IHOP Pancakes

These pancakes are easy to make and I love that you only use one bowl, because in a lot of recipes you have to mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. I added a little bit of vanilla extract and cinnamon to mine though; maybe that makes them not "IHOP" authentic, but they were still really good, here is the recipe:

Nonstick Spray
1 1/4 flour
1 egg
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup oil
pinch of salt

*vanilla extract and cinnamon optional

Just pour all the ingredients into a mixer and mix. Then pour batter (I just a 1/4 cup) onto a greased pre-heated griddle. Flip. Then enjoy!

THIS WEEKEND

The Sweater/Felt flowers is up now (sorry it didn't come up before), so scroll down to check it out!

This weekend, (April 30 - May 2) here is what is going on:

Make a FREE Shady Sun Visor at Lakeshore Learning Centers

(May 1, 11 am - 3 pm):

Make a FREE make-it-take-it Mother's Day Mug at Michael's Craft Store

(May 2, 1 pm - 3 pm):

*Also going on this week at Michael's is a FREE make-it-take-it Mother's day corsage

(May 3, 6 pm - 8 pm):

And a FREE make-it-take-it Mother's Day clay pot

(May 4, 6 pm - 8 pm):

Make a FREE Picket Fence Planter at Home Depot's Kids Workshop (ages 5-12),

(May 1, 9 am - 12 pm):

Make a FREE Wooden Schoolhouse at Lowe's,

(May 1, 10 am - 11 am), click HERE to register:

FREE Day at the Denver Art Museum (May 1) ,

They are located at: 100 West 14th Avenue, Denver:

DON'T miss the Paris Street Market located at Aspen Grove Shopping Center in Littleton, (May 1, 8 am - 3 pm, rain or shine) Click HERE to read more about it. FREE

" Paris Street Market is, an open-air, vintage and antique market, is celebrating it's 10th Anniversary this year. Many of you have been with the market since its inception on that rainy (more like snow), cold morning in May of 2001. We've seen many great changes, met lots of fabulous people and collected abundant treasures over the past 10 years. And...we wouldn't change a thing!"

May Day Pancake Breakfast at the Parker Rec Center,

(May 1, 9 am - 10 am), "Join families for yummy pancakes and a little touch of spring." Click HERE for more info, Cost: $5 residents/$7 non-residents

Ken-Caryl Ranch Spring Arts and Crafts Fair at the Ranch House,

(May 1, 10 am - 4 pm)

Feeling like doing some service on Arbor Day?

Then help the town of Parker plant trees, (May 1, 8 am - 10 am), click HERE for more info

OR

Join the Spring up the Creek in Castle Rock (May 1, sign in starts at 9:30 am, clean up goes from 10 am - noon), click HERE for more info

Check out the Highlands Ranch Street Market (May 2, 10 am - 2 pm), located at the Town Center North, click HERE for more info FREE

"Come treasure hunting at the NEW Highlands Ranch Street Market. This open-air market will feature antiques, vintage décor, jewelry, flowers, French bread and fresh pastries, handmade treasures, and much more!"

In Parker, go to the Asian Festival (May 2, 2 pm - 6 pm), located at the Parker Fieldhouse, click HERE to read more

"Take a journey to the Far East right here in Parker. Be mesmerized by traditional clothing, entertained by a variety of authentic performers like the Japanese Taiko Drummers and the Lion Dance. Stroll through the Asian Market and enjoy Thai and Viet cuisine from Indochine Restaurant. Fun for the whole family!"

Cost: $5

FREE Day at the Denver Museum of Miniatures,

(May 2) located at: 1880 Gaylord Street, Denver

And DON'T forget that THIS Tuesday, (May 4, 4 pm - 8 pm) is FREE Day at the Children's Museum of Denver,

Located at: 2121 Children’s Museum Drive, Denver

Castle Highlands Park

Located at:

1735 Granger Circle

Castle Rock, CO 80109

Amenities:

Basketball Court, Playground

The basketball court

The playground

Little grassy area with a beautiful view

more of the playground

Don't miss the park. The path to it is between two houses, it looks like this:

*This park is perfect for littler kids in my opinion. It has a little pathway that is perfect for the small bike rider and has smaller slides with nothing really scary for a toddler age. This will be one of my favorites I think because it has the basketball court in the back for the Dads, and the park with benches and a grassy area for the Moms and kids. It definitely is a smaller park, but worth going to, my kids had fun.

*Information on parks obtained from the Castle Rock Official Website

Burlap Dollar Store Wall Grouping

It's Tuesday again and I am keeping with my new tradition of featuring something I saw during the week that I think is awesome. These wall hangings cost $6 to make and Jen from Tatertots and Jello made them. They are four 3.5 x 3.5 frames from the dollar store that she covered in burlap, used old music scrapbook paper for the inside, and printed off the first initial of each of her children's names to frame. Don't forget the ribbon she added to hang them. Very cute, I love the idea and so easy and cheap to make. See the full tutorial HERE.

p.s. If you have an awesome craft, recipe, mom tip, ect. you would like featured on my blog, let me know. Thanks.

