Yesterday I shared my Father’s Day project for my summer school kiddos. We finished them up today so they will be ready to send home tomorrow! I decided that I needed to get my own Father’s Day projects done and out of the door in time to be there by Sunday. (My Mother’s Day projects went out a day late since things were so crazy with school ending and I didn’t even get a picture of those!) So when I came home from work today I decided to finish them off. I had spent a few days rounding up all of the goodies to put in the jars and they were getting close. I finished up and got them in the mail today!
You can use all different types of jars. I grabbed the big one for Troy and his HUGE sweet tooth! I had to make it better then the big bowl that is stuffed full of goodies already! This will keep it fresher and airtight!For my daddy…I made a “stache” of pistachios! I can remember when I was little, we would eat pistachios together because he LOVED pistachios!This is Troy (or Troyboy….which is what I call him!) He is my step-dad and he is addicted to candy! This was by far the BEST idea for him for Father’s Day! He is worse than a 5 year old! Every time mom and I go to Garden we always have to get Troy some candy! They have the best “STACHE” of goodies when I come to visit! Between my mom and my sister, I hooked him up with some Red Vine Red Licorice, Carmel Milky Ways, and some extra goodies! I will be honest….There was ONE more box that didn’t make it….it was delicious! I owe you a box of Reese’s Pieces! lol I couldn’t resist!Sorry Troyboy! This picture kills me everytime! He’s awesome! Best Step-Daddy a girl could ask for! He does so much for my mom and my family!!! Thanks Troyboy! I don’t think we say it enough!Grandpa Bloesser and I apparently need to get a picture together! I had to go searching! Grandpa Bloesser loves mixed nuts, but he always has them at the house so I wanted to get him some goodies that he doesn’t have regularly. I got him some Peanut Butter Snickers and 3 Musketeers! I can remember him always having 3 Musketeers when I was little!For my Grandpa Underhill, I filled him up with a variety of chocolate candies!Alright Victor, you got out of a picture this time but I will make it happen….someday! This is Alex’s dad when we went to the Royal Gorge last year. He refused to let me take a picture of him! I hooked him up with some Sugar Free Twizzlers…which I might add are hard to find..So a HUGE shout out to CVS!
I grabbed some Krylon Metallic Spray Paint from Walmart (which I got carded for! lol) for the lids. Two quick coats on the tops and sides of the lids and you should be good.After weeding out the excess vinyl, press the vinyl cutout onto Glad Press & Seal (or transfer tape).After the vinyl is attached to the transfer tape, peel the backing off the cutout carefully.Make sure to line up the sticky side carefully onto the jar as straight as possible and rub onto jar pressing out all of the air bubbles.So cute!Love, love, love the final product!
Today at summer school, we started our Father’s Day projects and it was too much fun! I always feel bad for the dads of my class seem to get the shaft on Father’s Day because the holiday is in June. Most schools are out before then and so the kids don’t get a chance to make them a gift at school. Not my summer school class! I am teaching 1st grade math this summer and am actually really enjoying it! I usually teach 2nd grade but I wanted to spice it up a bit for the summer and try something different. I have an amazing partner in crime! Her name is Mrs. Black and she is teaching first grade at our school next year. She’s amazing and a true Pinterest Queen like me! I remember our second day in summer school and she came in and had little buses and cars cut out with the bus routes and kids on them! That’s my style! I am excited to get the chance to teach with her this summer!
For Father’s Day we have both been pinning like crazy and I found the BEST Pinterest idea of making little coasters out of Popsicle sticks and glue that look like little wood pallets. Luckily Mrs. Black had a few boxes of small Popsicle sticks and I had leftover glue from last year! I am sure my fellow teachers would agree…finding a project like this that is cheap is amazing and supplies on hand…even better!
Wood Pallet Coasters for Father’s Day!
A few pins I found looked more realistic as they cut the ends of the sticks straight but let’s face it…we don’t have time for that! They still turned out adorable. I am still brainstorming a little saying to add to it but hasn’t came to me yet! If we had more time, I would have loved to make a set of 4 per child, but we have little time at the end of the day. I have been pulling them in tables and got through 2 in the amount of time we had to fit it in. Two down….three more to go!
