Kid's Toy

The other day I was reading stuff about the development of kids and toys.  One specifically mentioned think about toys that aren't really toys that got me thinking.  We had an empty Parmesan cheese container and my son (7 months old) found it and had a blast playing with it.  So I washed it out and dried it out really well, then I put some beans that I had in the cupboard in it and glue the lid shut.  Now its a shaker/toy for him and its one of his new favorite toys.  It took me all of 5 minutes to put together.

Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies w/Peppermint

I saw a mix for this at the store that came with everything.  When I read the directions I thought that they were pretty much cake mix cookies and that I could make them with a cake mix and candy canes that I already had at home.  They were a hit, this is the last cookie they were eaten before I could take a picture of them.

Here is the recipe that I use for cake mix cookies.

1 pkg cake mix
1 egg
2 T water
1/4c softened butter

Mix all the ingredients.  Heat oven to 375degrees.  Roll dough into balls and place on a ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes. 

*Our variation for these is right when they came out of the oven we sprinkled crushed candy canes on the cookies.

Christmas Wreath

So I pulled out my wreath from last year and it looked pretty sad so I took it apart and used it the stuff around the house in decorating.  But then it left me without a wreath, I was at Walmart in the Christmas section (very dangerous) and found this:

It was around $2.50, I thought I could do something with this.  I looked at the bunches that they had in the store and they were more expensive then the wreath and I would need multiple of them.  I said forget this I'm sure that I have stuff around the house that I could use. Sure enough I did!!

The pine cones are from the backyard and the balls are from the wreath that I took apart from last year.  So it only cost me the wreath!!  I'll take that any day. :)