Mmm....Mmmm......Monday!

So, McKenna made this! It isn't her recipe of course, but she enjoyed making and eating this yummy fall treat! Thanks Mom for the recipe.

 

Candy Corn Cheesecake Mousse

This recipe yields a sweet and fluffy, light cream cheese flavored dessert.

 

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk or cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 small container (8 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed

orange and yellow food color

candy corn (for garnish)

Directions ~

Beat cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer until fully smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar, then milk (or cream). Add vanilla. Continue mixing. Beat about 1 minute on medium to medium-high speed. Fold cool whip into cream cheese mixture, and stir until fully combined.

 

Scoop about 1/3 of the Cheesecake Mousse into a bowl, and color orange. Color another third of the mixture yellow. Leave the remaining third white. One color at a time (starting with yellow), scoop mixture into a piping bag or large ziplock bag, and squeeze a layer of the Cheesecake Mousse into small dessert dishes of your choice. Repeat with orange and then white Mousse.

Refrigerate 30 minutes (or up to 1 day) before serving. Garnish with candy corn if desired.

 

Recipe yields 4 moderate servings or 6-8 mini servings.

If I were making it again, I'd use orange extract or almond extract over the vanilla. I'd also use a tad less cream cheese. The cream cheese was particularly strong for me. But everyone else LOVED it!

 

a fun project

Here's a little project we worked on for Christmas presents...

These are pictures for a calendar.

January

February

March

April (oops, I should have rotated this picture)

 May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December



After we printed a picture for each month, I went online and printed calendar pages for the year. I took them to a printer down the highway and had them bound with a spiral binding. Six calendars, a lot of fun, and $10.00!!

Cheer Party

This past September the girls hosted a cheer party for a few of their friends. It was a lot of fun! I decided to let them do it because I know that once the baby comes they won't be having any parties for a while. A good friend connected me with 2 cheerleaders from a local high school. They came and taught the girls a few basic cheers and then everyone performed for the moms and dads at pick up time! It was easy for me because the cheerleaders pretty much took care of everything.

We started with a craft. Nothing like glitter glue to help a girl get her sparkle on! We decorated mega phones and made pom pom pony tail holders. Then the girls got "cheer" hair. (That's a high pony tail for you non cheering types!)

We also got gold sparkles sprayed into our hair!

Next the girls learned their introductions for the performance.

Ella

 McKenna

 Selma

Lucy

 Sophie

McKenna, again (maybe she needed more practice!)

Hmm, Sophie again.

Next the girls practiced a few cheers.

A cheering pow wow?

Not sure why, but I love this little pic of my sweet Ella. She was trying so hard.

They were very good listeners. I guess they really wanted to be little cheerleaders.

I love Claire's expression here.

All in all it was really fun. Not to mention, Meghan and Kayla took care of everything. I just had to walk around with the camera.

Mini Camp

I am so blessed to have such great friends in my life. Two of my friends and I decided to have mini camps for our girls (all the same age). Each mom took a day and a theme. Ours was "Rainbow Camp" or as Arthur wanted me to call it, "Takin' Back the Rainbow."

First step to mini camp? Supplies

Base Station to set supplies on!

Said Supplies and Post it note lesson plan!

Dye

Things to Dye

Student work station in driveway

Snack (theme related!)

Goody Bags, because they are fun!

Friends!

A little Silliness

Next Step: Students ready for a project

The next few pics are the "befores and afters" of our project.

You see, she wanted to do one item randomly and the other item in stripes. Nice work!

Her aim was a bulls eye on one and random on the other.

She decided to work the color schemes!

Random, bulls eye and stripes for the baby onsie.

Nice bulls eye.

Next on the lesson: Snack time!

Snack time

While the girls were eating snack we read 2 stories. One was of God's promise to Noah after the flood. We called that promise the "Rainbow Promise." We also talked about how and when rainbows occur. I tried to introduce the term refraction to the girls. We created a rainbow inside using a flashlight, glass of water and piece of white paper. We discussed the order of the colors and mentioned Roy G Biv! We also played with color creations using food coloring, detergent and milk. I think they liked this experiment.

By then, the lesson plan said, lunchtime!

The camp was a lot a fun! I would do it again. All of the girls behaved well. I think they really enjoyed it and I think they learned something. Hopefully, each time they wear their shirts they'll remember the day they talked about Rainbows at our mini camp!

I'll be thinking of a theme for next year.