Pinterest Challenge #23 - Chess Squares

Years ago at a scrapbooking convention in Natchez, my mom and I discovered these wonderful creations known as chess squares.  Oh, they are so good.  My mom made them last year at Christmas-time, and they were delicious.  A few nights ago, I had a little time to throw together a quick dessert for a Bible study we were attending that night.  It was a huge hit, and I was glad none came back home because I didn't want the temptation lurking in the house!  So, here's what you need to make it:

1 stick of melted salted butter
1 box of yellow cake mix
8 ounces of softened cream cheese (I used fat free - I had to make up for the butter somehow)
3 eggs
3 cups of powdered sugar

First, mix cake mix, melted butter, and one egg to form a soft dough.  Press this dough into the bottom of a 9x13 sprayed pan.

Mix powdered sugar, two eggs, and softened cream cheese for about 2 minutes.  Pour on top of pressed dough.

Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes until the top is golden brown.  ENJOY!  It is so good!

Pinterest Link
Original Recipe

Pinterest Challenge #22 - Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifles

I LOVE pumpkin!  It may be one of my favorite things about Fall, so on September 1st, I busted out the first can of pumpkin and made these pumpkin cheesecake trifles.  Here's what you need to make 4 medium sized individual trifles:

• 6 Biscoff Cookies crumbled
• 1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter
• 8 ounces of cream cheese (softened)
• 3/4 cup of pumpkin
• 1/4 cup of powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• two cups of whipped cream (I used homemade)
• caramel sauce

1. Combine cookie crumbs and butter then place at the bottom of your glasses.
2. With a mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. 
3. Add cinnamon, pumpkin, and powdered sugar and beat until combined.
4. Fold in 3/4 cup of your whipped cream.
5. Layer pumpkin cheesecake on top of crust, then follow with whipped cream, another layer of pumpkin cheesecake, and another layer of whipped cream.  
6. I drizzled the top with caramel sauce, and put them in the fridge for about 45 minutes so they were chilled.

Delicious recipe, but they were not nearly as pretty as the picture.  I could have been neater with the layers, but we were in a rush.  Oh well, they were still eaten without a problem!  I will make them again this year for sure!
Pinterest Link
Original Recipe

Pinterest Challenge #21 - Invisible words

This project was named magic letters, but I try to stray away from 'magic' type things and teachings.  So we called it INVISIBLE WORDS.  The project was simple.  I cut out a few pieces of paper and wrote with a white crayon.

 I chose to write a few letters and words that Elie knows how to read.  She was given a cup with a mixture of 50% paint/50% water and painted on the paper to see what letter/word was written.

I did find the first word or two hard to read, so with the remaining words I went over it a few times with the white crayon before she painted.





Super easy idea and lots of fun!
Pinterest Link
Original Instructions

Pinterest Challenge #20 - Batman Chicken Pasta

I have seen this recipe all over Pinterest (I believe even from day 1) so I decided to break down and give it a try.  It is usually called Italian Chicken - but we renamed it Batman Chicken Pasta because of the bow tie pasta that I used.  Elie really likes calling it Batman Pasta - not that she even has a clue who Batman is!  So here is what you need:

• 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 packet of Italian Dressing mix (dry envelope)
• 8 ounces of cream cheese (I used half fat free and half regular)
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 can water

If you can tell from my picture, I made a boo-boo.  I opened the cream of mushroom soup, and when I was about to pour it in, I realized I was supposed to use cream of chicken - so I used the mushroom soup the next day.

Add all ingredients to the Crock Pot and cook for 2.5-3 hours (depending on your chicken).  Next time I will pre-dice my chicken, but this time I didn't have time to wait for it to defrost and cut it, so I just stuck it in frozen (I cooked it for about 3.5 hours since it was frozen).  Also, since I used fat free cream cheese, it is super hard to get it to melt and blend with everything else, so in the beginning I stirred it 3 times about 30 minutes apart to try to get it blended.  We had a few small pieces that didn't blend, but you couldn't tell when you ate it.
We really liked the pasta, and I will definitely make it again.
Pinterest Link
There was no recipe linked to this Pinterest Link - so I just used the information under the picture and modified it a tad.

Hurray! Hurray! School is Today!

