Our Valentines Recap

I waited until the last minute yet again to create the valentines for the kids this year. I pre plan and make a lot of things, small holiday stuff isn’t one of them. (yes I consider Valentines a small holiday).

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I took pencils and some pretty scrapbooking paper and created these pinwheels. Since the pencils and paper were all different each one turned out unique! The kids loved them!

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I found this fun Spinning quote from online (from the movie Practical Magic?) “Do you ever put your arms out and just spin and spin and spin? Well, that’s what love is like.” And created these pencil flags (Free download valentines pencil or straw flags), with “to” and “from” on the other side so the kids could personalize them!

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On Valentines day itself The DA, Baby Boy and I took cookies, frosting and sprinkles over to the school and helped in Lego Boy’s classroom. I love her “What cookie? I didn’t eat a cookie” face in the first picture when she thinks I caught her doing something wrong!!! She was pretty excited when I said she could EAT the cookie she decorated!

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And of course Lego Boy- I love his concentration, from frosting to adding sprinkles this guy get’s down to business!!! His fun and energetic 1st grade classmates are hilarious, and it was so much fun to be a part of their party! You can also see the hole where he lost his first tooth last week!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunk Valentines scones

I’ve mentioned before how much we love breakfast for dinner at our house. These are more like breakfast for snack or dessert! Or lunch, or midnight snack, etc… I make a TRIPLE batch of these and eat them for pretty much every meal until they are gone!

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I’ve shared this chocolate chunk scone recipe before with just chocolate, but I SOMEHOW ran out of mini chocolate chips (my go to for scones and pancakes) so I used regular size chocolate chips and as I was getting them out I saw the peanut butter chips and they sounded so good I did half and half!

I added red powdered food dye to the dough (with the other dried ingredients) in honor of Valentines day!

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Valentines Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunk Scone
6 C flour
1 C sugar
3 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp (or more for a darker color) powder red food dye
1 C chocolate chip
1 C peanut butter chips
3 3/4 C heavy cream
Extra cream and red sugar for topping
Preheat your oven to 425. Whisk flour, sugar, powder, salt, powder food dye and the chips. Add the cream to the flour mixture and mix until moist. Then knead the dough in the bowl 5-10 times, this should clean up the sides.

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Transfer the ball to a slightly floured surface and roll out about 3/4 inches tall.

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Then I used my small heart cookie cutter to cut out hearts.

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Brush top with extra cream…

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and dip the wet top into a plate of red sugar- I like the large chunky sugar for these.

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Put them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and cook at 425 for 12-15 mins (until the top JUST starts to brown).

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Let them cook a min (or second- depending on how hungry you are) and then enjoy!!!  My kids were tickled with these Valentines version and asked me to make them again ON valentines!  What are your Valentines breakfast plans?

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Blue Chevron Ombre birthday cake

The last few years Computer boy had Lego parties with friends so this year we did a family party only (we attempt to do an every other year thing, but there is the occasional exception). The fun thing about Computer boy’s birthday is that he was born on his dad’s birthday! So we celebrate both boys (well man and boy) together for these family parties.

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When I asked Computer boy what he wanted for his cake (last year was the lego head the year before the lego blocks) he said he wanted a blue cake.  That’s it.. a blue cake, oh with fondant.  But I couldn’t just cover a cake with blue fondant and leave it at that!  So I took it as the perfect opportunity to try out an ombre layered cake!

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I stared with a double batch of my white cake, and added a little bit of blue and baked a thin layer, added more blue to the batter and baked another thin layer, repeat again and again… So from light light blue to dark blue- GORGEOUS layers! I added the same blue to some white butter-cream and put the layers together with it, dark on the bottom to light on top!

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Frost the whole thing… and then I covered it with white fondant. I created ombre chevron labels for our small dinner party, so I wanted to use chevrons on the cake too. Using the parchment technique I used with this mustache and lips cake I cut a chevron template and using my airbrush gun sprayed the cake, attempting to go from darker to lighter. Not TOTALLY in love with it, but it’s always having a cake with no major expectations to play around with it!

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The birthday boy’s hadn’t seen the layered inside (since I bake and frost at night when they are in bed) so cutting into the cake was a HUGE reveal moment for the whole party! Everyone was super in love and impressed with it! Totally worth baking for the ENTIRE DAY!  I LOVED (sing-song voice) how it turned out.

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