Felt/Sweater Flowers

Sorry this post didn't come up right, anyway, here is is now:

The flower my Mom made out of an old sweater

Here is the felt flower I made:

To make it, first trace a circle onto felt, whatever size you like:

Then, cut it in a spiral pattern, it will look like this when you are done:

Then pinch the center part together, and start rolling it up:

You can hot glue it a little here and there as you go, or wait till you are done and then hot glue it. Here are some ideas you can do with your flower from a cute blog call One Little Minute:

Click HERE to see the full post at One Little Minute, Miranda has some other felt flower ideas that are really cute!

I am linked to these parties

Princess Tiana's Famous Beignets

If you have seen The Princess and the Frog movie, I am sure you were craving Princess Tiana's famous beignets, (which is just a square french pastry). These are pretty easy to make and my daughter loved eating them with me while we watched the movie. I loved being able to say, "See what Tiana made, that's what we made," it was fun for us. Anyway, try these out, they are delicious.

3 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup water

1 egg, beaten

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

vegetable oil for frying

confectioner's sugar for dusting

In a bowl combine 2 3/4 cups of the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Whisk together.

In a different bowl, whisk the buttermilk, water, egg and vanilla and stir in the flour mixture.

Use the remaining flour to dust your work surface. Place the dough on it and pat it into a large 1/2 inch thick square. Dust the top with more flour (it is very sticky) and slice into squares.

Heat oil in a saucepan and carefully drop dough squares into the hot oil. Fry them for about 3 minutes then turn over. When done, dust with confectioners sugar.

*I found this recipe here, and Disney has given permission to share this recipe. To see more recipes from Tiana's Cookbook, check out the book here.

A Paris Street Market

"A Paris Street Market is an outdoor, open-air market in the true Parisian flea market style. Antiques, architectural pieces, primitives, unusual artifacts, eclectic home and garden accessories,retro collectibles, vintage clothing, jewelry, fresh and dried flowers, French bread and fresh pastries, delicious coffee and more!! Over 120 exhibitors from throughout the Rocky Mountain region offering very cool stuff."

2010 Paris Street Market Dates:

(the first Saturdays May - October, 8 a.m. - 3p.m. rain or shine)

May 1

June 5

July 3

August 7

September 4

October 2

Located in the Apsen Grove shops in Littleton:

7301 S. Santa Fe Drive

(Santa Fe and Mineral)

Angel Food Cake with Fruit

So we have all had the well-known strawberry shortcake, and if you love that, but are looking for a new spin on it, this is your recipe!

Ingredients:

One angel food cake (I just bought mine)

2 (12 oz.) packages of frozen mixed fruit (mine was strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries)

water and sugar (to make a simple syrup)

whipping cream and powdered sugar (if you are going to make homemade whipped cream)

First, to make a simple syrup, boil one cup of water and add 1-2 cups of sugar, depending on how sweet you want it. Let it boil for a minute while continuing to stir, till the sugar is dissolved. Then turn off heat and let it cool. Put the frozen fruit (semi-thawed) into a bowl and when the simple syrup is cooled, pour it over the fruit and stir.

To make homemade whipped cream, just add whipping cream (I usually add about 1 cup) to your kitchen aid (hopefully you have one or this will be a sacrifice of the arm to make), and whip it for about 5 minutes or so until it is light and fluffy. Then add desired amount of powdered sugar (I like it sweet so I add about 2/3 cup). You can add almond or vanilla extract (about 1 teaspoon each) to add a little flavor zing to it.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone. I wanted to make a little treat for my husband to take to his scouts (he is a webelos leader) and since today is Earth Day, I thought this would be perfect. It was really quick and easy and the kids LOVED it. I am sure you have all had this before, or know the recipe, but just in case, or just as a reminder, here it is:

2 boxes of instant chocolate pudding

1 box of instant vanilla pudding

small clear plastic cups

oreo cookies

gummy worm/bugs/frogs (whatever you like)

whipped cream (optional)

Crush the oreo cookies (I used my magic bullet and made them really fine). Mix up the vanilla and chocolate puddings according to the package directions. Now you are supposed to mix them with whipped cream, but I forgot to get that at the store, so I just used the pudding as is, and it worked fine. Now this is how I did it, but you can creatively come up with whatever layering or what not you want. I put one spoonful of crushed oreos in the bottom of each cup, then one spoonful of vanilla, then a spoonful of oreos again, then a a couple spoonfuls of chocolate pudding (till it's almost full), then top it off with more crushed oreos and stick some gummy worms on top.

...and to really make them Earth Day appropriate, make little 'Happy Earth Day' flags with toothpicks.

