Pintried - Chick-fil-a Nuggets & Cinnamon Rolls

I have gone back and forth on whether or not to publish this round of posts because I'm adding very little information to something that is already out there in the blog-o-sphere. Obviously, I decided to go ahead and publish. I realized that I appreciate reading other people's reviews of things they have Pinned then tried so here's my review. Take it or leave it.

Chick-fil-A Nuggets

This were amazing!  I mean it - so good and other than cutting ours into larger pieces I didn't need to change a thing.  I made the honey mustard sauce too then turned it all into an absolutely divine fried chicken salad.  I think next time I might grill them, just for the health factor but the pickle juice in the marinade - GENIUS!  And I stumbled across this recipe while I was looking up the recipe for these...

Mini Crescent Cinnamon Rolls

Honestly?  Not as good as I thought they would be.  I think I have some pretty high standards for cinnamon rolls though.  I normally make them from scratch and they come out all doughy and buttery and wonderful.  These were okay but not divine.  But I will tell you why they are really worth making.  My toddler can help in every step of the process and she loved making them with me just as much as she loved eating them.  Sure, these are quick and fun because they're tiny but the greatness is really in the fact that she took ownership in them and enjoyed sharing them with her family.  I tweaked the icing for these a bit because I didn't have maple syrup.  We made maple-vanilla icing that tasted a lot like maple bar donuts.

Maple-Vanilla Icing:
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon skim milk (more or less depending on your desired consistency)

Whisk skim milk into powdered sugar until slightly thicker than your desired consistency.  Then add the flavorings.  If it is still too thick then add some more milk, too thin add some sugar.  But I recommend a goal of too thick because the icing is smoother if you add milk than if you add sugar back in.  When you add sugar a lot of times it gets clumpier or grainier.

ETA:  After I posted this I found this little Pinterest Challenge on Better Life Bags.  Personally I made myself a board called THIS WEEK.  It is entirely for pinning the things I intend to make from Pinterest in the current week.  I pick them out on Sunday - everything from crafts with my kids to cooking and baking - then work through them all week long.  So far, I'm loving it!

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

What do you do with all those stubby ends of sidewalk chalk?  Why make paint of course!  

1. Round up the chalk pieces and separate them by color. (Good sorting activity)
2. Put the pieces in a bag and beat them with a rubber mallet until they are nothing but power. (Aaaaahhh, stress relief.)
3. Put the chalk powder into a spare container.  I suggest something you can devote to this purpose because ours are stained.
4. Add water.  Go easy.  You can always add more but you can't take it away.
5. Stir it up, then start painting.

We noticed that it really does need to be pulverized into a powder.  If your broken up chalk is still chunking then you won't get a really vivid paint.

 

 

 

Lil' Hoot hates having her hair brushed - can you tell?

Rainbow Room

Phase 1 of the play room conversion is now complete!  Grace wanted stripes, so I gave her stripes.  And, sweet child that she is, she usually walks in the room and says, in the softest, sweetest way possible "Wow.  It's beautiful!"  It isn't perfect, but I decided to stop fussing with it and just enjoy it.  You're looking at 36 shades, made using about 10 different colors of paint - 6 samples from Lowe's and a several cans of left overs.  It was fun but I'm glad to be done - all that mixing of paint and all the mess was starting to get old.  Stay tuned for Phase 2.

Wordless Wednesday - Ice Cube Paint

 

 

Toy Story Party (on a budget)

I chose a Toy Story theme for Lil' Hoot's third birthday because she spent several months prior to her birthday absolutely obsessed with her Toy Story "friends".  From the top left:

1. I made her a #3 birthday shirt with Buzz Lightyear and Woody patches.
2. Her birthday sign was made in MS Word using the Gill Sans Ultra Bold font.  It doesn't match the movie font exactly, but it is as close as I could get without Photoshop.
3. Birthday cookie with Toy Story figures.  She prefers cookies to cake and it was her birthday after all, so she got a giant chocolate chip cookie.  I tried desperately to decorate with icing but, well, I can't be good at everything and I absolutely stink at decorative icing.  Fortunately for me, she was extremely happy with the figures and the cookie.
4. I was a bit worried about the balloons - one of the few requests from our birthday girl - because there was a national helium shortage (or so the signs said in many stores).  I eventually found a couple of Toy Story balloons at Wal-mart.  The rest of our spread included M&Ms, carrots, grapes, goldfish crackers, raisins, peanut butter rice krispie treats and sugar cookies*.
5. I made her banner using the same Gill Sans Ultra Bold font.  The gift bags included the alien thank you printable from Disney Family Go.  I got the idea to include paperback books in the gift bags from a friend of mine.  I found a 12 pack of Clifford books on clearance from Scholastic.  I also printed out the Toy Story Fun Book.  
6. Table decor was kept super simple.  Lil' Hoot chose her party hats - not toy story themed, but again, it's her birthday.  Toy story plates and another printable - Buzz's Refueling Liquid - water bottle labels.  Those were a big hit.

*A note about these sugar cookies.  Absolutely a HIT!  The recipe for the cookies is from Annie's Eats - soft frosted sugar cookies intended to mimic those found at the grocery store.  I have always had a hard time getting sugar cookies to turn out edible but these were easy and tasted awesome.  Added bonus - they freeze great so I made up the dough ahead of time then froze them.  When it came time for the party I just popped them out, let them thaw a bit then into the oven.  One change though, I didn't like the icing so I used vanilla frosting from the Cake Boss.

And I almost forgot, invitations!  I snagged a printable Toy Story invitation from the Disney site then added a Buzz Lightyear image and popped them onto some primary color cards.