After enjoying a fun 'Not Back to School' Day yesterday, this morning we woke up excited to begin our day starting Kindergarten.  I've had a lot of people ask why we are going to do Kindergarten at only 3 years old.  Here are a few of my reasons:

• I looked at a lot of preschool curricula, and they were mostly letters, letter sounds, counting, color, shapes, etc.  We are BORED with this right now.  Elie could do most of those things before she turned 2, so I feel that she is ready.
• She has already begun blending sounds together for reading.  Preschool curriculum does not contain blends, while Kindergarten does.
• I am fully prepared to do this two years in a row.  I think the first year I will lay the foundation, and next year we will get more in depth.  But with this expectation, if she is ready to move onto 1st grade next year, I will pursue that as well.

I decided that the best curriculum for Elie (and me too) is My Father's World.  I spend hours at HEAV's Virginia Homeschool Convention looking at different brands of curriculum.  Others just didn't strike what I was looking for.  Some didn't contain all subjects including Bible, and My Father's World did.  Some required an enormous amount of books to purchase, and we are just fine using a library card.  While others involved having your child sit in front of a TV while learning (which goes against my personality/personal beliefs for homeschooling for lots of reasons - I want to homeschool, not have my child watch TV all day.  I am my child's teacher, not a TV screen.  I am not a big fan of TV watching for kids anyway.  My list could go on, but I shall digress.)  I will post another blog entry later as to why I love My Father's World so much.

We began our day singing "This is My Father's World".  After practicing a few times, we sang along (only a little bit) with a great YouTube video I found.  Here it is:

Elie loved the song because it was sung by a 'lady' (Amy Grant).  Lately, she has been only wanting to listen to songs sung by women.  I hope the pictures will help the song to stick and mean something to Elie...eventually!

After reading about the first day of creation, Elie created a page in her creation book - one for dark and one for light.

Next she labeled the front of her book "Elie's Creation Book".  She is pretty good at her name, and I just told her what letters to write for the other words (not as clear as her name, but this is only the beginning).

She was super proud of her writing, and I was too!

We also worked on circling the date on the calendar with specific instructions (use a orange crayon to circle September 5th).

The purple paper on the top will eventually include each day of creation, cut and glued by Elie.  At the end of the school day, she was able to remember that on the first day, God made the darkness and the light.  I think the first day was a success!

We then went outside and took a few celebratory pictures for the first day.  Elie decided we needed an impromptu lesson on sinking and floating.  So we gathered a few items (all made by Mother Nature of course) and threw them into the water to test whether they floated or not.  Here is Elie testing a leaf.

The Elie tried some strange poses with her 1st day of Kindergarten board.  As soon as she laid in the grass, a huge butterfly landed on her dress.  I tried to snap the picture, but it began to fly away.  There it is at the end of the word Kindergarten.

Woo-Hoo!  We finished our first day, and boy was it fun!

First Annual 'Not Back to School' Day

I recently read about celebrating a 'Not Back to School Day'.  Since we homeschool we don't have to have to follow a strict calendar, so this is a great way to celebrate that.  So when all of the other kids in our area went off for the first day of school, we hit the road and had a great day!  Here's what we did all day!

First we joined a few of our friends for a play date and made an apple craft while enjoying all kinds of apple yummy-ness.  We then enjoyed lunch with a friend for her birthday.

My plan was to allow Elie to have such an awesome day - even allowing her to skip her nap.  On the way home from lunch, she had other plans.  Her typical 3 hour nap turned into a 10 minute cap nap in the car.  This gave her a second wind for having friends over!

In the afternoon, a group of our good friends came over to play for a while.  We had a great time running around at the park.

They climbed and climbed and climbed.

Then they all made dinner with dirt!  We even had stone soup.

Once our friends left, Elie rode her bike for a while.

While Elie rode her bike, I checked the mail and look what came in!

Look what was on one of the first few pages.

So this is how we spend our 1st 'Not Back to School' Day.

PC#19 - Melted Crayon Canvas

This is one of the most popular ideas on Pinterest, so I had to give it a try.  It was quite simple and easy.

I arranged crayons in a gradual fade from green to pink (Elie's room is primarily in green and pink).  I used the color of the crayon itself, so don't look at the paper to judge the fade of colors because it can be misleading.

Then I hot glued the crayons in order onto the canvas.  I was generous with the hot glue because I don't want crayons falling off, yet I didn't want any of the glue to show.

                   Tada

I then took the project outside (upon suggestion from a friend who got melted crayon everywhere!).  Since I scrapbook, I have a heat gun - which get much much hotter than a hair dryer.  With my heat gun, it took a total of 3-4 minutes to finish the whole melting process (the same friend told me took her 20 minutes with a hair dryer).




Relatively easy project that is super cute.  I hung it on the wall upside down and it is adorable!
Pinterest Link
Original Instructions