Cookie Camps

This week in my weekly camps we made DOZENS of delicious chocolate chip cookies!  We smelled the vanilla, as per tradition and tasted the chocolate chips before we added them, just to make sure they weren't bad.  The girls also designed covors for their recipe books that my weekly camp kids get to take home at the end of the year!

Crafting with a Brownie Troop

I was so honored to volunteer my time with a Brownie troop this afternoon. My oldest daughter Jayne ran the camp with me.   What an amazing group of girls they are.  So very polite and cute and eager to learn.  I taught them how to make wool roses and they loved doing it.  They were able to make head bands, bobby pins and pins (That they immediately pinned to their Brownie vests like a "patch").  So cute!  Thanks Coleen for sharing your girls with me!  And thanks for the boxes of Girl Scout Cookies Girls!  YUM.  Thin Mints and Tags, my favorites.

Silly Gooses (you might say Geese)

The girls spontaneously made up this song today.  When they saw the one camper from a different school, they got SO excited to all be together that they broke out in celebratory song!  :)  I love these kids.

Girl Scouts!

I am so excited about Thursday.  I have been invited by a Sierra View School Girl Scout Troop to lead a craft afternoon.  We will be making wool rose headbands and pins!  I'll let you know how it goes.

Playdough!

It was a week for playdough at camp.  The kids loved it.  We made our own and each girl got to put on plastic gloves and knead the food coloring of her choice into her dough....some chose to add vanilla or peppermint to it as well.  Very fun.  I am posting the recipe for you here:

You need lots of salt!

And lots of mixing (with smiles).  Enjoy!

Bare Feet Playdough
2 Cups Water
1 Cup Salt
2 Cups Flour
2 TBLSP oil
4 tsp cream of tarter
food coloring or flavorings

Mix all ingredients in saucepan.  Heat on low stirring until mixtrue thickens.   Remove from heat and knead on a floured board as it cools.
You can omit the food coloring and/or flavoring and divide your dough in pieces, THEN add colors of flavors if you would rather :)

A week off from Camps!

Last week, I took the week off to accompany my husband on his business trip to Disneyland!

We had such a nice break and a fun time and I collected TONS of inspiration for creativity at every turn...how could you not, right?

Cake "Ice-Cream" cones!

These are so cute, festive, really delicious and very easy to make!
Thanks to my friend Susie Rees for sharing the recipe!

Bake a cake in a 9 x 13 pan.  Let it cool.  Crumble it in a big bowl--yes....crumble it up.  Then stir in about a cup of frosting.  I used chocolate cake and canned chocolate frosting (which, by the way, canned frosting is pretty much "against my religion," but the original recipe I sampled was created this way and it tasted so good I decided to make it the same way.  This was the first time I made the recipe and next time I will use homemade frosting). Mix it well with a wooden spoon.

Form balls and set them on waxed paper.  You can put them in the fridge or freezer to firm up if you would like.

Dip a cone in melted "candy melts" chocolates.  Then add a cake ball.  Set this in a mug to let that chocolate set for a few minutes.  This holds the cake ball to the cone.  THEN you can turn it upsie down and dip the cake ball in yummy chocolate.  Embellish with sprinkles now if you want to, before the chocolate sets.  (****If your chocolate gets "cranky" add a couple teaspoons of Crisco and melt it a bit more).

SIDE NOTES:  Susie suggested adding ice-cream in the bottom of the cone, then making them and storing them in the freezer till serving..INTERESTING IDEA!  I like it.
--Another friend suggested not using cake balls as described above, but instead making rice crispy balls, then dipping in chocolate. YUM!
So many endless and delicious ideas!  Makes me happy.  If you come up with another idea, post it for us here in the comments! 
Happy Weekend!

Valentine Kindergarten Camp

We got messy today with red paint for our handprint pillows and "chocolate glue" for the cookies!

We made several extra cookies today and delivered to the Hooker Oak School office and special teachers in their lives.  THEY WERE PROUD!

Tuesday Camp Fun

My Tuesday girls and I had SO much fun this week.  We were pretty busy...we made our Valentine Fortune Cookies and Lollipop flowers.