A New Aid in the Kitchen

I mentioned in my post yesterday that I got a new toy over the weekend. I'm pretty sure from the hint I gave yesterday that most of you figured out that I got a new mixer:) And you are right! I got a brand new shiny KitchenAid mixer this weekend....kind of an early Mother's Day gift {and a Hey, I've got a 20% off coupon at Kohl's kinda thing too}!

 My old KitchenAid mixer was still kicking after almost 9 years, but it was just barely getting by. When I bake, I bake big...meaning dozens of dozens of cookies, and my old mixer honestly just wasn't big enough. So I did a little research and little price comparison and decided to go with the Professional 600 Series mixer in a lovely shade of Pearl Metallic.

 The box said it could hold up to 14 cups of flour! As soon as I saw that I was sold....that means I can make a triple batch of my chocolate chip cookie dough without straining my new mixer when before my older model was groaning with a double batch.

Here is a shot before she even took her first spin....full of sugar, brown sugar, and eggs:

 And this is what she looks like with a triple batch of chocolate chip cookie dough:

 And one of the best parts about making cookie dough....getting to clean the beater:) This beater is way bigger than my old one too which means twice as much cookie dough left on the beater!

Now I'm off to scoop, bake, and cool dozens of dozens of cookies for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Miscellany Monday

A.

Teacher Appreciation Week starts today, which means my craft room is full of fun teacher gifts that have to be glued, painted, and assembled. Today I sent a fun little bag of highlighters with THIS cute printable on it! Such a fun and easy idea! I have few more things started, but I still have a lot to make too:) Plus I have to send cookies Wednesday and Thursday! I think this may be a busy week!

B.

This weekend I got a new toy that is going to make mixing all that cookie dough a lot easier! I will share a picture with you went I get it up and running on her maiden voyage tomorrow:)

C.

We officially started using our Countdown to Summer Board today....19 days until summer!

If you haven't entered the Elmer's Craft and Tell giveaway, you still have a few more days to win some crafty goodies that you could use to make your own Countdown to Summer Board!

D.

We finally got all the boys' Easter candy put away last night. Seriously there was just so much stuff that it was daunting....so I let it sit on the kitchen counter for over a week! Sad I know, but I told Jason he had to help me clean it up because if he didn't I would want to eat all of it:) Easter candy is evil...and clearance Easter candy is even worse!

E.

Jason and I did the Cinch 5 Day Fast Forward again this week. I am down 10 pounds this morning from what I was last Monday morning! I am SUPER excited and I am also determined to keep it off this time and lose more. I am slowing inching my way toward my Disney World goal:) We are going to Disney in August of this year, so I know I need to be in pretty good shape so I don't die of heat exhaustion....and so I can wear some cute shorts too:)

F.

I have a few giveaway posts I hope to get ready for y'all this week and I have a few guest post to work on too so there may not be a whole lot of crafting going on this week {other than all the teacher appreciation stuff I'm working on}.  I do have a fun Cinco de Mayo snack to share with you and hopefully I can get it up before the actual holiday so if you want to give it a try you can!

Countdown to Summer Board

Yesterday I shared with you how I won a great giveaway full of fun Elmer's craft supplies, and I also gave you a sneak peek of the project I created with them. Today I have the full step by step for you just in case you want to create your own Countdown to Summer Board....and if you enter the Craft and Tell Giveaway {you still have a few more days to enter}, you may be the lucky winner and get some of the same crafty goodies that I used:)

I started my Countdown to Summer project with the Elmer's Bi-Fold Foam Board and some fun summer fabric. I sprayed one side of the foam board with spray adhesive and attached my fabric to it.

To hold down the edges of the fabric on the backside of the board, I used the Elmer's Glue Dot Runner.

I used my hot glue gun to add some decorative trim, ribbon, and a fun polka dot paper clip to hold the countdown numbers.

