Happy Leap Day!

So today is an extra day that we only get once every 4 years. Kinda cool? Yep, who doesn’t need an extra day, right? So are you doing anything special with your extra day? This cute Leap Day picture is from Sandra Boynton’s Every Day’s a Fabulous Holiday calendar. 🙂 Are you doing any leaping on Leap Day?

Do you know what a person is called whose birthday is on Leap Day? You would be called a “leapling” or a “leaper”. If you were born on February 29th, then you would only celebrate your birthday on the right day once every 4 years. Kind of a bummer, but you could celebrate either the day before or the day after your actual birthday. Or maybe both! 😉 I read about a lady that turned 100 years old today but she has only celebrated on her actual birth date 25 times! Kinda funny!

There is a rather silly thing that happens on Leap Day and that is that women can propose to a man instead of waiting for the man to propose to her. But really, I don’t think anyone pays any attention to this anymore. 😉

What animals would be great for celebrating Leap Day? Maybe a frog or toad?

How about a kangaroo? They are both great at leaping! 🙂

For Leap Day you could leap about just like a frog or a kangaroo! Whatever you decide to do, I hope you enjoy your “extra” day today! 🙂

Let’s Make Chaffles!

Have you ever heard of a chaffle? Well, you know what a waffle is, right? Chaffles are made with cheese and they are quite yummy! So let’s take a look at how I made some chaffles for my husband and I. First off, I used my mini waffle maker that I found at WalMart for around $10.

It’s really cute and just the right size for 1 or 2 people.

There are lots of different chaffle recipes floating around out there but this is how I did it. You’ll need 2 Tablespoons of almond flour, 1/2 Cup of grated cheese, 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. These can be made gluten free. 🙂

I made 2 different batches of batter. For the first batch I used cheddar cheese and for the second batch I used mozzarella cheese. Both were quite tasty! 🙂 Put the ingredients into a small bowl.

Stir until all ingredients are moistened. This is the cheddar mixture.

And here is the mozzarella mixture. The egg I used for the mozzarella batch was larger and so the ingredients were more “soupy”.

Preheat your mini waffle iron according to the manufacturers directions. While it’s heating, make sure any assistants are ready to help you. This is my assistant, Rusty. 😉

When the waffle iron is hot, spoon some batter onto the waffle iron and close the lid. Make sure not to overfill the waffle iron or the batter will run out.

Check your chaffle after a few minutes and see if it looks done enough to suit you. Mine took less than 5 minutes to cook. This is the cheddar chaffle all ready for someone to take a bite!

This is the mozzarella chaffle that my husband very quickly gobbled up! 😉

This recipe made 2 -3 chaffles each. Chaffles make a great quick snack or even part of a meal. I bet they would be great with a fried egg on top. I added a drizzle of honey to mine and that made it even better. I hope you’ll give the chaffles a try! 🙂

Easy Mug Cake for Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! 🙂

Here’s a great super fast dessert for this Valentine’s Day! So fun and easy you won’t believe it and your kids will love it! It’s a Mug Cake, which means you mix it and cook it all in a coffee mug. You will need 2 cake mixes. 1 must be an angel food cake mix and the second one can be your favorite cake flavor. I chose Chocolate Fudge. The brand of cake mixes I used was Betty Crocker but others will work just fine too.

Pour both dry cake mixes into a bowl that you can store the ingredients in.

Stir together carefully as the powder will “poof” easily. 😉 Be sure its mixed together well.

Now comes the fun part! Put 3 tablespoons of the cake mix into a microwave safe mug.

Add 2 tablespoons of water and stir together. Make sure all the dry powder on the bottom and sides of the mug are mixed in well. It will look a little foamy.

Put the mug in your microwave oven and microwave for 1 minute and presto! You have a little individual cake! 🙂

Let it cool to your desired temperature. Top with a dollop of frosting or some whipped cream or ice cream. I used whipped cream and it was quite yummy! 🙂

Doesn’t it look delicious?!

