You Will Need:

1 cup Flour

1/2 cup Salt

1 or 2 packages unsweetened Kool-Aid powder in any flavor you’d like

3 Tablespoons Oil (vegetable, baby oil, whatever you have!)

1 cup Water

Directions:

1. Place your dry ingredients in a large bowl

2. Heat water and oil to a rolling boil and pour over your dry ingredients. Mix as well as you can with a spatula, then let sit until cool enough to knead with your hands.

3. Sprinkle a little flour on your working surface and knead dough with your hands until well combined.

Ready for playing or packing up for favors! That was easy, why not make some in every color?! This Play Dough lasts for up to a month in a well sealed container.

*If your play dough still feels sticky, add flour a little at a time until your dough is no longer sticky!

I had the pleasure of planning this little man’s 1st birthday party! His Mom worked hard, making mustache lollipops, cupcakes, Rice Krispy treat ties and even his cake!

Fondant Flinger made fondant cupcake toppers and a fondant tie to match Forever Your Prints’ Little Man labels. The cake smash outfit was courtesy of Mama Runs With Scissors and was beyond perfect for this theme!

Neck tie and bow tie Cookies by The Wacky Cookie Company; Fantastic and delicious as always!

The printable pdf party plan with all the details and recipes will be available soon in my Etsy shop!

I thought we’d start off with a recipe somewhere in-between sweet treats and “real” food, banana muffins!

These would be great for a brunch or a sleepover party!

I had a lot of very ripe bananas that needed to be dealt with today. I tripled this recipe and came out with 48 regular sized muffins. Usually I would bake them in my mini muffin tin and end up with twice as many, but I did not need nearly 100 muffins this morning!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 very ripe bananas {mashed}

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar {packed}

1 egg {lightly beaten}

1/3 cup butter {melted and cooled slightly}

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 -2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F and put liners in muffin tins.

In a large bowl mash bananas, add sugars, egg, vanilla and melted butter.

In another bowl mix your dry ingredients.

Slowly mix dry ingredients into your wet ingredients. Do not over mix.

Fill muffin tins about 3/4 full.

Bake 18-20 minutes {15 minutes if using a mini muffin tin}

Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

YUM!

In my house we call these “Hulk Smoothies” and have them year-round. With St. Patrick’s Day coming up you could always say a little Leprechaun shared his special recipe

Our basic recipe is here:

2 cubed mangoes (or about 2 cups frozen mango)

1 large banana (or two small)

1 apple (chopped)

2-4 cups fresh baby spinach (don’t use the frozen brick stuff!) You won’t taste the spinach I promise!

2 cups orange juice, cranberry juice or grape juice. Orange produces the most pleasing color (shown with orange juice above), but grape is the taste test winner in our house! Try to use 100% juice.

Blend items in your blender until smooth. If none of your fruit was frozen, add a handful or two of ice.

Some tried and true tips:

When fruit is getting ripe and you don’t think you’ll eat it, peel, chop and freeze it for smoothies! This goes for fresh baby spinach too. After it’s been washed and dried, place 2-4 cups in Ziploc freezer bags and freeze. When you are ready to make a smoothie just grab a bag and dump it in the blender with your other ingredients.

 It’s impossible to peel a frozen banana. You’ll only make this mistake once and I’ve already made it for you. Peel bananas before freezing.

Using frozen fruit instead of adding ice produces the best flavor.

Use whatever fruit you have on hand, experiment with flavors! Keep the bananas (for a creamy consistency) and amount of liquid, but everything else can be substituted!

Darker fruit (berries) will produce a smoothie that might not look too pretty, but it sure is tasty!

If you have a child that looks at you like you’re crazy for handing them something green (no matter what you call it) try putting it in a solid colored cup (that they can’t see through!) with a lid and a straw. If you can get them to taste it before they see it you’ll be fine!

Put leftover smoothie in popsicle molds and freeze for a frozen treat later!

Some things we like to substitute; pineapple (replace one cup or all of the mango), berries (replace one cup or all of the mango), baby kale (replace some or all of the spinach), papaya (replace one cup or all of the mango),

Some things we like to add;  soaked chia seeds (1-2 Tablespoons), flax seeds (1 Tablespoon), almonds (small handful), vanilla protein powder (1 scoop), greek yogurt (1/2 cup)

When we first started these smoothies years ago I didn’t tell the kids what was in it the first few times I made them. They loved them! Eventually I let them watch me make it and laughed at their little faces when they realized I had been secretly feeding them spinach! Now, they love to help me make them!

For the juice part we now use fresh juice from our juicer:

3 carrots (peeled)

3 pieces celery

1 inch ginger

2 oranges

1 lemon

Juice all items above and use that instead of store bought juice. So much healthier and tastes just as yummy! The kids love to help juice everything!

This is such a great way to get some veggies in your picky eaters! Out of my three boys it goes like this:

#1 – Loves fruit and veggies – Loves this smoothie

#2 – Loves fruit, not so much veggies, but he’s starting to come around – Loves this smoothie

#3 – Will go find a new family if you put fruit or veggies in front of him – Loves this smoothie

And they all love helping me make it now!

