Eleven Fun and Easy Valentine Ideas

For some reason Valentine's Day crafting and creating has been difficult for me this year! I'm not sure if it's because I used up all my creativity over the last few years, or if Pinterest has made me feel way less creative than I thought I was. Either way, the new Valentine ideas have just not been flowing much this year. So I thought  it might be fun to recap a few of my past Valentine's Day ideas in one big Valentine Round Up post!  They are all really cute and really easy to do...which is perfect for all us busy moms who really don't have to make all of those amazing Pinterest level crafts!

Number 1: Kaleidoscope Valentines

Number 2: Valentine Chalkboard Candy Boxes

Number 3: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Waffles

Number 4: Valentine Hula Hoop Wreath

Number 5: Tootsie Roll Bank Valentine

Number 6: Love Note in a Pancake

Number 7: See Through Valentines

Number 8: Play-Doh Valentines with Printable

Number 9: I Love You More Than Chocolate Marshmallow Hearts

Number 10: Valentine Mailbox Magnets

Number 11: Ruffled Valentine Dishtowels

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Snowman Waffles

I pulled out my waffle maker this weekend and whipped up some fun and easy waffles to help get us in the Christmas spirit! I've made waffles for almost every other holiday there is, so I figured it was time to make some for Christmas too! These waffles would be so fun for Christmas morning or even for dinner on Christmas Eve if you don't have big family plans! And the wonderful thing about these cute Snowman Waffles is that you can even use a little help from the store and use frozen waffles instead of making them homemade!

 I started with a stack of three warm and yummy waffles.

 I got out my sifter and my {huge seven pound} bag of confectioners sugar.

 I simply laid the waffles out to look like a snowman and then dusting them liberally with the confectioners sugar.

 After your snowman is all covered with snow, all that's left is to decorate him!

 a couple of chocolate pieces for buttons

Twizzlers for his mouth and scarf

an orange Tootsie Roll for his nose

Banana slices with Sixlets for his eyes

I just used the candy that we had on hand...mostly stuff from the Christmas parade that we went to a few weeks ago! The fun thing about this snowman is that you can pull out all your leftover gingerbread house decorations {or parade candy} and let your kiddos use their imagination to make Mr. {or Mrs.} Snowman anyway they want!

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Gobble, Gobble: Turkey Waffles (Again)

I truly can't believe that Thanksgiving is only a little more than a week away! It feels like we just got through Halloween, and I really haven't had much time to think about Thanksgiving...so I'm re-posting these fun Thanksgiving waffles that I made for my boys last year!

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I have been brainstorming Thanksgiving ideas for a while now. It's amazing how hard it is to come up with a good waffle idea for a holiday based around food:) I tried to make Cornucopia Waffles with an abundance of M&M's, but all that did was make a huge mess of the waffle iron. So I decided to give Turkey Waffles a try instead. Now I know the name makes them sound kind of gross because seriously who wants savory turkey hiding in their waffles! Don't let the name scare you off...there is not a trace of real turkey in these fun and colorful Thanksgiving waffles:)

I started with the usual suspects...and my usual helper:) 

**waffle mix, food coloring, and Eli**

 Mix up your waffles according to the directions. You will need four waffles total to make two turkeys. By the way, these are sharing waffles...two people per turkey:)
*Start by making one plain waffle.*
*While that waffle is cooking divide your remaining batter into three bowls.*
*Add green, yellow, and orange food coloring each into one of the bowls and stir to combine.* 

*Cook the three colored waffles and then get ready to assemble.*

Start by cutting the plain waffle in half and the colored waffles into quarters.

Lay out the colored waffles in a turkey tail pattern starting with the outside ones{green here} and working your way in. Lay the half plain waffle on top of the turkey tail and adjust as needed. Use one of the leftover yellow quarter waffles to make a beak for your waffle. I simply cut off the pointed edge and added it on top of the plain waffle. 

What kind of fun foods are you making to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?

Shark Week Waffles

Apparently this is the week of waffles around here:) On Monday I shared our fun Back to School Apple Waffles and today it's fun shark waffles in honor of Shark Week! My boys have been SUPER excited about watching all the educational {and scary} shark shows on the Discovery Channel this week, and I thought it would be fun to make some waffles to celebrate:) The great thing about these Shark Week Waffles is that you don't even need a waffle iron to make them....you can make them with plain old frozen waffles!

 Start with one waffle per person plus an extra waffle {you'll need 1/4 for each person} to make the shark fins. I made some crispy Belgium waffles, but again the frozen kind would work just fine here too!

 Cut your extra waffle into quarters. Your waffles need to cool off a little before you assemble them, so set them to the side to cool while you work on the next step.

 Take a container of Cool Whip {I used about 8 oz. and it was plenty for four waffles} and add in some blue food coloring. Give your Cool Whip a good stir until you get it to a blue color that resembles water.

Slather a couple tablespoons of the blue Cool Whip onto your cooled waffles.