THIS WEEKEND

This weekend, April 22-25, here is what is going on:

Okay, actually starting the weekend plans early because:

Today (Thursday April 22) Parker is having their FREE PACE Center Groundbreaking:

"Please join us on Thursday, April 22 at 4 p.m. to paint the future canvas of culture as we break ground on the anticipated Parker Arts, Cultural and Event Center (PACE). Bring your family, enjoy refreshments, watch performances from local Parker artists and hear from Town Council while everyone shares in the excitement of this new community facility."

Located at Pine Drive and Mainstreet in Parker from 4 pm - 5 pm. Click HERE to read more.

Make a FREE Spring Picket Fence at Lakeshore Learning Centers

(April 24, 11 am - 3 pm)

Make a FREE Mother's Day Puffy Clay Magnet at Michael's Craft Store,

(April 24, 10 am - 1 pm)

Make a FREE Bird Feeder at Lowe's, (April 24, 10 am - 11 am), click HERE to register.

Come to the FREE Home Improvement Expo at the Eastridge Rec Center in Highlands Ranch, (9568 University Blvd) (April 23-25, 9 am - 5 pm):

"Looking for some home improvement ideas? Investigating window, paint, or basement finishing? Seeking decorationg ideas? Landscaping in need of improvement? Head over to the Home Improvement Expo to explore the options available to you right here in Highlands Ranch as various suppliers showcase their services and products. "Do-it-yourself" seminars help you with your home improvement projects. Come Saturday or Sunday, April 24-25, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m"

Easy Kid's Apron

My friend let me borrow an apron she got at a church activity. It is so cute and really easy to make. You just need one long dish towel and some ribbon. Then you just need to sew two straight lines, as you can see in the last picture. I would recommend measuring how much ribbon you want for the part that goes around the child's head, then sewing the ribbon down because it kept sliding out.

Storage Boxes

I saw these storage boxes on Make it and Love it, (which is AWESOME), and I thought they were the coolest things. They were one of those things that when I saw them, I thought "Why didn't I think of that?" They look so easy and inexpensive to make. They are made by hot gluing cardboard box pieces together, then mod podging fabric on the front. I literally walked around my apartment looking for something or somewhere to put these; hopefully I'll have a little more room to work with in a house someday.

p.s. I decided that every Tuesday I will be featuring an awesome craft, recipe or mom tip that I find in other blogs because I think that good ideas need to be shared. If you have an awesome craft, recipe, tip or something along those lines that you would like featured, let me know!

Taco Soup

This recipe is so good and so easy. Big shout out the the Evans to bringing this over for dinner one night, then giving me the recipe. It is actually PERFECT for the night after tacos with the leftover meat. That's what I always do; and just FYI, it freezes really well. I usually freeze half of the soup and then thaw it out the next week or so later and it tastes just as good, and makes a really fast lunch of dinner for when you want it later. Can I again stress how FAST and EASY this is especially if you are using leftover taco meat. You really have to try it. It's delicious!

The recipe:

1 l.b ground beef

2 (10 oz.) cans Ro-Tel tomates with chilies

1 can corn (15 oz)

1 can pinto beans (15 oz)

1 can black beans (15+oz)

1-2 cans water (can use more or less to make soup thinner or thicker)

1 envelope taco seasoning

1-2 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix (original recipe calls for 1 packet, but add extra if stronger flavor is desired)

1 large onion, chopped

1-2 green peppers, chopped

Brown the meat and drain. Stir taco seasoning in with meat until mixed well. In large pot pour all canned ingredients, I don't drain any of them and add about 2 cans of water. Stir the meat and Ranch dressing mix into the pot. Simmer for 45 minutes to thicken and blend the flavors. Add the onion and bell pepper before simmering if you want them well-cooked, or add them towards the end if you want them still crunchy. Can add pepper if desired; salt is usually not needed because of the salt in the taco seasoning and ranch mix.

Serve with grated cheddar or jack cheese and sour cream.

Serve with warm tortillas or tortilla chips.

My favorite way to eat the soup is with crushed tortilla chips on top!

Paintbrush Park

Paintbrush Park

Located at:

3492 Meadows Blvd.
Castle Rock, CO 80104

Amenities:

Baseball Field, Bike Path (Paved), Climbing Wall / Structure, Easy Trail, Electricity Available, Horseshoe Courts, Parking, Paved Trail, Picnic Pavilion (General Use), Picnic Tables, Play Fields, Playground, Portable Restroom, Sand Volleyball, Softball Field, Swings, and Trail Access

Sand Volleyball (when the net is down, the kids use it as a HUGE sand pit, they love it, also, you can see a little part of the horseshoe courts, I forgot to get a good shot of them.)

The swings

Covered Picnic Tables

This may look a little steep and scary, but my two year old can climb that and go down the slides by himself no problem.

*information on parks obtained from the Castle Rock Official Website