Super quick icecream recipe

We have really been making a huge effort to eat things that are organic or made with as many organic, hormone free ingrediants as possible. One of the most expensive things is organic icecream. That stuff is crazy pricey! So I was super exited when I saw this tutorial about home made icecream! Last night I decided to give it a shot and see how it went. To my surprise it came out really good!

Things you will need:

1C Half & Half

2T Sugar

1/2t Vanilla

1/2C Salt
Ice

1 Large baggie

1 Small baggie

Step 1- Gather your suppplies

Step 2- Mix Half & Half, sugar and vanilla in the smaller baggie. I used a sandwich size bag and it had plenty of room.

Step 3- Fill the larger baggie with ice and dump in the salt. I used canning salt, but rock salt or table salt should be fine also. The salt helps the ice freeze the cream faster. Real scientific, I know.

Step 4- Put the smaller baggie in the bigger baggie and shake the heck out of it. It takes about 10 minutes of shaking to get the job done. I tried to give this job to Kaelin but she didn't want any part of doing the hard work. Make sure the smaller bag is sealed really well otherwise you'll end up with salt icecream.

Step 5- Open the bags and enjoy! I put ours in the freezer while we ate dinner to let the icecream really harden. It is really good as vanilla but you could easily make another flavor by adding ingrediants such as chocolate, nuts, fruit or any other thing you like in your icecream.

This recipe is extremely easy and a very quick, kid friendly one. We don't have an icecream maker so I've never made any before. It's nice to be able to make some whenever we need it. Plus it's a small enough amount that I don't have to worry about super expensive icecream getting freezer burnt in the freezer. I could totally see this being the kind of thing we can do for a family picnic or even a birthday party. Set out the supplies and each guest can make their own with whatever flavors the want. Yum!

Ebeanstalk.com v2.0

I have had the pleasure to work with ebeanstalk.com a few times in the past and I have to say, they are still one of my favorite sites to find top selling toys for 3 year olds! (Oops, my 3 year old is now 4, I guess that's my next post!)

Both of my kids are curious little creatures. Sean loves taking things apart and putting them back together again. His favorite thing lately is to carry around various cables and plug them in to things. Don't worry, my outlets are all covered! He'll take a cable for my ipod and stick it into the aux jack on the laptop or the media center computer in the living room. I think that's fantastic for a 1 year old! So my favorite commercial toys for him are the wooden games that ebeanstalk carries. The wooden puzzles, magnetic mazes and shape sorters are perfect for his little fingers. The Melissa & Doug toys were some of Kaelin's favorites and those have been handed down to Sean to love now. So, one benefit to the wooden toys is that they definately hold up to the abuse kids inflict on them! So much better then cheapy plastic toys that break apart after the first time they get thrown around a bit. Plus, with these around, all my cables and cords can get a rest from being jammed into everything!

Kaelin loves all kinds of experiments and projects where she gets to learn how to make things and how they work. I will be going to visit family in a few weeks so Mike will be home alone with Kae for almost a week. They are planning on hitting the beach, the zoo and (of course) Jump'n Jungle in their free time. But I am seriously eyeing these fun science kits as another activity for them to do together. A few months ago we bought a kit that was a solar cell that could be made into a dog, a robot, a sailboat and a wind mill. She thought that was the coolest thing ever and I know Mike loved getting to geek it up with his princess. She carried a flash light around with her so she could show everyone how it turned on when she shined the light on the solar cell. I think she would love the butterfly garden after we had such success with our lady bugs this past year. And I would love to see her playing with any of the Magic School Bus kits! I'm ashamed to admit it, but I loved that show even when I was a freshman in college! (Shhhh!) The microscope would go perfectly with her mini microscope and magnifying glasses! I love that we have a little one to pass our nerd genes to! :)

So, if you haven't checked out www.ebeanstalk.com yet, do it now! You know, Christmas is only 6 months away. Just saying!