Do you have a favorite smoothie recipe? Share in the comments below!

Wanna know a secret on how to get people to give you hugs instead of pinches? Give them cupcakes!

Grab your free toppers at the bottom of this post and dress up those yummy treats.

These labels aren’t just for cupcakes either! Check out some other fun ways to use them and download your free labels here.

Now I don’t take full credit for this idea, it’s been done many times before. Check out this yummy picture I found on Pinterest. But when you follow my recipe using my husbands super secret chocolate chip cookie recipe (maybe not so secret anymore?) you’ll be glad you did. I am not currently accepting marriage proposals (neither is my husband) but letters of appreciation with notes of flattery are always graciously accepted. You’ll understand why I say this, once you taste this. Seriously.

This recipe is so quick and easy! The longest part (which really isn’t that long at all) is making the chocolate chip cookie dough. DON’T skip this part and use some store-bought cookie dough! I had to beg Mike to let me post his recipe. Puppy dog eyes and all. “But honey, think of all the children. Don’t they deserve the best chocolate chip cookie dough?” It turns out they do, and YOU do too!

Okay, time to grab your supplies! You will need:

A 13″ x 9″ pan lined with parchment paper.

Chocolate chip cookie recipe {posted below}

24 Oreos {That means you can eat whatever is left in the package!} You can use any Oreos you want, peanut butter Oreos would be awesome in this! More on that later….

Family size Duncan Hines fudgy brownie mix. {The family size is made for baking in a 13″ x 9″ pan} And anything you need to complete the batter; eggs, oil & water

*optional for topping – Vanilla ice cream and fudge  Mmmmmmm fudge……

Mike’s Super Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter {melted and cooled slightly}

1 cup light brown sugar {packed}

1/2 cup white sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk

2 cups Ghirardelli  semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  Sift dry ingredients together and set aside.

2.  Cream butter and sugars together until well blended. Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla.

3.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients until blended. Do not over-mix.

4. Stir in chocolate chips.

{If you are baking these as cookies place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet in a 325F oven for 15-18 minutes.}

Let’s make something awesome! Are you ready?

Heat your oven to 350F. Make your cookie dough and spread it evenly over the bottom of your lined pan.

Add a layer of Oreo cookies, press down slightly into the cookie dough.

Mix up your brownie batter and pour over the Oreos. Spread it evenly over the top. You can use another brand or homemade batter if you’d like. This is just the brand I used and it worked great! I haven’t found my perfect homemade brownie recipe just yet

Bake at 350F for 45-55 minutes. Mine was perfect at 45 minutes. Stick a toothpick down to the bottom and pull it out. If it comes out clean (or almost clean) it’s ready to come out of the oven! How good does your house smell right now?! Here is the hard part….. Let it cool completely. Don’t touch, don’t taste. Eat some of the leftover Oreos to hold you over. Cooling completely makes cutting it easier.

When it’s cool, gently lift up using the sides of the parchment paper. Place it on a cutting board and cut into squares. It is perfectly delicious just like this. But if you want to be adventurous keep going  Place a square on your plate or in a bowl and microwave for about 30 seconds to warm it up again. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some hot fudge. OMG….. EAT!!!

This was AMAZING. Next time (meaning after I lose the weight I gained from this time) I’ll experiment some more by replacing the Oreos with other things….. Milky way, Snickers, Three Musketeers, Reeses PB Cups, cheesecake….. There are some pretty incredible combinations to be had here. If you replace the Oreos with something else or even make it just like this I’d love to hear about it!

One question I am asked a lot is “How do you make the frosting so pretty?” And I’m excited to tell you that it is super easy! No fancy equipment, you don’t even need a pastry bag or tip!

This tutorial was photographed in two parts. The first time I got up to the point of actually frosting the cupcakes and quickly realized that it is near impossible to photograph yourself frosting a cupcake while you are frosting a cupcake. So I ate that cupcake instead…. Luckily my wonderful husband was quick to help the second time around as long as he got to eat the cupcake when we were done. Deal.

Secret #1 for how to frost a cupcake and make it “so pretty” is that you need homemade frosting. The stuff in the store, even… no, ESPECIALLY that new stuff in the can that promises to make frosting so easy, is just not thick enough to hold this shape. Not even so much the thickness, homemade frosting can be oh so light and wonderfully fluffy, but it just has something store-bought doesn’t. Probably awesomeness.

I ADORE cream cheese frosting. In one set of pictures I was using my chocolate chip cookie dough frosting and in the other I am using my basic cream cheese frosting recipe.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz. package cream cheese (at room temperature)

1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon milk

3-4 cups confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)

Mix butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add vanilla and milk. Add 2 cups of sugar, gradually, and mix well. Add sugar 1/2 cup at a time until frosting reaches desired thickness. I usually end up using 3 cups of the sugar.Add milk 1 teaspoon at a time if your frosting is too thick.

*If you don’t like cream cheese (WHAT?!) use 2 sticks of butter and leave out the cream cheese.

Now let’s frost those cupcakes!

