Sparkly, Squishy, Star Sensory Table

You may remember our first experience with marshmallows in a sensory bin; Eli loved it! Well this time we found some fun star marshmallows, and we happened across a star ice cube tray too (Perfect because Eli's favorite shape right now seems to be stars)! Together I created a little star sensory bin! 

I filled the star ice cube trays with colored water and a little glitter. Once they were frozen, we headed out to the water table. I filled it with about an inch of water and threw in the star ice cubes (which began melting immediately in the heat) and a bunch of the star marshmallows. 

At first the girls complained the water was hot (which it was since it came out of the hose), but it quickly cooled down with the ice cubes melting in it. The water also quickly turned purple! 

Once the ice was gone they enjoyed the marshmallows. Eli especially enjoyed squeezing them as hard as he could to squish them. 

They threw them down the spiral and put them in the water wheel.

They squished, and scooped, and stirred, and squished some more.  It was hard to get them away from it even though the marshmallows had turned to mush, and we had a pizza calling our names!

Patriotic Cinnamon Bear Popcorn

I love cinnamon bears, so when I found this recipe on Six Sisters' Stuff the other day I had to try it! Since we have been watching the Olympics all morning I decided to put a patriotic spin on it as well.

Ingredients

3 bags of popped popcorn

4 cups mini marshmallows

1 bag cinnamon bears (cut up)

11/3 cups sugar

2 sticks of butter

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

Food coloring (optional)

Start by popping your popcorn.  Nathan didn't think buttered popcorn would work well, so we used regular popcorn and popped it in the microwave in paper lunch bags. Put 1/4 cup popcorn in paper bag, fold over top twice, and microwave around 2 minutes.  Spread the popped popcorn on 3 waxed paper lined baking sheets.  I realized after the fact that I should have picked out my seeds.

Sprinkle around 1 1/3 cup of mini marshmallows on each pan.

 Then divided the cinnamon bears between the pans.

Me ok your butter, corn syrup, and sugar over medium, stirring constantly until boiling.  The original recipe called for 2 cubes. I wasn't sure what a cube of butter was, and found that it was either a stick or 2 tablespoons. I went with the stick, so I used 2 sticks as my 2 cubes.  Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes.  Then add vanilla and food coloring.  I used blue food coloring to make my patriotic popcorn (with the yellow of the butter it turned a little green, but it is still mostly blue).

 Pour over the pans of popcorn and gently stir. After it was somewhat stirred we poured it all in a big bowl and stirred it a little more.  It helped even out the uneven pouring of the sugar solution.

I have to say I will change the recipe a bit the next time I make it.  I will either halve the recipe and keep the number of cinnamon bears the same or double the cinnamon bears and keep the rest the same.  I just think it needed more cinnamon bear goodness.

Patriotic Ribbon Rings

This past weekend the girls found a ribbon from a package and started dancing around with it. That coupled with the upcoming summer Olympics made me want to make them some sort of ribbon wand.  The only problem is I know if I used any kind of stick it would turn into sword fighting at some point.  Instead I used some cheap shower curtains and ribbons.  Just cut the ribbon to twice the desired finished length and loop around the ring.  Pull the free ends through the loop and tighten.  Repeat until you have your desired number of ribbons on the loop.

All done! Now to give them to the girls.

Bria was distracted by the shiny ribbons still in the yard from her party, so after a few moments Nadia got both of them.  She decided they worked particularly well as bracelets that would spin around with her. I think they will definitely get more use once the Olympics start, and maybe I will ge brave and make them a real ribbon wand at some point.

Exploding Cookie Bars

   

     Well it is July 4, and we are banned from fireworks due to very hot and very dry weather. But it's the Forth of July; something needs to explode!  So with our Pop Rocks experiment (Pop Rocks Science) still fresh in mind, I decided to make some exploding cookie bars!

     I started with a really yummy recipe for LoftHouse Sugar Cookie Bars I first found on Chef in Training.

Ingredients

1 1/2 C sugar
1 C butter, room temperature
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg
2 t vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a jelly roll pan with cooking spray.

Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Add egg and vanilla; mix well.  With mixer on low, add flour, baking soda, and baking powder until just combined.

At this point you can press it in your pan and bake for about 20 minutes. Or you can add Pop Rocks and then bake it. The Pop Rocks crackles when you add them, but they do keep a little of their pop.  I do think you would need more then I added (2 envelopes) to notice them in the cookie.

A sleepy Nadia got up in time to get the beater. (I know, beater for breakfast = bad parenting. If it makes it better she had some cereal afterwards.)

     For the icing, I used vanilla buttercream from Cookies & Cups because it is Nathan's favorite.

Ingredients

1 1/2 C salted butter, room temperature
1/2 C shortening
2 lb powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 C milk

Cream butter and shortening until smooth (about 3 minutes) with paddle attachment.

Slowly add sugar, once it is all incorporated, increase your speed to medium-high and whip for 1 minute.  I didn't sift the sugar, and it still tastes good.  However, I think sifting it would improve the texture a little (there isn't much to improve).

Add milk to your desired consistency. I only needed 1/4 C; I think due to the heat in my kitchen.

We colored out icing blue and topped it with more of the secret ingredient,  Pop Rocks!  White cookie, blue icing, red Pop Rocks= patriotic exploding dessert!  I used 3 envelopes, and you really notice them on top. I have a spare envelope just in case some of the pop runs out.

Of course the girls liked them, but when Nathan tried them he said, "That is so cool (the popping)." Glad I made a cool dessert.

     I have to add, don't add the Pop Rocks on top until you are ready to serve them because they don't lose their "pop" over time.  Also after you have added them, keeping them cool helps maintain the "pop" as long as possible. Enjoy!