Little Miss O enjoyed helping out along the way. This is a good age for tasks such as pouring pre-measured ingredients into the mixing bowl, stirring with a whisk (usually requires help), smearing icing on cupcakes, taste-testing, dancing around with a sugar-high, doing some more taste-testing…

Yum. So, there you have it. I realize I have very few photos of Miss O over the last 6 months doing anything other than eating or playing. Oh well. I swear she runs around and even looks at the camera and smiles sometimes too. Maybe I’ll manage to document that soon as well!

Hope you’re having a great week. If you enjoy baking , try these out! An awesome bonus is that they freeze incredibly well. I froze them and took them out as desired up to 2 weeks after freezing. We just zapped in the microwave for 30 seconds. I’m sure there are better ways of doing things, but this worked really well for us. Let me know what you think!

 Yummy…chunky oatmeal-nut cookies with just the right amount of chocolate… 

…please excuse the random finger-chop in the photo below. I didn’t want you to see how grubby her little hands were, lest it ruin your appetite!

More Heart-Day fun? Last year we made these simple DIY Photo Valentines. And, if you’re looking for more kid-friendly V-Day ideas, you can always check out The Artful Parent (one of my favorite blogs). Mmmm, now get out there and do something sweet for your Valentines!

A had a friend in Middle School whose Mom would make these for us when she had friends over. I’ve never seen them done since, so I somehow credit this to her. Who knows, it may be widely popular already. Just in case you’ve yet to try it, let me show you a wonderful way to use those grocery-store Ready-to-Bake Crescent Rolls (any brand will do of course!)…Just follow the directions below…

…And bake according to the package directions…

Seriously, so good…so simple. You should try them.

Well, we popped right back in the pool after breakfast and I grabbed a few photos for the ‘ole Family Album. She sure does loove to splash…Her sheer excitement with it makes me laugh…

And I’m pretty sure the caption of this last picture should read, “Yep, this is my Daddy. I’ve got him wrapped around my little finger….”

Hope you had a great weekend. Check out the Stella & Dot Giveaway…Last week to enter & great odds of winning!

…Now, to be honest, I just used Bisquick for this. I usually love making things from scratch, but, for the purpose of experimenting, I wanted something quick and easy to whip up. I just dropped a spoonful of the batter in each hole and waited for 3-4 minutes for each batch to cook.

(Above) She lent me those tiny tongs to help get the goodies out of the pan and they were helpful indeed! (Below) This is what happened when I started to pour too much batter into the holes…the lid wouldn’t even shut…

…But, the result was kind of funny…They looked like little mini-Saturns!…

…Time to eat!…

Curious what our Picky Eater thought of this breakfast?…
…Yep, that’s a Happy Customer! Success!!! Thanks, Carolyn, for lending me your machine!!

Speaking of Carolyn, check out her Stella & Dot Jewelry Giveaway, if you haven’t already. And have an awesome week. Thanks for reading!!

And so, I’m posting a tiny collage, brought to you by “Instagram”. Seriously, I really enjoy this app on my iPhone. It’s neat that the phone camera can help capture a lot of small daily moments that I might have missed otherwise. It obviously doesn’t come close to duplicating a professional camera, but you know what I mean, I’m sure…

L-R & T-B: Playing together during a Wedding Day Brunch for our dear friends; My Grocery-Shopping Companion loooves my sunglasses – They cheer her right up when she’s having a melt down.; Sleepy Girl – Amazing how easily she falls asleep in the car…If only I didn’t have to wake her to get out.; Baby’s first balloon! They were handing them out at Randalls and she was lovin’ it.; Me with my camera, taken on my friend’s iPhone…Is it me or do my hands look huge?; Rainy weather…Good thing we came prepared! It’s been raining a lot here lately!

Want to bear with me for a little more randomness today? Well, I wanted to share this recipe because I absolutely LOOVED it!! It was so easy to follow and it is seriously the most delicious bread I’ve ever made (okay, so I haven’t made very many yet, at least not from scratch). But this is a new family favorite. Try it if you will. It takes a little “learning” the first go around, but then you get familiar with the recipe and can repeat it every few weeks (at least that’s my goal). It actually makes a perfect “sandwich bread”.

I sliced mine in thin slices, a la store-bought sandwich bread, and froze half of it in a freezer bag once it was cool. The other half went quickly…think honey on warm bread or butter and cinnamon sugar on toast. YUM! Perhaps you will enjoy, and/or check out some of the other tempting recipes on the site.