INSTRUCTIONS:
Line up five Popsicle sticks. I used an extra stick at the bottom to make sure they were lined up good. Put a glue dot about a thumbs length from both edges on you Popsicle stick. Repeat on all 5.Place a Popsicle stick horizontally on top of the glue dots on both sides.Repeat then glue dots on top of each of the top Popsicle sticks to avoid too much glue. (Trust me I had 1st graders with oozing pallets that I had to redirect a few times!) place a Popsicle stick on top of each one to prop the pallet up a bit.Do the glue dots in the same place as before and add the 5 Popsicle sticks across to finish off your pallet coasters and set away to dry. I would suggest an adult the pick it up after it has been sitting a bit to make sure to hold it in place.Super cute!
These turned out so cute and I was very pleased with the project. The kids had fun making them too! I hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think!
Alex teases me all the time about the large amounts of peanut butter that I eat. I can’t help it! I eat an apple with peanut butter almost everyday! It is a great healthy snack and I never really seem to get tired of it. I am not sure what it is about peanut butter with apples, but it makes me feel like I am eating something naughty but it is actually a healthy snack! When I was heavily drinking Shakeology every morning, Alex bought a huge can of peanut butter and it was amazing how quickly we went through it! (Little does he know I have a stash of peanut butter at school so I actually eat more than he can imagine! lol)
I have like 4 of these cans that are in need of a Pinterest-worthy craft project and today I decided to get with it.
We recently moved the dog food out to the garage…which I am not a huge fan of because in the morning it seems like I am always in a hurry and it is a pain to have to go out to the garage and upstairs to feed the pups. Awhile back, I had decided to do a treat canister with one of my JIF containers. So when I finally sat down to do it, I decided a food canister was also necessary! I am pretty pleased with the results and it took me like 20 minutes.
Cut your 12×12″ paper at 5 13/16″ I used 2 pieces for both cans, cutting an extra 4 1/2″ x 5 13/16″ for the back part.Get out your handy dandy Mod Podge and a paint brush.Paint some of the Mod Podge on the cannister.Line up the scrapbook paper of your choice. I lined mine up with the bottom so that it didn’t interfere with the lid.Add whatever you want the canister to say and voila!Counter space by the fridge before…Alex is always complaining that he has to share his smoothie station with the dogs…lolCounter space after! AND this mama doesn’t have to run to the garage every time her babies need some grub!Alex’s smoothie station…all to himself! I am sure he will be a happy camper!
Overall this was a super fun and quick craft to do with a recycled container! Oh how I love projects that are complete upcycles! They turned out super cute and my mind is already swirling with ideas to do with the next two canisters sitting in my closet! This would be a fun project to do with the kids! Who says my peanut butter addiction can’t have its perks?!
I have been experimenting with some banana bread recipes. My goal has been to try to make one that I can make from things that I have around the house and to not need to run to the store for anything. (Ok so I did have Alex pick up some walnuts but by the time I got around to making it, they had been in the cupboard for a few days!) We eat a lot of bananas in this house. We usually pick up two bunches at a time. One ready to go and another that is nice and green and will be ready by the time we get through the others. I have never been a huge banana fan. They are ok, but they are definitely growing on me! I like them when they are perfect but once they start to brown they gross me out! Too slimy for my taste! That’s why I have been on the hunt for the perfect banana bread recipe!
I made some banana muffins last week that my Instructional Coach told me about. I was getting ready to go out of town, so I did not get a picture or anything but they were pretty good for a healthy alternative! You can find this recipe at 100 Days of Real Food. I am always looking for something even more delicious, so I decided to hunt on for some new recipes. The one I based this one off of can be found at Fit Sugar. This one is a bit different than what I came up with but that is just how I do it! Come to think about it, the banana muffins recipe I added applesauce for a kick and this one already called for it. I decided to substitute an extra banana for the diced apple, though I may have to try that sometime. I just needed to use up all of the bananas. The recipe also called for sugar and I decided to use honey and brown sugar instead to give it more of a rich taste. I was going to just use honey but I decided the brown sugar would kick it up a notch.
Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar (a little extra for topping if desired)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup crushed walnuts
The gangs all here!
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°. Mash bananas in a bowl with a fork.Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together well.Add to a greased loaf pan. Add a cup of crushed walnuts mixed with some brown sugar. Bake for 50-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry.Delicious!
This turned out even better than I would have guessed! I was very happy with the flavor. If I were to do it differently, I would add half of the walnut/brown sugar mix to the batter and just top it off with the other half. It came out almost overflowing with walnuts and they were not sticking to all of it. Other than that I would actually use this one again! It was delicious. I would like to try some chocolate chips in my next one but that is the fat girl in me! I will at least make it dark chocolate since I LOVE LOVE LOVE that anyways and it is a bit better for you.
