Fun, Crafts and Recipes is hosting the 39th Four Foods on Friday.  This week the theme is baking.  Here are the questions:

#1. When you need to serve desserts, do you buy them or make them?
Other than baking cookies I am not very good at making desserts. So I usually buy the desserts that I serve.

#2. When baking do you use butter, margarine or something else?
I always use butter.

#3. What meats or veggies do you cook in the oven?
Unless the veggies are part of casserole I don’t usually do veggies in the oven. And I have cooked all kinds of meats in the oven.

#4. Share a recipe for anything that is cooked in an oven.
This recipe for Chocolate Chips cookies is very yummy and is different than all of the others I have ever made. It has pudding in it and these cookies definitely stand out amongst all of the other chocolate chips cookie recipes.

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, melted, cooled
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 box instant vanilla pudding mix (must be instant)
2 tbsp milk
2 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups milk chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. In large mixing bowl, using wooden spoon, mix butter and sugars until creamy. Stir in pudding mix and milk, then eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and baking soda; stir until batter is smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.
2. Drop batter on non-stick cookie sheets (about 12 per sheet). Bake for 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 10 minutes on cookie sheet. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 36.

Stop by Fun, Crafts and Recipes if you’d like to play along this week.

We just came home yesterday after being gone for a week and a half on vacation.  We are getting back into our routine but we didn’t do anything crafty today.  While we were on vacation we stayed at Matt and Ellie’s house (my brother and sister-in-law) and we had lots of fun.  So, I wanted to share a fun project that Hailey and her Aunt Ellie did while we were staying there.

Ellie had saved a nice big box for Hailey so that they could make a house.

At first Hailey would not go inside the box.  So she worked from the outside decorating her house.  Aunt Ellie made lots of fun pictures inside the house, cut out windows and even made a skylight.

Hailey finally decided to go into the house- so here are Hailey and Aunt Ellie working very hard on the decorations.  They closed the door to keep the final look a secret.

As you can see Hailey loved her house.

I didn’t actually get a picture of the final house- there were more windows and lots more decorations but I forgot to take a picture before we left.  Anyhoo- you can still see how much fun this was for Hailey.  I am on the lookout for a big box now so we can make one to play with at home.  Thanks for such a fun time Ellie!

We are home from our fabulous vacation.  We were gone for a week and a half.  You know what that means, right?  Unpacking, tons of laundry, sorting through mail, getting groceries, running to Target, getting Hailey back into her routine…..  Lots of fun stuff.  So, we are home but probably not going to be doing much crafty stuff this week.  Once I get a bit more settled I’ll be back to my regular posting.

This is the last of the beach themed activities I have to share with you.  A fun and easy painting project.

Here’s what you’ll need:

paint, paper plates, shells, paper

Put a little bit of paint on each plate and allow your child to have some fun with the painting.

First things first- Hailey painted her hands.

And now let’s mix all of the colors together to see what happens.

Now it’s time to paint the shells.

The finished sea shells.

Fun and easy!

We’re on vacation right now staying with my parents.  Tomorrow we will be heading out of the town with them to visit more family.  I probably won’t be doing much (if any) blogging while we’re away but I’ll be back next week.  See ya then!