Dress A Doll Magnet Set Review

We have all been cooped up in the house for the last few weeks while we had a nasty cold bug. Pair that will the cold rainy weather we've been having and you get some super grumpy kids and a frazzled Mommy. So when I opened the door one day last week and found a box from ebeanstalk, I got excited! So did Kaelin, she couldn't wait for me to open it and see what she got! 

Inside we found a Dress A Doll Magnet Set! 

Dress-A-Doll offers hours of open-ended fun with one magnet doll, plus plenty of clothes and accessory pieces to place on the included 9 x 12" double-sided magnetic playboard. It′s packed in a reusable vinyl storage envelope and includes a booklet with suggested activities and design ideas.

So basically, it's a set of magnetic paper dolls. How cool is that? We've attempted paper dolls before and it wasn't pretty. Kaelin gets frustrated when she can't do things by herself and all those little tabs on the paper dolls just don't work for her. We immediately opened the super cool carrying bag that it's in and popped out all the pieces. There are 29 pieces in total and it's enough to make 8 different outfits or endless amounts of "silly suits" as Kaelin calls them. It comes with a magnetic board to put everything on so she doesn't even have to take the magnets off of it, she just slides the pieces she's not using to the side. So I don't have to go on a scavenger hunt to find the ballet shoes, or the raincoat, or the teddy bear. Well, you get the point! Nothing frustrates me more then having 1000 little pieces and no way to contain them all, so I love this! 

She sat and played with her doll set for quite awhile! This was such a nice change from all the whining and fussiness that goes with a cold. She really had fun with the fact that she could dress the doll and change her outfits with no help from me whatsoever. I can't stress how important that is when you have a very independent kid like mine! Plus the carrying case allowed us to take the set with us in the car and to Grammy's house. As long as she doesn't accidentally drop any of the pieces I don't have to worry about them being left behind or ending up in the floor boards of the car after she's played with them!

We give the Dress A Doll Magnet Set 5+ stars!! Happy kiddo, happy Momma!

Disclaimer: I was provided the Dress A Doll Magnet Set for free from ebeanstalk for the purpose of conducting this review. Ebeanstalk is a toy website that does their best to provide you with the best toys out there. They like to stay informed about the best learning toys and toys by age by having people like me and you tell them about their favorites! What are the perfect baby gifts? Is their a toddler toy that your kiddo just won't put down? Head on over to ebeanstalk and tell them what they are!

So, I've been a slacker

Wow, it's been over 3 months since my last post?! Crazy talk! I could make excuses and blame the holidays, but I won't. I just plain old slacked.

There have been so many changes with the kids in the last few months. Kaelin is really looking like a big girl! Mike convinced her to go get her first hair cut and I think it jump started her hair growing! I can put it into a real ponytail now, or piggies even! She continues to surprise me every day with the things she knows. She's a little sponge and soaks up every single thing around her. I am starting to have a little bit of a problem with her being jealous of Sean. She can't stand it when I'm on the couch feeding him and she can't be in my lap also. I have been looking into preschool for her in the fall. I mostly want to get her (and me!) used to being on a set schedule and used to her being away from me in a classroom setting. I think I'm going to send her to the same school her BFF went to. It seems like a good school, I went to school with the current director and they are extremely flexible with the schedule. So I could start with sending her one morning a week and increase it as we get used to it. She may surprise me though and love school so much that she doesn't mind being away from me. But I do want to wait until the fall, no point in starting too early and her not liking it. She got a Leapster Explorer and some games for it for Christmas and she's already playing the 4-7 year old games. She doesn't quite know her numbers or letters yet, but she's starting to get it. And for the most part, she is finally sleeping all night! I just ordered her some ladybugs for her ladybug habitat and she is so excited about getting them and seeing them grow!

Now for Sean. My little guy is a chunk! At his 9 month checkup he was already weighing 20 pounds! That's more then Kaelin weighed at a year old! He got a new big boy carseat for Christmas and loves riding in it, rear facing still of course. He crawls all over the place and is even cruising the furniture and using a walker. He will be walking by his birthday I'm sure. He's just such a happy little guy, I love it! He is a total water baby like his sister was. If I carry him in the bathroom to start the tub then get him undressed in his room, the second I set him down he hauls naked butt for the bathroom and shrieks when he sees the water! He's a fairly decent sleep. We've all been dealing with a cold the last few weeks and he has popped 3 teeth so none of us have been getting too much sleep.