I printed out my countdown numbers on blank 3X5 notecards. I used a fun font {Summer Funkyness from Kevin & Amanda} to give the board a little bit of whimsy:)

I used my Cricut to cut out letters that say "Days til Summer".  If you don't have a Cricut, you could easily write this by hand or print it out in a fun font that matches your numbers. I attached the letters to a piece of colored cardstock and then I attached the cardstock to the fabric covered board with the Elmer's glue dot runner.

 I used my X-ACTO knife to cut two small X's in the top of the foam board for my ribbon hanger.

For the ribbon hanger, I simple pulled a piece of ribbon through the board and then tied a knot on the front to hold it in place. To finish off the project I added a cute fabric flower and a little more ribbon.

And now we are ready to Countdown to Summer!

The boys last day of school is on May 20th so I'm thinking our countdown is going to start May 1st and we will countdown to the last day of school!

Virtual Elmer's Craft & Tell Party & a Giveaway for YOU!

This giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Amy from Amy's Cooking Adventures!
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A few weeks ago I won a really great giveaway from Amy at Positively Splendid: a bunch of great Elmer's crafting supplies!

But the best part about winning the giveaway was that I got to participate in Amy's Virtual Craft and Tell Party! Basically, the five winners of her giveaway were challanged to create something with the things they won and then they get to share their creations at her virtual party....SUPER fun right!?!

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Here is a little sneak peak at what I created:

You can head over to Positively Splendid to see my finished project and what the other 4 winners created.

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Now the really fun part for you is that Elmer's wants to continue the Craft and Tell fun, so today I am giving away a Mini Craft and Tell Party Pack full of great Elmer's crafting goodies! Seriously check out all the craft supplies you can win to use at your own crafting party:

3  X-ACTO Retract-a-Blade knives

3  CraftBond Extra Strength Glue Sticks

3  CraftBond Tape Runners

3 Mini Bi-fold 9x12 Foam Board packs

1 Painters Markers pack

1 X-ACTO Decorative Edge Scissors pack

1 Circle Cutter

1 X-ACTO Self-Healing Mat

1 Glue Dots pack

2 Photo Corners packs (various colors)

1 Gel Pens pack

1 Tacky Glue bottle

**That is plenty of stuff to get you and two friends crafting for hours!**

 To enter:

Leave a comment telling me who you would love to craft with!

Head over to Amy's and leave a comment on her Craft and Tell Showcase Post

Follow Random Thougths of a SUPERMOM! and leave a comment telling me that you do.
Follow me {@SUPERMOM_Kelli} on twitter and leave a comment telling me that you do.  Follow {@Elmer's} on twitter and leave a comment telling that you do.
Tweet about this giveaway and include a link to this giveaway post in the tweet.

Great giveaway for a mini Craft & Tell Party Kit from @SUPERMOM_Kelli and @Elmers Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/62thhhz #giveaway

****************This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. The giveaway will end next Thursday, May 5th at 10 pm CST and I will chose a winner via random.org. Please make sure to leave an email address in your comment if it is not in your profile. Good luck and thanks for entering!

Dessert From Heaven

Like most holidays, I was asked to bring some type of dessert for our Easter lunch this year. I really don't mind bring dessert because I LOVE to bake and really don't like to cook...so dessert is right up my alley:) I spent more than a few hours in the kitchen this past weekend whipping up some fun treats for church, making peanut butter cookies, and trying out this new {amazing} recipe for Angel Food Cake.

Heavenly Angel Food Cake

From allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 12 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar

Directions

1. Separate eggs; discard yolks or refrigerate for another use. Measure egg whites, adding or removing whites as needed to equal 1-1/2 cups. Place in a mixing bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, sift confectioners' sugar and flour together three times; set aside. Add cream of tartar, extracts and salt to egg whites; beat on high speed. Gradually add sugar, beating until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Fold in flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. Gently spoon into an ungreased 10-in. tube pan. Cut through batter with a knife to remove air pockets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Immediately invert pan; cool completely before removing cake from pan.

This cake was great on it's own, but it was even better with fresh strawberries and whipped cream on top! YUM! And the best part is that one serving of this cake is only 101 calories!

