Browsing Tag

hot cocoa

Blog, Family, holidays, kids

Christmas Tree Forest


Winter weather. I do not like it. Today we were supposed to go spend some time with a sweet new family from Rockport. But because of this “huge winter storm,” we decided to hold off until next week. Although, I now realize we would have been fine.

Knowing we would be home all day, and that Don would be sleeping late because of a meeting, I decided we needed to do SOMETHING to keep the boys entertained. So first, I turned on Pandora and started some Christmas music and then I came up with a simple project.
What I came up with:
We used the leftover waffle cones from Kingston’s birthday party. I melted some white almond bark and added some green food gel. Then I rolled the cones in the almond bark.
colorful sprinkles
boy smiling

We let them dry. Then we used the leftover almond bark as our “glue.” We used leftover Halloween candy (skittles and dots) and some sprinkles to decorate the trees.

little boy decorating
toddler boy decorating
christmas project
And then, of course, we had to take pictures with the finished products.
little boy candy christmas tree
boy and homemade candy christmas tree
kingston 2
3 boys
Then we set them on a platter and sprinkle our “snow.” (Powdered sugar)
liam kai kingston 2
That is our one and only Christmas decoration this year. I love Christmas decorations. But I want to start fresh with all our decorations. I know I shouldn’t hold off all the time, saying “we will wait until we get a new house.” But I don’t want to purchase items, only to be unable to use them in a future house. So for now, we have our Christmas tree forest. At least our cleanup will be easier than everyone else’s.
P.S. I was able to do this with the boys because Evangeline has recently turned into an amazing sleeper. Going to bed around 9 and usually not waking up again until 10:30am-noon. Today she slept until 11:30!
After lunch, I surprised them with some hot chocolate.
boy and little brother drinking hot chocolate

Kingston was excited. I’m pretty sure he didn’t get any last year.

toddler drinking hot cocoa
Evangeline even joined in on the fun. And she loved it!
baby girl
Now we’re just relaxing and watching Christmas movies.
And now I will end with a super cute picture of our little miss, right after she woke up. Such a happy girl!
cute baby
Blog, recipes

Homemade hot chocolate


Since today was the big snow storm, I wanted to let the boys have a special treat, hot chocolate. Unfortunately (for them) we don’t ever drink it. I quickly googled a recipe for homemade hot chocolate and picked Martha Stewart’s recipe. Her recipe makes 92 servings. Besides not needing that much, we didn’t have enough cocoa to make it. So I halved the recipe.
(For my future self)
I used
1 3/4 sugar
1 cup cocoa
1/8 cup dark cocoa
1/2 tablespoon salt

The dark cocoa was only because I ran out of regular cocoa. Anyway, I sifted it all together to get rid of lumps and stored it in the cocoa container I had just emptied. The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons after heating up a cup of milk. We each had about half. Then we added our marshmallows and enjoyed! I wouldn’t normally drink it but I wanted to try it. It was actually really good and I would be happy to make a cup for anyone who comes over 😉
Anyway, now to follow up with some blurry iPod pictures.
Kai begged for this special cup that Maggi gave me for Christmas. Liam just got what I gave him. I am not pictured because it was a lazy day–I was not camera ready.
And Kingston misses the fun because he naps. Coming soon–a post about Kingston. Because he doesn’t have a post dedicated to him yet and he is hilarious!

brothers with hot chocolate

 

toddler drinking hot cocoa

 

cute toddler boy smiling

 

little boy smiling

 

little boy drinking hot chocolate

 

little boy with messy face