Happy Valentine Cake!

Valentine's Day

Abby and I enjoyed some time today (without little sister) to work on her Valentine's for school next week.   I found the printable here at Simple As That Blog.  She actually had it posted as a St. Patrick's Day idea, but Abby and I thought rainbow's and lollipops would work perfect on Valentine's Day!!

Homemade Colored Bath paint

We had a play date planned for today, but Olivia's little guest ended up being sick and unable to come.  She was so sad I had to come up with something quick (and fun) to do while it snowed and snowed all day.  I quickly found a easy recipe online and she was eager to help me throw it all together and spend some time playing in the tub before nap.

Smashing Pumpkins...

Besides being a great band in the 90's.   Smashing pumpkins was a big hit in our house.  We had several USLO (unidentified squash like objects) in our garden this year.  Lots of cross pollination in our compost mostly.  So with every smash we were eager to see what was really inside that half white pumpkin/acorn squash mix or zucchini/something or other mix.   It made a hug mess in our driveway, but the girls had lots of fun!

Another Christmas list

Abby was very kind in helping Olivia put together her Christmas list this year for Santa.   You can see she put Olivia's name at the top to make sure there was no mistaking who was to receive the following items in our household from Santa.

1. A Chicken  (I don't know what happened to the kitten)

2. A doll house

3.  Blue Cheese

4. A juice maker

5. * some dolls

While these are all obtainable items, I am not really sure why she wants a chicken and does she want blue cheese (as in the moldy cheese) or actual blue colored cheese???

First Christmas list of the year is in.......

1.  Books

2.  Dolls

3.  Camera

4. Angel

5. Stuffed animals

6. Wings that can really fly

7. music box

8. clock

There are so many things I love about Abby's list this year. 

 1. She wrote it all by herself in her notebook she keeps tucked with a pencil near her bed. (Can you tell this was composed in the dark after she was suppose to be asleep!) 

2.  She did not ask me to spell one thing and came up with the words, some more creative than others, all by herself 

 3.  She offered to help her sister write out her Christmas list-which is still a work in process.  I think the only thing written so far is a kitten. 

4.   The fact that "wings that can really fly" goes right along in her mind with all the other tangible objects.    It shall be interesting to see what Santa comes up for that one! 

Streusel-Topped Blueberry Muffins

 

Now that Abby has started school full time, Olivia and I have lots of time to spend together and she loves to bake.   This week I hosted a Daisy Scout meeting at my home and wanted to have a few things for the leaders to snack on.  I had frozen blueberries from picking this summer in the freezer and Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins seemed like a yummy solution. 

  They look a lot different over at Our Best Bites where I got the recipe.  But they did taste really good!

Streusel-Topped Blueberry Muffins
Recipe from Our Best Bites

1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. table salt
1/2 c. sugar
2 tsp. grated orange or lemon peel
1 large egg
3/4 c. buttermilk
1/3 c. canola oil
1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. sugar

Streusel Topping1/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 Tbsp. butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spoon the flour into measuring cups and level with with a knife and combine it in a large bowl with the baking powder, salt, sugar, and citrus peel. Make a well in the center of the mixture. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and oil. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining flour and sugar and then toss the blueberries in this mixture until they are well-coated. Gently fold the blueberry mixture into the batter. Spoon the batter into lined muffin tins, filling 2/3 full.
To make the streusel topping, combine the 1/4 c. sugar, 2 1/2 Tbsp. flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two butter knives until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the batter and bake for 18 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 12 muffins