 Trim down a little bit of the quarter waffles that you cut earlier so that it will sit on you waffles without falling over, then place it in the center of of all the blue Cool Whip water.

 These were SUPER simple to make and so much fun for the boys to eat...they didn't even need syrup with all the "water" on top of their waffles:)

 {WARNING: Your kiddos will end up with a lovely blue smile for a while after eating these...but that just makes them more fun!}

Have you and your kiddos been watching Shark Week?

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Back to School Apple Waffles

August means back to school time around here...and back to school time means I plenty of excuses to make fun foods and crafts for my boys and their classes! Apples are one of the first things I think about when I think about back to school, so I figured what would be a better back to school breakfast than apple waffles?!? The fun thing about these yummy Back to School Apple Waffles is that they not only look like an apple, but they {sort of} taste like on too!

Start with a waffle mix, two apples, red food coloring, and a handful of gummy worms. I also ended up using a pretzel for the stem but it didn't make it into the first picture:)

First peel and grate your apples. I used two Granny Smith apples because that is what we had, but you can use any kind and any amount that you would like.

Mix your waffle batter according to the directions on the box, then toss in the grated apple pieces.

Add in a pretty good amount of red food coloring and stir.

{I totally forget to take a picture after I added the red food coloring, so just pretend this is just a picture of waffle batter with red food coloring instead of being a picture of red and green batter from when I made Watermelon Waffles last year!}

After your waffle is cooked and cooled a little, you can add the fun embellishments to make it look like an apple. I added a broken piece of pretzel for the stem, a small piece of green gummy worm for the leaf, and then best part: a yummy gummy worm coming out of one of the waffle holes:)

So if you are looking for a fun and sort of healthy {remember all that grated apple we added} breakfast to whip up for your kiddos on the first day of school {or maybe the fourth day like us}, try out these yummy Back to School Apple Waffles!

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Olympic Ring Waffles

The 2012 Summer Olympics start this Friday, and we are getting excited about it at our house! We started working on learning a few different flags from the Olympic nations, we've set our dvr to record our favorite events, and we picked up exotic snacks from different countries to enjoy while we watch some of the world's best athletes compete. AND to get us even more in the Olympic spirit, I had to try my hand as some Olympic themed waffles to celebrate the games this year! I ended up with these fun and easy Olympic Ring Waffles that would be the perfect "breakfast for dinner" while watching the Opening Ceremonies this Friday!

Start with waffle batter divided into five bowls. I usually make my waffles from a box mix, but I decided to try out a homemade recipe {that was way more than five servings} so I just measured about 3/4 cup into each bowl.

Then color each bowl one of the colors from the Olympic Rings symbol. I used green, yellow, red, and blue food coloring for those colored rings, but I used cocoa powder for the black ring just because I didn't think a black waffle would be very appetizing:)

Stir the batter up well to make sure the color is incorporated good, then cook your waffles according to the directions on your recipe/package of waffle mix.

Remove your waffles from the waffle iron and let them cool slightly. Use a 3 inch circle cookie cutter to cut out the center of each waffle. If you don't have a circle cookie cutter you could use the lid to a mason jar or even a small cup or bowl. 

After you get all the centers cut out, line up your colorful waffles like the Olympic Rings and see if anyone in your family can tell what you made:) Henry figured it out pretty quickly, but I that was because he saw the webpage I had opened to make sure that I lined the waffles up correctly:)

Star Spangled Waffle

The 4th of July is in one week! I seriously can't believe that June is almost over and we are moving on to July! I am still working on recovering from our big roadtrip {I'm just now getting around to washing the sheets & blankets from the Airstream!}, so life has kind of just been floating by. We did do a little to celebrate Father's Day, but I completely skipped over my birthday except for Jason making me a peach cobbler. I haven't even thought about getting out all my fun 4th of July decorations. But I did decided to break out the waffle maker and work on some patriotic waffles this week. The colors didn't end up quite like I wanted and the star isn't as prominent as I was hoping, but they still kind of worked. I usually end up cutting the boys' waffles so their plates are always a jumbled mess of colored waffles anyway:)

 Start with the usual suspects: waffle mix and food coloring...you will also need a metal star shaped cookie cutter.

 Mix your batter according to the directions on the box.

 Divide the batter into two bowls. Make one bowl of batter blue and the other red.

 Pour on your first color and let it set up for a few seconds. Then place your cookie cutter in the center of the waffle iron and fill it up with the second color. Make sure all the way to the edge and inside all the points of the star. I made some waffles that were blue with red stars...

...and some that were red with blue stars.

Carefully pick up the cookie cutter. 

 I wish that the colors would have turned out a little better...and that the star was a little more noticeable. Maybe I'll try them again with a white star so that you can see it better! Even though these weren't as successful as I would have liked, the concept of using a cookie cutter to make a shape in your waffles is kind of fun and I think we will be doing it again soon!