 

Easter Recap in Pictures

He is Risen!

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:6

More Easy Easter Treats

We are spending the morning at an Easter egg hunt, but I wanted to share one last quick and easy Easter treat with you!

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I whipped these treats up for Henry's class in literally less than 30 minutes. I started by making a regular batch of Rice Krispy Treats. Then I used my cookie scoop and put a big heaping scoop of the warm Rice Krispy mixture into muffin tins that had been sprayed with cooking spray. I let the mixture cool just a little then I used my finger to make a well in the middle to make it look more like a nest. Then I added in a few colorful jelly beans in the middle to look like eggs. Let the nests harden for about an hour or overnight.

 These are a quick and easy treat that you can throw together in no time! One batch should make about 24 little birds nests so all the kids {big and small} can enjoy them!

I hope you are having a fun Easter filled weekend!

Froot Loop Easter Egg Treats

Making fun treats with my kiddos is one of my favorite things about any holiday. We always make gingerbread men at Christmas and some kind of red, white, & blue dessert for the 4th of July. This year I wanted to make something new for Easter since we don't really have a traditional Easter treat that we always make.  I took an idea that I saw in my Family Fun magazine for Rice Krispy Eggs and changed it around a little to make things more colorful...and frooty!

We started with a big box of Froot Loops and bunch of empty bowls. Henry and Grant got busy sorting the Froot Loops by color, and Eli got busy eating the few Froot Loops that I gave him to sort:) You could also make this without sorting and have fun rainbow Froot Loop Eggs....but the sorting was half the fun for my boys!

I placed the sorted Froot Loops in my small chopper and pulse it a few times just to break the cereal up a little. Don't chop it up too small or it will turn to powder! Repeat this step for each of the colors of cereal and place them into 6 separate medium sized bowls.

Melt down marshmallow and butter like you would for Rice Krispy Treats. After the mixture is completely melted, allow it cool slightly then evenly divide the marshmallow mixture into the 6 bowls of different colored cereals.

Stir the cereal into the marshmallow mixture using a spoon or your hands. Either way you chose to do it is fine, just make sure to keep the cooking spray handy so that the marshmallow doesn't stick to your spoon or your hands.

Once everything is mixed together, hand it over to your kiddos and let them have fun stuffing it into {washed, dried, and sprayed with cooking spray} plastic eggs.

Put the cereal mixture into the two pieces of the eggs and then squish them together to make a solid cereal egg. We let ours cool a little inside the plastic egg so that it would hold it's shape better.

You can serve them up on a cute Easter plate....

...or display them in a basket as the centerpiece of your Easter table!

I love that they are colorful just like the real eggs we dye every year, and my boys love that they got to help make such a fun and yummy treat!

This week I'm linking up with my sweet friend Amanda and her fun Weekend Bloggy Reading linky! If you have some down time this weekend go check out all the fun!

Pen and Pencil Caddy: Kids Recycling Project

In celebration of Earth Day tomorrow, Henry had to make a recycling project for school. We thought of a bunch of ideas from a soda bottle bird feeder to a fold up race track made from a big box, but in the end we made a cute Pen and Pencil caddy out of an old cereal box and some toilet paper tubes.

 We started by cutting the bottom of the cereal box off just a little bit shorter than the toilet paper tubes. Then Henry got busy measuring, cutting, and then gluing decorative paper to the box and 5 toilet paper tubes.

 I used an X-acto knife to straighten up the top edge of the box.

 When all of the toilet paper tubes were covered, we placed them inside the box.

 I printed out a Pens & Pencils label for the front just to make sure his teacher knew what he had made:)

 And that is how you make a really cute, easy, and RECYCLED Pen and Pencil Caddy!

Have you recycled anything today?

{For more fun Earth Day ideas, check out this fun post from last year when we made upcycled sand toys!}

What kind of fun treats are you making for your kiddos this summer?

Wordless Wednesday: YeeHaw for Potty Training