Disclaimer – I was provided lunch and a gift bag with several Vick’s products as well as a book by Dr. Meg Meeker for attending this event.  The opinions are my own.

Well, somehow it happened.  My baby turned 5, and the Fancy Nancy soiree we planned went off without a hitch.  It was a splendid affair and relatively easy to pull off!  The girls were adorable, dressed to the nines, and everyone seemed to have a great time.  I’m sharing pictures, but I promise, the party looked much better in real life.

Table settings for each girl included a tiara (of course) and a “diamond” napkin ring.  We also put pink sugar on the rims of each glass (not shown).

Gift bags for each girl to make even fancier with stickers, markers, and glitter.

Decorating the gift bags with markers, stickers, and (of course) glitter.

We turned the mud room into a spa where each girl was treated to a manicure, thanks to my wonderful Mother in-law.

We had cupcakes and parfaits (that’s French for ice cream sundaes) for dessert.

The girls altogether – don’t they look tres chic?

And if that wasn’t enough, here’s the cake I made for the family party the next day.