Mmmm! Super simple and super tasty! A great way to have something sweet and it’s already a controlled portion. 😉

Enjoy your Mug Cake! 🙂 You can be sure I’m enjoying mine! 😉

A Simple Game for Valentine’s Day

Tomorrow is the day for hearts and love and flowers and fun! 😉 Here’s a quick idea for a super simple game you might play with the kids on Valentine’s Day. Let’s call it Valentine Tic Tac Toe.

All you need is a piece of paper and a pen and some Valentine’s Day candy. Pick out 5 pieces of 2 different colors of candy…1 color for X and a different color for O. Draw a Tic Tac Toe board on your paper and you’re ready to play! There are lots of candy pieces that would work for Valentine Tic Tac Toe. Here’s enough colors of candy conversation hearts for 3 different games.

I love M&M’s candy so that’s the one I would choose to play with! 😉

You can even find candy hearts in the food decorating aisle of your favorite grocery store.

Depending on the size of your family or group, you could play separate games and the winners advance to the next round. The final winner could get a special prize and everyone could enjoy some Valentine’s Day candy! ;) Have fun!

It’s Pizza Day!

Yum! Everybody loves pizza, right? If you do, today is your day! I love Sandra Boynton’s calendar picture for today from her “Every Day’s a Fabulous Holiday 2024 Calendar”:

Cute little guy, isn’t he? But back to pizza…be sure to check around your local area for pizza shops that are running sales on pizza today! I’m sure it will vary depending on where you live. One type of pizza we sometimes buy from a grocery store is one that makes the crust using cauliflower instead of regular flour. No, it doesn’t taste like cauliflower, which is pretty cool! They have different flavors and toppings available. We like to add a little more pizza sauce and cheese before baking ours.

But if you don’t want to buy a pizza or you just prefer to make your own, let me share a couple of suggestions. One way to make quick and easy individual pizzas is to use english muffins for the crust. Gather your favorite pizza ingredients…

Cut an english muffin in half and spread it with some pizza sauce. Then add cheese and your favorite toppings. One nice thing about this method is everyone can make their pizza to suit their likes. Using aluminum foil or parchment paper on a baking sheet is a good plan for easy clean up.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F until the cheese melts and browns a bit and the pizza are heated through.

Another pizza suggestion that was shared with me is to make a Pizzadilla. Using the soft round tortilla shells, put one on a baking sheet and spread with sauce and toppings. Top with some cheese. Put another tortilla shell on top. Bake at 425 degrees till browned and crispy, then flip and bake until the second side is browned too. Only takes about 10 minutes. This makes a cracker like crust. And again, everyone can add their own favorite toppings. 🙂

One more fun idea that I saw but haven’t tried yet is to use a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet, then make small piles of mozzarella cheese in circles. Leave some space between them. Top each one with pepperoni and your favorite pizza spices like oregano and parsley. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. Let cool for a minute or two and the place on a paper towel lined plate. Serve with your favorite pizza sauce for dipping!

Wow, there are lots of ways to enjoy pizza, aren’t there?! I hope you will enjoy your favorite pizza on this Pizza Day! 🙂

It’s Time for Some Giggles!

Today is another gray, cold January day here. So it’s time to share some riddles and give ourselves something to giggle about! Let’s do this! 🙂

#1.) What do you call a hen who can count her own eggs?

Answer: A mathemachicken!

#2.) What do you call a pirate who skips class?

Answer: Captain Hooky!

#3.) What does Mickey Mouse listen to on his way to work?

Answer: Car-tunes!

#4.) What do you call five giraffes?

Answer: A high-five!

#5.) What do cows like to read?

Answer: A moospaper!

#6.) What do you get if you cross a duck and a vampire?

Answer: Count Quack-ula!

#7.) What is black and yellow and goes in circles?

Answer: A bumble bee on a merry-go-round!

#8.) What is a giraffe’s favorite movie?

Answer: Giraffic Park!

#9.) What do you call cows that live in Alaska?

Answer: Eskimoos!

#10.) What do you get if you cross a pig and a tree?

Answer: A porky-pine!

There! I hope you are feeling happier now and these riddles brightened your day! 🙂 Keep smiling!

Draw Your Own Squishmallows

Do you own a Squishmallow? They seem to be very popular now and I’m kinda behind the times on learning about them. Our granddaughter got a BUNCH of them for Christmas and now I know why everyone likes them! They are sooo cute and sooo soft and well, squishable! 🙂 (I’m thinking I might need one…or a few!)