And now a few questions…Do you have a favorite “smarty” phone app? Or a favorite bread recipe for that matter? I would love to hear!

Thanks for bearing with me. I love this little blog and am planning some fun posts in the coming weeks. I hope you’re having a wonderful week (and definitely taking time to relax and enjoy the little things when possible).

The thing is, I LOVE impulsively making paper flags for cupcakes, muffins (heart-shaped toppers here), even to label side dishes I bring to parties (so that people know what that funny-looking casserole dish is). I always do them by hand, but I thought I’d whip up some easy printables for ‘ya, in the event that you like the idea. One is blank, so you could easily fill in your own message. Bear with me, I was in a goofy mood when writing these.

This one is for Baby O (below). Don’t worry, I’ll only let her have a little taste. Otherwise she’d be bouncing off the walls…

These gorgeous cupcakes are from our local bakery, “Celebrity Cupcakes“. I just love them. If you live in Houston, you should check them out. {My favorite flavor is “hummingbird”.}

Download the free printables here for personalized cupcake toppers. Not just for cupcakes…Try them in pancakes as well!

Have a great weekend!

I immediately thought of a recipe my little sister gave me years ago and I had yet try out…Lemon-Berry Sandwiches. Unfortunately I truly don’t know the original source (it came from a magazine), but I will post credit here if I learn where it is due. In the meantime, I’ve uber-sharpened this photo (below) in hopes that you can read the card with ease.

I gathered up my ingredients….(though I forgot to photograph the little egg…oops, well, you get the picture)…

I’m a big fan of Organic.

Baby O was sleeping so I just kept going…I whipped up a batch of the dough and followed their directions for refrigerating for an hour. Then, I got busy, and left the dough in the fridge for about 24 hours. The next day, I took it out to use, and it was much too hard. I left it out for an hour, on the counter, and then proceeded.

Recipe Tip: The only real advice I have for this recipe is to try truly only leaving it in the fridge for an hour. I think that may make the dough easier to work with. I rolled it out as flat as I could without it cracking and crumbling too much. The directions said 1/8″ thick, but I settled for something more like 1/4″ thick…Hey, twice the amount of cookie per bite, right?

Bake them according to the recipe and let cool. Then sift the “O-shaped” cookies with powdered sugar. I actually don’t own a sifter, so I used this “bad-boy”, a.k.a. strainer, and it worked like a charm…

I used a spoon to help “sift” the powdered sugar through…

…Can you see it in action (below)?…

…Ta-Da! All ready for assembly…

…Perfect timing because this is when Baby O woke up from her nap. Hm, sweet potatoes, mushed apricots, pumpkin bread, and broccoli!

Hey, why not? It was my first time to feed her fresh broccoli, just plain and not cooked into a meal. I thought she might like it, because they are shaped like little trees, so, fun, right?…

…That kind of says it all, actually…Next, she tried to offer it to the dogs, who were peeking in on her through the kitchen window…

I love the way she crosses her ankles when she sits in her chair…

{Ah, well, maybe next time, Baby O!}

So, back to the baking…Next step is assembly…Super easy! Just smear the jam on the solid cookie and top with the dusted cutout cookie. Voila!

At this point they are finished, and it is very tempting to eat them all…

I think these cookies would be awesome for Valentine’s Day. If your child is school-age, you are probably making classmate valentine’s this year. Perhaps cookies like this would be something nice for the teacher. In my case, I thought it would be a sweet little Thank You for my friend. I made two, in fact, and am giving the other to our babysitter. Not for Valentine’s, but just as a “Thank You”. Here was my packaging…

Using a wooden berry basket and some shredded gift wrap (for stuffing), I placed some clingwrapped cookies inside. I glued a red cross-grain ribbon to the outside of the berry basket. And then used red & white bakers twine to tie up a little bow. I attached a hand-written note (on thick white paper). The red colored heart is simply one of my favorite things to doodle on gift tags or cards. I wrote the name of the recipe on a sticker and used this to hold the twine in place under the basket.

In short, these were fun to make, and relatively easy/hassle-free. They’re probably a bit more time-consuming than a regular cookie that you can just drop onto the cookie sheet in spoonfuls, but that’s part of what makes them a good gift.

Thank You for checking out my blog!

{Hope you’re having a great Monday.}