Camping Fun

Our big Green Monkey has joined scouts this year. It is a fun new journey teaching the kids to enjoy being outdoors, along with all the other skills and behaviors it will teach.

 After our adventures we enjoyed a wonderful campfire dinner in our Easy Lunch Boxes. I can't say enough about how much we love these. I was so protective over them, no knives allowed! I packed a cutting board for the steaks :). They worked great for dinner, and we washed and reused them for breakfast. I love how easy they are for the kids to open, and it was a perfect way to keep food warm and safe from bugs until everyone was served.

Steak, mushrooms, carrots, edamame, and potatoes.

Of course there were s'mores for dessert, you can't build a fire and not have s'mores! That addiction sparked an idea so when we got home I baked some Gluten Free Peanut-butter cookies from Immaculate Baking and turned those into s'mores. I can't express how sinfully delicious this idea was mm mm mm!

2 Gluten Free Peanut Butter cookies + 1 large marshmallow + 1/4 Hershery bar = Blissful s'mores

Since these were made indoors we just zapped them in the microwave for 10 seconds, still awesome. I wish I had the cookies with me for our trip but this was a fun way to remember the fun we had and keep the camp experience going.

Graduation Day!

First and foremost thank you to everyone who supported me in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Foodie Moms contest. We did it! We made the list at #21 and will be featured on their site. As part of the feature I may select 3 favorite posts. But which to choose? If you have a favorite leave me a comment.

The graduation ceremony went great! Seems like just last year he was graduating preschool...oh wait yes he did :). It was adorable. Since they were allowed to go home with their family to celebrate we ate out today so no lunches to share today. I did however pull out one last room mom surprise and made cookies for the class, bought some graduation balloons, and made some treats for the teachers and staff.

Graduation Cookies

Variations of this have been all over Pinterest this graduation season. This is how I made ours using store bought cookies and candy. 

Version 1 : I used a marshmallow fudge cookie, frosting, fudge mint cookie, and an M&M. It looked great, easy enough for making one for a lunch, but not stable enough for packing in bags. 

 Version 2 : These were perfect they held up great for transport and the kids and parents loved them.

 1. Materials : I used Marshmallow cookies, melted chocolate chips as glue, fudge mint cookie, Twizzlers Pull and peel as the tassel, and an M&M.

 2. Melt some chocolate chips, and using just a drizzle attach the marshmallow cookie to the fudge mint cookie, let sit until firm, or refrigerate if you're impatient like me. While you wait you can sort your M&Ms and turn them M side down so you can quickly assemble without an oops. Cut the Pull and Peel to about 3" I measured from center of cookie to about table top height. Peel three off at a time, separate half way up, twist the other half tight. Then another dollop of melted chocolate to attach the tassel and finally the M&M button.

 3. All set and ready to go! You can either wait for room temp or chill, I chilled.

4. Final presentation : I found Bell cut-outs in the teacher section of the Dollar Tree, in a pack of 32, it was fate calling. So for the students I made 20 "Saved by the Bell! Congrats Grad!" and saved the rest for Teacher and Staff gifts.

For the Teachers and Staff I made S'mores. Another popular teacher gift on Pinterest. This is my version. All you need is S'mores materials, graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hersheys Chocolate bars.

The rest of the Bells were for the Teachers and Staff and Bus Driver that watched over our Kindergartener this year. They say "Saved by the Bell! Hope you have S'more fun this summer"

So long Kindergarten (after another day and a half of school anyway) hello summer vacation!