I'm finding myself still trying to find a balance between being me, being a mommy and being a wife. Somewhere in there I have to juggle household duties and some days go better then others. But if my kids are happy, Mike and I are happy, and we're all clothed and fed then nothing else really matters. Mike and I don't get too terribly much alone time but every once in a while one of the grandmas will babysit and we'll catch dinner and a movie. We're working on some things around the house. Mike is building some cubby shelves for the kids toys and working really hard on our vegetable garden. He's studying really hard so he can work on programming some Apple apps. He's pretty excited about it and I hope he's having fun with it too.

Sean's 6 month WBV

I can't believe my little guy is 6 months old today! The time has flown by so fast. He's doing really good. He is trying to sit up on his own, he gets out of his bouncer seat by himself, babbles and giggles nonstop, grabs at everything within his reach, anything he gets his hands on goes in his mouth, he's rolling all over the place and so close to crawling! We went to his WBV today and he's 19lbs 7oz and 26 3/4in! Holy cow! He got 2 shots and handled them so well, barely cried at all. I seriously can't believe how big he's getting. He's learning new things every day. He's loving getting to eat food too. So far he's had bananas, sweet potatoes, plums, peaches and carrots. Plus Mum Mum rice cakes and biter biscuts. He loves them all!

How not to make cake balls

The other day I was drunk got the crazy idea to do a fun baking project with the kids. I went rummaging through the pantry and found a cake mix and some icing. A ha! We'd make cake balls! So here's the low down on how to them. 

 Remove jewelry. You'll thank me!

Tuck assistant 0.5 into his highchair and give him a toy. 

Bake a cake and let it cool just a little bit. You'll need to have a large mixing bowl and spoons ready also. If you want to keep your sanity, stop here. Just ice the cake and call it a day!

Have assistant 1 (dressed in their "baking outfit") go crazy on the cake with a wooden spoon. You want to get it nice and smashed. 

Put the cake crumbs into the large bowl and mix in a half of a container of frosting. You want the cake moist and sticky but not gooey or your balls will taste under cooked. 

You're supposed to roll your balls by hand, but I cheated and used a cookie dough spooner thingy.

Then you put all of your balls into a cake pan or on a baking sheet so you can freeze them You want them firm so you can cover them easily, but not frozen.

Uh oh! Assistant 0.5 needs some attention too!

Ahhhh, much better!

While your balls are in the freezer gather your decorating supplies. We used candy wafers but chocolate chips would work too. We also used sprinkles colored sugar. 

Melt your candy wafers or chocolate chips in the microwave. But follow the destructions directions and don't do what I did and burn them. Yuck! And if you do, throw it out and make a new batch. 

Get some plastic forks and break the center tines off. This will make for nice dipping forks. Plus you get to laugh because your forks look like Batman!

Next you use your forks to dip the cake balls into your coating of choice. I found it easiest to do this myself. Distract assistant 1 by letting them wash your dishes in the sink. 

When that doesn't last long let them get into your decorating sprinkles. What's a little sugar, right? Try not to let them eat too many though because you do need some sprinkles to decorate your cake balls with. 

In theory you'll have beautifully covered balls of cake when all is said and done. However, this is all we got. I was having a hard time getting the wafers to melt nice and smooth and I think the cake balls were too cold because the candy wouldn't stay melted and just clumped as soon as I dropped the balls in. So we gave up and Kaelin ate the rest of the balls straight from the freezer sans coating. 

They just keep growing!

These kids are in big trouble! They just keep ignoring my demands to stay little! 

Case in point: we had to move the Jumperoo to the second setting for Sean already! Oh and I just bought him a box of size 3 diapers. Yes, he's only 4 months old, someone get me a drink!

But then, just when I get upset for him growing, he does something as cute as this:

Or this!

And this little princess

Has done this recently:

They're in trouble, I tell you!