And then there were mini squishmallows too! 😉

Our granddaughter has been tracing characters and coloring them and that gave me the idea that it would be fun to draw Squishmallows. There are a couple of ways you can do that. One way is to find a picture of a Squishmallow online and save the picture to your tablet.

Lay a piece of thin white paper over the picture and trace the outline of the Squishmallow.

Take the paper off the tablet and color the picture with your favorite crayons, markers or colored pencils. Use the picture as a guide for what colors to use.

Molina is actually white but the white part didn’t show up in a picture so I colored her a light color so you could see her better. Another way you can trace/draw a Squishmallow is to print an online picture first.

Hold the picture up to a window (or tape it on the window) and use a piece of thin white paper to trace it just like we did with the first one.

Color the picture and ta dah! You now have a drawing of Gorm too!

You can make a whole collection of Squishmallow drawings to decorate your bedroom or maybe you’d just like to do one or two. I hope you will have fun drawing your own Squishmallows! 🙂

Warm Up With a Hot Cocoa Bar

It’s a snowy and cold day today where we live. Brrr! It makes me long for a hot drink and a soft blanket! (Step aside, iced coffee!) This Christmas in a white elephant exchange, I received this cute set for making hot cocoa.

It got me to thinking about how nice it would be to have a hot cocoa bar with all our favorite ingredients. And this cold snowy day is the perfect day for one! 🙂 Here’s what we had for our hot cocoa bar:

Hot cocoa mix – this brand is my favorite!

Some candy canes for stirring

Sprinkles for on top

Miniature marshmallows

Chocolate chips

Cinnamon, if you like a touch of spice

And, of course, whipped cream!

Set everything together in a nice arrangement.

Grab your favorite mugs, some spoons and heat up some water. Mix your hot cocoa mix with the hot water in your mug…

And then add your favorite additional ingredients! Mmmm, so warm and yummy!

Sip your delicious hot cocoa till your heart is content and your belly is nice and warm! 🙂

Show Me Your Dragons!

Hello, again! I’m back after a pretty crazy week! (We had 3 brothers-in-law in the hospital, our son had a procedure done at the hospital and a special old friend of ours passed away. Whew!)

Did you know that today is Appreciate a Dragon Day? (Nope, I didn’t know either.) How’s that for a fun holiday? 😉

I have a second calendar that shows a dragon today too, so it must be true, right?

Do you have any dragons? I do! 🙂 My dragons are made of Lego and come from the Lego Elves series. This is the one I got first…

And then there’s this one…

Last but not least, I have a baby dragon. So cute! 🙂

How about reading a story about a dragon on Appreciate A Dragon Day? I recommend “Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher” written by Bruce Coville. It’s a great story!

So, show me your dragons! Dragons might be make believe, but they sure are fun, aren’t they? 😉 If you don’t have any dragons, maybe you can pretend to BE a dragon! Just be careful where you aim your fire-breathing breath, ok? ;)

New Lego Minifigures Series 25

Have you seen the latest Lego Minifigures series 25? They were officially released on January 1, 2024. These are so fun! 🙂

Each box has a paper with the picture of each minifigure, like in the photo below. These are the minifigures that are available in this series…Film Noir Detective, E-Sports Gamer, Vampire Knight, Sprinter, Goatherd, Mushroom Sprite, Fitness Instructor, Triceratops Costume Fan, Harpy, Train Kid, Fierce Barbarian and Pet Groomer.

This is what it looks like when you open the box.

I bought 4 boxes and I just had to share with you which ones I got! The first one is an E-Sports Gamer.

The second box was another E-Sports Gamer. Ha! Here are the pieces in the third box I bought.

And they make the Film Noir Detective. Notice he comes with a red herring! 😉

Box #4 had these pieces inside.

Which turn into the Pet Groomer. How cute! Love the dog! 🙂

It makes it fun not knowing which minifigure will be hiding inside the box you choose. 🙂 So here’s to my start of trying to find all 12 Lego Minifigures from series 25! (I think the Pet Groomer is my favorite so far!) :)