1.  A Ziploc freezer bag works just as well as a pastry bag. It doesn’t have to be Ziploc brand, but be sure to use a freezer bag. The sandwich bags are not thick enough and tend to split down the side in a deliciously tragic, exploding frosting kind of way. Make sure your bag does not have a pleated corner.

2.  If you are using a frosting tip (as I do below) you’ll want to snip off a small part of the corner of your bag and push the frosting tip through. Don’t go crazy, you can always cut the hole bigger if you need to, but if it’s too big you’ll have to start over. If you are not using a tip, don’t cut your corner yet! Put the corner of the bag into the bottom of a tall glass or jar. Open the bag and wrap the edges of the bag around the edges of the glass. Fill with frosting!

3.  Remove the bag, twist and squeeze the frosting down to the tip. If not using a frosting tip, now you can snip the corner!

Hold the bag at the twist with one hand and gently squeeze the frosting out with the other.

Start on the outside edge and move counterclockwise around the outline of your cupcake.

When you’ve made it one time around and are back to where you started, don’t panic! Just go right inside the line you just made and keep going around and around and around until you’re super dizzy or have a fully frosted cupcake.

At the top I press down gently and then pull straight up.

If you plan to add sprinkles to your frosting it is best to do it right after frosting or they will not stick. I usually frost three and then add sprinkles to those three. Repeat until you’re out of cupcakes.

Marvel at your amazingness and taste test your cupcake. It’s your duty as a baker to test, test, test!

Now before I get a bunch of angry emails, “You said I didn’t need a frosting tip!” Here is a picture of the cupcake I frosted with just the bag, no tip. Yum! Be sure to keep an eye out for more pictures of the Milk & Cookies party!

I created this table setup to showcase some beautiful items you could include in your own owl themed party. There are many more treat and decoration ideas running through my mind that I will be sure to share with you in the upcoming PDF Party Plan. Here you will find the best and the most beautiful must have treats and a few tips for displaying them.

The table was designed around Forever Your Prints’ bright and cheery owl labels. You can purchase the full party set here. Party labels are the perfect way to bring your theme to life and are a great starting point for designing the rest of your party.

Canning jars are another hot item right now and really, they always have been. Who doesn’t have a canning jar laying around? These are a great way to display your treats on sticks such as cake pops and dipped marshmallows. I filled mine with Sixlets in coordinating colors. You can buy individual colors online at places such as http://www.candywarehouse.com/. If your party is around Easter be sure to check your local store for pastel colored Sixlets!

Cake pops and I have an interesting relationship. They are so perfectly adorable, bite size and can be flavored and decorated in all sorts of ways. Every time I’ve tried to make them they don’t turn out anything like what you see in the picture above and they taste like ABC cake. Yup, already been chewed, yuck.

When I first saw these owl cake pops from Laurie Clarke’s Cakes I was so impressed, I mean WOW! They are so cute and perfect right down to their adorable little pink beaks, their pretty little flowers and perfectly pink toes. She did an amazing job matching the owl on Forever Your Prints’ labels. I of course had to taste test these pretty little treats, all in the name of research of course. The texture was like a truffle, like that spoonful of raw cookie dough (the cake is fully cooked, no worries there!) heaven. The flavor was a perfect spice cake that made me not so sad the seasons are changing. In short, these were AMAZING and nothing like my attempts at making cake pops.

S’mores and More sent us dipped marshmallows in the classic S’more flavor which fit perfectly with the woodsy outdoor element of an owl themed party.  The boys were literally drooling just waiting to taste test these! I Love the classic S’more flavor with none of the mess!

Crafted Cookies sent us these beautifully crafted owl cookies along with coordinating mini cookies with butterflies and the number 2 to match Forever Your Prints’ labels. A hint of lemon and baked to perfection, these cookies were delicious! I took them to my birthday party two days after  this shoot (what was left of them that is) and everyone commented on how yummy they were.

Now I know you’ve been staring at those fondant cupcake toppers made by Fondant Flinger. I cannot tell you how amazed I was to see how perfectly she matched the label set, colors and all! Each topper came individually wrapped and carefully packaged. All I had to do was unwrap and place them on my lightly frosted cupcake. I guarantee that if you serve these at your next party EVERYONE will be talking about them!

The other simple treats I chose to place on the party table were yogurt parfaits, granola bars, pretzel “twigs” and popcorn. All of these brought in the earthy tones (like the dipped marshmallows) that I think should be at the heart of any owl themed party.

I really hope you enjoyed this post and would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!

Contributing Vendors:

Owl labels: Forever Your Prints

Owl Cake Pops: Laurie Clarke Cakes

S’mores on a stick: S’mores and More

Owl Cookies: Crafted Cookies

Fondant Cupcake Toppers: Fondant Flinger

Table Design and Photography: Lemonberry Moon

Download your free Bee Mine labels here!

Download your free Valentine trading cards here!

Grab your (or their….. maybe both) favorite flavor donut hole and pile them up on a pretty platter. I added little heart sprinkles to a few for a little something extra. Write or print a note saying “Donut you know I love you a hole bunch?” and place nearby. Done!